'Click'

Disclaimer: No I do not own Ghost Hunt, my lawyer will brief you further on the matter...

Lawyer: She does not own Ghost Hunt, do you think Naru would be on two feet if she did that?

Me: Excuse me!?

Happens before finding Gene's body.

Summary: For her, the first time falling in love didn't come with the customary package; there were no violins playing in her heart and flowers in the background when she met him nor did he speak of red roses and poetic verses. Yeah, what love bought her was a rival and what could she do when the rival was no less than angel? Nothing. Absolutely nothing...

- O-

I think I agree with public opinion, now; blackmailing him for the mere sake of my advantageous amusement wasn't the best of my schemes. To be honest, this scheme also questioned my cleverness, how could I use his identity as a pathetic excuse when I could have clearly come up with something more plausible than this.

"You've got something on Naru, haven't you?"

And the last thing I needed to remember at the moment was Mai, when she was voicing out my feelings for me back on the Urado case...

From the very beginning I somehow knew that I had no chance with the cold, icy Oliver Davis; not because I was out of his league like Mai but because of the complete opposite. I was like him, quiet, calm, professional, beautiful and rich and that was why, maybe that was why he only respected me...

Ha! as if...'respect?', that man doesn't have such a polite dictionary in his mind for God's sake and here I was actually associating a word related to politeness. How silly of me...

But then again, he bends the rules for her...Mai.

And here they go again...

"At least say thank you Naru, it's common manners to do so! Oh wait, common manners and Naru?! No way in Hell!" Mai yelled at him, her tone changing from admonishing to mocking in a second.

The sounds paused for a moment before a slow murmur could be detected. Great, I, Hara Masako had now stooped to eavesdropping. Just great...

"Mai will you stop being annoying like a child, don't you have something else to do?"

If I hadn't known him better, I'd think that he was flirting.

"Why did I want to work with you Naru? I must have been pretty stupid back then to agree to such an 'enchanting' offer..."

"Your welcome. I was never aware of my altruism."

Well he is flirting...and by the looks of it, she doesn't know yet.

Why did he treat her differently, was it out of empathy of being an orphan like him? No, Oliver never distributed his pity by words, if he did pity someone, he probably restrained such polite thoughts to the boundaries of his mind. No maybe...just maybe he did like her...

My love life was typically painful like that of any other girl but it had that twist, that unforgivable hindrance in it. A rival...sure everybody has a rival but what do you do when your rival is nothing less than an angel, like a cup of sunshine on a rainy day. My rival was too vulnerable, too good, much better than I am, he deserved her.

But then again if he would have cared for corporeal attributes, I would have been his choice...

The day I actually noticed that he held a certain amount of fondness for her was when I saw him glance at her during that park-case* when I was steering him out of the office for a date, he silently glanced at her as if silently communicating with her and nobody could understand how it feels for your boyfriend to glance at another girl and communicate with her through his eyes only.

Boyfriend? Or more like a boy hired to be one...I don't know, I wish he was the former and yet...yet, I know it's a practical impossibility. After a few moments, I watch Mai stomping out of the office her face red and splotched with blush lines.

"Narcissistic idiot, what does he think he is, that tea-addicted jerk, one day I'll poison his precious tea and then I'll see what he does, no, I think I'll spike his tea and then I'll watch him getting all-"

I sighed at her incessant ramblings and stood up slowly, walking towards her.

"Oh hey Masako, how you doing, long time no see..."

"I just saw you two days back Mai, stop being stupid." I sighed once more, hugging her reluctantly.

"Oh...hehehe, sorry I was just thinking about Naru, he just makes me mad by his comments, that stupid man."

"You deserve it."

"That's extremely mean Masako! Whose side are you on, huh? Mine or his" She hissed, pointing at his office door.

I considered for a moment; then I went for the thing that was actually going to tear her apart, my victory point, my triumph.

"I'm his girlfriend Mai," I declared dryly. "Of course I'd be taking his side."

"Oh..." I watch as different emotions crossed her face; sadness, tension, realization, anger and...and jealous. She was jealous of me.

Bingo!

"I – I see, do you want me to go in and call him, he might want to see you."

Her voice came out in high octaves as if she was putting a cheerful facade and not wanting to show how mad she was. I relished in the temporary happiness and nodded sweetly, watching her stalk towards his office once more. This time, I followed her once she goes inside the office and peep inside the office door, through the crack in the unclosed door, sometimes I feel the urge to hug Mai for being so clumsy. No wonder why evil spirits took advantage of her ineptitude.

Idiot.

I hated Mai, from the depths of my heart for being so close to him, I hate her for being there for him when I'm not, I hate her because I feel myself powerless against her, I can't hurt her because she is so good, she is nothing like me and yet she has no idea that she has stolen his heart without knowing it. The day when I took Naru with me to dinner after getting rid of the lame spirit from that park, I noticed him looking out of the window deep in thought. I tried to catch his attention but he simply ignored me and when I finally got him to look at me, he simply cleared his throat, leaned forward and spoke to me in a barely audible yet fierce voice.

"Miss Hara I do realize your motives but I have a request to make."

"What is that Naru?"

He sighed and fixed his sharp gaze on me, his eyes showing determination.

"Whatever you do, keep Mai out of all this...I do not want her to get involved."

And here she didn't even knew what she meant to him.

I watched as Mai and Naru conversed inside the room, seemingly unaware of my presence.

"Masako is here, Naru, she wants to see you..."

I heard him sigh heavily before he looks up and answers Mai.

"Tell her I'm not here."

He doesn't want to see me...

"Don't be an idiot Naru, go see her." Mai made a face and crossed her arms, stubbornly

"Is she outside?" He stood up slowly and I could feel my sinking heart pick up speed.

"Yeah she is."

"Oh really?" I see him turning to face Mai and lean forwards. "She is outside...Hn."

And I could only watch horrified as he leaned forward...

More...

And more until there was a distance of two centimeters between them

"Mai" He carefully placed his forehead against hers and I watched Mai quiver as he put his hands on her shoulders.

I felt a sick sensation erupt in my stomach and travel to my throat, burning my lungs, my eyes blurred and all I could feel was betrayal, hurt and-and angst. He was never mine, he could never be mine and in that moment when his eyes flickered to me and he gave me that look, I came to know something. I had known it always but acceptance came late. He showed me that he never liked me, he rid me of all hope, he did it to me, hurt me, told me my value and he used Mai for that...

I was sick of myself, I was disgusted...I felt like nothing. I had meant nothing to my family, there was no love, there was always a race going on, a marathon towards success and even though I had succeeded in that race, I had nothing, I had no one, I was alone, that loner, the doll from school who hid from everybody because she was different, she could see the supernatural, because she was a freak.

A plotting freak...

Slowly, I blinked back the tears and closed the door knowing that a moment later, Mai would come out all red in the face, shouting swear words at him and so it happened. Mai nearly burst out of the office, clutching her heart, red in the face and her words echoing around the whole room.

"WHY THE NERVE OF YOU JERK, HOW DARE YOU PLAY THAT TRICK ON ME! YOU NARCISSISTIC TEA-LOVER! HOW CAN YOU BE SO – UGGGGGH!"

She completely ignored me and I was glad, I needed time alone, I needed to come up with something more evil directly towards him, not Mai, she didn't need this but I was jealous of her; because even though she had nothing to go by I knew she had found , I wasn't letting go that quickly, he deserved this, at least until his real name is found out which isn't long. I was going to make his temper flare and amuse myself until the old wounds had healed and there was place for new ones. Until then, I'll try to cure this feeling, I don't want it. No. Never.

The tears had blinded my vision, threatening to fall when I got into someone's way, crashing with them.

"Hey Masako-chan!"

Yasu. Not now, I didn't want to see anyone now

"Hello Yasuhara-san. I hope you are fine."My muffled voice must have startled him since he placed a hand on my shoulder as if comforting me. I didn't dare to look up at him so he simply bent down to look at my face, I could see his frown from my blurry vision, before he finally spoke up.

"You know anybody would think that I'm cheating on Bou-san but," He paused and smiled consolingly as if he knew everything. "I'll make everything alright. Promise."

I nodded, flushed and found my way to the office door, flashing a quick glance at Yasu I could feel my lips quirk into a short smile.

Love was such a pathetic ideology...

park-case*: Ghost Story In The Park.

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- borntoflyhigh.