Disclaimer: Disclaimed
Hi readers, I know it's been waaay too long, and I apologize for that! I've been busy on the past month because I attended a Winter School programme somewhere outside my country (beloved Indonesia *wink*). And I've added a new fic of Natsume Yuujinchou so I've been splitting my attention on both fics hahahaha sorry, really ^.^"
This chapter is kinda the introduction for the second arc of LoveLess, yeaaaah I decided to keep this fic ongoing after receiving many kind supportive urgings to continue. Thanks for the reviews guys! I apologize because I didn't answer, I always forget to, and when it's way too long gap of time, It's kinda awkward for me to suddenly send a review... so... yeah... =.=
And there's a request to make this M-preg. It's a good idea, but unfortunately not for me. The prospect of a male getting pregnant... just doesn't sound right to me... I'm incredibly sorry! .
Now please enjoy~
LoveLess
Chapter 5 : How do we cope?
The bell had just rung. Somehow the scratchy sound, rusted by years of use, sounded like a melody to each of the students.
A girl, with deep auburn hair tied into two high pig-tails, timidly gathered all her stuffs and meticulously stuffed them inside her scarlet G-Line Medium Canvas Tod's bag. She reached for her Greek Literature textbook at the far corner of the table but accidentally knocked her rubber off the table.
"Ah!", she exclaimed as the cylindrical green Mignon eraser rolled along the polished marble floor. She quickly attempted to kneel down but a pale hand beat her outstretched one to it in mid-air. Her dark gray eyes scanned upwards along the long limb, her face a spark of curiosity, before a blush crept its way to her cheeks.
"O-Okumura-kun"
Said teen smiled kindly at her, causing the girl to blush a deeper shade of healthy pink, as he offered the rubber to the enthralled student, "Here you go Kujou-san"
'Waaah his face is so blinding!'
"A-Arigatou", the girl tipped her head down, receiving the piece of stationary meekly. At the sudden change of angle of her head, Yukio noticed the bright blue ribbon adorning the upper part of her auburn locks.
He smiled, "The blue color of your ribbons suited you Kujou-san"
Kujou's eyes nearly popped out of her sockets in shock, she couldn't help but snapped her gaze back to the gorgeous boy kneeling in front of her despite having face as red as a tomato.
'Did', her swirling mind tried to contemplate each word with all the knowledge she stored in her brain, 'Did he just compli-'
But her hope crumbled as soon as Yukio stood up and walked away towards his table, glancing back once to deliver that smile that could melt any woman's heart to her. She dropped her head down as she continued her task of gathering everything in her bag.
Of course, there's no way that Okumura Yukio would mean anything by that remark. Yukio, despite being targeted by over the half of the girls in their grade, hadn't had any single girlfriends until this second. He, with no doubt, was a perfect boyfriend material, with a face any guy would envy he also was a perfect embodiment of a cool ideal top student type of guy which scored nearly unblemished grades. Despite having a lean figure, he's unbeaten at sport. He also had an admirable attitude, good social skills, adored and trusted by all the teachers from all grades, and the list could go on and on.
It was a mystery as to why Yukio kept declining the love confessions from numerous girls that shyly confronted him in school breaks or after school. Rumors that flew around stated that maybe he already had his most special one and was keeping a secret about it. But of course, it's nothing but an inconclusive rumor.
"Shizu!", a loud yell near her ears jerked her completely off her slightly depressing session. She turned her head in alarm and her two best friends' grinning faces greeted her bewildered eyes.
"Fuuki!", she reprimanded in anger.
"Hey nice to meet you too girl! And what's with the long face anyway?", a girl with tousled hair winked her peculiar green cat eye, a smirk rested almost naturally on her lips.
'Am I that obvious?' "No it's just...", her eyes unconsciously took a brief leer to the direction of the number one student.
"Is it about Okumura-kun?", a knowing voice came from a girl with long black doll-like hair. Shizu's body jerked slightly at the shock of being effortlessly found out. Sae, her other best friend, stood there, staring at her almost like she could unveil every secret she tried to hide.
Shizu gulped, wide eyes observed her friend's beady black ones in surprise. Can she read minds?
Fuuki shook her head, "Okumura? That's a tough one girl. Do you know that he hasn't said yes even once from all the gazillion and bababazillion of confessions or love letters he received?"
The auburn-haired girl opted to say nothing. She lifted her gaze back to her secret crush, the boy was elegantly seated in his chair like it was an expensive pure-leather cathedra. Yukio seemed immersed in the world of his thick-spined encyclopedia-kind of a book he had on the table, oblivious or maybe simply didn't care at the cacophony of noises and chatters around him.
He generally was a lone-wolf, opting to read a book in the corner rather than laughing with his friends, hell she wasn't even sure that he had someone he would call a friend to begin with. He wasn't an antisocial or misanthropist, far from that, she could easily see that many students of both sexes were openly seeking for chances to be close to him. But the boy chose to talk only when it was necessary, smiling politely before returning to his own world with his books, building an almost palpable barrier between him and other people. He just didn't prefer to be close with anyone, in a term of friendship or even physically, he even went as much as to glare to a boy who once dared to encircle his arm around the bespectacled boy's shoulder in a completely friendly manner. The poor boy immediately ceased his display of affection with a mental note inscribed in his head : Touching Yukio is a big no no. Another rumor spreaded, he maybe was allergic to a person's touch although it was very unlikely.
It's not like he couldn't properly communicate with other people, naaaaaw, faaar from that, he's a guy who was very easy to talk to and amazingly sociable. He could even appeal to the most fearsome delinquents in the school and laughed with them in a mere 5 minutes.
Sounds kinda like a nerd to you? Well maybe, except this nerd radiated an aura of a higher being than them which none of the students could dare to decipher his status as one.
Indeed Yukio was amazing in his own way.
Sae dropped her arms on the table and propped her head on them, sighing dreamily, "Aaah how I wish to be his special one. Unfortunately he apparently doesn't give a damn about romance, or simply doesn't need one", she glanced back to her friend, "Shizu-chan, if you like him so much you should try to hit him on"
Shizu gave her friend a distaste look, "No way! As Fuuki said he declines every confessions he gets, I refuse to embarrass myself when he turns me down after I've gathered every bit of my courage to confess!", Shizu huffed but then a thought pushed its way off her lips before she could stop it, "I wonder why he hasn't dated any girl up to this point, with his looks and social status, he could easily get any girl he wants, even some really beautiful senpais have tried to win his heart."
Fuuki pointed her finger to the girl in glee, "Aha! So you do think that he is handsome!"
"Oh come on, who doesn't?", Sae stated like it's the most obvious thing in the world.
The girl's green eyes went narrowed, trying to think of some way to retort, "Hm… you're somehow right. Well this is my theory, maybe he's not into girls"
Shizu frowned, "What do you mean?"
The girl rolled her green-cat-like eyes, before she stopped and grinned mischievously, "I mean like that!", she pointed towards the door of their class.
Both Shizu and Sae directed their gazes to where their best friend pointed at, and like a bee to a jar full of honey immediately have their attentions on a black-blue-haired boy standing on their slightly ajar door. His eyes were diligently scanning the room, almost like searching for someone.
Shizu blinked when the boy's eyes brightened and a smile made its way towards his lips, claiming her suspicion that he was indeed searching for someone and had apparently found it. The nameless boy then welcomed himself to the room and strutted with long strides to the corner front of their class, aiming straight to the lone boy sitting near the window, who was deeply engrossed into whatever book he was reading.
'To Okumura-kun?', the girl inquired in her head.
Then to her surprise, the boy approached the occupied Yukio from behind, and then flung his arms around the boy's neck in a full bear-hug.
Shizu's eyes widened, "Eeeeeh?"
Fuuki grinned proudly, "Told ya!"
"Bu-but", Shizu pointed a shaking finger to the glomping teens, "Do-does that mean he's...
...gay?", Sae finished with an equally stupefied tone.
Fuuki patted her stunned friend in mocked sympathy, "It's all right girl. There's still a plenty of fish in the sea"
Sae scoffed, "Yeah sure. Except this one fish is a large legendary tuna which worth hundreds of thousands of yen. Moving that aside, who on earth is that anyway?"
The brash girl grinned, a hidden camera ready behind her back in preparation to snatch some priceless moments of her shocked-beyond-Jupiter friends, "His twin brother"
"FOR REAAAL?"
Shizu regained her composure after some white lights flashed in front of her. Ignoring the sounds of the shutters, she turned her head towards where Yukio and the mysterious boy were chatting animatedly.
A twin? Now that she paid a closer attention to the unnamed boy, she can point out some distinct resemblances. The structure of their face, their high cheekbones, the shape of their noses, and even their body postures (eventhough Yukio won tremendously in the height department). He could certainly pass as Yukio's twin, certainly fraternal, minus the glasses, moles, and the neatly combed-hair. But what their most different feature was their eyes. Yukio's eyes were a shade of spring green, so calm yet radiated the fresh feeling of remarkable intelligence that shone clearly from the twin emerald orbs. He was a remembrance of a tall and sturdy lush green mountain which impressed most people yet most of them refused to explore its massive structure of sophisticated complexity to avoid the troubles it would sprout. But this boy was a complete opposite. His were painted the color of crystal blue, bright and frank, the shining orbs practically demanded all attention to his very presence. He was a reminder of the portrayal of endless blue horizon, a perfect sky of cloudless entity which crowned the day with its warm blue envelope.
Now she wondered. Are they different? Or are they actually the same?
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Amniocentesis, this was the part of which he decided to learn today. In medicine, it is a procedure of withdrawing a sample of amniotic fluid that envelops the developing human fetus in the uterus. The fetal cells obtained from the fluid are cultured for indications of chromosomal abnormalities, defective enzymes, or deficient growth. It is usually performed during the fourth month of pregnancy in conjunction with genetic counseling of-
He continued to run his diligent eyes across the narrowly-packed words which was inconveniently almost jumbled together in small nauseating sizes with extreme dedication.
He was just getting into the steps of the medical procedure before suddenly a pair of arms encircled his neck from his back. Yukio widened his eyes in surprise at the unexpected physical touch. The boy leaned his head near Yukio's lower jaw and the bespectacled boy could immediately feel the familiar comforting warmth surging through his body from his back.
"Yukio~"
The said boy sighed, not in irritation or annoyance, but relief. He thought that it was other person who had dared to rudely infiltrate his personal bubble.
"Niisan", Yukio murmured, "It's unusual for you to come into my class. What brings you here?"
Rin exhaled peevish-like breath and pouted, "What? Now I can't come to my little brother's class to ask for him to go home together? Besides, it seems that you are too comfortable playing with your huge spawn-of-devil-made-of-printed-papers here and aren't planning to go home any sooner", the older twin pointed out accusingly while glaring at the book forgotten in the green-eyed boy's lap.
Yukio lifted a perfect brow, "Spawn of devil?"
At the moment, the two were unaware of the attention they'd hooked from the majority of the class. A girl tapped furiously on her friend's back which was tweeting excitedly and pointed a discreet finger towards the two brothers. A male student silenced the rest of his chatting friends with a sharp gesture of his arm and jerked his head to direct their attention somewhere else. A large group of girls excitedly whispered in hushed voice all the while giggling with blushes on their face.
"Hey, who the hell is that guy?"
"I don't know either, seems like they know each other somehow"
"That goes without saying dude, otherwise that cool genius Okumura Yukio wouldn't even let that kind of brash kid of ever going near him. Let alone hugging him like that"
"I am more interested in knowing why that guy hugged him in the first place. Do they have any kind of special relationship between them?"
"Fumi-chan, who is that guy?"
"The one hugging Okumura-kun? What about him?"
"It's just weird that Okumura-kun let that guy to hug him like that and seems even comfortable. Besides, he is kinda cute~"
"Well, that's natural. If I'm not mistaken, that guy named Rin is Okumura-kun's brother"
"Eeeh for real? No way, this is the first time I've ever heard that Okumura-kun has a brother!"
Still unaware, Rin tilted his head to rest more comfortably near his brother's neck.
"What? Ya got a problem about that?"
Yukio chuckled. His brother now sounded like a particular pink-haired woman, "Not at all. Sorry about my negligence of the time" To show that he acknowledged his brother's urging, Yukio then slipped his thick book inside his backpack, "Besides, it's not necessary for you to come get me here, you could have just waited me in the school's lobby like usual", he added nonchalantly.
Rin finally released his hold to allow his twin to continue packing his back. Acquiring his liberty, Yukio swiftly leaned towards the table to enable him packing his bag quicker.
Rin scoffed, crossing his arms unpleasantly, "Sorry for gracing your holy ground with my unnecessary lowly presence, oh, honorable Yukio-sama (Yukio sweatdropped, "I didn't mean it like that. It's just you don't have to trouble yourself"). Anyway, more importantly, the clown asked all cram-school students to come to his office after class. Including you, as the teacher. He said it's super urgent or something"
Now that piqued his interest, it's very rare for the principal to summon any students directly to his office, "Oh really? Sir Pheles did?", Yukio quirked his brow.
"Yeah, do I sound like lying to you? So now get your ass going or otherwise we're gonna be late", Rin seized Yukio's wrist and pulled his brother off his seat by sheer strength. Yukio let out a brief sound of protest and only got enough time to snatch his bag before being dragged unceremoniously out of the class.
Almost all heads followed both boys until they're gone from sight, then the myriad of noises continued as it was, but this time most of it was centering around the unusual scene that had just occurred before them.
Shizu, whose face was a deep blush, turned to her grinning friend with a big question mark on her face.
"Ara?", Fuuki teasingly said, "Are you surprised?"
Shizu shook her head and tried to fix her face's color back to normal, "Of course. They're brothers right? It's unusual for siblings already in their teen years to continue to hug each other so openly like that"
"Okumura-kun can't be categorized as a normal person anyway", Sae pointed out.
"True", Shizu smiled, "I wonder why brothers like them have no shame to do that kind of PDA?"
"Hm", the cat-eyed girl tapped her polished pointed-nail to her chin, in a gesture to indicate that she was racking her brain to acquire the certain information, "I don't know what started it but I heard from YAIG (Yukio's Association of Infatuated Girls) *in other words a fan club* that the shorter guy, Okumura Rin, for the first time, for he hasn't ever before, hugged Okumura publicly near the school gate like about less than a year ago."
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Spring. The most favorable season of the year was at its glorious state right now. The weather was still mildly cold but in a favorable sort of way. The brothers walked side by side along the dark stone-tiled streets while admiring the beauty of their surroundings.
The ancient-architectural-styled buildings of the school were freed of snow and stood with their antiquated unique color proudly on view. The bright glow of the sun, no longer thwarted with layers of cold white snow, enveloped the True Cross grounds with its yearning heat. The golden rays penetrated through the thick layers of leaves and freckled different shapes of dark patches o the streets like the canvas of an abstract art.
A mild breeze flushed across the row of trees which adorned the sides of the pavement, creating a delightful melody of friction between the branches and leaves.
Yukio exhaled in appreciation and chose this brief chance to recall the past months before this. Lots and lots and lots of new things had happened.
And of course, the most vivid memory of it was stored safely in his head like a visible red stain on an immaculate wall. Occurring in the depth of the mountain which was stranded from modern human civilization, in a comfortable Japanese-styled house, he could remember every detail of its massive structure. And... the view of a certain room's ceiling... also the softness of its mattress. He could also recall the hue of the bright blue moon which shone red near its edges.
He expected that his interaction with his nii-san would change tremendously after that fateful night, who wouldn't after that kind of stunt? But somehow... it didn't in the slightest. Rin was still the same as ever. Rin still regarded him as his baby brother of which he used for arguing with him. Rin still conversed with him as normal as he could be. Rin still annoyed him with his wretched grades in the cram school and scowled like he always had when Yukio gave him his long lecture.
But perhaps, what changed was the way Rin treated him. Rin acted more affectionate towards him and would use practically every chance to show it. He didn't even care about keeping it as private, his twin wasn't ashamed to do it publicly and made it looked as if it's the most normal thing between siblings. The blue-eyed teen would sling an arm behind the side of the couch of where he sat whenever they sat next to each other, lean his head to his shoulders, or even as far as to snake an arm around his waist for a number of times.
At first, of course Yukio felt incredibly awkward, furthermore when other people turned their eyes on them. He would then scold his twin about it. But then the next day it happened again. And again. And again. And again.
Until Yukio just gave up and allowed his brother to do whatever he wanted, be it a kiss on the cheek or even using his lap as a mean of seat. It even felt almost natural to him.
But... Rin didn't try to do anything further than that. Yukio had once thought that Rin tried to suggest an underlying meaning behind his affectionate touch and tactfully analyzed each gesture.
It turned out to be a fruitless search... for it's just pure love between family... Furthermore, that particular sensitive topic wasn't even once brought out in conversations between them. It's almost as if it never even happened in the first place.
And deep inside, he was glad, that after all that,
...Rin was still his brother.
Yukio looked down to his side, of where two hands intertwined together. One of it belong to him and the other belong to Rin. He then looked around him. As he expected, fellow passerby of uniform-clad students, gave them weird and judging stares, obviously wondering why two teenagers had their hands linked together in public. Yukio gave them one of his charming smiles and the bothered girls which were whispering among themselves blushed slight pink and timidly gave him their own smiles. The boys just huffed and after giving the twins a dirty look, obviously suspecting something sinister, returned back to their merry walks.
Satisfied, he turned to look at his twin.
Rin, unlike his boisterous self, was silent in the whole trip. The pair of blue eyes were fixated on the stone-tiled road, obviously not looking in front of him and chose to entrust the way to his brother. Yukio, slightly concerned, decided to be verbal about it, "Nii-san what's wrong? You're so uncharacteristically quiet"
His twin seemed to snap out of whatever ponder he was in, "Huh what?"
"I said you seem concerned about something, mind to share?"
Rin scoffed, his normal facade returning back to his face, "It's nothing. Just curious as to what that clown has to say to us that is sooo urgent. He looked as if the sky was about to fall or something"
A white butterfly flew past them, beating its wings towards the bunch of pink Alstroemeria sprouting out on the side of the pavement. Yukio gave out an amused chuckle, "You watched too much Chicken Little."
Rin blushed and gave an unintended glare to his smiling twin, "Who cares? It's awesome anyway. My obsession is at least better than your stupid super thick monstrosity you called a book"
Yukio frowned, "It certainly is not stupid. The discovery of Amniocentesis enables doctors to perform prenatal diagnosis of chromosomal abnormalities and fetal infections on four-months-of-pregnancy fetus to-
"HEY GUYS! Been waiting long?", Rin shouted in an ear-splitting volume before taking off in a light run, dragging Yukio once more to catch up with his fellow cram-school friends.
"Okumura!", Bon regarded his friend with an accusing glare, the rest of the cram students were standing near him, "Where the hell have you been? We've been waiting for you and sensei for more than twenty minutes!"
His attention then caught on to the adjoined hands between Rin and their sensei. He didn't even ponder about it further.
It no longer surprised any of them because a scene like this happened all the time. For example when they went to the cram class. Most of the time they would walk in together hand-in-hand, then split their physical bonds to enable them to go to their respective positions, Rin to join in with them and sat next to Shiemi and Yukio to the teacher's table in preparation to start the class.
Rin came to a stop in front of his friends grinning like a Cheshire cat with a huffing Yukio next to him who tried to suck in gulps of air as discreetly as he could, "Don't be such a tight ass, twenty minutes won't hurt anyone! Besides it's not me whom you should yell to", Rin jerked a thumb to his twin, "It's this Yukio here, and I, as a responsible older brother, had to drag him off to stop being all over his bewitching girlfriend"
At that Shima's eyebrows rose, "Okumura-sensei already had a girlfriend? No fair! I am still trying to hook one up yet none is even interested!"
"Okumura-sensei is dating?", Konekomaru said in astonishment.
"Bewitched?", Izumo quirked one round eyebrow.
Yukio sighed. There's no way he could say that his supposed 'girlfriend' was apparently a book. Decided to end this useless conversation he finally spoke up, "Didn't Sir Pheles supposed to have urgently summoned us to his office?"
Bon ceased to argue some more, "Ah yes! Come on we're running late!"
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Tap.. Tap.. Tap..
The sound of Mephisto's sharp fingernail tapping on his expensive oak desk reverbrated in the vacant room, speaking volumes of his growing impatience and boredom.
"Holy hell, where on earth do they take their time to walk to", he grumbled while twirling his puffy umbrella with the tip as its pivot on his marble floor.
Then a knock came from his door before the twin doors flew open.
Mephisto erected his back and quickly brought his hands to elegantly rest on the top of his table.
Yukio, after giving a polite greet, came striding in confidently with Rin on tow while the rest followed him awkwardly. Yeah, it apparently was their first time of ever stepping into their flamboyant demon principal's private room. Furthermore, they absolutely had no idea as to why the clown-like principal bothered to call them in privately.
After all were settled in a neat row, Mephisto ran his slanted eyes to observe each of his student, then his face broke into a cheerful grin, "Welcome to my magnificent chamber, glad to have all of you here! But I hope to not see this kind of belated appearance again, understand? Moving on, I've called you here to inform you about a serious problem"
"A serious problem?", Yukio inquired. As far as he was aware of, there's nothing out of ordinary that could be considered as serious.
"Yes, the existence of cram school has been found out.". All previously straight faces now broke into a fine example of pure shock, even Yukio looked taken aback. "As of now a rumor flies around that few students of True Cross forms a secret meeting to view on the prospect of 'dark magic' after school every day"
The bespectacled teacher frowned in confusion, "But how is that even possible? To access the door to the cram school a special key is strictly required. And only a number of people associated with exorcism purpose possess these kinds of keys. Are you suggesting that one of us leaked the secret to other students?"
"Not at all. I'll explain exactly why later because now I would like to inform you more important matters. Rest assured, I trust you all wouldn't even consider to do such foolish thing. Well, maybe except for Mr. Okumura there"
"Hey! I didn-
"SO!", Mephisto cut the peeved boy quickly to avoid the trouble it would occur, "To amend this… misunderstanding, I resort to the solution of properly introducing you as a legitimate school club to all other students simply because leaking the information about demon exorcism to clueless humans are out of the question. It's a 'supernatural magic' club if you are wondering", Mephisto smirked, obviously enjoying sprouting this kind of secret hoax.
Yukio's brow twitched slightly. To introduce himself as a member of such a childish club would certainly arise questions within his class. Just thinking about the endless inquiries that would pelt upon him from the majority of female students… Scary…
"Now how you ask?", the clown-like principal grinned, his dark purple eyes twinkled in mischievousness, "Using the chance in True Cross Cultural Festival occurring next month, I want you to perform a moving spectacular drama in the peak of classes performances' events with members from cram school students and, in addition, Okumura-sensei too"
...
"EEEEEEEEH? FOR NEXT MONTH?"
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The three girls were walking back to their respective dorm while chatting zealously.
"-as I was saying, Okumura is better than his twin! Do you even know that he is a delinquent?", Sae argued heatedly for the umpteenth times.
Fuuki narrowed her green eyes in slight annoyance, "But he has a remarkably strict attitude and he's way too cold for my taste! Besides, the info that Rin-kun is a delinquent is outdated! He has changed you know!", she huffed while crossing her arms. A moment later a slight twinkle invaded the green hue of her eyes, "But... don't you think that both of them together is kinda hot?"
Sae widened her eyes in dissaproval, "HUH?"
"Hey imagine it, two super handsome and attractive guys being cuddly-cuddly together? Kyaaa~ that's cuteee!", Fuuki chirped with a blush on her face.
Sae crinkled her face, "Eew... disgusting", she then directed her attention to the other quiet girl, "What do you think Shizu?"
Shizu stared at her friend for a while before turning to examine the giant Banyan tree far ahead on the centre of round park of where five major roads met together. She then imagined the image of the older twin hugging his younger brother.
"I... think that both of them hugging together is okay, they're family after all. But if I have to choose, I'll choose Yukio-kun"
A cheer sounded from Sae while Fuuki scowled in displeasure.
"But... The way Rin-kun hugged Yukio-kun...", she murmured with contemplating expression,"...is kind of weird"
Both of her friends stared at her in confusion, "What d'ya mean?"
Shizu still kept her gaze on the huge tree, silently marvelling on its towering frame, "Rin-kun... has this look on his eyes. He may seem very happy when hugging Yukio-kun with that big smile on his face. But his eyes... had this sad feeling to it"
A withering yellow leaf dwindled off from the Banyan tree, swinging once before being carried off with a sudden strong wind.
"... almost as if he is regretting something..."
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Once again, I produced an extremely long chapter, why can't I write a shorter one? *frustated*
Please review dear readers, my motivation to write more is pumped up every time a review comes to my inbox. That means faster update! Yippie XXD
I appreciate EVERY review that comes, be it good or constructive criticism :)
~Golden Mist Fox