It was currently early in the morning — about 7:30AM. Our main character, Sohma Aristia, the one who is cursed by the Fox spirit, is currently running through the hallways. You may even call it sprinting, if you look it from the average human point of view. But now the question is: WHY is she running through the hallways? Well, that's because today is the day that has love as their signature — Valentine's day.
Today is the 14th of February. For some it's a day to look forward to, and for others, it is a day to dread. In Japan, this day is considered an important day, because not only do they celebrate love, it is also a reminder for them to show their appreciation for their loved ones.
Back to our main character's situation, the red haired girl is currently running away from the members of the Tia Fanclub. It wouldn't be a problem if it were only a handful of young boys and girls, but there was literally a crowd chasing the poor little girl.
Well, you may think that she is the only one who was running for their dear life, but she was soon accompanied by her two favorite volleyball twins — Miya Atsumu and Miya Osamu. Even though, the three of them decided to split up, there came no end to the amount of admirers who appeared in front of them.
The grey haired twin remained his cool, whereas his twin could not. After thinking deeply, Osamu got the smartest idea in his head.
"Tia! 'Tsumu!" The boy yelled through the hallways to get their attention "Follow me!"
Seeing that they didn't had any other ideas, they soon followed the grey haired boy. After some time, they finally arrived at the place where silence is a must and sound is considered a sin — the library. Aristia and Atsumu smirked at the boy's smart idea. They knew that the librarian absolutely detested noise in her second home, and so the three friends hid between the bookshelves in the library.
Soon enough, they heard the loud shouts from the librarian, who was screaming at the members of their fanclubs. The three friends innerly thanked the librarian, so they can now finally live in peace.
"Pfew, that was a close one," the golden haired twin exclaimed.
"Yes, thank you Osamu," Aristia said.
"You're welcome," the boys sighed out of relief "I'm glad they're finally gone,"
"So, are we gonna sit here till class starts?" Atsumu asked no one in particular.
Osamu and Aristia looked at each other and shrugged. "I guess we will,"
Some time passed — about half an hour — and the twins became already sick of pretending to read some random books. On the other hand, Aristia did not. She was just blankly staring at the written pages with a frown on her face and deeply thinking about something or rather someone. Seeing the red haired girl so deep in her own world, made the Miya twins curious.
"What are you thinking about, Tia-chan?" The grey haired twin dared to ask.
Hearing the curious voice of her friend made her come back to her senses. Aristia let out a deep sigh and responded to the boy with a "It's nothing you should worry about, Osamu," and stood up to get another book off the shelves. Even though that was her response, neither the twins nor her were exactly relieved with the answer.
"We know that we're not exact the kind of people who you can talk to if you have a personal problem, but if you want to talk about it, you can always tell Kita-san your problems," Atsumu decided to speak up, in which his twin agreed.
".... I will think about it,"
Some time passed and it was already the end of the school day. Throughout their breaks, they were constantly bothered by someone who wanted to confess their 'love' for their famous friends. Not only did they became tired of it, the ones who were confessed to were also pretty exhausted to put on a fake friendly smile and to constantly repeat the same sentence all over again.
Aristia was the most exhausted out of all of them. Not only did she not properly sleep well, she also had to act extremely 'friendly' to reject all of their confessions, which put her in a rough mood. After school, she actually wanted to go home to sleep, but she was again stopped by some random boys who confessed their 'love' to her.
"I'm sorry, but I can't return your feelings. I'm currently not interested in romance, so I hope you'll find the one, when it's the right time," she repeated her sentence for the hundredth time with a 'friendly' smile on her face.
The boys expressions transformed from an hopeful gaze to an almost teary face. Aristia felt almost sorry for the two young boys in front of her. Almost.
But even though she said those words, the boys didn't, no, couldn't accept her rejection.
"You really think you're the best, right, Sohma-san?" One guy with glasses exclaimed out of the blue.
"Y-Yeah, just because you are pretty, smart and have your own fanclub doesn't mean you are on top of us, normies!" The other shouted.
"You are really arrogant, Sohma-san," the glasses boy smirked.
"Yeah, did your parents never teach you to be humble?" the 'yeah' guy exclaimed.
Both boys gave each other an high five and loudly laughed.
"Are you done?" Aristia asked unbothered. "If yes then I'll go,"
Both boys became furious at the unbothered demeanor of the red haired girl. They wanted to see her usual stoic expression crumble. They were about to touch Aristia's shoulder when someone intervened.
"I hope your parents also thought you to respect each other's personal area, right?" Inarizaki's captain, Kita Shinsuke, exclaimed with a menacing aura surrounding him.
Both boys shrieked from the man in front of them and ran away.
"I sincerely thank you for doing that, Kita-san," the red haired girl exclaimed.
"Shinsuke," the man softly muttered.
"What?"
"Call me by my first name, Shinsuke," Kita seriously said.
"....Why?" Aristia asked with a low voice, bangs covering her face.
"Because only the people who I love can call me by my first name," the man lightly chuckled.
"....What.....?"
"What do you mean?" A now flabbergasted Sohma asked.
"This may not be the best moment to say it, but I want you to know that I love you, Sohma Aristia,"
"I-..."
"I'm sorry, Kita-san," Aristia lowly began. "But, I can't accept your feelings,"
".....What? .....Why?" Kita asked with a shocked expression.
Aristia bit her lip and looked sideways, not daring to look at the man's currently expression.
"Because I don't love you,"
"I actually hate you, Kita-san," Aristia said with full disgust in her voice.
(AN: I recommend you to listen to the Korean song "I don't love you" — Urban Zakapa)
Hearing this statement made the man's world crumble down. He didn't know what to say except for a soft "Sorry" to the red haired girl. The man looked for the last time at Aristia's expression before walking away. He immediately understood her message — "Don't you dare to ever show yourself in front of me" was what her face said. Kita began to slowly walk away and then went into a sprint.
Then out of the blue, the others appeared out of nowhere and ran after their captain. Apparently, they were spying on their captain when they heard that he was finally going to confess to their red haired friend. Akihiko was the first person who ran after his friend. The brunet was soon followed by the other volleyball players and Reiko.
The only one who was left was Ayaka. The blonde was glued to her place from the shock. She couldn't believe her eyes. She couldn't believe that her best friend rejected Kita's confession with much disgust and hate. Since the beginning of the year, Ayaka was observing her dear friend's interaction with Inarizaki's captain. She even saw how happy Aristia looked when she was spending time with him.
Ayaka was about to attack her friend with questions and reasonings, but stopped in her tracks when she saw the sudden change in Aristia's face. Her face turned from disgust and hate to an expression what was full of sadness and pain. Eventually, silent sobs and muffled words echoed through the hallways. The blonde french girl was now beyond confused.
'Why is she crying when she harshly rejected Kita-san?'
Two months ago
"You want to make a deal with ME!?" a now angry Akito asked.
"How dare yo-"
"I know that Kureno-nii's curse broke a long time ago," Aristia exclaimed, which took both Sohma's by surprise.
"So you better listen to my request or I will show everyone your little secret," The red haired girl smirked.
Aristia knew that Akito couldn't say no to her. Letting the other zodiac members show that Kureno's curse broke will give them a shimmer of hope of weakening the curse. Which will eventually lead to the curse being broken.
"Tch, what do you want," the Sohma head asked, trying to calm down his furious self.
"Give me my freedom for two years. After that I will remain by your side forever, Akito-sama,"
"After those two years, I will do everything what you want,"
"I'll become your fox,"
"Okay," Akito easily agreed, which took the red haired girl to a surprise.
"But I'd like to add some terms to fully accept this agreement," the man evilly laughed.
"..... Okay, I'll listen,"
"First, I want you to keep it a secret that Kureno's curse broke," the man seriously said, in which the fox nodded.
"Second, you should stop digging further into your past,"
"Why?" Aristia asked.
"Because I said so!" Akito suddenly shouted that made the fox lowkey scared.
"Okay, was that it?" She softly asked.
"No," the man now evilly smiled.
"At last, I want you to cut ties with all your 'friends' you've made in High School," Akito exclaimed.
This made Aristia's eyes widen.
"W-What do you mean? I already said that I don't have any frie-"
"You know you can't lie to me, my dear little fox," Akito loudly laughed. "I know everything about you,"
Hearing this made the girl shiver. 'Creepy,'
"And what if I won't?" Aristia asked.
"You know what happened to Isuzu and Hatori, right?"
The red haired girl looked down. She didn't want to put her friends in any danger, because of her.
"So do you agree, Aristia?"
"..... Yes, I do, Akito-sama" the girl sighed.
"I'm really sorry, Shinsuke,"
1920 words
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AN: Hello my dear readers~ Thank you so much for reading this chapter! I hope you liked it.
For the readers who listened to the song, I really appreciate your effort! I will explain to you all why I've chosen the song.
So the song is about someone [ Aristia ] sincerely telling someone else [ Kita ] that she doesn't love him (anymore)....
But in this case, I interpreted the song in an different way.
You can also see it as her [ Aristia ] loving him [ Kita ] so much, but she can't have his love, so she is telling herself that she doesn't love him anymore. This is her way of protecting Kita of Akito's wrath....
Please comment, vote and share!
Stay safe and healthy my dear readers~
Lots of love from your author-san <3