Broken Fragments

Chapter 20: Excuses and a Visit

"I'm going home!" Yuuhi exclaimed as she ran away from the view of the fireworks.

"Wait!"Hiroto called back as he followed Yuuhi.

Seiji was going to run after both of them, but Fubuki grabbed his hand and shook her head. He understood from the look on her face that he shouldn't run after Hiroto and Yuuhi.

Meanwhile, Hiroto kept running after Yuuhi even though they were starting to attract attention among themselves. The crowds of people were still busy as they watched the illuminant fireworks, but some noticed the two's running from each other.

"Wait!" Hiroto called out once again.

Yuuhi didn't listen and kept running away from him.

"No! Stop following me!" she thought, her eyes shut.

The only reason why she didn't want to stop running was because she had tears running down her face. Yuuhi didn't want Hiroto to know that she was crying, especially since she couldn't think of a good lie. To make it worse, she didn't even know the reason for her unwanted tears, herself.

Before the two even knew it, they were already far from the hill they went to for a better view of the fireworks. They didn't even realize that they were near the shrine's long series of stairs. Yuuhi kept running as fast as she could even though her feet were aching because of the wooden sandals she wore. She kept running from Hiroto, hoping he wouldn't catch her.

Suddenly, before she could take another step down the stairs, the strap of the wooden sandal on her right foot snapped, causing her to trip. Yuuhi's eyes opened wide as she realized that she was going to roll down the stairs. She realized that she was going to die from running away.

However, before she could fall, Yuuhi felt a hand grab her wrist to keep her from falling. Her eyes were still as wide as an owl's eyes, her heart thumping faster than she could ever imagine. Yuuhi was slowly pulled away from the stairs, and her feet were on safe grounds again. When she looked up to see whose hand it belonged to, she found Hiroto's worried eyes looking at hers.

"Idiot!"

Yuuhi, confused of what was going on, ended up on Hiroto's chest as he pulled her to him to embrace her. Hiroto held onto Yuuhi as tight as he could, almost to the point where she wouldn't be able to breathe. Yuuhi could hear his fast heartbeat and the fear in his voice. She felt weak and vulnerable to his words, embrace, and the resonating sound of his heart.

"You're an idiot!" Hiroto yelled once again.

"You…you could've died!"

The worried tone in Hiroto's voice made Yuuhi want to keep crying, but she came to her senses and felt as if she was making a big mistake.

"Stop. I'm going home," Yuuhi calmly said as she pushed Hiroto away from her.

"No," he said, pulling her back to his arms.

"I'm going home, okay! Just stop," Yuuhi yelled, pushing him away again.

Yuuhi took off her wooden sandal and carried them as she carefully walked down the stairs. She still had tears on her cheeks, but she didn't wipe them off. She was in a daze, still thinking about what Hiroto just did to her.

"What's your problem?" Hiroto asked, stopping Yuuhi.

"Why?" he continued as he ran down the stairs past Yuuhi to be able to talk to her face to face.

"Why do you hate me? What exactly did I do to you?" Hiroto roared, confronting Yuuhi.

The fireworks' sounds were still booming and the people were still watching the beauty of the show. Yuuhi didn't say anything even though it felt as if her mind and heart were overfilled with thoughts she wanted to verbally throw at her manager.

"I thought we would get along. That night when you helped me out when I got drunk…I really thought…and hoped…that we would get along. You started to distance yourself from me more and more after that night, and I was able to sense it," Hiroto said.

"I allowed you to call me by my first name, but you keep calling me by my last name. Then, I even volunteered to be your manager just so I could get closer to you…but it feels like we're growing further apart."

Yuuhi kept her gaze down, still listening to Hiroto's statements. She could see their shadows dancing around from the bright light that the fireworks and the moon shone on them.

"It's already been two months since we started working with each other…but we haven't made any progress," Hiroto painfully admitted.

"Why, Yuuhi? What have I ever done to you?"

"Nothing, alright!" she yelled right before another firework shot up the sky with a loud boom.

Yuuhi looked at Hiroto straight in the eyes with some hopes that he couldn't see her tears.

"I treasure my career. That's all. I'm sorry, Kazama-san, if you think we aren't getting any closer…but we have to be and act professional," Yuuhi lied.

The auburn-haired idol couldn't think of any other excuse, but thankfully, she had her career to back her up and support her.

"Thank you for today, but I'm going home. I'll just take a cab," she said as she continued to walk down the stairs.

Hiroto couldn't do anything because he knew and felt that Yuuhi was right. Hiroto was Yuuhi's manager. They could be friends, but they can't be anything more than that. What bothered him the most, though, was why he sounded as if he wanted to be more than friends with Yuuhi.

He sat down on one of the stairs' steps and put his hands on his head, covering his eyes to stop himself from watching Yuuhi walk away. He wanted to stop her again, but he knew she wouldn't turn around.

"Great," he thought.

"Now, I don't even think I'll be able to talk to her tomorrow," Hiroto continued to negatively think.

"Or even give her this."

Hiroto took out a small, rectangular-shaped box that he kept in his pockets. It was wrapped with a cute ribbon, its content probably special.

The young man got up and sighed after taking much thought on what he should do. He wanted to go to a bar and drink away what happened to him and Yuuhi, but he still had to take care of business the next day. He gave up and just left to go home.

The next day, Hiroto met Yuuhi at the lounge, where she was drinking tea. Hiroto passed by her, not uttering a word, to grab some coffee. The TV was on and Yuuhi was just watching the early morning news. It was so quiet in the room, with only the TV's faint volume audible, that Hiroto felt as if Yuuhi could hear his heartbeat from far away. Before he could say something to drive the awkward atmosphere in the room, Yuuhi got up and took her cup to the lounge's sink to wash it.

"Good morning, Kazama-san," she smiled at him as she passed by.

"Oh, yeah…good morning," Hiroto replied, confused.

"Hey about last ni—"

"Don't worry about it," Yuuhi interrupted, turning off the sink and putting her cup on the cupboard to dry.

Hiroto did as he was told and finished drinking his coffee without uttering another word about what happened to them last night. After they both finished their businesses in the lounge, they headed to Hiroto's office to prepare for the day's work. As soon as they finished getting ready, Hiroto drove the young, auburn-haired idol to the photography studio. Yuuhi's first job for the day was a photo shoot with two other newly-debuted idols, Flagrance and Ai Sakura.

Flagrance was a half-Korean and half-Japanese idol that came from Korea. She didn't want to use her Korean name, Hye Min Park, as her debut name, so she settled with Flagrance. She was famous in Korea, but she wanted to try something new, which resulted to her moving to Japan to become famous there.

Ai Sakura, who debuted two weeks earlier than Yuuhi, was also a new idol from the rivaling company of Muranishi Entertainment Company. However, her company allowed for her to work with Yuuhi of MEC for Berry magazine's upcoming cover.

The three were given three different styles of clothing to give the magazine designers options for the cover. The first theme of the photo shoot was 'Tea Time,' where the three were dressed in cute, frilly dresses of pink, white, and yellow pastel colors. Even though it wasn't Yuuhi's style, she still looked as gorgeous as the other two debutantes for the theme. The second one was 'Goodnight, Sweet Dreams,' where the three of them wore cute, yet comfortable, pajamas. They were asked to lie down with their heads all together, as if they were forming a circle. The last theme of the photo shoot was 'Shop 'til We Drop,' where they all wore casual, in-style outfits while carrying bags and boxes as if they were shopping.

The three got along very well, which made it easy for everyone to work with each other. After the three-hour photo shoot ended, the three idols wished each other good luck as they separated ways.

"How'd you get to MEC today?" Hiroto asked, breaking the silence between him and Yuuhi as they made their way back to the building.

"I drove, of course. Don't you remember I have a car?" she smiled with a little hint of snob.

"Well, it's actually my dad's but he gave it to me for my 20th birthday," she recalled.

"Now that you mention it, you're turning 22 next month, huh," Hiroto gently smiled.

Yuuhi was a little shocked, her face blushing. She didn't think that Hiroto would remember her birthday with just one look on the copy her birth certificate the she showed him. Instead of saying something smart to counter Hiroto's remark, Yuuhi just kept her head down and fidgeted with her fingers.

"I knew this one girl who used to do that when she was embarrassed, too," Hiroto giggled when he saw Yuuhi play with her fingers with a blushing face.

Yuuhi turned away and looked out the window, a little upset. The remaining time they had on their way back to the building was shrouded in silence. Hiroto didn't want to say anything anymore after he realized that he made Yuuhi get upset once again. Yuuhi didn't want to say anything to him because she knew that it would not only offend him, but herself, too.

When they arrived at the MEC building, Yuuhi was approached by one of the interns, saying that someone was waiting for her at the lounge. The only clue Yuuhi got from the intern was that the visitor was important.

Yuuhi rushed to the lounge without even realizing that Hiroto went with her. She quickly opened the door to find a lady sitting down on the couch with a worried look on her face.

"Yuuhi!" the girl exclaimed as she ran towards the idol to give her a hug.

"Neko-nee? What are you doing here?" Yuuhi worriedly asked.

"Who is she?" Hiroto asked, confused of what was going on.

"Neko-nee, this is Hiroto Kazama, my manager," Yuuhi said.

"It's nice to meet you, Hiroto-san. I'm a big fan," Neko smiled despite of her worried mood earlier.

Yuuhi rolled her eyes and continued with the introductions.

"Kazama-san, this is Neko Kurami, my aunt," Yuuhi finished.

The three of them returned to the couch after their introductions and bows. Cups of teas were already prepared on the coffee table for the three of them by one of the interns. Before Neko told Yuuhi about why she was there, Yuuhi talked about her aunt to Hiroto.

Neko Kurami was Yuuhi's adoptive mother's youngest sister, only five years older than Yuuhi. Because their age were fairly close, Neko was the only person Yuuhi confided with about how she was being bullied all the time. Neko was basically Yuuhi's best friend. However, since Neko had been getting ready for her upcoming wedding before Yuuhi debuted, the two have drifted a little apart.

"What are you doing here, Neko-nee?" Yuuhi calmly asked, trying to hide her worry.

"It's about your mother" Neko announced.

She waited for a couple of seconds to break the news to Yuuhi, who had a really bad feeling already brewing in her head. Neko finally stopped the suspense and told Yuuhi what the matter was.

"She's in a coma."

Author's notes:

Hi, minna-san! Sorry it took me forever to update Broken Fragments. School's been really busy especially since we just finished with our school festival. It was a whole lot of fun, especially since I got to play the lead role of our school play along with my boyfriend. :D

Anyways, back to the story. So, last chapter, I gave a little fun quiz towards the end. Keeping my side of the deal, I would like to give a shout-out to Vanja Kim, who got the answer right to my first question. And yes, the answer is Koi Hanabi or Love Fireworks.

To the three people that answered both the questions, you three got it right, which gave you all a character (although minor) in this chapter of Broken Fragments.

To Flagrance-san, I got the idea of your character being half-Korean and half-Japanese because I went to check out your profile and saw that you spoke Korean. I, too, am learning Korean, so kudos to you. (: And thank you so much for participating with the fun quiz and supporting my story. I'm sorry if you didn't like your character in this chapter. )x

To Ai Sakura-san, since I couldn't really get in contact with you, I decided to just use the name you had for the review you posted. Like I told Flagrance-san, thank you so much for participating with the fun quiz and supporting my story. I'm sorry if you didn't like your character in this chapter )X but I hope you keep supporting. (:

Lastly, to BlackCatNeko999, you've been supporting me since the very beginning and thank you so much! The idea of your just being a friend of Kirika in the story kind of changed, but I hope you still liked it. I don't know if you've already figured it out, but I kept the name Neko in there, but made Kurami your last name, which is a name associated to black (heh, get it? cuz your FF name is BlackCatNeko? xD). Anyways, if you don't already know, I think Neko Kurami might be in the next chapter, too. (: But again, thank you so much! Keep supporting! (:

To everyone else, thank you so much, too. Keep supporting Broken Fragments, and if you haven't read the prequel, Forgotten Melody, I highly recommend that you do before you keep on reading the further/upcoming chapters. Again minna-san, thank you for the support! Keep reading and reviewing. (Reviews make Mayumi-chan really happy! :D)