HaruHaru
Chapter 6: A budding romance?
Shu looked down at his watch and then back up to the brunette, "Nope, you're right on time Haruka." He said with a grin, and lifting his hand up to his forehead, flicked the locks of green hair that draped over his eyes. "I gotta say, I'm surprised." He added as the brunette took the seat across from him, she looked at him and scowled.
She stared at him for a moment, he was certain she was going to respond, but she didn't, instead she was simply resting her gaze on him. This surprised the green haired boy. He raised one eyebrow and asked, "What's the matter?" a hint of genuine concern lingering in his voice.
Haruka blinked before addressing the question, he cheeks tainted slightly by a blush that crept up, "Sorry…I've just never seen you in casual wear." She answered. Shu smirked at this.
"Well, you have my permission to ogle as much as your heart desires." He said, flicking his hair once again.
Haruka's blush stayed on her face, "I'm not ogling, just…surprised!" she said the last word a little too excited, revealing that it was simply an excuse she stumbled on and was delighted to get her hands on. Haruka cleared her throat a bit, trying to shake off the embarrassment. Shu was amused with all of this, he was clearly having fun seeing her fumble.
"So…let's get this over with." Haruka said, averting her eyes as the heat from her face died down. Shu frowned slightly, but then brought back his stoic expression as soon as her eyes lifted and focused on him.
"Okay, you have a paper or anything?" Shu asked, not really expecting her to have any.
"Oh, I think I might." Haruka said as she reached into her cross body and pulled out a small notepad with pink stationary paper that had a picture of a rose at the bottom. Shu looked at with uncertainty and sighed, and with that he permitted the usage of the girlie paper.
"Your hair…it looks better down by the way." Shu commented as he reached over and took the notepad from the girl, brushing his fingers with hers, she looked at him stunned. And like before another blush crept onto her face, the feeling of his fingers touching hers magnified a thousand fold for her and with shaking hands she offered him a pencil with a strawberry on it. Shu looked at the pencil for a brief moment and then accepted it, not seeing the girl's hand shaking, much to her relief.
She hadn't been there for more than mere minutes, and already her emotions were completely stirred by this boy. She wasn't too thrilled about it, she didn't want this to happen, what if she found herself falling for this boy? What would become of her life?
I don't like Shu, I don't like Shu…remember Haruka how arrogant he is, how cold, and annoying and rude he is. He's only pretty on the outside, and it's the inside that counts. She tried reasoning to herself, persuading and pleading. She knew her life would only become more miserable if she fell for someone like him.
"Haruka!" two fingers snapped together in front of the brunette's eyes. Startled, the girl looked in front, first the two fingers and then focused in on the boy in front of her.
"Huh?" she asked bewildered, the boy sighed.
"I said, so what do you think our first plan of action should be?" Shu asked, eyeing the girl. Haruka panicked, she didn't want this sort of an impression on him – not because she liked him, no. It was because she needed to show that she wasn't someone to be looked down on.
"Um…plant flowers?" she said, mentally smacking herself. Great, way to not look like a moron. Haruka reprimanded herself.
"Yeah…." Shu replied, as if she was stating the obvious, which she was.
"I suppose we should start with weeding it, and figuring out who should do what." Shu said looking down at the paper. He had already made a sort of diagram and Haruka followed his gaze.
"Oh wow, did you draw that? You're really good." Haruka said, of the sketch, it wasn't much. A simple rectangular box but the small details of grass and the school wall around it was what caught Haruka's eyes.
"Thank…" Shu said looking away, Haruka looked up and saw something she had never thought would be possible.
Haruka you better take this image in and save it for the rest of your life…that's Shu…blushing!
And surely enough the boy's face was flushed, he cupped a hand over his mouth, covering up to the tip of his nose, hoping the color would retract from his face. Haruka looked down quickly as Shu shot a glance at the brunette.
"Well…anyway…I don't think anyone is going to like doing the weeding." Haruka said trying to hurry along the conversation. Shu returned to the task at hand, regaining his composure.
"Yes, well someone's gotta do it." Shu responded.
Haruka looked up at the boy, "Why are there weeds anyways? Didn't the first years take care of it last year?" she questioned.
Shu nodded, "I heard the first years all give away the flowers they grew at the end of the year. So every student in our class needs to be responsible for a specific flower."
Haruka pondered it all for a brief moment, "I'll do the weeding by myself." She sated, Shu looked at the girl.
"No one's going to wanna do that part anyways, and it's only going to make it harder to get everyone excited for the project. So I'll take care of it and then we can ask everyone what flower they want and buy those seeds." Haruka finished.
"You can't do it by yourself. They need to do both parts, you have to do a little bit of hard work to get the reward." Shu replied, but Haruka insisted, seeing as how he wasn't going to be able to change her mind, Shu came up with a compromise.
"Fine, then I'll help too." Shu said.
"What, no way…" Haruka said, startled but also remembering the threat of the girls from before.
"Yes way, I'm not the type that likes to hand responsibilities over to other people, I do my own fair share of thing." Shu insisted. Haruka sighed, he sure was a stubborn kid.
The two spent some more time discussing ideas for the garden, and even for future projects, although to be fair most of the time they would begin bickering, with Shu making a comment mocking the brunette and her coming up with some sort of retort. It seemed to Haruka, that Shu would always get the best of her.
Looking outside Shu noticed the darkening sky and looked down at his watch, 8:15 pm.
"Come on, I'll take you home." Shu said rising from his chair. Haruka followed him with her gaze but not moving, after taking a couple of steps the green haired boy turned to the girl and questioned, "Not coming?" with that she instinctively followed.
"You don't have to take me home, Shu." Haruka said quietly as she walked beside him. Shu turned his face to her and smirked.
"I know, but after today Haruka, I can tell you're a complete ditz, you'd prolly get lost and seeing as how I was the last to be seen with you, suspicion would fall on me." Shu commented with a flicker of mischief in his eyes. "So you see, it's not that I particularly want to, it's in my best interest to do so." He finished, earning him another one of the brunettes fiery glare. She simply huffed and walked past him.
Haruka knew Shu was just teasing, but secretly she was glad that he was bringing her home, she only said not to so it wouldn't seem like she was eager to have him drop her off. Shu left the young brunette in front of her house and said his goodbyes before walking off.
"Haruka!" came the thunderous voice as soon as she entered through the door.
"Daddy?!" Haruka yelped in surprise.
"Where have you been? Your mother told me you were out with a …boy!" the tall man with jet black hair, slicked back and dark eyes said to his daughter as she proceeded to enter the kitchen.
Mitsuko shot her husband a glance, but he would not back down. "Senri, honey, Haruka's at an age where she's going to want to start dating, it's perfectly normal." The woman said trying to keep her anger down, but it was clear it was a warning to her husband.
"Mom, dad, I wasn't on a date! It was for school." Haruka huffed.
The weekend passed for Haruka without too much excitement, she had met up with Hikari on Sunday and told her the events that transpired the previous day. And on Monday, it was back to school for everyone.
As Haruka began tying up her hair she stopped herself and remembered what Shu had told her when the met. He thought my hair looked nicer down… Haruka thought and unknowingly she blushed a little remembering the scene in her head. Haruka shook her head. I'm just letting it down because its easier for me, that's all. And with that she left her hair down, parted to either side.
Haruka sighed as she opened her locker, more angry notes, she had not seen them since that incident the first week of school, but there they were again. It seems a rumor about her was being spread around school because of her involvement with Shu. Haruka sighed and Hikari tried to comfort her.
"It's okay, at least you have me! And think of cheerleading, you're still coming right?" Hikari said to the girl as they walked to class. Haruka cheered up a bit, she wasn't going to let those girls get to her.
"Yup, can't wait for it!" Haruka said gladly as she walked to class and became the center of focus. Ignoring the girls that were giving her death glares Haruka walked over to her table. Irritated by the nonsense she had to put up with, Haruka thought to have a little bit of fun and approached Shu This was something no one was expecting, not even Shu.
"Good morning Shu!" Haruka said and without waiting for his response, whatever it might have been, Haruka walked back to her seat with a smile. Shu chuckled, this girl was far more interesting than he had first thought. He then noticed the girls hair, and his smirk turned into a grin and leaning over to her he whispered, "I like your hair." She blushed.
After class ended, Haruka and Hikari rushed over to the gym for their cheerleading meeting. There they practiced hard to learn the moves the current members taught them. There were about fifteen girls trying out and around twelve current members. During the middle of the week Haruka and Shu set about to weeding their garden during their student council time, this was a special period given to students in the student council to take care of activities or go for meetings.
"You know, we're probably going to need something to cover this up so the snow doesn't ruin the plans in the winter." Shu said as they were pulling out the weeds. Haruka stopped weeding for a second and wiped across her forehead with her arm.
"Any ideas on what we should do exactly?" She asked the boy who stopped what he was doing to grab a bottle of water to drink.
"Maybe, let me take care of it, kay?" He said as he placed the water down. Haruka sighed, she didn't want him complaining that she wasn't doing her share, but she relented regardless and the two went back to work.
Weeks passed by and Haruka definitely began enjoying her time doing student council activities, even if she didn't admit to it, Hikari was keenly aware of it.
"You know, it's weird, lately all the pranks and threats have stopped." Haruka told Hikari as they were eating lunch one day. Hikari looked up at the girl.
"You think they got bored?" Hikari asked.
"I don't think so…they don't seem the type." Haruka said as she took a bite of her food.
"Then be extra careful, they might just be planning something." Hikari warned. Haruka nodded.
It was already mid-October, after gathering all the seeds the students wanted, it was finally time to start with the project. The class was excited doing this activity and Haruka beamed that all her hard work was giving fruition.
As the garden project had already been taken care of it was now time to plan for the winter events that were soon to come up. There was a holiday trip, a winter fair and a winter dance, although the dance was mostly taken care of by the main student council.
"Haruka," Hikari began, giving a pause for her friend to turn her attention to her.
"Hmm?" Haruka asked, the two girls were going home from cheerleading practice, they along with five other girls had made the team. The girls had really started enjoying cheerleading although they had yet to do their routines officially in front of a crowd yet.
"Do you like Shu?" the question startled Haurka and she fumbled with an appropriate response.
"What? Me…I mean, Hikari?" were the words coming out of Haruka's mouth, not really making any sense.
"Haruka…this is me, your best friend you tell everything to…I mean its understandable if you do." Hikari said, trying to show her friend it was okay to like the green haired boy.
"No way, he's rude, arrogant, snobby, a jerk…and…and….and other things!" Haruka said frustrated, Hikari sighed. Maybe it was too soon, Hikari was aware of the budding feelings Haruka had for Shu but it seems Haruka herself wasn't aware, or maybe not ready to address them.
"Sorry, never mind. I was just wondering…I wouldn't mind so much if you did." Hikari said, mumbling the last part. Haruka followed the blue haired girl, changing the subject as they walked along.
Authors Note: Sorry I wanted to time skip a bit because I realized I was going day by day almost and well I'm not really trying to write a Harry Potter novel or anything. I'm trying to work out the details because I do have the main outline for the story already, just not how everything gets there so please be patient. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.