• “Wait!” Iruka followed me all the way down the hallway and onto the balcony.
    “I’m sorry Iruka, I don’t know why I’m crying. Maybe I’m just over-reacting…” I smiled half-heartedly.
    “Do you need a hug?” Iruka opened his arms to me.
    “Yes…” I cried and went into his embrace.
    “I love you Iruka…” I said softly. He soothed a hand down my hair.
    “I know, I love you too.” I could feel his smile.
    “Do you remember the first time you came to live with me and my father?” Iruka and I were now looking out into the city together.
    “I remember.” Iruka smiled.
    “Iruka, you remember Sayu right?” My father said after they entered the front door. I waited for them to come in.
    “It’s nice to see you again Sayu.” Iruka bowed with a smile. I remember I had ignored him because I didn’t trust anybody so easily, even if Iruka was so nice to me before everything else.
    “Your parents just died, how can you smile so easily?” I was only nine and yet I said such a thing to Iruka.
    “Sayu!” My father tried scolding, but I walked away coldly. The first few weeks Iruka wouldn’t say much, he’d only smile. Even though I was always giving him the cold shoulder, and he still only smiled every time we’d pass each other by. But one day after coming home from doing my usual TV series, I was crying alone in my room. Iruka came in and knocked on my door.
    “Sayu…are you alright?” He asked as he came in.
    “Don’t…don’t just come in when you please!” I threw a pillow at him. He caught it and threw it back to me.
    “Wha…what are you doing?!” I shouted through tears. Just then, Iruka hugged me without hesitation. At first I didn’t hug him back, but I eventually gave in and cried into him.
    “Iruka…why are you so caring and not even sad about your parents?” I asked after I had calmed down. Iruka looked out the window suddenly.
    “Because, I know even though my parents are gone…they’re in a better place. I mean of course I’m sad about it, but maybe that’s just how my life was supposed to turn out. Maybe they were taken, because I was meant to come here for you. I heard about your mother, and I know how you can be sad as well. We can be here for each other Sayu.” Iruka smiled down at me then. One last tear came strolling down, and Iruka wiped it for me.
    “I wasn’t crying because of my mother just now…” I blushed.
    “Then what was it?” He asked.
    “They’re canceling the TV series that I’m in everyday!!!” I shouted. Iruka’s eyes widened and he began laughing.
    Even now, Iruka was laughing now.
    “Why are you laughing?!” I asked angrily.
    “Because…those are the times you mostly cry about. Only about you losing a gig or role that you think you deserved.” Iruka smiled.
    “Yeah, well at that time I was really serious about arriving at the top. Even now, I think I need more.”
    “You know, everyone wants to know why you’re trying so hard to be number one actress around. Why don’t you tell me, you can trust me you know that.” Iruka came closer to me. My eyes widened to how close he was getting now.
    “Won’t you tell me?” He asked. I played along and got closer. Are faces were so close, I could feel his breath against me.
    “It’s a secret even from you.” I smiled, and walked away happily.
    “How mean! Older brother wants to know right now!” Iruka followed me. Ha-ha, he really is like my brother. I smiled.

    “Good morning!” Fujika and Kotome greeted me in the morning after I entered the classroom.
    “Good morning.” I smiled.
    “Hah! Sorry I’m late!” Hirari tried to catch her breath as she entered right before the bell had rung.
    “You’re usually here before us Hirari, what happened?” Kotome asked.
    “I woke up late, that’s all.” She took her seat shortly. There was definitely something wrong with Hirari. I just had to let it go though.
    I counted down the hours until the bell rang for lunch. It was really great when it rang.
    “I’m sorry, I’ll be with Chitose right now. But call me if you need anything.” Iruka said before leaving. I looked over at Ren‘s seat AKA Akira…but it was empty. Just like his side of the bed, since he was out of town for some business he needed to take care of. For some reason I really wanted to know what he was doing right now...
    “Hey Riku, you want to come with us to the benches out back?” The three usual girls asked me.
    “Ok.” I smiled and we walked down together.
    “So I think I’ve fallen in love!” Kotome squeaked.
    “Oh please, don’t you always fall in love every week?” Fujika laughed.
    “Well whatever, this time it’s genuine!” Kotome declared.
    “Who is it?” I asked.
    “I…I don’t remember his name…” Kotome blushed embarrassed. We all began to laugh.
    “How can you like somebody and not remember their name Kotome?” Fujika teased.
    “Whatever, at least I know how he looks! Then I can confess!” Kotome looked to have hearts in her eyes now. I giggled.
    “What are you doing?” We heard some voices around the corner.
    “Hey-hey, let’s see who is being confessed to!” Kotome whispered to us.
    “Why? If there is a couple being made right now, then we’ll hear about it later.” Fujika lifted her eyebrow.
    “But we get to witness it!” Despite everything, I was also interested. So we peeked around the corner and eavesdropped, I know this wasn’t good. It never is good to do this sort of thing.
    “Hey come on Kinjo, I heard you didn’t have a girlfriend so why don’t I make you unavailable?” Kinjo? That’s Hirari’s little brother!
    “No thanks.”
    “Oh come on! I know you can’t resist me…” The girl kissed him. Kinjo kissed her back, but then he pushed her away.
    “There, you got what you wanted. Now go back and run off to tell your friends you got to kiss me and leave me alone.” Kinjo walked away. Right away, the girl ran back to class happily.
    “What the hell was that about? It wasn’t even a love match.” Fujika said.
    “Yeah, it was more like that girl was just trying to use him for popularity.” Kotome sighed.
    “Popularity?” I asked.
    “Riku you didn’t know? Kinjo is very popular among girls at this school, it’s not just your brother Ryo.” Kotome giggled. I secretly rolled my eyes. Now that I think about it, Kinjo is actually really handsome…
    “Hey, where’s Hirari?” Fujika asked. My eyes widened, I had a feeling but I didn’t know for sure. I made an excuse so they wouldn’t go and look for her.
    “Um…while we were watching, Hirari said she had to be called away for something. She said to go on without her.” I said.
    “Oh ok, I guess we can go on then.” Kotome led the way. Before we went any further, I took out my phone and pretended to get a text.
    “I’m sorry you guys, my brother needs me right now. I have to go, I’ll see you guys later.”
    “Alright, say hi to your cute brother for me!” Kotome shouted as I ran off.
    “Is Ryo the guy’s name you can’t remember?” Fujika asked.
    “No, it was someone else. I just like Ryo too!”
    “You’re shameless…”
    “How mean!”
    As I ran down the halls, I tried looking for Hirari. I’m not sure why I’m trying to look for her, I don’t even know why I want to help her…but maybe this was a feeling that came with being a friend. Friends just wanted to help each other out, and that was why we were friends in the first place.
    “Poor girl, I wonder what happened?” A group of girls came walking down the hall. Maybe they had seen her?!
    “Um excuse me, did you happen to see a crying girl run through?” I asked politely.
    “Uh yes, she went that way…” The girls pointed down the hall they had come from.
    “Thank you.” I bowed and ran after Hirari. I can’t believe I had just bowed to a girl I didn’t even know, I thought to myself.
    As I turned the corner, I saw Hirari finally trip and fall down. I made this my chance to catch up to her, I helped her off the floor.
    “Hirari, why are you running through the halls like this? It’s dangerous…” I said.
    “Oh…I’m sorry Riku, I thought it was someone else running after me.” She wiped her eyes.
    “You thought it would be Kinjo…right?” I said.
    “How…um…no not really.” She looked sad, and I know she wanted to cry some more.
    “I don’t know what you’re going through, but it must be hard…your situation I mean…” I said.
    “What are you talking about?” She tried to laugh it off. Since I’ve seen this type of movie scene, I know what’s wrong right on the spot.
    “I know you have feelings for Kinjo, but you can’t say them properly because he’s you little brother and that would be too weird…right?” I asked. She looked at me, surprised that I knew.
    “Am I that easy to read?” She asked.
    “No, but I’ve already seen this happen before…” She began to cry again when I said this. I gave her a hug just like every friend would. She gripped my clothes and cried like I’ve never seen another girl cry before. Later on when she calmed down, we went to the roof to talk things out.
    “Does your brother know that you like him?” I asked.
    “No…it’s just too hard to tell him with everything going on now…” Hirari sighed.
    “Are things at home not going well?”
    “No, everything’s great. Both our parents are very happy together…”
    “Wait, both your parents? Don’t you share the same parents?” I asked shocked.
    “No…Kinjo’s father and my mother are together. His mother passed away, and my father stepped out on me and my mother. Somehow our two families found each other and connected. At first I loved having another sibling, but when I discovered my true feelings…I wasn’t too fond of us being together like this. But I always hid everything from Kinjo, so that we could try to become normal like a real family. We always laughed and we always have fun, but then somehow he changed. He even said he’s going to leave the house to live on his own. After he said that, he also started to avoid me. When I would try to talk to him, he would shut me out completely. Now I have this feeling like something bad is going to happen between us and we won’t be able to be or even see each other anymore! I hate having this feeling like I’m going to lose him Riku…I don’t care even if I have to think we’re siblings…I just want to be able to act normal together like we used to!” Hirari began to cry again. So I gave her another hug again.
    “I think since it’s gone this far…you need to tell him how you feel.” I said.
    “But I can’t…he might hate me even more!” Hirari cried.
    “You want him to leave the house without letting him know your true feelings?” I asked.
    “No…but…”
    “Then you need to tell Kinjo the truth. There must also be a reason why he’s avoiding you, and you should be told properly or you will never be able to move on in your life.”
    “You…You’re right. Thank you Riku, thank you so much!” Hirari cried but she still smiled. After we were done talking, my phone went off. I answered it.
    “WHERE ARE YOU?! YOU JUST SKIPPED CLASS, YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED I AM RIGHT NOW?! IT’S ALREADY TIME TO GO HOME SO HURRY UP!” I hung up. That Iruka is just too much, I sighed.
    “You and your brother are very close too?” Hirari smiled.
    “Yeah, but not in the way you think. He has someone he likes who is Chitose and I have my own.” I smiled.
    “Riku, you have someone you like? Ooh, please tell me!” Hirari smiled with pure joy.
    “Um…it’s a secret.” I ran away with another smile.
    “Come on, please! You know my love interest, so unfair! So tell me yours now!” Hirari ran after me.
    “Not until you confess to your love first!” Shouted back to her.
    “How cruel Riku!” Hirari still ran after me. Ha-ha, I’m really starting to know what it feels like to be a regular teenager, I smiled.

    “Everyone great work as usual today!” The director and producer came over to me and Raiden.
    “We’re really glad you agreed to do this role Reina.” The producer smiled. Starting from today, he wanted to be here for all the shoots.
    “With Reina here, I’m sure you will make this movie successful.”
    “Thank you sir.” I shook his hand he offered.
    “See you tomorrow.” They both nodded and left the set.
    “Hey Reina!” Haruna came over to us. She was smiling then she looked at Raiden.
    “Hello Raiden.” She greeted him. He smiled to her then looked at me.
    “So Reina, should we go?” He asked. I nodded. When I arrived to the set, he had asked me if we could talk after work.
    “Where are you guys going?” Haruna asked gently.
    “None of your concern sorry.” Raiden said before leaving. Before I could follow him, Haruna grabbed my hand.
    “Aren’t you already engaged?” Haruna asked.
    “Yes…” I thought. Which was why I needed to remind Raiden.
    “I have to go quickly, I’ll see you later Haruna.” I smiled at her and left. I rushed out to where Raiden had gone.
    “Miss Reina, would you please go to your dressing room first?” One of Raiden’s body guards stopped me from seeing him.
    “But Raiden said…”
    “Yes, he has prepared your attire for tonight so please will you…?” He gestured to my dressing room. I sighed and when I entered the room, there was a whole set of stylist to make me up.
    “What is all this?” I asked.
    “These girls are here to get you ready, please come out when you’re done getting dressed to go.” The guard closed the door.
    “Please relax miss Reina.” The staff smiled and pampered me. I never really had this done for me before, since it was only Iruka and I…speaking of Iruka, where the heck was he in these times?

    [Iruka in these times…]
    “Iruka, Reina had gone out with friends, so you have the rest of the night off.” Some random worker let him know.
    “Thank you.” Iruka bowed and dialed Chitose number.
    “Hello?”
    “Chitose you said you wanted to go out?” He asked.
    “Yes! I want to!” Chitose jumped for joy.
    [Back to Reina ha-ha]
    “Miss Reina, you are ready.” The staff says right after dressing her in a hurry. I looked in the mirror, and saw a whole new side of me. After finishing touches, I stepped out to where Raiden was waiting. He was dressed in a clean suit.
    “You look beautiful Reina, shall we go?” He opened the limo door for me. Once we both got inside, I had wondered what was going on…
    “Raiden, why do you have this limo? Don’t you usually travel by a smaller vehicle driven by your people?” I ask.
    “Yes, but today is only specially for you. And I don’t really mind it.” He smiles.
    “Why, where are we going?”
    “It’s a surprise.” He winks at me and I blush surprisingly.
    A while later we finally make a stop.
    “My dear, we’ve arrived.” Raiden says while he helps me out. I look around and there is no one around besides us. Raiden escorts me into a building and into an elevator. Suddenly he goes behind me and covers my eyes with his hands.
    “Wha…what are you doing?” I ask.
    “It’s a surprise.” He didn’t seem to let me go until we finally stopped. When my eye sight was returned, I was seriously amazed about what I saw just then. We were on top of the roof and I could see all the stars twinkling despite the city lights. There was a private dinner table set up romantically for two. It looked so beautiful…but then I realized that even though I oppose of my engagement, I still shouldn’t be doing this!
    “Raiden I…” Before I could say anything else, he grabbed my hand and seated me into the dinner chair like a gentleman. Then he took his seat across from me. Was this a date?! My insides turned and I felt awkward without hesitation…
    “I’ve already prepared our meal.” He snapped his fingers and butlers brought us our dinner quickly. Chicken salad…? I lifted my eyebrows at him…
    “Even though I’m a guy…I still need to watch my figure.” He smiled oddly. Um…ok then? I ate since I had no choice. We ate together and shared some light conversation. An hour later, we somehow ended up laughing. I’m not sure again what was so funny, but I knew it had to stop already.
    “This night with you has just been so wonderful.” Raiden smiled. I sighed, if he was someone different then my heart would have thumped but it didn’t…
    “Raiden, why did you do all of this?” I asked.
    “Of course it’s because I like you, and I want to see you happy…and I want to make you mine.” Suddenly the atmosphere changed. And I soon noticed that it was only him and I on this rooftop now. All those violins, butlers, bodyguards…all of them had vanished when I wasn’t paying attention.
    “You know I already have a fiancé. Akira, remember?” I said.
    “Who?” He held a blank face for a moment then became serious again from remembering before.
    “Oh, you mean that guy you were with when you first came into the studio? Reina, I don’t see you two as being compatible with each other. He’s a modeled playboy! Honestly can you say that you love him enough to marry that man?!” Raiden shouted.
    “I…” I didn’t really know how to answer since this whole thing was decided by my father.
    Raiden sighed to calm himself.
    “That time when I first met you on the set before…I felt like it was love at first sight. Of course I had done research, I always do that on the people I work with. And it seemed your record was clean, you were the real deal! The type of girl that your mother would love to be introduced to as your woman…that was just the icing on the cake. When I got to know you better and we hung out a little off set, you were so friendly and nice and I fell even deeper for you! But with both our work schedules, I couldn’t really find the time to tell you, and since at that time I was going on my road tour…I only wanted to tell you in person. When I found out we were going to work together again on this new movie, I was so excited that I could finally be able to tell you, but then I had to find out about that damn guy…!!!” He looked away for a moment. I felt really bad to be hearing all of this…I didn’t know that this guy really cared for me all these years since that last time we’ve seen each other. I mean we sent each other emails but I never took them personally since I get them from other people I’ve worked with…….
    I know it sounds sad…but I really don’t feel anything for Raiden. He’s just a great fellow celebrity that I’ve grown to know as a friend.
    “I’m sorry Raiden…I just can’t respond to your feelings…” I said slowly. For two minutes he didn’t say anything until he finally made a sigh.
    “I understand…will you at least dance with me right now?” He lifted his head with his forced smile.
    “Sure.” We stood up together and he grabbed my hand and waist so we could dance. Soon enough, I could hear the violins fade in again.
    “You know for a rock star stud as yourself, you really know how to be a cool relaxed gentleman.” I smiled.
    “Well not all rock stars are what they seem. People seem to think we’re all drugged up or drunk all the time.” He laughed then smiled.
    “Oh, I’m sorry.” I finally blushed. I didn’t mean it to sound like I was offending rock stars…
    “Ha-ha it’s okay, what’s with that look?” He began to laugh again.
    “Sorry…” I feel like my color right now would be crimson…….
    “Hey Reina…” I looked up at Raiden.
    “Hmm?”
    “If you ever feel like having an affair with Akira, contact me and I’ll be right there to please you…” He bent down and kissed my cheek. Even though it was only the cheek, I was still shocked. He laughed at my reaction just then.

    “Wake up!” Iruka shouted. I opened my eyes slowly and saw him adjusting something on his ear. I perked up immediately.
    “What are you doing…?” I smiled deviously to him. He covered his ear and moved around to avoid me.
    “Nothing, just making sure that everything is in the right order.” He blushed. I looked on my dresser, and saw that he had set down his usual earring down. For some reason I became even more interested and when it came to love, Iruka was so shy. So I pushed him down and turned his head so I could finally see what he was hiding.
    “Hey! Get off of me before I remove you myself!” He got angry and blushed. I began to bite my lip so that I couldn’t laugh at such a cute surprise. What filled the place of his usual earring, was a diamond initial [C].
    “What does that initial stand for Iruka?” I teased.
    “None of your business, now get dressed for school or we’ll be late!” He pushed me off to the side and got up to fix himself once more.
    “Chitose and Iruka sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!!!” I sang to him. He became like a little kid.
    “Shut up! That’s so immature!” He pouted. I wasn’t trying to make fun of him, but I adored that he actually found someone that could make him feel like his usual happy-go-lucky self. I smiled as I got dressed in my Riku disguise.
    When we both finally got to class, there was a huge uproar in the room. Since the teacher was running late, everyone gathered around Kotome’s desk. I made my way through the commotion and noticed there was writing on her desk. In permanent ink, someone had written tramp and every other word that meant the same thing…I was shocked I’ve never seen this out of script before!
    “What’s going on?” The crowd looked at the door, and Kotome finally walked into the room. She walked up to her desk and saw what was on it. She stood there quietly, until finally running out of the room by herself. Hirari and Fujika hadn’t arrived yet, so I guess it was just me again. I rushed out after Kotome since she was my friend and all, this is what I had to do. Half way down the hall I noticed the teacher making his way to the classroom, if I was caught then I would be brought back to class and I can’t have that happening. So I looked to the nearest hideaway and the only one was the bathroom. So I went in quickly and stayed there for a bit. As I waited for the coast to be clear, I heard sniffling coming from one of the stalls.
    “Kotome…?” I said out loud. No answer, only another sniffle.
    “Kotome, please come out. It‘s me, Riku…” I said.
    “You must think the same right? I mean with all the talk from me about all the different guys I like, and now this had to happen. You know the rumors…” She sniffled again. Honestly I had no idea what she was talking about…
    “I don’t really know any of the rumors because I don’t care about them. I don’t judge someone’s business unless I hear it straight from their own mouth. If you tell me what happened, because you’re my friend, I’ll believe you. Isn’t that how it works?” I asked. She must think I’m weird to be asking that last question. And I was right, because she began to laugh.
    “Yesterday, I confessed to the captain of the basketball team. Everyone witnessed it. I was so happy since he said yes, but because I was so naïve and didn’t see the real side of him, he tried to take advantage of me that same day. He tried to do it with me, and I didn’t want to because I wasn’t ready. I might be boy crazy, but I too have my limits. Before he could really do anything bad to me, someone came to save me. And at that moment I felt so relieved and through the tears and fear I hugged the guy who saved me. He’s one year older than us, a senior. He even beat up the guy for me, and he offered to walk me home after that. When people saw us leave school together, they misunderstood it as me fooling around. And to spark the flame of that rumor, the guy I confessed to made it worse since he was beat up irritated. I’m not the type of person to actually do something like that, and that’s the truth!” She began to cry. I pushed open the stall I already knew she was in and when she saw me she hugged me. I hugged her back.
    “I believe you then.” I said. And she hugged me tighter.