Mistake: Part 2

"Ah, Choutarou, we won't be able to eat with you right now. The seniors have a high school orientation before lunch. I guess you have to eat on your own." Shishido announced to Ootori while they were walking towards the campus.

Ootori didn't seem to hear what Shishido had just said. For a couple of weeks, he had been waiting for a chance to talk to the small guy he met at the locker area. For some reason, he told himself, the boy made him feel... different. The last set of words quickly registered to Ootori's consciousness and he shook his head, willing the thoughts to go away. There's no way that he could be...

"Oi, Choutarou, are you listening to me?" Shishido asked. Ootori snapped back to reality and turned to his senpai, who was looking a little worried.

Ootori smiled. "I'm sorry Shishido-san, I'm just too… preoccupied with things."

Shishido sighed. "Well, you should get your act together now, since we'll be very busy in a couple of days. I am very sure that Atobe will not let his players in that kind of state. Anyway, see you later." The blue-capped boy waved as he went upstairs to his classroom. Ootori was left standing at the school building's main floor, thinking that he had to stop thinking about that guy. After all, he shouldn't be bothered by a boy, a veritably male presence. Right?

**********

Right. Whatever.

These are the words that muttered while she carried a small bag filled with boxes of cookies and sweets. Her female admirers grew in numbers for the past week. Of course, she knew the reason behind the commotion, though she couldn't think of any ideas on how to stop it. .

's thoughts were preoccupied when she saw the familiar tall guy walking up the stairs. She smiled upon recognizing him.

"Ootori-kun."

The boy looked behind him and greeted her back. "Good morning. How are you doing?"

caught up with him. "I'm doing okay. How about you?"

The boy smiled warmly. "I am doing fine, I suppose. What is it you're carrying? Do you want me to help?" He asked, noticing that was having a hard time carrying the bag of gifts.

"I'll be fine. Anyway, I have to go. See you around." looked at her wristwatch, waved at him, and hurried to her classroom.

"Ah, Anou..." Ootori was unable to continue his sentence. For two weeks now, the image of this boy had been taking over his mind, and the irony of it all was that he didn't even get his name. Not properly, anyway. The only thing he knew about him was his surname which he just accidentally overheard in the library.

**********

"I wonder if neko-chan's coming over." asked herself as she sat under the big tree behind the school library. Whenever she had time off her library club duties, she always napped underneath the tree. Of course, this meant that she has to hide from her driver, as the latter almost always ended up calling her butler, worried that she had run off somewhere else.

While seated, she looked up to see if the cat she had saved before was already there. Her eyelids felt heavy and soon she drifted into sleep.

**********

"Ah, this is a nice place." Ootori Choutarou told himself as he spotted a big tree beside the school library. The tennis team had a meeting earlier, but they did not have practice that day so he decided to take a break. At the back of his mind, however, he just wanted to see if he can somehow run into the brown-haired boy.

He sat on the grass and put down his bag. Why was that boy always on his mind? It was true that the boy looked really interesting, but he was sure that he didn't feel this way when he met his guy friends. Ootori sighed. He really wanted to know what was happening to him before things got too complicated.

He stretched his hands to relax his muscles, but as he put his hands down, he touched a familiar object. Ootori looked to his left and saw that he was touching a schoolbag – definitely not the one he had. He crawled only to see that he was accidentally close to a sleeping boy – the boy that he had been thinking for a while now. And to make things worst, he was slowly beginning to waken. Ootori stood up quickly.

The boy stared at him sleepily. "What are you doing?"

"Ah... anou, I was about to rest here, but the place's taken so... See you later!" Ootori quickly said before picking up his bag and left.

fixed her uniform and looked at the guy walking away. She was half-dreaming when his scent vaguely caught her attention.

touched her flushed face. It felt warm.

**********

"Shishido-san," Ootori was with doubles partner in the regulars' club room. Ootori's close interaction with the guy was really bothering him that he had decided to Shishido's help. It was a good thing that the rest of the team already went home. He could at least spare himself from further humiliation.

"What is it?" Shishido asked. He was fixing his equipment and putting them neatly inside his tennis bag.

"I'm… a little confused right." And he started narrating every detail about the boy. Shishido stopped fixing his things and listened closely to Ootori's story. When the sophomore was done telling him everything, Shishido was left surprised.

"But you really haven't talked to him, right? I mean, a longer conversation or something?" He asked. Ootori shook his head. Shishido kept silent for a moment, probably thinking of ways to guide his confused friend.

"Wait a minute, you said that the boy kept a locker besides yours? The one on the left?"

Ootori thought for a bit. "No, it's the one on the right. Why did you ask?"

Just then, Shishido stood up. He gasped. "Does this person have short, reddish-brown hair?" He asked. When the silver-haired boy nodded, Shishido laughed, thumping Ootori's shoulder.

"Shishido-san, what is happening? Why are you laughing?" Ootori asked, looking sad and disappointed. Could it be that Shishido-san knew this person he liked? Wait... I like?!?

Shishido finally stopped laughing and tapped Ootori's shoulder. "Choutarou, you're wasting your time worrying about your identity when there's really nothing to worry about in the first place."

Ootori was confused. "What do you mean?"

**********

watched her cousin Yabe Yukari finishing her tall glass of milk shake. She could forget what happened between her and Ootori under that tree, but she was sure that the moment was really intimate for her. Well of course, she was half-asleep that time, but it was as if Ootori's scent is still lingered wherever she went.

"Yukari-chan," called her cousin's attention. The latter looked at her and asked. "What's wrong with your face?"

"I think Ootori Choutarou is avoiding me." She said as she stood up and picked up her guitar.

"Eh?" Yukari blurted. She put down her glass and turned to her cousin who was already busy fixing her guitar's strings.

"Well... we met a couple of times now and it seems that he's avoiding me."

"Did he talk to you?" Yukari asked.

"Yes, but it seems that he's always in a rush or something." She commented, not looking at the girl across her.

Yukari sighed. "He's in the tennis team, so let's assume that he's busy."

"He's not the only person who has extra stuff to do at school, Yuka-chan." commented.

"Well maybe he has other things in mind that time. Wait a minute... Why are you distressed?" Yukari commented, a wicked smile forming on her soft lips. "Don't tell me..."

"Don't think of stupid things. I know it. You can tell if someone's avoiding you or if he's just busy and that he needs to leave right away." defended. "I just want to know him, that's all."

"You like him, don't you?" Yukari commented.

"Why would I like him when I don't know even know him?" shot back.

"You're good at these things, ." The other girl said and she slowly took the guitar from her cousin's hands. "You can easily tell if someone is a good person or not. I don't know if there's an explanation for those things, but yeah. You probably think he's a good guy, that's why you like him."

"Like I said I don't--"

"It doesn't necessarily mean that the fondness you feel for him is love." Yukari interrupted what was about to say. "You probably like him in a platonic way. Now I don't know if you'll eventually fall in love with him–"

"You're digressing." pointed out.

"Right. In any case, you can just ask him about it."

"What?"

"You heard me right. Ask him the next time the two of you see each other in the corridors or whatever. Tell him that you want to be his friend or something."

"That's very forward."

Yukari made a face. "For someone like you who cross-dresses in school, this should be easy."

"I am not cross-dressing!" said, hitting her cousin with a pillow.

"Beh!" Yukari stuck her tongue out, and laughed heartily. Seeing her strong cousin all shook up because of a guy annoyed her, and this was the only thing she could do.

**********

"Are you ready?" The voice was emanating from a sky-blue phone. was fixing her necktie while holding the receiver between her neck and her left shoulder.

"Yes, I'll see you in school." She replied, and put the phone back to the cradle. She looked at her reflection one more time, before picking up her bag and went downstairs.

When stepped out of the car, most of the students who were entering the campus shot a glance at her. Their expressions were a mixture of bewilderment, surprise, and confusion. Some thought that they have to adjust again, because after almost a month or two, was now wearing her real uniform. The white shirt and cream blazer fits her small frame perfectly. Her short, checkered skirt looked good on her, though it failed to cover the ugly scratch on her leg she got a couple of weeks ago. It had healed, however. It would only take short a while for the huge mark to completely disappear.

quickly scanned the campus. She was looking for someone. When she failed to find that particular person, she sighed, and went towards her classroom.

*********

It was late in the afternoon and was busy checking the books at the library. She had her library duties that day and had to do a lot of things.

was checking the computer database when she noticed a tall guy standing in front of the reservation area.

"Can I help—"

"Ah. Hi." Greeted Ootori Choutarou.

"Oh. Hi." She said. stood up and went towards the guy. "What brings you here? I mean, well you're probably going to borrow books or something–"

"Sorry."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Sorry." Ootori said, smiling sheepishly. He looked like as if he made one of the biggest mistakes in the world. "I was a little rude to you a couple of days back."

"Oh. Well... Just forget about it, okay?" said cheerfully. She felt bad a couple of weeks back, but she concluded that it was just one of her bad days. Maybe she was being unreasonable to herself and to Ootori at the time.

"The truth is, I misunderstood everything," Ootori confessed. "I thought you were a guy."

"Eh? But Atobe-san announced..."

"I was out of the country that time, so the message didn't reach me. And... I felt a little awkward after meeting you and... You probably get my drift, don't you?" Ootori said, trying to hide the redness of his cheeks.

stared at him for a moment, and then let out an amused smile.

"You're funny, Ootori-kun."

Ootori smiled back. "Well, I need to correct my mistake, that's why I'm here." He then handed her a small envelope with a ribbon. took it from him, looking at him questioningly.

"Ah. Just a small gift. I heard that there's a certain Japanese band who sings Kyo's songs and they're going to have a concert soon. So... You can bring someone with you. Anyway, I'll be leaving."

"Do you... Do you want to join me? It's a way for us to get to know each other as friends, you know." asked, a hesitant smile on her face, just as soon as Ootori was walking away. He looked at her. She was still smiling, now a little more confidently.

"Mais laisse-moi te dire, En amour on ne sait rien."¹ Ootori murmured to himself as he went towards . He still couldn't say it to her, but he will, soon.

##########

¹ Roughly translated as, "But leave me to say to you that in love, one does not know nothing." This came from the song Comment te dire by the French band, Kyo. Please check the first part of this dream novel for the chorus of this song. Thank you!

I still don't think that this is a very romantic DN. I want the OC and Ootori to be friends first though, although in this DN while the OC was a little shy around him, she's not really aware of her "real feelings." Or whatever. You guys are free to speculate. :3

August 15, 2006 - October 18, 2006
Written by: Megane-ko
Edited by: linchpin