If there was one thing she disliked more than anything in this world it would be the feeling of uncertainty. Haruno was certain she got this from her mother. She remembered the story her father liked to tell as a joke when he wanted her to feel at ease about the things which were not entirely in her hand and beyond her level of control. It was when she was little, back when mom was pregnant with her second child. She couldn't quite remember why, but her parents didn't want the gender of their baby to be revealed. They told her it would be a welcome surprise.

Haruno hated not knowing. She wanted to know if she was going to have a little sister or a kid brother. Her parents said they would be fine with both, but even back then she knew they were lying, even if it was just a little. But she didn't know what was the truth. All she knew was what she wanted and what she wanted was a cute little baby sister.

No, she didn't know at the time that her wish would come true and she would indeed get the cutest little baby sister ever. No, she didn't have powers and yes, she couldn't really predict the future, though there was a time in her life when she really prayed to the gods to give her that awesome power. She could have kissed her fear – correction – dislike of the uncertain goodbye. But life was full of disappointments. She had learnt to deal with it.

She wanted a baby sister because even back then she found boys her age dumb and mean. Now her baby sister grew up and was in her second year of high school and lo and behold, she had become just a teeny-tiny bit dumb and more than a little mean.

Was it too late to ask mom and dad for a baby brother?

Who was she kidding, she loved her baby sister. As such, it was her duty to think about her best interest and look after her and keep her out of trouble and, the list was pretty much endless. It was tough being the best eldest sister in the world. Yukino-chan should really appreciate her more.

But Haruno had a feeling what she was about to do, if her younger sister ever found out, she would be, as their mother would say 'entirely too displeased with herself'. So, what's the big issue? She will just make sure that her little sister never finds out.

"I hope you haven't told Yukino-chan about meeting me today. Let's keep it a secret between just us."

The boy gave her a blank look and she had to remind herself he must have a brain somewhere. Otherwise Yukino-chan wouldn't have taken him to the mall. Haruno couldn't even remember the last time she went shopping together with her younger sister. Probably, when she decided to move out of their ancestral home and live in an apartment all by herself. They had made plans to go shopping after she started high school, because she would finally be one step closer to being a real adult, but accidents happen and ah, poor choice of words. Speaking of which –

"You remember me, right?"

He gave the smallest of nods and she had to wonder whether he was usually this awkward around people. From what she could tell, he didn't want to be here. Which begs the question, why did he show up in the first place. It couldn't possibly be because of her. "You are Yukinoshita's older sister."

At times like these she loved the Japanese language. There were certain nuances which could be easily picked that weren't simply possible in many foreign languages. The absence of honorifics stung a little on her ears, but she tried not to let it show on her face. Most boys in his shoes would have used '– san' while talking about her younger sister. A few might be even bold enough to call her '–chan'. There was even the strange case of Hayato-kun, who switched between calling her '–san' and '-chan' depending on the situations they were in, the circles they were travelling and the people around their immediate vicinity. It was actually fun to watch him make a fool of himself.

Thinking about Hayato-kun, she wondered whether she could make a fool of him. It would certainly teach him a lesson on how to behave with her younger sister. Letting a smile slip onto her face, she hid the modicum of malice flashing in her eyes. "Onee-san is hurt. You don't remember my name, Hikigaya-kun!"

Her voice was meant to carry and the other kids in the cafeteria were supposed to look. Being Yukinoshita Haruno, she was used to the looks. Not to brag, but she was breathtakingly beautiful and she was told she was the ideal woman in the eyes of many men. She had shoulder length black hair, which she had been meaning to dye purple, but her mom simply wouldn't let her, telling her repeatedly that she would 'desecrate' her natural hair colour and ruin her perfect beauty. Could someone please tell her mother that perfection was really boring. But she had inherited the woman's angular blue eyes, so what she said, goes. Thankfully, she hadn't inherited her figure. Poor Yukino-chan. Maybe she had a reason to be so miserable.

And at the moment, she wasn't the only one being miserable. Hikigaya-kun shared her plight. Huh, guess the two of them had that in common. Wait, that was a bad thing, right? Wasn't she visiting her old high school to figure out if her younger sister was in a relationship with this boy? No, don't be stupid. Yukino-chan wasn't mature enough to handle a relationship. Friendship. Maybe. But being friends with a boy, well you know what they say. One thing leads to another and well, she was just playing the part of the worried older sister.

And so far she had nothing to worry about.

From what she could tell, the boy her sister could be interested in was completely unremarkable. He was socially awkward, had trouble navigating a crowd, didn't know how to handle looks from his fellow peers, let alone handle the undivided attention of a beautiful woman like her and the way he dragged the chair across the floor, making a ton of unnecessary noise which made her ears hurt, before sitting down ungracefully and throwing an irritated look across her on the table, he made it clear that he didn't appreciate drawing unnecessary attention towards them.

Now she wasn't doing it on purpose, but she started playing with the large beaded necklace around her neck. There was a small gasp followed by hushing noises and inaudible murmurs and she didn't need to turn her head to know that a group of girls had noticed her taste in chic and fashionable jewelry. If it was possible, the boy sitting in front of her would have sank further in his seat. Or turned himself invisible and ran away from the cafeteria. Pity, he couldn't do either. But patience has its limits and he was tired of playing the waiting game.

"I would like to know what you said to Hiratsuka-sensei."

It took a lot out of her not to visibly react or flinch at his statement. Thank god she had practice and knew how to control her facial expression to an almost superhuman extent. Unlike him, she had more experience dealing with all kinds of people and she had learned to be wary about letting her real emotions muddy the waters of her perfect visage.

Her father used to tease her and call her the girl with the thousand different smiles. He knew she practiced smiling in the mirror to perfect the art form. It worked wonders for her and really helped her carve her image and become the woman she wanted to be. But her smile didn't work on everyone. There were bound to be certain exceptions.

Shizuka-chan was one of them. "What did Hiratsuka-sensei tell you?"

It sounded odd and dare she call it, wrong to refer to her former teacher using her last name and adding the old and out of date honorific '-sensei' on top of it. Even when she was a student here, sometimes she would address her as 'Hiratsuka-chan'. She would tell her off and ask her to call her 'sensei', but there would be no hard edge behind her voice. Perhaps it was because she was in her early days and just starting her career and she really wanted to establish a good rapport with her students.

By the time she graduated, she had taken to calling her by her first name and adding the honorific '-chan'. She had become 'Shizuka-chan'. A friend. She didn't have many of those. Well, that was not exactly true. She had more friends then she could count. But they were not Shizuka-chan.

But Hikigaya-kun didn't need to know about it, so she would refer to her in the same way as he did, to avoid any untoward suspicion. He didn't need to know what he didn't need to know. But she wanted to know something and he wasn't being particularly forthcoming.

"She said you wanted to talk. Must be kinda important because she let me off without telling me to redo my essay for once. Thanks for that."

He has to redo his essay. Well, he must be really stupid. Haruno couldn't remember being asked to redo her essay even once. Not even in elementary school. In other words, this kid was really, really dumb. And he looked weird too. What was up with the eye? Was it because of the accident? No, he was in the hospital for three weeks because of a broken leg. Nothing else. The eyes were his problem. Nothing for her to worry about.

"You are welcome."

This had proved to be a monumental waste of time. And she owed Shizuka-chan a favour for setting up this meeting. And she had lied to her. Really, she was in rather poor form today. She wanted to blame Yukino-chan. It was all her fault. If she hadn't went to the mall with this dumb kid, she wouldn't be here talking to him, wasting her precious time and money and smiling to hide her annoyance and animosity towards this brat. Really, if Yukino-chan fell for this guy, she had really lowered her standards and it almost hurt to watch this shipwreck happen. But sadly she would be there to pick up the pieces. Like a proper older sister.

She let out a tired sigh.

How riveting.

The kid misinterpreted it.

"Do you want me to buy you something from the cafeteria? I'm sure the menu has changed since your time."

Since your time. Rude. Didn't the kid know it was really impolite to allude to a woman's age in an unflattering light? She would have expected Shizuka-chan to have said a thing or two to him on this particular matter. But, well, it wasn't entirely his fault. In her mind, she had been referring to him as a kid or a brat. And he knew she was Yukino-chan's older sister. But wait,

"Did Yukino-chan tell you I attended Soubu High?"

She expected him to nod, but instead he shook his head in the negative. "We don't exactly talk a lot. But I figured it out. You managed to convince Hiratsuka-sensei to have me meet up with you in the cafeteria. She knows I hate this place. If you were just the older sister of another student here, even if it is Yukinoshita, she would have told you to meet up with me after school. But she listened to you. Which means you know her and you know her well. In other words, you used to be her student."

She wasn't going to lie, she was a little impressed. But she wasn't exactly too impressed. He was still a kid and what he had made was a baseless assumption. Even though he was right. But there was an equal chance he could have been wrong. "Maybe I was really convincing and convinced Hiratsuka-sensei to have you meet with me early."

It wasn't a lie. She could be really convincing when she wanted to be. Besides, this time around she had a valid point. She had told Shizuka-chan that she wanted to meet with him to discuss the accident and clear the air, so that he didn't unfairly blame her younger sister for what had happened to him. It was no one's fault that he got hit by their limousine. Like she said, accidents happen. This entire spiel was enough to convince her former teacher and she had the meeting she wanted.

Now, it wasn't exactly a lie she told. There was a scenario in which she could be discussing this matter with him. When she saw him and her sister in the mall together and learned his name, her mind immediately went to a dark place and she had to wonder if Hikigaya-kun was using what happened to him as an excuse to guilt-trip Yukino-chan into being in a relationship. If that were the case, he would soon figure out that getting hit by a limousine was probably one of the nicest things that could have happened to him after he messed with her baby sister.

But if his words were to be believed, he and her sister didn't really talk. And from what she could tell so far, he didn't know or realize that he was talking to one of the women who were in the limousine when it hit him. Of course, he also didn't know that she took him to the hospital afterwards and called his family, but she wasn't looking for credit. In no way, shape or form was she saying that she saved his life. After almost killing him.

On second thought, it would be better if they never talked about it. In fact, it was better to listen to him counter her valid argument. He actually looked somewhat acceptable when he was deep in thought. But he didn't have to think too much.

"Like I said, you convinced her it was something important you wanted to discuss with me. But you probably wanted to talk about you sister instead. Nothing is going on between us, by the way. I think she probably hates my guts." He gave her a look. "The feeling is mutual by the way."

He was either brave or really stupid. "You are in the same class?"

He shook his head. "No. Just the same club."

Interesting. There was a part of her which wanted to know more about this club because it was her duty as an older sister to know about every facet of her younger sister's life. It was a real shame Shizuka-chan hadn't informed her of this little development in her sister's life. Her sister had joined a club. Wait, no, knowing her, she probably started her own club. And this guy was in the same club as her precious little sister.

Warning bells should have started to sound in her head by now, but for some reason her brain remained characterlessly nonplussed. Yes indeed, Yukinoshita Haruno was feeling a bit confused. You will never get her to admit this to a single soul. She tried to play it off as being funny.

"Ne, ne, if Hikigaya-kun is in the same club as Yukino-chan, then you must be friends."

This time he didn't shake his head. It was a flat look marred with a bit of hatred. "No we aren't."

She ignored him and continued. "After you met me in the mall, I'm sure you had a ton of questions for Yukino-chan. She probably told you I attended Soubu High. Now you want to buy me something to eat so that you can tell your friends that you had a lunch date with a beautiful onee-san and make yourself look cool. Am I right?"

He was silent for a while. She thought she might have pushed the wrong buttons. She had said everything in a joking manner using a teasing tone, but there was a chance he could read it wrong and take offense. As she mentioned before, he didn't really understand social etiquette. Not that she really cared what he thought about her. He was a nobody. And she was Yukinoshita Haruno. From wherever you look, he was going to lose. He even looked like a guy who was used to losing. But then he opened his mouth,

"You are wrong." She could tell he meant it. "Your sister doesn't like to talk about you." Okay, now he was just being plain hurtful. "And I know better than to make her mad. If you want to know how I figured out that you attended Soubu High, well it was easy. I already gave one explanation. I might as well give you another. Now don't take this the wrong way, but since we are in the same club, I picked up on certain things about your sister. And meeting you in the mall made a few more things clear. But, I don't feel like sharing them with anyone." For a second he was quiet, before he lazily tacked on. "I know you attended this school, because your sister goes to this school."

She wasn't impressed at all. It actually managed to reflect in her voice. "That's it?"

He nodded. "That's it. From what I could tell, your sister could have had the chance to attend an even better school or maybe I don't know, study abroad, but she would have picked this school over any other place. Why? Because, you went to this place. Your sister doesn't like you, but she wants to be like you. She wants to copy your achievements and be better than you. In other words, if your sister attends Soubu High, there's a good chance you attended this place too."

This time around she was a little impressed. She might actually start referring to him by his name instead of calling him kid or brat in her head. So, Hikigaya-kun did have a brain. Interesting, no wait, this was a problem. Now there might be a reason for Yukino-chan to actually like this guy. He might not have the looks, but he had his intelligence going on for him. This was definitely dangerous. It was at times like this that she wished she had a baby brother. Her father used to tell her that Yukinoshita men went for beauty, but Yukinoshita women went for brains.

She could definitely see it happening. "Anything else?"

This time his stomach grumbled loudly and he blushed. But he looked on ahead, unable to meet her eyes and stammered in a rather cute manner. "Hiratsuka-sensei told me there was a chance I might get a f-free l-unch."

It finally clicked into place. He was not here because he was interested to talk to her. He was not curious. He was not interested. He might not even be attracted to her. Though, she did catch him sneak a peek at her breast once. Not bad. Definitely better than your average guy. But it made her feel a tad sad to know what he was really here for. Really Yukino-chan, couldn't you go back to being friends with Hayato-kun? And how dare you Shizuka-chan, for literally making her pay money for a small communication with one of her dear students.

"Okay, fine." Haruno grumbled half-heartedly. "But next time you owe me dinner."

As the two of them went to get their meal, she didn't give much thought to what had accidentally slipped out from her mouth. It's just something she said to her girl friends if she ever bought them food. It never happened with her guy friends. They were always the ones buying her food. And if she ever went out on a date she liked to split the bill. But this was just the two of them grabbing some crappy food from the cafeteria of her old high school. It wasn't like she would be visiting again soon. Besides, he was a high schooler. It's not like he could afford to take her out on a nice date.

"Sure."

…He was probably being nice.

A/N: I decided to re-upload this story in this account. I don't know why, but for some reason I feel queasy writing stuff on my other account. I don't know how to explain it. Anyway, I think I will use that account to post stories which are not related to Oregairu. Speaking of which, I was thinking about writing fanfics for other fandoms too. I think I am ready to explore a little. So, which other fandoms should I write for? If you can, let me know in the reviews.

Also, I listened to you guys and I started posting my fanfics on other sites as well.

In Archive Of Our Own, my user name is "Betrayed_Dreams" and there you can find "Labcoats and Loners" and "8man's Journal: Looking Into The Mind Of An Unstable Police Detective."

In SpaceBattles, my user name is "Betrayed Dreams"

In Wattpad, my user name is "BetrayedDreams."

But let me say this, I still enjoy writing and uploading stuff here. This is the best platform, in my humble opinion.

Now it's time for a poll -

Poll#1: Which Fic Should I Update Next?

Option 1: The Woman Behind A Thousand Smiles.

Option 2: Ikebukuro : A Bohemian Rhapsody.

Option 3: Ore Ga Iru : As I Expected, My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong.

Please pick accordingly.

Hope everyone enjoyed reading this chapter.

Leave lots and lots of reviews, follow and fave.

Won't betray your dreams.