A/N: This is chapter nineteen! This chapter contains the part in which Atobe met this girl in the Hamasaki Ryokan who will change the course of this story.
Warning: I am going to change the rating soon, but I decided that I will wait later, when the violence occur. It will occur on next chapter or two. Please wait for it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis.
"What's you name?" that was what he asked at the girl in front of him twenty minutes ago, and now, he was drinking a cup of juice with her in the cafeteria of the front lobby.
"Atobe-kun, "her sweet voice called out to him. "I-i still need to go back to my work."
He smiled at her seductively, "And why? Aren't you the heiress of this ryokan?"
She blushed so hard, he chuckled. "I... I was taught to do things for myself if I want to have them. A-and, my parents... they... they always send me here to help out every summer or winter break."
"But there's still class today, it's not until next week before the winter break starts." he said.
"I, I was home-schooled when I was a child. When I went to middle school, I don't know everyone and it stayed like that until I was in high school."
"But you are already a senior, right? Did you stayed friendless in the course of your study?" he asked. How cruel if she didn't get a friend, for someone like her who is sweet and cute, how can no one like her? With that thought, he grimaced.
"I made friends in high school, but my best friend was sent to a school in Tokyo and I only meet her from time to time," she looked down, couldn't meet his eyes.
He reached across the table and enveloped her hand with his, "Why don't you be with me instead? While we are here?"
"You guys have our ryokan for the next two months, right?" she began to relaxed around him. "We.. uhmm, we could meet... if you want to!"
He laughed, and several members of tennis clubs look their way, " Of course."
"Are you sure you want to do this, Atobe?" his roommate, Oshitari, asked.
"Tell me, why did I agree to sleep in one room with you again?" he answered back.
"I don't know! Don't ask me!" he sigh as he sit in a chair after walking back and forth in front of laughing Atobe. "I didn't ask you if you already talk to your dad. I didn't ask you if you already apologize to Kinomichi-san. I didn't even ask you if you should go on without talking to her, but then you're here and flirting with one of the workers!"
As Oshitari barked out his concerns, Atobe's smiling face began to crumble until he heard Oshitari's last remark, " Oshitari, are you like that? Did I misunderstand you so much that I don't know you anymore? But I am going to answer your questions so you could leave me alone from now on
"No, I didn't get a chance to ask my dad if he was screwing Kinomichi, who cares if they do it? They could give me younger siblings for all I care. I am not going to apologize to someone who made a mistake to me first, and I am talking about her f**ing seducing my father. And seriously? I don't know that you think about social status when you choose a girl to fall in love with!"
"You're in love with this girl?"
"Now that you said it, YES! I think I love her!" he shouted. A startled sound break the emotion in the room. Both boys look and saw the subject of their discussion.
Hamasaki Ruriko looked at them with bewildered eyes as he look from one boy to the other. Atobe went to her and pulled her to him, smirking as she leaned to him, her knees are wobbly, "Hi there, sweetie."
She blushed, Oshitari shake his head before going out of the room. "W-what was that? I-is that true?"
Atobe isn't sure, but the hope and the shine in her eyes made him nod his head. She laugh in joy and out her arms around his neck. "I love you too, Atobe-kun."
"Hn," he murmured. (A/N: Nothing happened to them. Nothing!)
"This is Hamasaki Ruriko, daughter of this ryokan's owner," he introduced her to them. "She's, ugh, my girlfriend."
You could hear a needle dropped in floor because of the complete silence. "Congratulations," was a lacked of enthusiasm answer of those who heard it. They all know that Kinomichi is much, much better. She was their lucky charm and even Tezuka and Tachibana acknowledge her. Isn't their captain think so too? What changed?
The lacked of enthusiasm made Atobe childishly furious as he pulled Hamasaki out of the room.
"They seem not to like me," she said in a small, sad voice.
He looked at her, and said, "Don't worry, they don't have anything to do with our relationship," he consoled her in an embrace. She's so swet, so innocent. So... so vulnerable. She made him want to protect her, and dammit, he do want to feel like a provider, or a lover, when he's with her. Didn't the matter about Tokyo doesn't cross his mind in the past few weeks he was in Kyoto because of her? If the happiness and peacefulnees he was experiencing right now indicates that he love the girl in front of her, then maybe he really do love her even though he only said it before to stop Oshitari from mentioning troubles.
"But I want them to... I guess I want them to accept me, to open their arms for me," she look at him from her lashes, "I.. Do they not like me?"
"No.. no, they like you," he assured her. " I guess I need to tell you. I have a fiancee."
She gasped, "You.. you do? Why didn't you tell me?" She beat at his chest as tears flow out of her eyes, wailing. "Why Atobe? Why? Are you even planning to tell me? It's been a month since we started dating. Are you happy with me? Do you love her-"
"NO!" he embraced her again, this time, harder. "I am happy with you. I do not love her. I never did. It was an arrangement of our fathers. She.. she betrayed me too. Please," he cupped her face, "Please you are the only person I fell in love with until now. I do not want to lose you."
"R-really? But.. but how about her?" she asked.
"I will see to it that our engagement will be annul when I arrive home. Don't worry," he kiss her lips lightly. "after we graduate, we will get married. And I promise that I will never going to see her again, if that's what you want."
She lit up like a bubble, "I love you! I love you Atobe!"
"Sorry, I didn't propose to you romantically," he said sheepishly.
"It's okay. Oh, I'm so happy," she said again.
"He's going to break their engagement," Hamasaki Ruriko, with a very believable blond hair and blue eye contacts, said to Bando Sei, the man behind the missing money of Atobe enterprise. "After their annulment, I want her gone completely. You know what you do."
He put his month's payment in his pocket, "Of course. Can I play with her first before I kill her completely?"
"Do as you like," she answered. "Just remember not to leave any evidence behind."
They parted ways like they do not know each other. They didn't know that there were two people listening in their conversation.
"Positive," Red said and Onyx nodded. "That bastard, he's going to defile and kill our precious Hotaru-chan."
Onyx raised a brow, "And when did Kinomichi-san became our precious thingy?"
Red pouted, "You're no fun, Shin."
Isuda Shin glared at him sharply, "You're the one to talk, stupid."
Red, also know as Sekami Tsuki, furrowed his brows as he pouted, "I got very close to her this last month. I still couldn't believe that he is going to break her heart."
"We cannot do anything about her heart being broken, Red, but we could help her save her arse if you just go and contact Kinomichi-san and Atobe-san."
"Hai, hai," he said as he stood up to make the two-way call. "What about the blond?"
"I will check on her, but because they met here in Kyoto, I suggest that you can investigate a little too," he said.
"I'm going to stay here as Keigo-dono is my subject. If this girl is connected to him somehow, I will call you. I will watch him like a hawk," he spread his arms to emphasize what he said and hit a waitress' tray.
"Gyaah!" she exclaimed. "Guahh!" he did the same. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
Onyx shook his head. Sometimes, his partner is more a klutz than a five-year old kid. But then again, he doesn't have one, so what did he know?
Hotaru didn't get expelled or suspended, but the mark of shame was engraved on her as every student whisper at the back of their hands every time she walk passed through them. Gutto Minchi laughed with her friends and chases her with words that full of hatred and derision.
When her best friend told her that the little bitch will one day going to marry her Atobe-sama, she exploded in irritation. She doesn't see what her Atobe-sama saw with the plain Jane girl namely Kinomichi Hotaru, but she learned that it was only an arrangement between two fathers who want to merge their companies, no love at all, wait... there's love, unrequited love on Hotaru's part. But who is she anyway? There are more beautiful women there who are in love with Atobe-sama, so she's only a one in a million.
When she heard from her friend that the company of Hotaru's father stole from the Atobe's, she was very angry, he couldn't stop herself and spread the rumors, when Hotaru's friends leave her to fend for herself, she felt pity on her but not sympathy. She pity her because from the start, no one really want to love her, to want her. She thought wrong. Kinomichi Hotaru made a great pack of friends who will going to protect her no matter what. And that made Minchi hate her more.
She remembered that day, almost four months ago, when she and her own group were laughing at Hotaru's miserable state.
"So you are the one who spread those dirty rumors," Minchi and her girlfriends abruptly stopped their happy celebration when Murosaki Kame of class 1-A, glared at the fake boobs woman in front of her.
She was walking to the back of the school to throw the trash when she heard those third year bitches talked trash about her friend and the proudly sound of their leader Gutto Minchi, saying how she was the one who spread the rumors and it went to the usual grapevine.
She cannot forgive them. She and the gang avoided Hotaru for nothing.
"And what if I am? Do you have a problem with that?" she asked smugly, a smirked cross her face.
"Yes, I do," and she launched herself to the older girl. She gripped her hair and shake her head, the other one did too. The so-called girlfriends of the big bitch stared dumbly to them.
"What are you doing?! Help me here," Minchi said to them, and they ganged up on Murosaki. But Murosaki is athletic and she's not the girly type. She expertly shield herself with the girl in her hands while those sissies attacked her.
"Murosaki?" Reina said but the riot didn't stop. She gasped when she saw her friend fighting the upperclassmen. "Murosaki stop that!"
When she tried to get the bitches hands off of her friend, someone move their arms and hit Reina on her back, making her stumbled forward. "Ahh!"
Sooner, Mizuki and Oda arrived with their teacher.
All of them made their way to the principal's office and when asked what happened, they all talked at once.
"She started it!" Minchi pointed at Murosaki. "She jumped me when she heard us talking about her slut friend."
The principal gasped. You see, she's the mother superior, "How unladylike! You talked like that in here and I will not going to think twice on expelling you!"
"It's not me! You spread those rumors! You are the one who started it!"
"It is not a rumor, it's a fact!"
"And how did you know this, Gutto-san?" the mother superior asked, getting a headache all of a sudden.
"A friend of mine told me," she said. "You see, she seems to know a lot about Atobe-sama, and I believe her because she's my friend."
"Just because of that? You already believe her? Or is it because you hate Hotaru so much that whatever rumor you heard about her that will tarnish her good reputation is a nice experiment for you?"
Reina was brought to the nurse to patch the scratch on her knees and hands, and to see if they struck her in the back hard. Oda went with her and Mizuki went to get Hotaru before they went to the principal's office together.
When they entered the room, the dispute is still on. The mother superior's eyes went up to her. "Kinomichi-san," she called out. "You've been going here too many times."
Hotaru's expression didn't change, but she nodded. While she and Mizuki walked through the hallways to the office, Mizuki updated her of what happened. So it's those third years who spread those. She thought.
She knew what the mother superior's talking about. A week after the disaster date, or the attempted date, if it's more appropriate to call it that way, Atobe-san along with her father and the that they assigned for the case, told her that yes, Atobe's money mysteriously went to Kinomichi's but they think that it was a set up so that both family will break ties. The rumor is true, but the content and the behind-the-scenes was kept private.
They told this to the mother superior and the teachers and nuns. Most of the nun said that they didn't even believe the rumor, but then, they were very judgmental when it broke out right? The student body didn't know it that's why they didn't stop bullying her or talking about her, and her friends still avoided her.
For Mizuki to go to her readily and worriedly, she knew that there's a big thing happening. At first, she want to go and see for herself if Reina was doing okay, but Mizuki stopped her and said that Oda was with her already and she's not needed there. So here she was, in the principal's office again.
"Kinomichi-san, do you want to tell them if the rumor is true or not?"
She nodded, and in a monotone voice, "Yes, it was true."
Minchi beamed and her girlfriends sighed in relief, while Murosaki and Mizuki gasped in surprise and disbelief.
"... But it was all set up by a man who wanted to break the long relationship of Kinomichi-Atobe family..." at this, Murosaki beamed at Minchi whose eyes narrowed in disgust and suspicion.
"And that was the truth," the mother superior said. "Atobe-san went here with Kinomichi-san's father to clear things up. We didn't want this to go on public because they are still investigating about it, so we let you guys to bully and talk about her."
She looked at Hotaru with sad eyes, "I'm sorry, Kinomichi-san. It seems that we couldn't protect one of our own, and we are very proud of our school's great success, but the truth is, we don't do much for our students."
Hotaru nodded again. "It's not your fault."
Minchi, for once, tried to process all of these. When she learned about this, she and her friends were to keep quiet until they got the criminal, but it was eating her so much that she did one thing that will change everyone's life. She told this to the mastermind of this game: Hamasaki Ruriko.
A/N: Is that to your liking? Please read and review and follow. I will gladly appreciate it. I know it's a bit cliffie, but more to come. I promised.
I will be honest to you guys. I am a bit uninspired, but the urge to write got into me and I typed this and the previous chapter without any plan, so if you find it not in your liking, please tell me.