Mistake: Part 1

PROLOGUE

"Meow."

's after-school nap was cut short when she heard a soft sound coming from above her head. Stretching her arms, she looked up and saw which was responsible for the sudden intrusion.

"Meow."

"Neko-chan." She murmured, still groggy from sleep.

"Meow."

stared at the furry grey tabby who was also staring back at her atop a big tree branch. Fully awake now, she wondered if the cat wanted to go down.

Wait, cats can climb up tree but may not be able to come down by themselves, right? She stared at seemingly distressed feline, thinking if she needed to come to its rescue. "Maybe its owner is looking for it", she said softly.

She stood up and dusted off her school uniform. She took a couple of steps away from the tree and looked up, mentally estimating how tall the tree was. Muttering to herself, she walked slowly towards the tree and started to climb.

Her movement was really slow since she was wearing her school uniform. She was afraid that her skirt might get caught on some branch and rip it apart, or even worse, some pervert might try to look up and...

shook her head and erased the unpleasant thoughts. She focused on the fact that the cat might not be able to get down and someone was worried, looking for it. She ascended at a steady pace, and eventually reached the high branch where the cat was perched unsteadily.

"Neko-chan, kochi..." she murmured, trying to call the cat's attention. But it remained seated at the other end of the branch, meowing, yet ignoring her.

lost her patience. She needed to get down and find the cat's owner, fast. She never liked the idea of cats acting like spoilt deities with humans catering to their every whim. She sat on the branch and reached for the snobby creature, which fortunately, did not struggle or scratch her.

As was planning her descent, she noticed that her position on the branch felt weird and that it felt like...

It's about to break, she told herself. She quickly put the cat inside her small messenger bag and went down. She moved quickly that she wasn't able to hold on to the tree trunk properly and...

RRRRIIIPPP.

**********

"-sama, my sincere apologies for interrupting, but I do not think it is appropriate for ojousama to wear... that." the butler, Kuroda Shun, told Hiroshi while the family was eating breakfast.

quietly sipped her hot chocolate while she listened to Kuroda presenting his objections to her father.

Last Friday, the young decided to ‘rescue' a cat, resulting to a torn skirt and arriving home with an ugly rip on her side. She didn't mind the scarring, really, but she knew that it would be too much of a hassle to wear a skirt with a big angry gash on her hip. She was also prone to these kind of incidents, anyway, and did not want to answer to too many questions. So with her parents' approval, she contacted her school principal (Hyoutei Gakuen), to give her permission to wear the boys' uniform.

Of course, the highly-conservative butler, Kuroda, completely disagreed with the idea.

Kuroda was interrupted by Kayoko, who was patiently watching the faithful butler trying to persuade her husband.

"Kuroda-san, everything's going to be okay. It is not that suddenly decided to become a guy, or that she is doing this to gain other people's attention. It's just that she wants to be prepared in certain extenuating circumstances which she finds herself most often in, these days."

"But ojousama can call people in the household if something happens..." he objected.

Hiroshi drank his coffee and looked at Kuroda peacefully. "I believe that Kayoko and I raised really well despite our hectic schedules. I am sure that she has made a sound decision. After all, it will only take a month. She just wants to get by without having to fend off curious classmates, am I right, ?"

smiled simply. "Yes, father."

Her mother reminded her calmly. ", I do not want to hear you making any trouble in school just because you're wearing a boys' uniform. If you think you're uncomfortable with this and if your scar has already healed, your new set of girls' uniform is in your closet. But anyway..." she said, as she stared at her young daughter. "You don't look pretty bad, even if you're wearing that. Quite the bishounen, right, Papa?"

's father laughed heartily. "With her short hair, I won't be surprised if girls started to propose to ."

As the laughed and joked about what will happen that day, Kuroda sulked silently in utter disappointment. He would never understand this family no matter how hard he tried.

**********

arrived early for school as she had to report to the student council president, Atobe Keigo, about her school uniform. She went inside the council and saw that Atobe was there, busy signing some papers.

"Hello, Atobe-san."

Atobe raised his head to see wearing the boys' uniform. He put down his pen and rested on his swivel chair.

"It actually looks good on you."

returned the compliment with a smile. "About the uniform..."

"No problem about that, -san. The whole student body was contacted over the weekend and they already know about it, so they won't be shocked when they see you wearing the boys' uniform. However..."

"However?"

Atobe started fixing the small pile on his table and put it aside. "Some students who participated in the international music festival in Chicago just arrived last night, so I do not think they were well informed. Well, I told the class representatives to tell the students, just in case." he said.

"I see. Well, thank you very much for your assistance. I should be leaving." said, as she stood up and bowed at Atobe, before quietly leaving the office.

**********

"Choutarou! Welcome back! How was the festival?" Said Shishido Ryou as he tapped the sophomore's back. Ootori Choutarou smiled at his senpai, and thanked the rest of the tennis team who waited for him before going to their respective classes.

Ootori was one of the students who played for the school's band, and through the supervision of Hyoutei Gakuen's renowned and influential music teacher and boys' tennis coach, Sakaki Tarou, they were able to secure a spot for an international music festival held in Chicago, Illinois. Ootori had to miss school for two weeks. He just arrived in Japan in time for his class the next day.

"I heard from kantoku that the band's performance was marvelous. Congratulations, Ootori." Atobe Keigo said.

Ootori smiled. "It wouldn't be possible without kantoku's supervision."

"Anyway, we should all go to our class now and save the stories later." Oshitari Yuushi interrupted, and not long enough, the team went to their respected classrooms, except for Ootori, who went to his locker for some of his things.

There are only a number of students in the hallway for most of them were already off to class. As Ootori opened his locker, he noticed a small, short-haired guy picking up some items from his locker, just beside Ootori's. I've never seen this guy before, he wondered, but thought that it was probably because he rarely used his locker, or that his senpai, Shishido, was too lazy to even use his own locker that he staked claim on Ootori's.

What caught his attention even more was that the boy was singing a very familiar song.

Comment te dire
Les mots ne viennent pas
Libérez les sons de ma voix
Je voudrais arrêter le temps
Passer en toi
Mais laisse-moi te dire
En amour on ne sait rien¹

Ootori liked that song a lot, and was surprised to hear that someone from Hyoutei even knew it. Unable to control himself, he leaned over to the boy's locker.

**********

"Excuse me..." heard someone from behind. She turned around and saw a tall, silver-haired guy looking at him.

"Yes?"

"A-anou, the song you're singing..." the boy stammered.

"Yes?"

"That's a nice song. I have their album."

smiled at the person in front of her. For a tall, young man, it is quite weird to hear him speak so softly. Is he gay? She asked herself. Then she noticed the tennis equipment that the boy was holding.

"You're a regular?" She asked. The boy nodded, then decided to put his tennis bag inside the locker. remained standing in front of the boy, holding her books on her right hand, watching the boy's every movement. She didn't notice that he was blushing because of the way she was staring at him.

"What is your name?" She asked boldly.

"A-anou... Ootori desu..." the boy answered softly.

laughed. "Ootoro²? That's a weird surname."

The boy looked at her with confusion. "No, you misheard it. It's..."

"Ah, Ootoro-kun. I have to go to my class now. See you." She said as she waved him good bye. The boy she called Ootoro, which was really the sophomore Ootori Choutarou, was left standing in front of his locker, dumbfounded.

**********

"You going home now?" Shishido Ryou asked Ootori after their intense tennis practice. Ootori fixed his bag and turned to his senpai.

"I still have to go to the library to catch up with my lessons," he said. His senpai nodded, understanding his situation. "If you have any questions you can ask us, maybe we can help." Shishido added. Ootori smiled before going to the school library. When he opened the door, he saw a small group of girls gathered around the circulation table.

"-san, would you like some cookies?"
"Ah, I also baked a strawberry cake, would you mind if I give this to you?"
"-san, can we also join the library club so that we can see you everyday?"

Ootori looked at the table and saw the small boy that he met earlier. Just then, the small group of girls went outside the library, giggling. He saw that the boy sighed and started fixing the books on the table.

"Ah, Ootoro-kun! What brings you here?"

Ootori smiled shyly at him. "A-anou, it's not Ootoro, it's Ootori," he corrected.

The small boy smiled. "Ah, is that so? Are you sure it's not Ootoro?"

"No."

"I thought you really had a weird surname."

Ootori paused for a while before he continued. "Why are those girls gathering around you?"

The boy started writing stuff on a piece of paper. "I dunno. Must be my fangirls or something," he said, and then looked up at Ootori. "So what really brings you here? Are you also going to give me cookies like what those girls did?"

Ootori blushed after hearing these words from the boy. What is he thinking?! I am a boy, of course! "Ah, no, I just thought that, never mind. I'm here to study. I missed class for a couple of weeks due to the music festival so... Anyway, see you later." He bowed and went to look for a vacant table to work on.

The boy at the circulation table, who was actually , watched Ootori and then shrugged her shoulders, and proceeded doing her library tasks.

**********

"Wow, I just realized that you really look good with that thing on." 's cousin, Yabe Yukari, commented while they were walking away from the campus to go and eat at a nearby café. She then hugged her cousin tightly, making unable to breathe properly. "I'm so lucky to have a very cute guy beside me!"

"What are you talking about?!" exclaimed, trying to remove her cousin's arms around her neck. "Stop it, I can't breathe!"

Yabe stopped messing around with her cousin before the latter got mad. "Anyway, so how do feel about this whole thing?" She asked.

thought for a while before answering. "I think it's okay. I think Atobe-san helped a lot by announcing it to the whole student body. They probably think that it's weird, but anyway, I can always stop wearing this if I feel uncomfortable."

Yabe sighed. "I still don't get it either, -chan. Why wear a guys' uniform?"

"After that whole cat incident, I just thought that I won't be free doing those kinds of things if I don't wear this," pointing to the pants she is wearing. "I also have to hide a very ugly scar on my leg. Besides, I don't want to rely on the people in the house since it's such a bother. They always think that I cannot do simple things just because I am their ojousama." said, stressing the last word of her statement.

"Well, I somehow understand that, but... ah, whatever." Yabe said, cutting herself off. She knows that it will take such great powers to convince her cousin to change her mind.

"Yukari-chan, have you heard of a guy named Ootori?"

"Ootori you say? Wait, let me think." Said Yabe. There was a pause, and then Yabe's eyes gleamed with delight. "Are you talking about Ootori Choutarou of the boys' tennis team?"

"I don't know, but probably. I saw him with his tennis equipment a couple of days ago." She said, remembering what happened earlier.

"It's probably him. Anyway, why ask? Hmmm... don't tell me..." Said Yabe, smiling wickedly. This didn't escape 's attention and playfully smacked her cousin. "Don't tease me. I just met him. His locker is next to mine."

"You mean his locker is beside yours? How come you've never met before?" Her cousin asked. shrugged, indicating that she really had no idea.

But she had to admit, that boy really piqued her curiosity. smiled. She was looking forward to seeing him again.

##########

¹ This French song is entitled "Comment te dire" by the band, Kyo. Thank you very much to Serena for helping me with the lyrics.
² Ootoro - Fatty tuna

June 20, 2006
Written by: Megane-ko
Edited by: linchpin