Hey everyone...
So, I edited some stuff with this story especially with the pairing. I just realized that I sucked royally in the grammar and I didn't know then that the tense is supposed to be past tense.
I didn't edit everything, mind you. I'm a loyal slacker so I guess you could see that in the story. I think I started in chapter 2 with the major editing...
Anyway, I've written two new chapters after a very long hiatus (sorry i didn't warn any of the guys waiting for almost a year-major problems came up in my family and school). Second year high school was hectic in Phil-Sci. At least in my third year this year, it won't be so hectic.
I'm done with promising you guys for a certain time for my update. I'm done with breaking my promises. I can't even tell you guys how sorry I am.
Since those who had been waiting for this story to update probably got sick of waiting, I'm just going to say sorry and i hope you'll forgive me. To those who had been reading my stories and making Story Alerts and some even gave a few reviews, thanks a lot. I really appreciate it.
P.S. : This note is just going to repeat from the first chap until the 22nd chapter of my story.
Chapter 22 – I am an heiress
One and a half years had passed after Sweetie's parents approved of her "freedom" (with curfew and at least five bodyguards as company). It was easy to admit that life wasn't so much fun with others when Sweetie was playing with Hotaru (her preferred name), Yuu, Anna, and Nonoko (Mikan prefers to call her Noko).
During their time together, Mikan saw that Hotaru had a knack for inventing things; Yuu liked making illusions and designs so much that he should have been an art prodigy; Anna made food to the yummiest level that she was ready to take on her parent's jobs; Noko liked to be a chemist considering that she'd start yammering about the periodic table once in a while.
But they were not the only kids Mikan liked to hang out with. When Mikan was *cough*confined*cough* in her house, Futon Izumi, her cousin, would visit frequently. Even though her friends showed her how to live like a person (so to say), Futon was the first who showed her how she could enjoy life (Tsubasa came in second after he showed Sweetie how to scrawl on the walls).
One day, Yuu and the others decided to visit Mikan during her "stay in the house" time. Unknown to them, they were going to meet up with Futon and a few friends of his.
The doorbell rang and Hinu cautiously checked who the visitors were. A smile crept on her face as she opened the door.
"Welcome, children," Hinu greeted. "If you may please sit there, I will announce your arrival to Sweetie."
The four of them bowed and Anna said, "Thanks, Hinu-nee-chan."
They stayed in the lobby. Hotaru casually sat on a chair, tapping her toes. Yuu fumbled with the buttons on his PSP. Don't get him wrong, he's actually designing a new tone for the sound effects on his PSP. Anna and Noko played "I Got Your Nose".
"When do you think she's going to crack and tell her parents to make her free?" Yuu asked as he looked up from his PSP.
Hotaru shrugged. "Two weeks more."
"You think so, Taru-chan?" Noko confirmed.
"I don't think. I know." Hotaru glowered at Noko who beamed. She really hated being called that name. According to her, it was a name given to a bull. Secretly, she wondered if horns had sprouted on her forehead.
Anyway, she was sure that at her given time, Mikan would break and demand for freedom. Hotaru saw Mikan as a free spirit who wanted to explore the world.
Maybe I should lay off the shrimps, Hotaru mused as she listened to her own thoughts.
"Sweetie is ready for you now," Hinu announced just as she arrived. "Sorry for the delay. Sweetie insists that her other guests are prepared."
"Other guests?" Anna repeated curiously.
Hinu grinned. "I'm sure Sweetie has explanations."
They looked at each other and followed Hinu as they passed through the hall toward the big doors. Hinu opened it for them and they peeked.
"Come on in, you guys!" someone said. That someone opened the door wide and almost made Anna and Noko fall flat on their faces. Yuu and Hotaru [who grudgingly] managed to grab them. Sweetie grinned widely.
"I want you to meet someone!" she continued. She practically dragged all four of them (don't ask how. She has little fingers) to the front where five boys waited. One had a scowl. Two of them were grinning. Another was nervous-looking. The last one had a cocky smile.
"We thought you guys would never show up!" the one with a cocky smile said.
Sweetie pointed to him. "He's my cousin. He's Futon Izumi." Futon had a longish, jet black hair. His black eyes were shining with excitement.
The one with a scowl was Natsume Hyuuga (Yuu's eyes widened while Hotaru raised an eyebrow). The two who were grinning were Kokoro Yome and Kitsuneme. Koko had sandy blond hair which almost won't go down even with a comb. His smiling face was the most dominant feature of all. Kitsuneme was almost identical to Koko except for the fox-like eyes. The one who looked nervous was named Luca Nogi. Hotaru had a sudden interest of taking his pictures saying that it was for future use. That made Ruka look at her like he was a cornered animal.
"Nice to meet you!" the Oishi twins chorused in harmony.
"Un plaisir de vousrencontrer,chers," Luca said.
"Whaaaat?" Anna and Nonoko asked together.
Futon smiled. "Ruka lived in France and just came back this year. He could understand English but he can't say it yet properly."
"La manière dontla France,Luca?" Mikan asked.
Luca smiled. "Je préfère Ruka. La France est bien, mais je veux vivre au Japon pour le moment."
"Translate, please?" Anna asked.
"I asked Ruka how France was," Mikan replied as if it was simple. "He prefers to be called Ruka and France was fine. But he wants to live in Japan for the time being."
"Ooooh." Nonoko jumped up and down in excitement. "Why do you live in France, Ruka?"
"Mamèreest unmodèleenFrance," Ruka replied in a smooth voice. "Mon pèreestun homme d'affairesen provenance du Japon."
"His mother is a model in France," Mikan translated. "His father is a businessman from Japan."
"And we're chopped liver," Koko muttered under his breath. But it didn't go unnoticed by Yuu.
Yuu bowed in apology. "Gomen. It's our first time to meet someone who speaks French."
Koko suddenly laughed giddily. "That's what happened to us, too! Don't worry! Just kidding!"
"So what do your parents do?" Anna asked Koko.
The latter's grinned widened. "Only my dad. He owns an internet company. I get a lot of info from him because of that." Mikan thought he meant something else.
"My mom is a singer," Kitsuneme said before Nonoko could ask him. "She's not here now but when she comes back, she brings me gifts."
"Natsume-kun's parents are in partnership with my mom and dad," Mikan said. "But I forgot their—"
"Hyuuga Incorporated," Natsume muttered dully.
Hotaru nodded, satisfied. "As I expected."
Mikan felt the awkwardness between the two groups so she said with a big smile:
"I hope all of us will be great friends!"
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"Then?" Mikan prompted. "What happened next?"
Hotaru looked at the others but they looked as hopeless as she felt. It would happen sooner or later, she thought with dread. But she just couldn't break the bubble of safety her best friend was in. However, the look in Mikan's eyes told her to do it no matter how painful.
Clenching her jaw, she continued. "We did become great friends with them. It was later that we met up with Sumire in kindergarten. But like what I predicted, you got full of it by two weeks. It was summer."
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"Sweetie, dear, you know we can't do that," Yuka repeated the same statement for more than ten times. "You're normal life will be in danger."
"But I want to go to a school with my friends and play with them whenever I want," Mikan insisted. "That's what normal is to me, Mom." She turned to her father. "Dad, please. I want to be free."
"You are free," Yukihara said sternly. "You have clothes, playrooms—"
"But not a normal life, Dad!" Mikan interrupted in a shrill voice. "The media people haven't seen my face ever since I was born. Why would I be in danger? It's not like they know my actual name."
"That's it, young lady!" Yukihara exclaimed. "Go to your room!"
Mikan did leave but not before Yuka could see the tears freely flowing down her cheeks. Yuka heard the slamming of a door and her heart ached.
"Yuki…" Yuka murmured. "Our child is beyond her years."
"But not physically, Yuka!" Yukihara shouted. It was out of pain that he did that. He couldn't stand seeing her daughter physically hurt in any way.
"You are making her spoiled if you keep doing this." Yuka's voice raised a pitch. "Our daughter knows what to do. How can you not trust her? I wanted her to go to a normal school and have a normal life so she won't be involved in the materialistic world! It's only by doing this that she would be safe!"
"HOW?" Yukihara yelled back. "How will she be safe if EVERYONE knows she's Mikan Izumi?"
"They won't know if she's Mikan SAKURA!" Yuka shrieked with all her might.
That struck Yukihara. He couldn't speak—only look at his wife dumbfoundedly. Yuka, on the other hand, saw how her words were winning over Yukihara's mind. She felt triumphant but she had to be composed in order to get things running.
Then, what happened next was what Yuka was hoping would happen.
Her husband's shoulders slumped and he sat back in the chair facing Yuka's. His eyes were closed as he massaged the bridge of his nose. Not a moment too soon, his ochre orbs were revealed with a resolved light.
"Very well," Yukihara muttered with his voice cracking at the end. "But I will have conditions set."
"What conditions?" Yuka asked. She silently prayed it won't be something that would drive Sweetie to kill herself.
Yukihara composed himself and looked at Yuka straight in the eyes. Yuka knew this routine. What he would say was what he wants—no more, no less.
"My first is that she can be free," he said, "but with the knowledge that she is betrothed to whom we would choose."
Yuka would have protested but she must agree if it was the only way.
"My second is that no one—besides those who would be involved—must know about her true identity until it is time that she is revealed."
That might just be the easiest to accept, Yuka thought.
"My last," Yukihara said with difficulty. "She will start becoming the heir of the IzuNazu Management & Corporations by the time she is eighteen."
An icy hand closed over Yuka. "You mean—just like with her friends? Just before they would go to college?"
Yukihara nodded, having no intention of kidding around. "We will start training her when she is still fresh. Those are my conditions."
Unknown to them, five kids (including a perm-haired girl) were listening from the window gap.
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Hotaru took a deep breath. "Those conditions your father set are still active until today. You're betrothed. You're not revealed as the heir so far. And you are to go back to the high society two years from now. Just like everyone in this room would be."
Numb. That was what Mikan was feeling. Her memories were coming back: the time she found the secret exit; the time they played in the golf course; the time her father told her the conditions and accepting them without hesitation; the time she played with Natsume and Futon. She didn't remember anything from that time.
"How did I lose my memories?" Her voice was below whisper but Hotaru and the others heard her perfectly.
This was the moment Hotaru dreaded the most: telling her why. But at least, at the moment, she just asked her how.
"You were almost raped when you were eight," Hotaru said. "But those men didn't know you were the heir. Futon and Hyuuga were your playmates because I was just going to return after my vacation, Yuu was kept busy in their house, Anna and Nonoko were in baking training, and Sumire was coming along with her parents for the surgery her mom was going to perform."
Mikan tried to remember but came up blank. The tea and sweets Anna offered to her were appetizing but her stomach wasn't feeling anything.
"Your cousin and Hyuuga saved you. Everything was going fine after that but…" Hotaru trailed off. She glanced at Yuu for a little help and Yuu nodded solemnly.
"A car accident happened," Yuu said. "You were the victim."
Now everything was clear. The blue car that hit her…Futon shouting for help…an ambulance's siren… Natsume's tear-filled eyes as he kept yelling for her name… everything connected.
"Everyone thought I was dead," Mikan murmured. There was no feeling inside her… just dread.
"Everyone in the public did," Yuu corrected. "Your dad announced that the heiress was dead and there were no other heirs so he decided to continue work and maybe convince Tsubasa to do the job.
"Your dad wanted you to have a normal life," Yuu continued. "And he saw the chance no matter how…gruesome the consequences that followed. When you woke up—I think you remember."
"I knew every one of you," Mikan whispered, "except I didn't remember being friends with Koko, Kitsuneme, Ruka, and Natsume." Her voice broke at the last name. There was something about Natsume that was killing her to remember. "I had amnesia."
"I didn't know Mom and Dad were big-time company owners," Mikan continued in a soft whisper. "They only told me that they own a company in Japan but it was far from home." Then something clicked. "Our home here in Tokyo—that's not the real one, isn't it?"
Sumire shook her head. "No, Mikan. Your house was much, much bigger. Golf course, hedge maze, gym… it's like a mini city. The Sakura Manor here in Tokyo is just a mini version of the Izumi Manor in Hokkaido."
Mikan clutched her head and tried to massage it. That was why every time she woke up she expected to see the golf course from her window. She had wondered why that was but now… it all made sense. The memories that returned were overwhelming and it made her head hurt.
"All this time…" Mikan said in a whisper. "I was living in triple lives?"
"After we made the band…" Nonoko murmured. "Yeah, something like that."
Tears unexpectedly ran down Mikan's face making everyone in the room worried. Hotaru instinctively hugged her and told her soothing words. Everyone joined in murmuring apologies and pleading for forgiveness.
"S'okay, you guys," Mikan said with a weak smile. "Everything is okay."
"Let's just make the best of everything," Yuu suggested, tears forming in his eyes.
Mikan nodded. "I'd like that."
"But how?" Anna sobbed. "We're going to be separated in two years because we'll take over our parents' companies. I want to stick with everyone here."
"We'll figure it out," Mikan promised with a sob. "We always do."
Yes… they will figure it out.
Mikan Sakura was a free person. But two years from now, she'll be caged again because Mikan Sakura will have to become Mikan Sakura Izumi, heiress of the biggest company in Asia.