Living with a Sohma

Chapter 2 - Yumena

After school finished, I went to the teachers' office to get the address from my homeroom teacher. She smiled and gave me a slip of paper.
"Don't worry. I'll send you there since it's your first time for today."
"Thank you very much." I gave her a bright smile before leaving the room to find Tohru. I knew knocked on the door before opening it. Tohru was in there.
"Yumena?"
"We're going to grandfather's house..."
"Oh. How about the one where we lived w-with...m-mom?"
"I don't know..."
"Ok..."
"Sorry Tohru..."
"Y-Yumena...why are you sorry?"
"For everything..."
"You did nothing w-wrong Y-Yumena..."
"I-it's my fault that mother continued to scream at you..." Tohru froze. Then she let everything go.
"I'm sorry Yumena! I was abused...because...you were so...good. I'm so sorry! I regret everything! I regret not being able to stand up for myself. I regret not being a better kid. I regret not talking to mom one last time. I regret not being able to let you and dad talk one last time. I-!"
"Stop!" I tried to look calm although I was breaking inside. "It's not your fault. It's mine. I understand that you regret everything...I understand Tohru...but we still have to stand up! Mother wouldn't have liked it if we kept on dwelling in the past for so long! Let's live our lives up to the fullest from now. Let's make sure we won't regret anything we do from now on..." Tohru cried. She cried and cried and cried and cried. She let everything out. I swallowed everything that Tohru has been feeling. I understood everything. And I comforted her. I did my best. I really did.
"Thank you...Yu-me-na..." With that, Tohru slept. She fell asleep right on the chair. Suddenly the door opened revealing our homeroom teacher. She smiled to us.
"Yumena-chan? Is Tohru-chan asleep?"
"Yes." She then carried Tohru in her arms before leading me to grandfather's house.
"Don't worry. He is a nice man. I talked to him before." As the teacher said so, we arrived in front of a certain red roofed house. The door opened revealing a black haired man with glasses and an old man.
"Grandfather?" I asked wondering who that black haired man was.
"Yes. That's me...and this here is your uncle." He said before pointing to the black haired man that was about to carry Tohru to her room.
"Thank you...for taking us in..."
"No worries. Is Kyoko-san asleep?"
"What?"
"Your sister?"
"Ah, yes she is."
"You'll be sharing a room with Kyoko-san.
"Thank you again."
"No worries!"
"Also, I don't want to be a bother...so...I'll pay for my own school fees."
"You don't have to-"
"I just want to!" I gave him a big smile. He smiled back. From then onwards we lived with grandfather.

(Time skip for several months...)

"Um...Kyoko-san...Yumena-san..." Grandfather sat in front of us. "You...see...I'm going to have this house renovated...and...while then, I'm going to stay with my cousins' and...well...you see...their house is...really small and...I was wondering if...you want to...well...stay at...a...f-friend's house instead..." After a little bit of thinking, Tohru immediately stood up saying that we have a place to go. With that, we packed our things and left grandfather's house.
"Where are we going?"
"To the supermarket!"
"W-What?"
"We'll live in a tent!" I huffed at Tohru's idea but followed her anyways. She bought a large green tent -that was extremely cheap- and several blankets. She then dragged me towards a nearby mountain. We set the tent up, changed to our pajamas and went to sleep.

(Time skip for a month)

I woke up early in the morning and the sun was shining bright and beautifully. I woke Tohru up. Once we got ready, it turned out that we had a lot of time left so we went to look around the forest. We walked to the edge of a cliff and we saw the entire view of the city there. We suddenly heard the sound of a bell and turned to it's direction. There was a house. Tohru and I dashed towards it.
"Has it been here from before?"
"I-I don't know. You? Have you seen it before?" I shook my head. This was my first time seeing this house. Tohru then, dragged me towards the house's garden. From there, we saw a hallway. There was a figure of the 12 zodiacs.
"Wow! This is so cute!" Tohru whispered to me.
"Yes. It is." I smiled thinking about the legend. I thought about the mouse. Everyone didn't really like the mouse because it tricked the cat. But in my opinion, I think that the mouse was only trying to have fun. By having fun, it started to be hated for the rest of its life. I did feel bad for the cat too but I felt bad for the mouse more. Then, out of nowhere, a man with black hair walked out.
"Hello girlssss~ It's really rare to see such young ladies around here~" He hummed.
"O-oh! Sorry! We didn't mean to trespass! Sorry! We were looking at the cute figures of the 12 zodiacs! Sorry!"
"It's alright!"
"But...the cat isn't here..." Yes. Tohru was a big fan of the cat.
"Oh, you mean by the legend?"
"Yes...my mother used to tell me the story. I felt bad for the cat so I decided to stop being Mr. Dog and decided to become Mr. Cat. I was an innocent child you see..." I smiled.
"I wonder how he'll react..." the man mumbled.
"Sorry? I couldn't catch that." I said.
"Oh! It's alright! What zodiac do you like?"
"Oh, me? I like the mouse."
"Why is that? It tricked the cat and used the cow to it's advantage and still?"
"Yes. In my opinion, the mouse was probably trying to have fun by tricking the cat. It was a mistake. But...after that one mistake, the mouse started to become hated...and...I mean...everyone makes mistakes. So I thought that the mouse should be forgiven too..."
"I see." The man smiled to himself. Suddenly, the man yelped in pain from the shock of a bag hitting his head.
"Good morning Miss Yumena and Miss Honda." He gave us a smile.
"Good morning Sohma-kun." I replied.
"G-g-go-g-Good m-mo-mor-m-morni-morning S-So-Sohma-k-kun..." My sister was stuttering a lot. I took her hand and squeezed it.
"What are you doing here?" His question made us freeze.
"W-we l-live n-nearby." Tohru managed to reply.
"Oh?" His face showed some doubt.
"Well...w-we'll be leaving! B-bye!" Tohru started to drag me along.
"Wait!" Tohru stopped suddenly making me bump into her. "Let's go to school together." He smiled.
"S-sure." With that, we went to school all together while getting some nasty glares from many girls. After the first three lessons, it became time for lunch. I walked towards the bathroom to wash my hands when a couple of girls came up to me.
"You!"
"Y-yes?"
"Yumena Honda! What did you do this morning!?"
"W-What did I d-do wrong?"
"You!!! You came to school with prince Yuki!!!!!" The girl looked angry.
"Y-Yes I did but..."
"Pardon me! I should have explained earlier! I'm from the second year of high school and am the president of the Prince Yuki fan club...Motoko Minagawa! Our club is there to protect, worship and love the prince that has come to our school! We have three respective rules to protect the prince and you have openly violated one of them!" Suddenly, three girls came up to my face.
"One! Do not steal the prince's things!"
"One! Do not go to the prince's house!"
"One! There has to be two or more people when you talk to the prince!"
"Now, Miss Honda, you have openly violated these rules! Any explanation you have to share!?" They came up to me.
"U-uhhh..."
"Cut it out already will ya?" Arisa-chan came to help.
"Y-you! Just because you're a yankee doesn't mean-!" Suddenly, Saki-chan came with her waves.
"Y-yikes! Remember this! Yumena Honda!" With that, they left. I then felt a hand ruffle my hair.
"You poor thing~ you have to deal with creeps like them~"
"I-It's alright!" We then went to the home economics room. There, we cooked a meal. I did most of the cooking while Tohru, Arisa-chan and Saki-chan talked. The teacher walked by.
"Quit talking and do what you're supposed to do!...what?"
"We're already done bitch!"
"W-what's with that attitude!? And this is mostly Yumena-chan's work!" I smiled. The teacher huffed and walked away. We sat down at our seats and ate the food while most teams failed in their cooking.
"This tastes wonderful." Saki-chan said.
"Thank you!" We ate all of our food.