Ready to Fall

Chapter 17 Honestly

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Find me in the evening

when you're ready to dance

And I will take you to the places

where you never thought you'd had a chance to love

Love. Love is all we have.

I would run myself in circles here without you.

-'Honestly' by Bethany Joy Lenz-

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Three weeks and four days after that cold and empty night…

.

Daniel Hyuuga was the last person Miki wanted to hear about that day.

.

She was happy and enjoying the company. It's Sakura Festival—it's supposed to be fun. It's a sign that school was done. No more exams. No more cranky teachers. No more Homework. No more pop quizzes.

Why would Daniel talk to Tetsuya? She couldn't help thinking.

"He warned me actually," the red-head cleared.

"What?" Miki snapped. She could not believe that he was doing it again. "Why that Daniel! I already told him to stay out of it."

"It's okay," Tetsuya said, a little amused. "It actually made me realize something."

Miki blinked confused, "What do you mean?"

He sighed, and turned to look at the trees again—afraid to see her reaction to his question.

"Miki, why do you think Daniel threatens every single guy who even so much as tried to look at you?"

Didn't she already ask Daniel himself that same question?

She gave him the same answer she got from that night. "Because he wanted to prove that no one will like me because of my behavior. You see, I'm noisy, annoying, childish and quite an idiot."

The last word put a lump on her throat, which took all her effort to not start crying.

I'm done crying, she scolded herself mentally.

"Interesting," he mumbled.

"What's interesting?"

"You want to know the reason he talked to me?"

She wanted to say "No, I don't, because I don't care." But she knew that would be a big fat lie. She wanted to hear it. In truth, she wanted to hear anything that was even remotely related to him. And it's making her feel sadder for herself, which is why she didn't answer.

But he already knew the answer, so he continued. "He said that he didn't come to stop me from seeing you. He said that he's not going to do anything. If you want to see me, then it's your choice." Tetsuya grinned as if remembering the odd encounter with the Black Cat, the feared Daniel Hyuuga. "He asked me to promise not to hurt you. That I better not make you cry. Because if he so much as see a single tear from you, he would turn every single bone, every single strand of hair and every chip of nail in my body into ashes. Then, he would use it to fertilize Mr. Misaki's plants."

"That's kind of brutal," she said with no conviction—traces of anger almost gone. Miki was now staring at the box of fluff puffs on her lap. She was trying to process the meaning of what Tetsuya was saying.

"He actually gave me the Howalon idea," then, as if everything around Miki turned to blur, she could only see the raven-haired boy mouthing out himself all that Tetsuya was relaying to her. "He said, 'when she seems down, you just have to buy her Howalons. She's quite easy to cheer up. She likes peppermint in her chocolate, so don't argue with her about it—I know, it makes no sense, but just let her have it. Also remember that she's afraid of the dark. Better keep a flashlight handy. She likes sharing food. She says sharing is enjoying. Don't be annoyed by it. That's just Miki. Also, she could be ignorant and childish at times, so you might have to explain things to her more than once. And when she starts talking about her grandfather, it means that she misses home. It could cause her to be depressed the whole day. She would be smiling despite of that, but don't be fooled. Howalons could also help in those situations."