Beauty With a Brat (The Suzuhara Family 1) ✅

Chapter Eight

October 20th, 2028

"Natsumi-chan?"

"Eh?" Natsumi glanced up. She was sitting in the passenger seat of Hikaru's green Corvette Stingray™️, and they were driving at a rather high speed on the Tokyo Expressway. She didn't mind though and she looked at Hikaru. "I-I'm sorry, I zoned out. What were you saying, Miyazawa?"

"Hikaru," Hikaru gently corrected her, smiling.

"A-Ah, Hikaru-kun," Natsumi said, blushing. "What were you saying?"

"I was asking if your class has chosen a theme for the Culture Festival."

"Oh, yes!" Natsumi said excitedly. The Culture Festival was in two weeks over the weekend of November 4th-5th, but everyone at Shirahime was already excited for it. "The fashion club is doing their fashion show on the 5th, but my homeroom is doing a crepes shoppe on both Saturday and Sunday. I'm going to help in the shoppe on the Saturday, and participate in the fashion show on Sunday morning, and then I'll have the rest of the day off!"

"Good for you!" Hikaru laughed. "I'm not in any clubs, but my homeroom is doing an English tea and cake shoppe. We don't have the schedules for who will be on which days, but I'll try to get that Sunday off."

His foot pressed down on the gas, and the Stingray™️ picked up speed. Natsumi's breath finally hitched in alarm and she looked at Hikaru. "A-Ah...shouldn't you slow down, Hikaru-kun?"

"Mmm...nah," Hikaru said with a laugh.

"B-But what if you get pulled over?!"

"Oh, it's fine! It wouldn't be my first speeding ticket!"

"But we're still in uniform!"

Hikaru's smile faded slightly. "Good point." He eased his foot off the gas. "But that's why you got in the top 10 on the Shirahime entrance exam, Natsumi-chan. You're very smart and think ahead."

"Ah...how did you do on Yukinaga's entrance exam, Hikaru-kun?" Natsumi asked him.

Hikaru barked out a loud laugh. "I don't remember! I wasn't in the top fifty, that's for sure!"

"Oh." Natsumi turned to glance out the window.

"Suzuhara got fifth place, if I recall," Hikaru said idly.

Natsumi flinched slightly and glanced down at her lap. She felt her throat tighten but she kept silent.

Hikaru glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "You still like him, don't you?"

Natsumi's head snapped up and she looked at Hikaru with wide eyes. "W-What?!"

"I remember that day," Hikaru said quietly. "Valentine's Day, 2019. We shared the same homeroom."

"Oh...we did?" Natsumi shook her head. "A-And you remember...?"

Hikaru frowned. "It wasn't exactly a forgettable experience, Natsumi-chan. Even as a little kid I knew what Suzuhara was doing was wrong. It was certainly a waste of good chocolate."

February 14th, 2019. That was the day where...everything started. She had developed a crush on Wataru Suzuhara in the start of their first year of Elementary School, and for Valentine's Day she had saved up all of her allowance money and bought Wataru a gourmet chocolate heart wrapped in expensive wrapping paper. She had mustered up the courage to confess her crush to Wataru, and to present him with the chocolate.

Wataru's reaction had been...explosive to say the least. It was a reaction Natsumi hadn't expected. The words that had spilled out of his mouth were ugly and hate-filled, and he had grabbed the chocolate heart from her hand, thrown it to the floor, and jumped up and down on the chocolate. He had stomped it into oblivion right in front of Natsumi...and right in front of their classmates.