It's Hard To Love Again.

Don't get the wrong idea.

Manami takes a stroll through the park, she admires the beautiful flower when Karma comes from behind and hugs her.

"Karma kun, what are you doing? People are looking at us. stop it." protests a shy and embarassed Manami.

"Why not? we're a couple aren't we? I can do what ever I want" says Karma boldly as his face starts turning scary

Manami resists as Karma slowly starts walking away from her. Manami screams for Karma but it seemed like she couldn't move.

Manami opens her eyes to the ringing alarm. She looks at the time, it was 6 a.m.

"The same dream again?" sighs Manami.

She gets up and starts taking shower. As she showers all of the memories of Karma touching her and kissing her started flashing back in her mind.

"He'd do anything he wanted and I would just let him. What a stupid me" she cursed herself under the shower.

She soon gets out of the shower and starts getting ready, she goes to the kitchen and sees her brother already awake and preparing food for her. As usual he'd ask her about the food and would get the same reply from her.

"Umm...Onii chan" says a gloomy Manami.

"What is it, my little sis" says a cheerful Rei.

"Can you pack extra lunch for me, I have a classmate of mine to give it to"

"You have a friend?" asks a surprised but at the same time happy Rei.

"What...No...No....he's a classmate not a friend" replies a startled Manami.

"A classmate but not a friend? hmmmm" Rei looked confused.

"You don't need to be confused just please pack the lunch"

Manami takes the bentos and starts heading out as a faint smile appears on Rei's face.

"She hasn't talked properly like that in a long time, that's really good" He yawns and sighs as he starts getting ready for his work.

The classes went by really fast and it was lunch time already. Manami was staring at Asano who was walking towards her with the usual bread for lunch.

"It's already been a week now. why is he still so persistent about befriending with me?" sighs Manami.

"O....ku....da...." calls out Asano in a friendly cheerful voice.

Manami hands over the extra bento box to Asano.

"Take this and don't disturb me" she drops the bento box on Asano and starts eating her lunch.

Asano opens the bento box and stares at her quietly for a while before giving a really evil smile at her.

"Minna san, want to try this tasty looking bento over here" he calls out to the student.

Manami gets startled as student start gethering around Asano.

"Oh my this is so pretty" says one of the students.

"Who made this Asano kun?" asks another student.

"where did you buy it from?" asks another student.

"That girl's restaurant really makes great bento lunch" points Asano towards Manami as Manami chokes on her food.

The student start rushing towards Manami asking her every kind of question. An angry Manami stares at Asano who happily smirks at her.

Tired of all the commotion she finally tells the class about her brother's restaurant.

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Rei's restautant has been running really good for the past two weeks. Most of the customers were university students. It was saturday and the rush was bigger than usual.

Most of Manami's classmate were in the resaturant. Asano was having a good time with his classmates.

As Manami walks in serving the customers her classmates especially the girls start asking her all kinds of question.

"Ne...Manami your restautant is so good. why didn't you tell us earlier?"

"It's all thanks to Asano kun that we came to know about the restaurant."

"Ne Manami san what kind of relationship do you have with Asano kun?"

Manami was startled by the question.

"Are you dating him?"

"WHAT?" a stunned Manami squeakes.

Asano and Isogai's attention is drawn towards Manami.

"N....No.....he....he's just....a...a....friend of mine" stammers a nervous and embarassed Manami.

Asano and Isogai are surprised hearing her answer but a big smile appears on their face.

"Hmm...but you look so good together....you should be a couple" teased the girls.

"Don't get the wrong idea, He is just a friend and nothing else" replies an embarassed Manami whose face was turning redder by the minute.

Rei watches everything from afar. He felt relieved and satisfied.

"She hasn't talked to anyone for months. It,s so good to see her like that again. If she would only smile again though" he sighs happily.

As weeks passed by the gloominess was slowly dissappearing from Manami's face, though there was still no trace of smile on her face.

Asano looks at Manami who was busy with her classmates.

"I will make you smile again" says a confident Asano under his breath.

To be continued,... ..