Life In The Spotlight

Chapter 26 (Present)

"Hi Rose. I know this is sudden, but I have a crush on you. Do you want to be my girlfriend?"

Shu groaned. "No," he said to his own reflection. "This sounds so cringe. Let me try again.

"Rose, I love you... No, no, no! You don't begin with that. Why am I so terrible at confessing?"

"That's because you sound too nervous," said Kirika. "Try talking naturally."

"Easy for you to say. I get tongue-tied a lot."

Shu went to lie down in his bed. He couldn't get Rose out of his head since his realization. He tried practicing confessing to her, but he ended up sounding like a dork.

It didn't help that having a crush felt very similar to having the flu. He felt himself getting flustered and his palms would get sweaty. Shu didn't want Rose to think he was an idiot.

Wait, when did he start to care what Rose thought of him?

Shu considered calling Rose back, but he kept thinking of excuses not to. He didn't remember ever crushing this hard on...

Shu's phone started to ring. He almost dropped the phone in shock. Uh oh, I jinxed it, he thought. However, he didn't recognize the number at all.

Surely some crazy fan didn't stalk him and get his number, did they? Shu was ridiculously popular among the girls (and gay boys). Still, he had to check.

Shu took a deep breath before answering. "Hello?"

"Hello, Shu, miss me?"

Shu felt his stomach clench. No way, it can't be!

"S... Seina?"

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A few hours earlier, Rose was on her way to the Kurenai house. As much as she liked Shu, she wanted him to be happy with whoever he loved.

If only Rose knew that the person was her. It would have saved so much trouble...

However, as Rose was sitting at a bus stop, she heard a scream. "Help me!" She looked up in shock.

Rose saw what looked like a small child lying on the road and a car speeding towards them. Rose quickly ran and carried the child off the road.

The child looked at Rose. It was a small blonde boy. "Sorry," he said as Rose put him down.

"Sorry for what?" asked Rose.

Just then, Rose felt someone hit her head.

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Rose woke up feeling confused. Her hands were bound behind her and she was tied to a chair. "Where am I?" she asked.

"Remember me?" came a voice. Rose saw the girl in front of her and gasped.

Seina was standing in front of her with her black hair in a ponytail and a white shirt and pants. She smiled maliciously at her.

"Seina? Why are you here?"

"For revenge, obviously."

"But... I did nothing to you."

"Oh yeah? That's where you're wrong. You took Shu from me."

"You drove him away! You traumatized him and hurt him in ways I didn't think we're possible."

Suddenly, a thought came to Rose. "Wait, what do you mean, I took Shu from you? We're not together, if that's what you're saying."

Seina took out a phone and showed Rose a video. To Rose's asthonishment, she saw Shu being obviously drunk and mistaking another girl for her. She didn't get where this was going, until Shu suddenly blurted out that Rose was the love of his life.

Rose gasped. "Shu... Loves me?"

Suddenly, everything made sense. Why Shu had asked her to Prom. Why he had been so upset when Rose said she wouldn't go to Prom with him.

"Where did you film this?"

"I put a tracker on his phone when we were still together."

"So that's how you found out that Shu was seeing me so quickly!"

"Yeah. And I saw the two of you outside that restaurant. You two were so obvious, snuggling up against each other..."

"We were not snuggling," said Rose.

"Well, it didn't look like it to me. So I had to get my revenge somehow. I paid that child in sweets to pretend to be in danger so you would save him."

"He was really in danger! A car was about to hit him. What you mean is that you paid him to put himself in danger."

"I wonder how Shu will react when he sees the love of his life being held captive by his ex."

"Shu will never take you back," said Rose. "Not after the way you treated him. He's not naive anymore."

"That's the thing about love," said Seina. "It was so easy to control him when he was in love with me. Now that he has feelings for you, he will do anything to keep you safe."

"What do you mean?"

Seina tied a cloth around Rose's mouth and another around her eyes. "Can't have you spoiling my plans. Especially since you already know too much."

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"I have the love of your life here," Seina said in that poisonous voice Shu used to love so much and now dreaded. "Don't tell anyone and come quietly. If you don't, she might not come out alive."

"No, please don't hurt her," said Shu. "I'll come quietly."

Shu hung up and ran out. What he didn't know was that Kirika had overheard everything.