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A/n: Disclaimer. And I'm really trying to update fast. Sorry guys! :)

Chapter 12

Cat Out of the Bag

"What?"

"What do you mean by what?"

"What do I mean by what?" A permed hair's voice said loudly that she had already caught the attention of the people seated near them. Her face look shocked and a bit angry. Her arms were crossed under her chest. "You broke up with Natsume? That's what I mean by what! What were you thinking?"

"I did not dump him because in the first place, we were not dating." A brunette corrected her friend in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone. "Don't over react, Permy."

"You are married to him, Mikan!" she hissed then rolled her eyes on her best friend's stubbornness. She knew Mikan half of her life and she knew whatever she's going to tell her, she'll just ignore it and choose what she thinks is right. Why did she even bother calling her to talk about the problem? "You know what, let's just call Hotaru." She took her phone and when she was about to dial Hotaru's name, Mikan immediately took it away from her hand. "Hey!"

"Please don't call Hotaru and Nonoko!" she begged as she looked nervous. "Please, Sumire!"

"Wait." She eyed Mikan carefully then gasped. "You didn't tell them?" And when she received no response from Mikan, she gasped. "What? Are you insane? They're going to be angry with you. Make it double for not calling them and telling them about this!"

"Hotaru will get mad at me…" she trailed off.

It's been two days since the incident with Natsume. After he punched Tsubasa and nearly killed him, they had another round of fight and she left the condominium. She just had enough of every accusation she heard from Natsume, she just need to be away from him. She decided to go back to their mansion for now. Her parents haven't come home from business trip yet so they have no idea about this while Ruka have been spending the night at Hotaru's so she's guessing he isn't aware of this.

She didn't want to tell anyone about this yet but she's going to explode. So she decided to call Sumire… well, she's the only person who reacts at everything but doesn't kill you.

"I don't know what to do or what to say to Natsume. I don't know how to deal with this…" she whispered as she closed her eyes trying to stop the tears from falling. She couldn't still believe about what happened. She still couldn't believe about the fight with Natsume and what he found out.

"Mikan..." Sumire softly said. She looked at her best friend with sad eyes. "Wait, Mikan." Her sad green eyes turned into a worried one.

"What is it?" she asked, confused, as she looked up at her friend.

"Mikan."

And she turned her head around and looked at the person who just called her name. "Hotaru."

xxx

"Natsume! Open up!"

The blonde lad shouted as he rang the doorbell for the nth time. He was trying to call his best friend but he kept ignoring his calls. "Natsume!" he shouted again. "If you're not going to open this damn door then I'll force to open this fucking door!"

But the door did not open so he sighed in defeat and shook his head. Of course, what do you get from a stubborn best friend? Nothing. So in defeat he decided to turn around and leave the condominium.

"Ruka."

And he immediately faced his best friend but instead of being angry, his mouth almost hung open when he saw Natsume. His eye bags were dark and swollen and he looked ragged and stressed. A lot stress the last time he saw him at Hotaru's house. "Natsume." He said as he approached him. "What the hell is going on with you?"

But Natsume just shrugged, "Don't rape my doorbell next time." Then he went inside the condo and Ruka trailed after him. "What are you doing here?" He asked as he approached the couch and sat quietly.

Ruka sat in front of Natsume but did not answer. He just found out early this morning when he decided to go home and the maids told her that Mikan decided to come back to the mansion. He immediately called his girlfriend about this but she has no idea about this too. "Mikan's at home."

And his face lit up when he heard his sister's name. "She's at your house?"

"Yes." Ruka said with a nod. "Why is she at our house?"

"I talked to her Ruka."

"What? About Tsubasa? Or Mochou?"

Natsume did not respond. He shook his head as frustration started to be seen on his face. "Mochou. She dated Mochou too."

"She told you about… Mochou?" Ruka almost gulped by just asking the question.

"No." He stood up and took a cigarette from his pocket then approached the balcony outside the bedroom. He knew Ruka was following him but he just ignored him then he opened the balcony door and lit the cigarette.

"Natsume." Ruka reacted. His best friend has a thing for smoking and Ruka have been trying to make him stop though he was quite successful with it but there are those days if Natsume's too stress, he just smoke his problems away.

"Just one stick, Ruka." He murmured as he puffed.

"What did Mikan tell you?"

"She didn't say anything." He answered. "But she looked scared and shocked." He closed his eyes in frustration as he continued smoking. "Then I called her whore."

"You what?!"

xxx

"Yes, he called me a whore. Telling me that I'm whoring with other men!" She angrily said as she remembered every hurting word Natsume told her. "I have the right to get angry."

"And he has the right to over react because he was blind with all your old boyfriends." Hotaru calmly retorted making Mikan glared at her. "What would you do if you found out that Natsume has been dating other girls before and you had no idea about it so you asked him at his graduation dinner and he lied to you?"

"I…" Mikan stammered. She was out of words and reasons. "I… don't know!" she cried in frustration and in defeat. "I don't know, okay? I don't know!" Her hand covered her face. "I was offended, okay? I was hurt. He didn't gave me the chance to explain everything. He over reacted!"

Nonoko, who was silent the whole time, raise her hand a little. "Can I say something?"

All heads turned to her and Mikan curtly nodded, telling her to continue whatever she's planning to say. "I think Mikan has the right to be mad because what would you feel if Koko reacted about all the shit you've been doing before without giving the chance to tell your side? What if Ruka called you a whore just because he is angry?"

"See!" Mikan said. "Finally someone agreed to me!"

"But what would you feel if you were so in love with Natsume but he has been a lying bastard and kept hiding secrets from you?" Nonoko added immediately making Mikan's smile turn into a frown. "We all know the Hyuuga has feelings for you. And he loved you and took risk for you even after everything Mikan. Even if he's unsure of whatever the two of you is doing."

"So?" Hotaru said as she looked at Mikan with one brow raised. "Anything to add, Mikan?"

"He never told me he was in love with me." Mikan tried to reason out.

"Are you insane?" Hotaru almost shouted. "What the fuck is wrong with you, Mikan?"

"Excuse me?"

"Excuse yourself for bitchin' around. I don't know what the fuck is going on with you and with everything but you got to fix this shit. If your parents will know about this, you're triple dead." Hotaru snapped. "We all know you got issues about what happened between you and Mochou but you got to face the truth. Natsume's part of your life now and you got to let him know every single thing. Grow up."

Then there was silence between the four of them. Sumire and Nonoko shared stares telling each other to speak first but no one dared. They rarely see Hotaru this mad and the last time they saw her giving her angry speech was when Mikan did something stupid. But the usual Mikan would walk out and fight for what she think is right. But they all looked shock when she cried.

And she sobbed loudly.

"Mikan…" Nonoko whispered as she scooted closer to her. "Mikan, shh."

"I'm sorry." She sobbed. "I'm so sorry." Tears fell into her brown eyes as she hugged Nonoko and sobbed in to her chest. No one said anything. They just allowed her to cry because the moment she cried is the moment she finally realized she was wrong.

And when she stopped crying, she removed herself from Nonoko and slowly wiped her tears from her face. "I was wrong. I was a bitch. I know." Her voice was cracked as she admitted her mistake. "But I'm still scared Hotaru."

"So what are you going to do?"

xxx

"I'll just give her time."

"Are you sure?" Ruka worriedly asked. He watched as Natsume gave his one last puff and threw the cigarette on the ash tray.

"She's mad at me, Ruka. And I admit, I over reacted. I was wrong." He sighed. "But things will be in place. It just needs time."

"Do you still love her after everything?"

He let out a throaty laugh on his best friend's question. "What kind of shit is that Ruka?"

"If you'll know everything… will you still love her?"

"Is the story about Mochou really ugly?"

Ruka looked away and shrugged. "Might be pretty messy."

"Hmm," he let out a small smirk. "Guess I'm going to try to love messy starting today."

"You won't give up?"

Then with his infamous smirk, he said. "Nah. I like challenge."

xxx

One Week.

It's been a week since Mikan and Natsume decided to give each other sometime. And things have been quite normal and quiet. Natsume decided to come back to work since his father has been calling him every hour of every day just to remind him that he will come to Japan and rip his balls out of him if he will spend another day sulking about everything. And Mikan had started her job on their company.

And with the span of one week, Mikan has thanked all the gods that not even once she bumped with Natsume. She's not yet ready to face him, heck, she even have no idea if she will ever be ready on facing Natsume.

"Knock. Knock." A voice said as someone knocked on Mikan's glass door. "Someone's busy today, huh?"

Mikan doesn't need to look up to know who that person is. "Hello there, Tsubasa." She respond with a smile as she continued typing on her Mac Book. "I see someone's bored out there. No work for you?"

"Nah." He said with a grin. He comfortably threw himself on the small couch on Mikan's office and crossed his leg playfully. "I'm not really a workaholic human being like you." He teased making the brunette looked up at chuckled at him. "So are we up for lunch?"

"You know I can't go out right now. I still have loads of job to do." She politely declined with a smile on her face.

"Aw, don't be such a kill joy." He stood up and walked closer to Mikan's table. "I wanted to try the new Vietnamese restaurant and I need someone to join me." Then he winked at Mikan.

Mikan shook her head and chuckled. Tsubasa never changed. He has always been so stubborn and kept insisting on what he wants. "How can I ever say no to you?"

"Yey!" He cheered with a handsome grin on his face. He watched as the brunette closed her Mac Book and grabbed her coat and when she was done, he grinned at her and said. "After you?" And she walked out of the office first and Tsubasa followed. "You wouldn't regret eating at that restaurant!"

"How can you be so sure?" she said with a smile. "I'm never a fan of Vietnamese food."

"But you're my fan, right?" And he gave another wink.

She slapped his chest playfully and chuckled. "Don't be so sure. Things do change." And they both shared a good laugh as they walked towards the elevator.

Mikan was asked by Narumi to accompany Tsubasa with the new project he is having with their company. And she was so excited that all week she have been burying herself with the pile of papers and doing all the paper work for the project. And of course, Narumi and Yuka already found out about everything. But what shock her the most is when Yuka did not over react and Narumi did not say anything about it. They just said they would respect whatever Mikan's decision is. Which is weird. Very weird.

They waited patiently to open the elevator and when it did they both entered quietly at the elevator. Tsubasa pressed the ground floor button and hummed a song.

"Coldplay?" Mikan muttered.

"Of course. Fix you. One of my favourites." He grinned and hummed the song and grinned when Mikan joined him.

Then they stop on a certain floor and the elevator door opened.

And Mikan stop humming.

Because crimson eyes eyed them carefully before he entered the elevator. He did not say anything instead he just stood there with his usual emotionless face. Back to the old Natsume, she thought. Her stares to Natsume could have already made holes in his back because of its intense. She started to realize he didn't say anything or glared at Tsubasa or at her because the last time he saw her with Tsubasa, he punched him endlessly.

The elevator ride felt like forever. Silence enveloped the three of them. Tsubasa was giving Mikan and Natsume stares, trying to figure out what the two of them is thinking. Natsume was still standing there, emotionless as if Mikan and Tsubasa aren't in the same elevator as he was and Mikan couldn't help but feel a little pang of hurt in her chest. Is Natsume okay with the fact that they're not okay? Is not Natsume not even affected about anything or everything? But she shook her head because she knew deep down she deserve this. And if Natsume chose to ignore her then she'll have to deal with it.

The three of them almost jumped in surprise when the elevator opened, obviously that they were drowned in their thoughts. Natsume was the one who stepped out of the elevator first and Mikan immediately mimicked his actions. Without looking back, Natsume started to walk the other side.

"Natsume." Mikan called. She almost forgot to breathe when she realized she just called his name and almost fainted when he turned around but almost died when she saw the cold stare he is giving her. "Hi." She said quietly.

"Can I help you?" Natsume replied. His crimson eyes looked as cold as it was before. He started to look like the Natsume she met the first time.

"I… I, uh." She stammered as she tried to find the right words to say to him. But she knew this isn't the right time or the right place to say anything so she just showed the most sincere smile she could ever show then said. "Have a good lunch."

He didn't reply right away. His cold crimson eyes turned soft but it snapped away, trying to cover all the emotions he has been keeping. "You too." And with that he turned around and walked away.

Tears were already on the tip of Mikan's eyes as she stood there and watched his figure retreating. But seeing Natsume's emotions even for a second gave her hope that maybe, just maybe, things would be in its place soon. So she turned around and grinned at Tsubasa. "So let's go?"

Tsubasa gave her a small smile and nodded. "After you."

xxx

Two weeks.

Things have been a sucker for Natsume. Two weeks of not being with Mikan, of not seeing her, and it kills him. Slowly. Little by little. He sees her every day, working herself out and trying to distract herself because he too can feel that this distance kills not only him but the both of them but Natsume knew that this is the only thing that is good for them. He will just wait for Mikan to tell him everything. And no matter how long before she will figure it out, he will wait.

But self-control isn't that easy for him. Seeing Tsubasa innocently flirting at Mikan, his Mikan, boils his blood. He had been trying to control his raging jealousy whenever he sees him on her office making her laugh or spending time with her. But he also knew that if he'd lose his control, he'll lose Mikan as well.

And two weeks of no Mikan, lonely condominium, loads of work and trying to control the raging jealousy, the only thing Natsume has is his cigarette. And even though Ruka have been reminding him of the effect of smoking, he just ignore him. He'll go insane if he won't have anything to calm himself down or release the stress.

And tonight is one of the lonely night of Natsume. He was at their balcony, smoking. He has no job to and he doesn't want to watch television or eat dinner or even try to sleep. Every edge of the condominium reminds him of Mikan.

Then the doorbell rang. Who would visit him at this time of hour? He puffed one last smoke and threw the cigarette on his ash tray. After, he approached the door and was shocked to see who it was.

"Uncle Narumi. Aunt Yuka." He acknowledge them as he started to look at them in confusion. "Why are you here?"

"Did we disturb you, Natsume?" Yuka asked politely.

He shook his head. "No, no." Then he opened the door widely for them to enter. "Come in." He said as he watched them enter the condominium quietly and closed the door after. He realized they stopped when they also noticed that the lights were off and the condominium was silent. "I'm sorry. I'll just turn the lights on." He said.

Yuka flashed her a smile when the lights turned on. They both approached the couch and sat quietly as Narumi sat beside her. Natsume followed them as well and sat in front of them. Yuka carefully watched Natsume and she knew that behind those cold crimson eyes there is pain. She is aware of Natsume's feelings for Mikan. They all are aware of it. And she knew she need to do something to at least mend his pain or his confusion. "How are you?" she began.

"Okay." Natsume simply answered.

"We're aware of what happened to you and Mikan…" Narumi trailed off. He glanced at Yuka who started to look stiff and worried. "And we're here to tell you something."

Natsume started to look at them with interest and replied. "Something?"

Yuka took a deep sigh and said. "We want you to know everything about Mikan and…" She took another deep breathe. "And Mochou."

"You know about him?"

"We want you to listen carefully, Natsume." Narumi said the he took his wife's hand and squeeze it, telling her to go on.

"Mochou and Mikan met when Mochou enrolled in the same school that Mikan took her college degree. I've met him because they were classmate in Mikan's major and he has become his partner always." Yuka began. "But when I started to see something different that Mochou was just more than a subject partner, I told Mikan that she is already married."

"What?" Natsume bellowed. "Wait, what? She knew she was married? Even before? But she told me she doesn't know me or even remember me."

"Because Natsume…" Yuka trailed off, trying to find the right words and doubting if what she's doing is right but she knew there's no other way. "She had an accident."

And Natsume's confused face turned in to a shock one. His mouth almost hung open on what he heard. "Come… Come again?"

"Mikan had a study tour in Europe. And we did not allow her because we knew Mochou will be there too. And we will be away for a business trip in China but she kept insisting and she even threatened us that she will run away if we won't allow her so we did." Yuka almost choked out the words remembering everything that happened to her daughter.

"And because we know Mochou will be there, we decided to do a little background check for Mochou while we were in China." Narumi added. "He was born in a poor family and when his parents were killed he was adopted by his uncle who was business man here in Japan. His uncle wanted to do business with us but we declined it years ago. So Mochou used Mikan…"

"What?" Was the only word Natsume could say. He couldn't believe everything he is hearing.

"We didn't how it happened but when we were in China we just found out about a contract that we had already signed so I asked Yuka about it but she said she couldn't remember anything so with our lawyers we found out that it was Mochou who tried to use Mikan to get his uncle on the business with us." Narumi couldn't help but feel the anger again, remembering how his innocent daughter got brainwashed by some asshole.

"We immediately called Mikan but she wasn't answering. We called her professor, the school but they told us that Mikan did not join the study tour." The tears slowly became visible in the tip of Yuka's eyes as she continued. "We were so scared that something might have happened to Mikan. We were so scared, Natsume. And the next thing we knew someone called us. And Mikan's at the hospital in Korea, comatose."

"She was asleep for one month and when she woke up she barely remembered us." Yuka almost sobbed as she said the words. "And when I tried to tell her about you or anything about her childhood, she couldn't remember anything."

"What happened to Mochou?" Natsume asked angrily. "What happened to her? Why did she got in to an accident?" Natsume could feel every angry nerve on his body. He couldn't help but feel angry about Mochou, about himself for not knowing everything. For screwing everything up before he could find the truth.

"He left but we tried to search for him but he already got away." Narumi said.

"I'm so sorry, Natsume." Yuka sobbed. Narumi hugged her and let her cry on his chest as she continued to sob. "I'm so sorry we didn't tell you the truth. I'm so sorry."

"Does… Does Mikan know about this?" Natsume asked.

Narumi nodded. "After weeks, she remembered about Mochou but she couldn't remember what happened. She just had the trauma with her. We did try to ask her everything but she would just cry. And cry."

Natsume didn't say anything. He just watched Narumi hugged Yuka as she cried her heart out. And after Yuka's little break down, he asked them more questions about Mikan and all. And after their confession of everything, the couple decided to leave Natsume alone so they left the condominium. When he was alone again, Natsume couldn't believe everything he heard and everything he just found out.

He couldn't believe what happened to Mikan, how an asshole Mochou is to her. He couldn't believe he wasn't aware of anything for years.

But he remembered how he confronted Mikan about Mochou. The way she reacted, he could tell she was hiding something. She looked afraid, guilty and nervous. If she forgot everything that happened, how could she reacted like she remember everything?

Of course, Mikan and her secrets.

There's something Mikan has been hiding. Something that Yuka and Narumi don't know.

And as he lit another cigarette, he promised to himself, he'll know it.

This time there will be no secrets that he won't find out.

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