Lovestruck: Joudan Ja Nai!

[sen_nen_no_yuki]

Title: Lovestruck:Joudan Ja Nai!
Author: sen_nen_no_yuki
Pairing: Yaotome Hikaru x OC (Nakazawa Maki)
Rating: PG
Summary: Yaotome Hikaru and Nakazawa Maki met at a New Year’s party held by their friends. They hit it off right away. When Maki starts realizing that she might have serious feelings for Hikaru, how does she feel when Hikaru treats their relationship like a joke?

A/N- Jann~ Another Omake xD this time it's Hikaru and Maki XD


After the party at Shako and Daiki’s was over, Hikaru offered to walk Maki home. The streets of Tokyo weren’t safe at night and so Maki happily took Hikaru’s offer. By that time, they were already calling each other by their first names. There was a true connection and everyone could tell.

“Bye! Thanks for coming!” Shako and Chisato saw Hikaru and Maki to the door. Shako locked the door and turned to Chisa. The second she turned around she had a smirk on her face. “So how much do you wanna bet that he kisses her?”

“But they just met…then again…it’s Macchan…but there’s no use betting! We both know they’re going to kiss…” Chisa whined. They both knew how Maki was. She was quite forward.

“Fine then. How about Hikaru vs Maki? I bet you that Macchan’s going to kiss him first.”

“Fine then…but I still think it IS really going to be Macchan…” Daiki piped up, “I bet 1000 yen on Hikaru.” Everyone else jumped into this bet. Yabu, and Inoo bet a total of 2500 yen on Hikaru while Shako, Chisa and Hiro had an equal amount on Maki. It made sense. The girls knew Maki like the back of their hands as the men knew Hikaru just as well.

Hikaru and Maki walked slowly along the dimly lit road. Maki lived in a secluded area where there weren’t many street lights. She really hated going home so late at night especially because the crickets chirping from the bushes that lined the sides of the street always creeped her out. She didn’t notice it, but she was moving closer and closer to Hikaru as they walked.

Hikaru noticed this and thought Maki was moving closer to him intentionally. She was slowly inching toward Hikaru until their arms were pressed together. He smiled to himself and they continued along the path.

As they were walking, they eventually came upon a part of the street that was lined with houses. The lights made Maki calm down and she wasn’t as tense. She was staring at the sky which was clear. She saw the moon and was amazed by its beauty. “Uwaa Kirei~” When she was alone with Hikaru, the way she acted changed. Instead of being extremely hyper and looking like she was high on life, she was actually very quiet. Maki wasn’t watching where she was going and tripped over a bump in the road. She fell forward and felt her knee scrape onto the ground. “Itai! Mou…this skirt was new too…” she saw blood on the hem of the cloth.

Hikaru stopped and turned around. “Are you alright Maki?” he rushed to her side and saw the cut.

“Yea…it just stings a little...” she stood up and winced. Maki pulled at her skirt examining the now bleeding scrape.

“Let me carry you.” He turned around and bent down to offer his back to the injured girl.

“N-no! it’s fine! I don’t want to get you dirty…” she still had blood on her knee. Maki tried to limp ahead and sucked in a breath every time she moved her knee from the pain.

“You can’t walk without hurting yourself. It’s fine, these are an old pair of pants anyway. I can wash them.” He bent down again. Knowing that she didn’t have a choice, she climbed onto Hikaru’s back. He carried her all the way home.

On the way, Maki was breathing in the scent of Hikaru’s shampoo and his soap as they walked and talked. It had a fruity scent. Hikaru noticed that Maki was amazingly light. Aren’t girls heavier than this?

When they reached her doorstep they stood there awkwardly.

“So…we’re here…I’m going to go inside now… good night Hikaru.” She turned around to open the front door.

“Maki wait!” he WAS going to kiss her and Maki noticed that. But she put a finger against his lips.

“Slow down there cowboy. We’ve just met. Don’t think you can get a kiss from me yet!” Maki said playfully before giving Hikaru an equally playful wink before going inside. It wasn’t like Maki didn’t like Hikaru, but she wanted to make sure he liked her too and wasn’t just playing with her for that night.

“W-well good night!” he said back loudly. He felt kinda stupid. Who wouldn’t? Hikaru just shrugged and walked home.

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“WHAT?! You didn’t kiss him?! Wait…you said that HE tried to kiss you right? DANG that means we lost the bet…” Chisato slumped back into her chair in defeat. The four women were sitting down at the Takaki Café enjoying coffee and tea.

“But he didn’t actually kiss him so that means no one wins.” Hiro said smartly.

“That’s right…” Chisato thought.

While the two were sorting out the facts, Shako was talking to Maki. “Why didn’t you kiss him? You guys really looked like you liked each other during the party…”

“I know…but I want to take things slow this time. Do you remember my last boyfriend? Things went too fast and then we broke up. There was no love in that relationship. Well on his side at least. It took me forever to get over him. I don’t want to be hurt the same way again.” Maki said staring into her coffee cup, fiddling with the stirrer.

“I see…You know…I think he really likes you too. As long as I’ve known Hikaru, he may really seem like a joker, but he’s really nice on the inside. He really likes making people laugh, but he knows when to be serious…kinda like you. I think you should see him again. Do you want his number? I can get it from Dai-chan…”

“Really? Thanks Shako!” Within a few minutes, Shako handed a slip of paper to Maki.

“Here you go Macchan. Daiki just said to make sure you call him after eight. He has to work and that’s when he gets off.”

“Thanks again Shako~ You don’t know how grateful I am.”

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Hikaru was being interrogated by the guys. They were competitive and didn’t want to lose to their girlfriends.

“Dammit! We lost!” Inoo said.

“Baka Inoo-chan. No one kissed.” Yabu told his friend.

“So Hikaru…that means you like her don’t you~” Daiki said in a sing-song voice, poking fun at his friend.

“S-shut up!”

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Later that night, Maki was lying on her stomach on her bed, staring at the screen of her cell phone. She was debating whether to call him or not. Would he even talk to her? Maki sighed. There was only one way to find out.

“Moshi moshi? Hikaru speaking.”

“A-anno hi Hikaru…this is Nakazawa Maki…I don’t know if you remember me bu-” she said nervously.

“Macchan?! How are you?? How’d you get my number?” In truth, Hikaru liked Maki so much that he was about to ask Daiki to get her number.

“I’m fine…Shako gave it to me.”

“Oh I see. So…” The conversation between them lasted for an hour with subjects ranging from what their majors are, all the way to which comedians they liked. Thank gosh Maki had unlimited minutes in the evenings. Maki was about to tell Hikaru that she had to leave, but then Hikaru spoke up. “OH RIGHT! There’s this lantern festival tomorrow. I have two tickets to it. No one else wants to go with me…so do you wanna come?” he prayed silently that she would say ‘yes’.

His prayers were answered when Maki said, “Sure, I’d love to!” Maki really liked looking at all the designs that were created using light. She also wanted to see Hikaru again.

“Good! I’ll pick you up at 7 tomorrow!” They spent a few more minutes getting down information like addresses and directions before hanging up.

Maki looked up at the ceiling. Hikaru... They were going to a lantern festival…together. Hikaru’s name means ‘light’…could this be a sign? She put the thoughts aside and went to sleep excited for the next day.

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Hikaru was looking at the screen of his cell phone. He couldn’t believe that he actually did it. He ACTUALLY asked her out! But it was only a friendly meeting. The last time they were together, she didn’t want to kiss him. That meant they were only friends right? “Oh God I’m such an idiot.” Hikaru realized that he was just going to get hurt in the end. Maki didn’t like him the way that he liked her. No…he couldn’t let that get in the way. If Maki just wanted to be friends, they would just be friends.

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Just like Hikaru said, he picked her up at 7. They walked to the festival just because that would give them time to talk. They were having a good time. Hikaru made Maki laugh at all his jokes and she was equally energetic. After all, they WERE the life of the party.

When they got to the festival, there were many couples walking around which made Hikaru and Maki feel awkward being together. They still managed to have fun. Hikaru brought his camera and was going around taking pictures with the sculptures. He made Maki do funny poses in front of the beautiful statues. Near the end of the night, Maki stole Hikaru’s camera and they switched roles. There was a lantern sculpture that was a huge tea cup, made of thousands of little teacups. Hikaru posed under the large piece of china and pretended as if he were supporting the weight of the big piece of art. Maki laughed hard at the look of struggle on his face.

As they walked along looking at the lanterns, there was an obvious distance between Hikaru and Maki as they walked. Most people there couldn’t be any closer… girlfriends hanging off their boyfriend arms; wives walking along leaning against their husbands; Hikaru and Maki stood out and they both noticed it.

Maki was envious of all the other women there. Here she was walking with her latest love interest and the physical distance between them was like the distance between strangers on the street. On the other hand, Hikaru was worried about getting to close to Maki. They were only friends in his eyes…or…he thought that SHE wanted to only be friends. He didn’t want to scare her away.

Maki had an idea. She tried to lean over and grab Hikaru’s hand. When she did, she felt him tense up. “There’s so many couples around here…I feel like we stick out too much… This is okay isn’t it?”

“B-but friend’s can’t hold hands! People are going to think we’re going out!” he panicked.

“So? At least we won’t stick out so much…” This was the best excuse Maki could think of and sadly, it didn’t work. Hikaru shook off her hand and started to walk faster. She felt a little disappointed.

When the night was over, Hikaru walked Maki home. This time Hikaru didn’t try to kiss her. They simply spent the time talking on the door step except that Maki wasn’t exactly…responsive. When Hikaru was going to get up to leave, he told Maki to call him.

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Hikaru and Maki spent a lot of time together. In Hikaru’s eyes, she was a lot different than other girls. She was one of those people who was in between a tom boy and a girly girl…normal. She was into fashion and acted as any girl should, yet at the same time, she wasn’t afraid to laugh at the things Hikaru said. Most girls Hikaru knew were all uptight and spent all day gossiping or daydreaming. They’d get embarrassed at the smallest things and act like they were damsels in distress. Maki was unlike them. She even managed to be Hikaru’s knight in shining armour once or twice.

“C-cat!” Hikaru screamed as they were walking on the sidewalk one day. He jumped back when he saw the furry little creature.

“It’s only Tama-chan, Hikaru. She’s sweet.” She walked up to pet the cat. Tama-chan was the neighbourhood cat. It often passed by Maki’s house. She belonged to Koyama-san. Hikaru stood there frozen in fear.

“How can you like cats?!” Tama-chan sensed Hikaru’s fear and leaped at him hissing. “AHH!”

Before Tama-chan could claw off Hikaru’s face, Maki grabbed the cat that was in midflight and scolded her. “Dame! Tama-chan you can’t jump at people!” she put the fur ball back onto the ground and pushed her away. “Daijoubu?” she asked.

“MACCHAN MY HERO!!!...but you’re a girl…so I guess that makes you my HEROINE!” he hugged onto her like a koala.

“Uhh Hikaru… People are staring…” Maki blushed.

“Sorry!” he jumped back in shock.

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They were joking around one day when Hikaru slipped up and said something he shouldn’t have. They were walking around the streets of Tokyo after a few hours of shopping. In the distance, Hikaru could see the familiar silhouettes of his closest friends.

“Hey guys!” he said as his friends approached them. Yabu-kun, Daiki and Inoo-chan were walking over to Yabu-kun’s house after they went out for lunch.

“So this is why you couldn’t come to lunch with us eh…hanging out with your girlfriend Hikaru-chan?” Inoo playfully said. Hikaru freaked out within the walls of his mind. GIRLFRIEND?! NO! WE CAN’T! They were only friends! At least that’s what Hikaru thought Maki wanted.

“Pfft what are you guys talking about? You’ve gotta be kidding me! She’s not my girlfriend! There’s no way we could go out! Just look at her! Only an idiot would be stupid enough to go out with her!” he tried to cover up the fact that his face went bright red because of Inoo’s teasing which was why he was howling with fake laughter. As he was trying to cover himself, he missed the shocked look on Maki’s face, which then turned into a disappointed one. Somehow, Inoo, Daiki and Yabu also failed to miss her change in expression.

“A-anno…Hikaru…I’ve gotta go now. Bye.” And before Hikaru could say anything else, Maki walked away quickly.

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Maki got home and threw her purse onto the floor. “Kuso! I KNEW it wasn’t a good idea to be friends with guys! They’re just STUPID! Baka Hikaru! BAKA BAKA BAKA!” She buried her face into the pillow on her bed and screamed. “How could I even like him?!” Maki’s phone suddenly rang. She looked at the caller I.D. and saw that Hikaru was calling her. “BAKA! There’s no way I’m going to talk to you now!” Maki was talking to herself and threw her phone against the wall…well that wasn’t going to make it stop ringing…but sure enough, it stopped. Not because he hung up, but because her phone broke into two.

“Damn it!” she got off of her bed to pick up the two halves of her phone, trying to fit them back together.  Realizing that it was stupid to try to fix something that was broke beyond repair, she flopped back onto her bed and screamed into the pillow again.

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Hikaru was trying to call Maki when he got home that night but she wasn’t picking up. “What’s going on…” he listened to the ringing until it suddenly stopped. There was a silence on the line until Hikaru hung up and tried to call again.

“The number you are trying to reach is unavailable,” a robotic voice answered the call. “She must have turned her phone off…”

Hikaru couldn’t help but wonder why she suddenly left after running into Inoo-chan, Yabu-kun and Daiki.

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The next day, Maki had to go run a few errands. She was walking along the sidewalk, the small heels on her shoes clicking as they hit the cement. Her two long braids swinging back and forth as she continued on with her short, quick strides. On the way home, she passed by a phone shop and pulled her broken phone out of her purse.

“I might as well go see if I can get this fixed…” she turned into the small shop with shelves lined with phones.

At the same time, Hikaru was walking down the street laughing with Inoo. They were walking home from school when Inoo pulled Hikaru towards the phone store’s window whining, “See Hikaru~ That’s the phone I want~ Will you buy it for me?~” he have the best puppy dog look he could manage to his friend.

“Fat chance. It’s not my fault that you blew out all your cash on the crane game in front of the arcade. I still don’t see how you could spend 10,000 yen on something as stupid as that.” Hikaru rolled his eyes. He REALLY didn’t want to leave the house that day, but since he had school, his mom practically kicked him out the front door. The second the school bell rang, Hikaru planned on hightailing it out of the classroom but was caught by Inoo. Somehow, Inoo-chan convinced him to walk home together.

“Mou but the puppy in there was staring at me! I wanted to win it…” Inoo pouted.

“For your girlfriend right? You could have just gone to a toy store and spent what? 1000 yen? You never fail to amaze me Ino- ” Hikaru was caught off guard when he saw a familiar face inside the store he was in front of. Hikaru wasn’t exactly sure that it was her…but he took a risk and called out anyway. “Hey Macchan!” the girl turned around, an angry look on her face.

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“Excuse me, Umm…my phone broke yesterday when I…dropped it on the sidewalk…and it umm…got run over by…a man in a runaway wheelchair…” As stupid as the story sounded, Maki felt more embarrassed telling the store owner that she threw her phone at a wall and the reason for doing so was because of some guy who was equally stupid as her excuse.

“Okay…Let’s have a look at this…” The man pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his middle finger and looked down at the phone in his hands. “Wow…this was beaten up pretty bad…I don’t think we’ll be able to fix it…it’ll be cheaper to just buy a new one. You can have a look at the phones on the wall over there and because you’re such a pretty lady, I’ll give you a discount.” Maki could see that the man was drooling and was looking more at her, than her destroyed phone. She realized that the collar of her shirt was hanging a little low and pulled at it. She folded her jacket over herself and walked over to the wall. She heard a familiar voice shouting her name. She knew who that was. Maki growled when she saw Hikaru standing at the entrance of the store waving to her. Damn that guy.

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“Hey Macchan! Didn’t you hear me?” Hikaru ran up to Maki and put his hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off angrily and reached out for a phone on the shelf. Sadly, the baby blue DoCoMo phone on the wall was too high for her to reach. Hikaru chuckled for a second and grabbed it for her, holding it out in his hand smiling.

Maki, who was still angry at Hikaru, snatched the phone from his hand without even thanking him, and walked over to the front desk, her heels clicking ten times louder now.

The same perverted man came back up to the desk. “Is this the one you want?”

“Hai”

“Ah, a lovely design. You’ll have fun with this phone. Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t we exchange numbers?” the old man had a lisp and both Hikaru and Maki could literally see the drool falling from his mouth.

“No thank you. Can you please hurry up? I need to be somewhere.” She tried to be polite, but was fuming especially because Hikaru was standing right behind her, so close she could feel his breath on the back of her neck.

“Oh come on…we can become mail buddies!” the perv was trying WAY too hard.

“Didn’t you hear what she said?” Hikaru stepped in angrily.

“Who are you? Her boyfriend? She can do whatever she wants. Right little miss?”

“As a matter of fact. I AM her boyfriend.” The expression on his face clearly showed that he was challenging the man. There was a younger man who came out of the back room and slapped the old man on the head.

“What are you doing Tou-chan? Stop hitting on all the pretty girls you see! I’m sorry miss. You see, he can’t control himself.” The man, who looked only a few years older than Hikaru, quickly helped Maki with her phone and she was on her way. When the phone was placed into her palm, she gripped it tightly and muttered a quick word of thanks. After that, she speedily walked out of the store and right by Inoo.

“Hey Maki! How are you?” he asked the girl but she didn’t stop to reply. Instead she just kept walking down the street. If she were walking any faster, she would have been running. Inoo just stood there dumbfounded until Hikaru ran by.

“Inoo-chii! Go home without me okay?” he waved as he ran after Maki.

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“Dammitt! I should have worn sneakers today!” she was trying to get away from Hikaru who was quickly closing the distance between them. She was walking as fast as she could, but was stopped when someone grabbed her wrist. “LET GO OF ME!” she yanked her wrist our of Hikaru’s grip.

“No. I won’t.” Hikaru just grabbed her again and this time, held her tighter. There was no escape. “I won’t let you go until you tell me why you’re running away from me.”

“It’s nothing. Now let go.” Her bangs hid her eyes that were starting to water. Maki’s voice was cold and harsh.

“I told you I’m not going to. You’re lying. There’s something up. What did I do wrong?”

“What did you do wrong? Gosh Hikaru you’re such an idiot!” she yelled at him. “’She’s not my girlfriend. There’s no way we could go out! Only an IDIOT would be stupid enough to go out with her’?! Wow Hikaru, you’re sure dense.” She said sarcastically. “And WHAT was that back there?! ‘I AM her boyfriend’ I wish you would just STOP playing with my feelings! If you like me you could at least SAY something! Instead of messing with my head! My feelings aren’t a joke! Joudan JA NAI!” She screamed at the top of her lungs. “If you just want to be friends…then just say so…” Maki’s voice went quiet. When Hikaru didn’t answer to her outburst, she looked up at him, the setting sun making her tears glisten.

“YOU’RE SUCH AN IDIOT!”

Maki stormed off towards home while Hikaru just stood there stunned. He shook his head to clear his thought before bolting after Maki, who by then had taken off her heels and was running barefoot towards home. Somehow, the girl was faster that Hikaru was, but he found some sort of strength within him to run after her and managed to catch up.

“Wait!” he grabbed her wrist again and before she couldn’t protest, he swung her around and kissed her. Maki was WAY too surprised to even react properly. When Hikaru pulled away he grabbed her by the chin and forced her to keep eye contact with him. Maki felt extremely self-conscious as he stared at her, her face was bright red.

“I- Like- You.” He said slowly. “I’ve always liked you. Didn’t I make that clear when I tried to kiss you? I thought you only wanted to be friends when you didn’t want to kiss me. I never knew I was hurting you this whole time…I’m sorry…” Hikaru wrapped his arms around Maki and tears just kept pouring from her face. This time, the tears she cried weren’t from frustration, but from relief.

“Hikaru…baka…” she spoke, her voice mumbled as her face was buried into Hikaru’s shoulder.

“I know…” he murmured back.

“You are a baka…demo daisuki…” she kissed Hikaru this time, her tears stopping. “Ahh~ I must REALLY be an idiot…to fall in love with such a dummy nee~?” She said to herself sniffling. Maki looked up towards the sky as she slowly walked away from him.

“But I’m YOUR idiot~” Hikaru said playfully, running up behind her to grab her hand.

“Hai hai~” she exhaled. “You better smarten up nee Hikaru? Watashi no kimochi wa joudan ja nai yo*~”

“Neither are mine.” He gave her a heart-stopping smile and they walked home hand in hand.

*Watashi no kimochi wa joudan ja nai yo- my feelings aren’t a joke.