AN:Hello readers. This is my very first fan fiction. However, this is not my first time writing this chapter. Yes, I've rewritten it, and I believe it's probably not as crappy as before, but like every piece of work, it has it's ups and downs.
Please read and review, I would like to know what you all think of it. Before I rewrote this chapter, I got some skeptics who thought my story was very much like Hana Yori Dango, but I hope I've changed your mind with this version. Please do write and tell. If one wonders about this girl-goes-to-rich-school-falls-in-love-with-rich-boy storyline, I admit I was indeed inspired by Hana Yori Dango, but Love is Such a Strange and Funny Thing takes on a different perspective...full of mystery and a bit of darkness in the characters' lives.
Disclaimer: All rights to Sailor Moon reserved to Naoko Takeuchi.
Summary: Finding herself forced to attend Japan's finest private university for the country's elite, Serena Tsukino decides to make the best of it. She comes to befriend Darien Chiba, heir to a billion dollars worth in business investments and companies, despite the major differences in income. Both are very reluctant to trust in their relationship, but it's too late, they find that they're both already way in over their heads to back out. But lies and deciet always seem to find it's way to the surface just when everyone thought they were dead and burried. And just when all seems to be well inparadise, Serena must come toterms with her past and decideover love or loyalty.Asshe and Darien come together topiece the puzzle that their parents'left for them,it seems theonly truththey can rely on is the one they fear most, and that is that love is a very strange and funny thing.
Attention: The story starts off purely as a romantic-comedy, but in the later chapters, it gets more serious as secrets are revealed.
On a lovely green hillside, standing tall and rigid, Akita University looked over a bustling Tokyo. It was a scorching summer's day, but to the students driving up the winding road that accented up to the prestigious school, it was nice and cool—with their air conditioning on full blast, who were they to care? Though summer vacation was now over, many were still not yet prepared for the oncoming semester; but there were plenty of things to look forward to for the returning students. There would be a new crop of freshmen coming in, and it would be a delight to see how they all turned out.
One very disturbed looking freshman, however, was about ready to call it quits just as she stepped foot onto campus. Tsukino Usagi, called Serena by her parents and close friends, was actually not at all disturbed when she started her trek to school on bicycle. She was furious.
As though her situation was not already worst than it was, life just kept getting crueler and crueler. She did not want to attend the school, the heat was pissing her off, making her sweat like a damn pig, and to top it all off, her new outfit, that she had bought with her week's salary was now ruined because she was nearly ran over by a motorcycle. On University grounds.
How it happened, she did not know, but what happened, well, she was still trying to figure that out herself. Serena was in, what her friend, Lita, would call her "PMS-ing" mood. But who was to blame her when she had just been black mailed by her parents' and jilted by a potential boyfriend over the summer? All she could think about that morning while riding up the hill to the school was that her life was becoming a living nightmare, and that nothing could get worse. Well, she was wrong of course.
The sun was high in the sky by the time Serena reached the school campus. As though a heavy weight over her shoulders had been lifted, she sighed with great relief. Stopping to the side of the road to gaze admiringly at the school, she felt the first milestone, in her road to successfully get through the school year, pass; she actually made it onto the grounds. That was a start at least.
Looking up at the old school, she frowned at the sight of it. Indeed, Akita University did live up to the rumors. Its buildings were grand, styled in the traditional Japanese structures in the front to give a feel of history to it. The lush green landscape surrounding it brought about a majestic beauty to the school that called for respect and power. The usual trademark feel when one was in the presence of the upper-class, Serena thought bitterly.
When she got her fill of the view, Serena pushed off on her bike again, and tried to calm her raging nerves at the thought of high society. Serena's family lived off what one would call a rather modest income a year and survived just by the skin of their teeth's. Most of which she made, handling two part time jobs and working at all hours of the night and mourning. And so her childhood was far from those of Japan's royalties and heiresses. She couldn't help but feel a bit awkward attending Akita University, the best private college for the country's rich and famous.
Being so caught up in her own thoughts of feeling sorry for herself, it was easy to understand that when Serena started pedaling across the street to get to the bike racks, she did not notice the speeding motorcycle heading right towards her. She was a raging ball of inferno, and nothing, not even in her current surroundings, could make her come to terms with her situation. That was until she heard the loud honk of the vehicle however, and had to force herself back into reality, which sent her falling onto the asphalt road.
The sound was ear-splitting. Before Serena went crashing to the ground at the sight of the motorbike coming straight at her, the motorcyclist made a hasty last minute turn to try and avoid her, but it was too late. His speed was just too great and the twist in the handle bars only sent the machine onto it's side and skidded about ten yards until it came to a screeching halt right in front of her bike.
But her eyes had been closed at the time, and so Serena was not too sure what had happened. When she did open her eyes however, she saw a totaled red motorcycle laid upon one of its sides with smoke rising from it. She paled when she saw him. Sprawled on his back with his arms stretched out beside him, the man neither moved nor spoke. The only sign of life in him was the rising and falling of his chest.
She sat on the ground for a minute just looking at him in shock until her senses finally came back to her and she jumped onto her feet again and went running towards the fallen man. Hoping to Kami that he was not seriously injured, Serena hastily unbuckled the clasp that fastened his helmet onto his head and pulled it off.
His eyes were shut. Serena knew that couldn't be good, knowing that it would mean he was unconscious and would need medical assistance. She hoped that he didn't get a major concussion either, paying for his medical expenses for getting a check up was bad enough, if he died, she didn't know where the hell she was going to get the money to pay off his family for killing him. Wait, Serena trembled, would she be jailed?
Serena looked down at the man whom she killed; wanting to know his face at least so she would know who it was exactly that she had done in. She blinked in surprise at the young taut and tanned face, framed with thick black hair. A muscle throbbed in his cheek which made her wonder over that small action. In her short inspection, she thought he was rather handsome, and guilt suddenly settled over her. It occurred to her that she had probably taken a man's life when he probably had everything going for him; he probably had a pretty girlfriend, a close and loving family, a bunch of cool friends….and she had taken that all away from him.
"Why didn't you move?"
She would have screamed if she had not been so overwhelmed with guilt at that moment. Instead, she jumped back and away from him. Serena watched warily as the man sat up and looked at her with cold hard eyes.
"Well?" He demanded again.
Chiba Mamoru, called Darien by his parents (because they thought it was more efficient for him to have an American name) and friends (because they were used to it), was feeling somewhat dazed by the accident. The thing was, he hadn't even seen her until it was too late—she was like a damn ghost that just popped up out of nowhere.
He continued to stare domineeringly at her face. "Excuse me?" Her brows drew together in a frown.
Slightly annoyed by her inability to answer a simple question, he scowled. "I asked you why you didn't move."
It was apparent to her that he thought his question actually made sense and she too scowled. "What is that suppose to mean?" She demanded; arching a brow.
"It means," he was quick to reply, already getting to his feet, "You saw me coming, why didn't you move out of the way?" His face remained stony as he did so; he did not betray one single emotion in his eyes.
Serena didn't know what to make of him, but one thing was for sure. She didn't like his tone. "You are wrong, sir," she replied in a clip tone, "I did not see you coming. As a matter of fact, when I did see you, I was surprised and I fell off balance. I will not apologize for not moving, however, until you apologize for your rudeness."
Darien didn't know whether to be amused or insulted. He had not expected her to answer in the way she did, looking so infuriated and answering with such honesty. Hell, she seemed very brave right now, and when he first saw her scooting away from him when he opened his eyes, he'd thought she was timid.
He watched her with unconcealed interest. "Well?" Serena queried, standing too, because she was starting to feel a little inferior looking up at him from the ground; the man was very tall.
A slow sensuous smile curved his lips at her sassy tone and the disrespectfulness in her body language the way she crossed her arms over her chest and raised her eyes to meet his. "I didn't mean to be rude; I'm sorry."
Stunned by his answer, Serena opened her mouth to accept his apology but stopped midway, and then asked skeptically, "If you didn't mean to be so rude, then why were you?"
Darien chuckled at that. Her suspicious expression made her child-like face look all the more adorable. "It actually wasn't your fault for the accident, it was mine. I was speeding, and I expected you to move."
This time it was Serena's turn to laugh. "So you've just admitted to being at fault, and yet you persist to say that I should've moved?" That was the most absurd thing she had ever heard.
Also to her surprised, the man did not look at all offended at her laughter. He just smiled a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes and asked, "Did that sound funny?"
"Yes," Serena placed her hands on her hips as she contemplated his cool disposition.
"I guess it was," He replied almost flippantly after a long pause and he shrugged his shoulders for an added effect.
With questioning eyes, Serena pursued the topic despite his obvious motion to change the subject. "Then why did you say it?"
The smile was wiped off of his face now as he looked down at her. "We should move out of the way," he tilted his heads toward the building traffic around them. And then he picked up his motorcycle and walked it over to the side of the road.
Serena did the same and smiled to herself about the smooth way he avoided her question. "If we were in the way, why didn't they just honk?" She jokingly remarked, referring to the cars that began congesting the roads.
The motorcyclist didn't look at all amused. "They would never think of doing such a thing." Serena would have laughed again, but the hard look in his eyes made it quite apparent that he was very serious.
"Well then they all must be very polite," Serena said sarcastically, quickly throwing a glance over her shoulder as cars went zooming by; a few drivers looked intently at her as they passed.
"Not quite," Darien bit out dryly. He studied his bike, summing up the damage done to it, and grimaced at the terrible shape it was in. He was going to have to hitch a ride with one of the guys—but then again, he could just phone home to have the chauffer bring him another ride. He averaged out the advantages and decided to just hitch a ride.
"So are you gonna answer me?"
"Huh?" Darien almost forgot about her. "I'm sorry, what was your question again?"
She let him see her exasperation, but Darien knew she wasn't at all annoyed; her eyes gleamed with amusement. "Why did you expect me to move out of your way, when it was you who—"
"I remember now," Darien cut in. The blonde smiled sweetly up at him, and his thought almost faltered at the charming way the two dimples in the side of her cheeks appealed to him. "I'm use to it."
"What," Serena asked, "you're use to people moving out of your way?" She looked appalled at the thought of it, and he couldn't help but laugh.
"It doesn't matter," He shrugged when his laughter subsided.
"You know," Serena's brows knitted together in a bemused expression, "You don't make a lot of sense. I hope you didn't hit your head too hard."
Her barb wrung a reluctant smile from him, "I'm okay, I had my helmet on, remember?" He held up the forgotten head gear and Serena smiled with him.
But she had to ruin the moment.
Something just wasn't right. She couldn't help but think about how arrogant his answer had been. I mean, come on, Serena reasoned with herself, he said he was 'accustomed' to people simply getting out of his way. That didn't sound right, it didn't sound possible. What was he, some kind of rich guy who…?
Surprisingly Serena did not smack herself in the head at her stupidity. For a moment there she forgot herself and her surroundings completely. In fact, she just didn't forget her surroundings; she forgot that she was in a different world. This was Akita University, school of the ultra-rich, world of the elitists. And he, this man, was one of them.
"You shouldn't expect everyone who isn't of your social standing to move out of your way," Serena huffed at him, when she found her voice.
The man just watched her with an expressionless face, but the surprise was there in his eyes.
"Don't pretend as though you don't know what I mean," she jabbed a finger at him, "You saw me on a bicycle and you thought that you could scare me, huh?" Serena accused.
She didn't know what came over her. It surely must be due to stress because she wasn't often so rude or blunt. There was just something about him that got under her skin, something about the way he carried himself in his strong broad shoulders that kind of just made her write him off as...well, a snobby rich kid...which apparently he was.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Darien watched as she pulled her finger away and grimaced.
"Fine, play pretend," Serena shouted, shaking her finger (what is he made out of, she wondered, metal?), "But I know your type. You were just testing to see if I would have done as you 'expected' to be done. You arrogant—"
He smirked at her; a cold, mocking gesture. "And ruin my bike in doing so; I don't think so." He snarled.
"W-well," Serena stuttered, realizing he did have a point. "Well, you thought I would move."
"Yeah, I did," he admitted, looking unperturbed.
"Then you admit it!" Serena thought she had won. Turning her back on him, she grabbed hold of her bike to continue her previous endeavor up to the school.
She had nothing else to say to him. And for the matter of his totaled bike…well, it really wasn't her business since it was his own damn fault that it was broken. However, she couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of guilt. She knew she wouldn't have reacted as harshly as she did if it weren't for all of the chaos in her life. He was just a victim of her pent up frustration, who, coincidentally, almost ran her over, and so got the brunt of her anger. Almost consumed with remorse for her uncalled for burst of fury, she nearly turned around to appologize. Just nearly, but she didn't. Her pride refused to give in, and she forced herself to keep moving.
From behind her a car came to a slow stop where the handsome stranger stood looking at her with scrutinizing eyes. It was easy for her to tell that the vehicle was a car without looking back to even check. But she was tempted to.
"Hey, Chiba," she heard a male voice call out, "What the hell happened to you?"
All too soon for Serena to comprehend, a hand grasped her risk and turned her around. She found herself going nose to nose with Chiba (she thought of the name the driver had called out). The hard tug had set her off balance and so he was her only support from falling. Her bike went crashing to the ground again.
She was mesmerized by his gaze, his harsh blue eyes that seemed so icy, chilling. "Look," he said, though he appeared detached, his voice held a note of sincerity and Serena was warmed by it, "I didn't mean to offend you, that wasn't my intention at all."
He turned suddenly on her, and a puzzled Serena was left to find her own balance as he hopped into the passenger seat of an open-roofed silver Ferrari and drove away.
End Notes: There you go, that's my rewritten first chapter. How do you like it? Please review.