Fruits Basket Fan Fiction ❯ Don't Forget Me ❯ Ignorance ( Chapter 4 )
[ P - Pre-Teen ]
A/N: Hi all sorry for a slightly slow update, I've had a major writers block recently but many thanks for your suggestions and contributions to my story and you're kind reviews. I promise I won't make as many errors as the last chapter…lol. Just one thing's for sure, Karina won't be ending up with Kyo (duh, their uhh half siblings.) Of course you'll have to see later
on who's ending up with Karina between Yuki and Kenji but right now I shouldn't give it away. By the way for people who don't know who Kakeru is? Well he's part of the student council as the vice president.
Chapter 4: Ignorance
Finally the exams were over in preparation for the winter holidays. Tohru dropped her pen and handed her exam paper to the teacher's desk as she sat back down enjoying the sensation of pressure being lifted off her shoulders and her brain. Soon after, the bell rang as everyone gave a happy sigh at the thought of the holidays getting nearer.
“Hello Kyo, how'd you do in you're exam?” She smiled cheerfully.
“Not bad, It was the lamest test though, half of the stuff was based on pointless issues.” He did his usual complain-report.
“Umm…ok…and how about you Yuki?” She turned around and faced an empty chair and desk.
“Tohru, the prince left 15 minutes ago, he finished the test real early.” Uo mentioned.
“Yea…and Karina didn't come to school today, I'm not sure why though.” Hana entered the conversation.
“Really? I wonder what's going on.”
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Yuki walked along the school hallway as he reached his locker and opened it, a huge amount of love/fan letters and chocolates fell to the ground in front of him.
“But…Valentines day isn't until this weekend, why are they celebrating it so early?” He asked himself as he picked up the numerous items.
When he turned around his eye was caught by the student council notice board that his vice-president Kakeru had put on display many love-themed pictures and messages. `Maybe their just celebrating Valentines day early.' Yuki thought when suddenly he dropped all his chocolates on the floor and stepped closer to the notice board and read.
“President Yuki Sohma, the prince of Kaibara High may have gotten his first girlfriend already, take a look below at this magnificent picture taken at the amusement park recently with the girl identified as Karina Sohma who shares the same last name as yun-yun himself, is he hiding something from us? Who knows?”
Yuki looked down underneath the article and there was a picture of him and Karina on the love tunnel ride, not to mention feeling embarrassed as heaps of people could've seen that picture, he was also angry at his vice-president for doing such a thing without his permission. He snatched it off the notice board and tore the message into pieces while checking his locker for the picture, it was missing, no wonder, it had fallen out of his locker and they had taken it secretly so they could display it to the public. Yuki stomped off towards the student council meeting room as Kakeru's voice edged nearer behind the plain wooden door. Without knocking, he pushed the door open and threw the torn pieces of paper towards Kakeru.
“President Yuki? What's this?”
“My reputation!” Yuki came closer and started giving him a big tell off.
“You took this picture that had fallen out of my locker, you displayed it to the public without my permission and now everyone's going to think that I'm dating Karina you idiot! How could you be so absent-minded.” He said as the rest of the council kept quiet and watched the scene of their usually calm president shouting at the vice-president.
“Yuki, you should be thanking me, now those Prince Yuki Fan club girls will leave you alone knowing that you are occupied with a particular someone..”
“Shut up, when did you put this on the board?” Yuki interjected while feeling a strange blush come to his cheeks with everyone in the room listening to their conversation about his love life.
“At lunch today.” Kakeru answered.
“Fine, if anyone asks, I am not dating Karina Sohma and don't go invading my locker space!” Yuki stormed out of the room leaving Kakeru and the other's quiet.
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Karina woke up at the late hours of 11:30am finding Kenji asleep on the fold up bed in the living room that was now spotless.
`Well I'm obviously not going to school today, my throbbing headache's seriously killing me, and what? Did Kenji clean up this mess for me last night? I really don't remember doing that myself.' Karina looked around at the job Kenji had done during the time she had slept. She was still trying to figure out what had happened last night, after a mysterious man had invaded her house and broken all her ornaments giving her injuries, plus Kenji's confession and that strange kiss and all….
“Morning Kenji.” She smiled as he stretched and smiled back at her.
“Hi, so what do you think of the living room?” He asked in a cheeky voice.
“It's so clean, thank you.”
“No worries.” He got up and opened the curtains.
“How's your head?” He asked seeing her taking panadol out of the cupboard.
“Uhh…it just hurts… a headache, that's all.” She didn't want to make a big deal out of it since Kenji had already done enough for 2 days; it would be rude to worry him even more about her own problems.
“So Kenji, what are you planning to do these days, I mean after…” Karina didn't want to say the word `dad' or `death' as it would be kind of mean.
“Yea, well I'm meant to be staying at a hotel here for about…2 more days and then I'm going back to my house with mom and I'll help her with the guest list for the funeral this weekend.” Kenji knew what she was going to ask although it didn't bother him too much.
“Okay.”
“What about you? Are you going to stay at Tokyo permanently or you can move back with us anytime you like.” Kenji questioned back at her.
“Actually, umm…I'm probably going to stay here to finish high school maybe, I'm not so sure about university yet but for the meantime, Tokyo's great.”
“Oh ok.” He gave a plain answer; Karina saw his eye was attracted to a certain thing or picture, she took and closer look and saw Kenji picking up the picture of her and Yuki and eyeing it out carefully especially the bit where it said `Memories on the Tunnel of Love'.
“So….who's this?” He pointed to Yuki.
“My friend Yuki.” She replied.
“Sure he's not you're boyfriend? You know it says tunnel of love.” Kenji raised an eyebrow.
“It was basically just for fun, it's nothing really, I mean I'm not really dating him.” Karina knew she was telling the truth that they were `just friends' but somehow she felt a guilty feeling inside her stomach, as if she was lying to Kenji about them being `just friends.'
“Alright, if you say so.”
“Why? Are you…jealous?” She ignored the guilty feeling and started to tease Kenji.
“Huh? Jealous? No way.” Kenji denied throwing a pillow at her playfully.
“Well anyway, I'm sure you might want to meet him one day, he's a really nice person, you should meet my half-brother Kyo too, oh and Tohru.”
“Half brother?” Kenji sounded surprised.
“Yea, don't tell me you've forgotten, I'm sure I've told you about that thing before.”
“Umm…maybe…no wait you have but I haven't met him before.” Kenji remembered. He was felt slightly dominated by Karina's best friends since she made them sound so friendly and how she always talked about how they changed her life becoming friends with her and all that.
“Which is my point, oh well, don't worry, you'll get to meet them one day.”
“Yea…sure…whatever.” He replied bluntly.
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Kyo walked home with Tohru since Yuki had already gone off somewhere without a sign. After stopping at the grocery store to buy dinner, they were on the way back to Shigure's home while walking past the nearby park.
“Kyo are you sure those bags aren't getting too heavy for you?” Tohru asked concerned as always.
“Nah, it's no problem.” He replied smiling at her reassuringly.
“Wow I can't believe there is only 4 days left of school, I really can't wait till winter break, there's so much to do nowadays.”
“Yea like attending a stupid banquet that Akito's going to hold soon for every one of us, what's the bet he's planning something.” Kyo scoffed.
“Another banquet? Oh I didn't know that.”
“Yea, he said to mind my discretion but I really don't give a damn about what that Akito says.”
“Well when is it?” Tohru asked.
“This weekend, so we won't be having dinner at home this Saturday, if you don't mind being home alone…” Kyo stopped, he didn't want to say that she was uninvited but by the innocent expression on her face, he knew it was obvious what he meant.
“Don't worry about me, I'll be fine.” Tohru forced a smile. She hoped that Akito wouldn't do something bad to Kyo or Yuki since the last time they went, Yuki was injured after Akito threw a vase at his head. The thought of another banquet just made her shudder.
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`hmm…since I've got nothing after school today, maybe I should visit Karina and find out why she missed out on school today, she seemed fine the other day at the amusement park.' Yuki thought as he stopped in his tracks to look for Karina's apartment.
He soon found it and took the lift to her room and knocked on the door waiting for a reply. To tell the truth he felt a bit awkward after being assumed that they were a couple by none other than the irresponsible cheesy Kakeru. Luckily there wasn't a picture spot when she kissed on the cheek during the Ferris wheel ride, otherwise his denial would've seemed fake. The door opened to reveal a tall dark brown headed boy about his height, quite handsome with dark blue eyes, he looked like someone that would've been equal popular in Kaibara High as the Prince Yuki.
“Can I help you?” The boy asked.
“My name's Yuki Sohma, I'm looking for Karina.” Yuki answered.
“Sohma Yuki did you say?” The boy grew slightly suspicious.
“Yes…umm…is she home?”
“Yea, hold on I'll just get her.” The boy scratched his head and walked off calling Karina's name.
Karina came back with a happy expression but shot to a surprised one when she saw Yuki at the door, her head still had the bandage on but thank goodness for the tidy room that Kenji had cleaned just recently.
“Uhh…hey Yuki.”
“Hello Karina, I was just stopping by to see if you were okay, I mean you weren't at school today and you missed an exam. Is everything alright?” Yuki questioned.
“Everything's fine.” Kenji muttered while stopping Karina from speaking. Somehow, Kenji's voice had sounded colder than usual and Karina felt a slight tension in Kenji towards Yuki.
“Umm…okay…oh what happened to your head?”
“I'm fine…minor accident, would you like to come in?” Karina asked trying to ignore Kenji's reaction.
“Sure.” Yuki closed the door behind him.
“Good, I'll just get some tea.” Karina scurried off while spying on the two.
“So you're the guy who went to the amusement park with Karina?” Kenji started a conversation.
“Uhh yea I did…umm who are you?” Yuki asked feeling a bit rude.
“The name's Kenji Yoshida, I'm Karina's boyfriend.” He quickly shut his mouth realising what he had just said as Karina who had been eavesdropping in their conversation accidentally butted in.
“What?” She said aloud before turning her back on them and pretending that nothing happened.
There was an awkward silence as Yuki's insides froze with a strange feeling, Karina returned to making the tea and Kenji on the other hand clasped his mouth with his hand and couldn't help but feel extremely idiotic.
“Umm well here's the tea.” Karina rushed into the room nearly spilling it since she was so flustered after the long pause.
“Thanks.” Yuki took the tea and started drinking it while Kenji's head was pounding from regret and stupid-ness.
“So….you never told me you were dating?” He turned his attention towards Karina.
“Haha…umm…Kenji was just joking… certainly we are not dating, we're just good friends.”
“I'm going to the bathroom.” Kenji trailed off leaving Yuki and Karina speechless.
“Oh ok…well I really don't want to tell you this but my vice-president Kakeru Manabe …well he found our picture and he pinned it onto the school council notice board during lunch today and I'm not exactly sure how many people viewed it or read the short summary of it, people think…we're dating.” Yuki changed the subject to another that also made Karina's heart jump.
“No way….did you take it off?” Karina blushed madly.
“Yea and I told him clearly that we are not dating and we never will, I hope he gets that into his head.” Yuki laughed it off.
“Great.” Karina answered sarcastically though Yuki didn't notice the tone of her voice was partly negative.
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`Does he really mean that? Does he actually think that we will never ever date? I thought I might've had a slight chance of getting to know him better but I suppose that's not gonna happen. Oh snap out of it Karina, Yuki doesn't like you the way you think he does….oh I feel so stupid to be able to think that we would ever be a couple…It's a really dumb idea not to mention unrealistic.' Karina was strong in her doubts after Yuki's last words before he left for home.
“Kenji! I can't believe you told him you were my boyfriend!” Karina caught Kenji when he came out of the bathroom and started to snap at him.
“Umm…why are you so angry?”
“Because you told him something that wasn't true and now he's gonna think…”
“Why….do you like him?”
“Why were you so cold towards him? It was as if you didn't like him….it was a bad impression and now I don't think he'll think of you as the real you anymore.” Karina decided not to answer the question…instead she just carried on with a different argument.
“I don't really like him...” Kenji admitted.
“And why is that?”
“Dunno.”
“Kenji…”
“But Karina….I thought we were a couple? I mean…last night I told you…”
“I never said we were a couple.” Karina answered.
“So then…what are we? Just friends? Because it really doesn't feel that way when I'm with you and I'm sure it doesn't when you're with me either.” Kenji stated.
“It's complicated….” Was all Karina could say.
“Yea I find it confusing. Karina…do you like me or what? As a friend or more that that? You can't keep everything to yourself forever you know.” Kenji stepped closer and embraced her hoping that would calm her down a bit since her face looked frustrated and stressed.
“Can we please finish this conversation another time?” Karina pleaded.
“Sure.” Kenji kissed her forehead.
“Well I guess you should go home now.” Karina suggested remembering that Kenji wasn't staying at this town for long as he was going back to where his mom lived.
“You okay?”
“I'm alright, I'll see you at the funeral.”
“Ok. Bye Karina.” He waved as Karina closed the door and took a deep breath.
`I'm so confused, whether to fall in love with Yuki or keep going with Kenji? It's all getting muddled up and I don't know which one to choose…number 1, with Kenji I don't know if it would work out since we live in different towns and since we've been friends ever since I can remember and now suddenly…he admits his love for me….and number 2, Yuki, I like him but I don't know if he feels the same way about me, there are strong signs that he may already be in love with Tohru…but that's hard because with the way Kyo looks at her, it's obvious that he liked her too….maybe I should just leave it for now…'
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A/N: Okay…now the story's getting deeper into the plot, I hope you're getting the idea of it. Thanks for reading.