Author's Note: In honor of the second season, I present to you my newest ItaKiss fanfic, "Secrets Naoki Shouldn't Have." This is actually inspired by the show "Otomen," and I hope you enjoy reading this as much as have enjoyed writing it. I must say that made huge changes in the story. This is set in an alternate universe and I made Naoki in love with Kotoko the same time she has fallen for him during the opening ceremony.
Irie Naoki woke up early in a chilly April morning. It was the start of a new term but he knew there was nothing new in store for him, nothing to break his usual boring routine. Every single day of his life for the past eighteen years was the same; getting up from bed, going to school and returning home. There was nothing interesting going on in his life, but others seemed to care more about it. He was handsome and charming, and did really well in school—what a perfect life he had. But he had a huge secret he'd been keeping for years, and swore to never talk about it to anyone—not even to his family—or his life would be entirely over.
It was a deadly secret. And every time Naoki pondered about it, the more he grew bitter to his own mother. If it wasn't for her maybe he wouldn't become the person he was today. She shouldn't have let her selfish desires take over. Poor Naoki for being the receiving end of her lavish fantasies. It was because Mrs. Irie had always wanted a daughter, and he could just imagine how disappointed she was when she learned about the gender of the child she conceived. All she bought were girl clothes and toys. There was no room for a little boy in their cozy, happy home. No room for little Naoki. And so when he was still a child, his mother would dress him up in fancy dresses and shoes, adorned with cute hairclips and accessories as he went to the preschool and spent time with his classmates. Sooner he realised one obvious fact about boys—they weren't supposed to wear girls' clothes.
They put away all the girl stuff and stuffed it inside the box. He and his mother never spoke about that phase in his life again, and before he knew it he was already eighteen years old. However, what Mrs. Irie didn't know was that Naoki opened the box every now and then, and played with his dolls and teddy bears whenever his parents weren't around. And it became his dirty secret. In order to cover his dern, he devoted his time mastering all sorts of activities a man was supposed to be interested in; sports and well, of course, checking out girls. But Naoki wasn't able to pull off the latter. It's not that he didn't like girls—he wasn't just attracted to anyone in particular. But that changed when he finally saw the most beautiful woman in the face of the earth—Aihara Kotoko—and started living even a more lopsided life filled with a lot of confusion and uncertainty.
Every time he reminisced that fateful day three years ago in the opening ceremony, Naoki knew he had just seen the girl his mother used to describe in one of their discussions. When he came up on stage to deliver his speech as he was the highest scorer in the entrance exam, the first person he noticed was her. For a few seconds he was mesmerized by her beauty, and for a second he thought he forgot what he was going to say in front of the hundreds of people watching him on stage. And then he began his eloquent speech with a greeting, and proceeded to speak the words he had memorized in his head the night before the event.
"Someday you'll meet a girl who would change the way you see things, Naoki Just wait." It was what Mrs. Irie used to tell him when love was the topic—a subject he didn't know anything about. And so he kept his mouth shut and let his mother do all the talking. He would occasionally listen, but most of the time he thought she was wrong.
The fact that Aihara Kotoko was from the bottom class didn't bother him at all. He didn't care about her low exam scores or failing marks. To him she was perfectly alright. Aihara Kotoko was very different from him, and he liked it.
He was only a few steps from Tonan High walking amidst a couple of students when he noticed a girl standing beside the iron gates. But he didn't know it was Aihara Kotoko, the girl of his dreams, and simply walked past her. The genius Irie Naoki might seem to know everything, but he didn't know what was about to happen next, or who he was set to meet that day. Not until the girl with a hot pink headband and long, shiny hair blocked his way, her hands extending to him with an envelope carefully sealed with a cute little heart sticker was presented to him. He was gobsmacked upon realising that it was actually Kotoko who was waiting for her, looking at him with sincere eyes begging him to accept the letter. Full three seconds had passed after she introduced herself as "Aihara Kotoko," a name he knew too well, and asked him to receive her declaration of love. But Naoki panicked, and for the first time in his life, at loss for words. And he did what he was trained to do: act like he didn't care. And at that instant he wished he could have been more human, but the words slipped out of his mouth.
"I don't want it," He said as he stepped away from the girl he was infatuated with for three years. He left with a heavy heart, but what could he do? One wrong move and all those years of pretending would go to waste. At that moment he hated himself.
Kotoko was rooted on the spot, clenching her fists saying, "Bastard," in an attempt to suppress her tears. Naoki forced himself not to look back, but surrendered to his own conscience by taking a glimpse of her. Naoki immediately regretted the way he acted in front of Kotoko. He waited for this moment for three years, but he had just thrown his chance away.
For Kotoko it was the most embarrassing moment of her life. Today was the day she mustered all her courage to confess to the one guy she liked—and just like that she was rejected. Never in her life had she felt neglected and unimportant. That Naoki deserved some beating…but it only took a second to remember the oath she promised to herself—be a lady—and knew she had to keep that promise. Kotoko closed her eyes and pictured the girl who was out in the streets day and night, fighting gangs from other high schools in Tokyo. She could view in her head the old days when she was still a delinquent; pink and violet streak in her hair, eyeliner and a necktie loosely hanging around the collar of her uniform. She was a girl with great confidence and strength who stood in front of dozens of her followers, holding her chin high and sending a lethal gaze to her enemies on the far side of the road. Every night it was the same—fighting against other groups and winning—until she vanished. "Arashi" or "Storm," as she was known was a popular name her opponents and followers used to call her. She was the queen of battle and bravery, but all of that changed when Kotoko's mother fell ill. Her parents both ran the family restaurant, but as soon as her mother became extremely weak, his father persuaded her to help out in the business. She was failing at school, and her life was a complete mess. Eventually, her mother died and Kotoko was forced to leave her old ways.
"Promise that you would live a peaceful life, Kotoko. That is where you'd find your true happiness." Mrs. Aihara told her as she took her one last breath in her deathbed. Kotoko kissed her mother goodbye, and promised to fulfil her wish. For Kotoko, nothing had been the same ever since.
Snapping back to reality, Kotoko headed to class and decided to forget about everything that happened that day. "I hope our paths would never cross again." She muttered under her breath as she took a flight of stairs to Class F, her home for three years.