~Chapter Eleven : Understanding~
~Start~
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"Sorry, Fuyuko." Akito said as he sighed as he moved another chess piece, finishing his turn.
"For what?" Fuyuko answered as he knocked down a white chess piece, replacing it with a black piece.
"For choosing (Y/N) as my master as well." Akito said, thinking of a strategy to use against his opponent, Fuyuko.
"I don't understand why you're apologizing. I don't really mind sharing." The white-haired cat boy said as he looked at Akito with a glint of mischievous in his eyes, however his face was not changing at all. "Besides, when you're around Master, you become less boring. So that's good."
Akito glared at Fuyuko. "Shut up and go die." He said, coldly before turning back to the game. Akito then smirked as he moved a white chess piece, the last move of the game, according to his calculations. "Checkmate."
Fuyuko looked at the game before sighing. "I'm useless when it comes to board games..." Fuyuko said as he lazily leaned on the back of his chair. "I prefer video games a lot more..."
"Useless? Are you joking, right now?" Akito asked as he leaned on his hand. "You're the best opponent I had so far."
"Really?" Fuyuko said, lazily looking at Akito and shrugged. "Well, doesn't matter, anyways. Video games are much more better. No one has beat me in it before."
Akito chuckled slightly at his laziness and fixed the mess they both made. As Fuyuko watched Akito fixed the game though, a memory flashed in his mind about games and sat properly. "Hey, Akito." Fuyuko called.
"What?" Akito said, not looking at him as he kept on fixing the game.
"Has Master mentioned someone to you?" Fuyuko asked, with a serious look. "Someone who you're not familiar with."
This caught Akito's attention and stopped what he's doing to turn and looked at Fuyuko. "Someone?" He asked as he thought about it, trying to dig into his past memories. "I don't really kn-"
"That's what I felt when someone did this to me."
A single sentence echoed in his mind. "Now that you mentioned it..." Akito said, wondering why he did not noticed it before. "She did mention someone...She never told his or her name though."
"That's the first." Fuyuko said.
"First? First what?" Akito asked, raising his eyebrow.
"The first one to beat Master in video games." He said. "I was the second one. Master never answered me when I ask who is it."
Akito hummed, understanding his situation. "Someone from Master's past, perhaps? An old friend? A close relative?" He guessed. "But I feel like we shouldn't interfere with Master's life right now. Maybe we should just ask her when the time is right."
Fuyuko remained silent for a moment, making Akito sense that he was really curious. Fuyuko opened his mouth and spoke up. "Sure." He simply said.
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"What happened to the two of you?" (Y/N) asked as her left eye twitched.
"We're sorry..." Haruki and Natsuki laughed nervously as they apologized.
The story goes on like this, they were in their shared room and called (Y/N) to hang out with her. (Y/N), of course, agreed and the two cat boys waited for the girl to come. Having a problem in sitting still, Natsuki managed to find a ball of yarn and showed it Haruki. The cat senses in their minds switched and began playing with yarn. Unfortunately, they failed to notice that they were ruining the room and causing a lot of mess until (Y/N) entered the room.
Now, they were on their knees, apologizing to their master about what they did with yarn entangled all over their bodies. (Y/N) sighed and smiled at the two, eventually forgiving them since they look really guilty.
"But I'm gonna use this on my project though..." (Y/N) said, the feeling of lazyness coming in. "I don't want to wrap it into a ball again."
"Then, we'll help you, master!" Haruki suggested, smiling.
"Eh? But I don't wa-" Natsuki's whinings was cut off by Haruki who turned around to face him with a forced smile.
"Natsuki-kun. We. Are. Going. To. Help." Haruki said, emphasizing every word as he gave Natsuki a closed-eyed smile that somehow sended shivers on Natsuki's spine.
"...Yes...Yes, we are..." Natsuki said, a sweat dropped on his forehead upon realising now that he was actually the one who found the yarn in the first place.
"Thanks, Haruki, Natsuki." (Y/N) said. "But we'll do that later. Thankfully, I have spare yarns under my bed so can you get it for me?"
"Gladly." Haruki smiled as he stood up, grabbing his doll. "Come on, Natsuki-kun."
"Right behind you." Natsuki said as he stood up with a smile.
They proceeded to walk towards (Y/N)'s room and opened it. Since they want to anger their master any further, they went to look under her bed. But instead of finding the said yarn, they found a medium-sized box instead. "Maybe it's in the box?" Natsuki said, getting the box out under the bed.
As they opened it, they indeed saw a bunch of yarns and other stuff inside it. They took about three ball of yarns, all the while trying to control themselves from playing with it. Haruki then noticed something in the box, a picture frame. He couldn't see the picture so gently moved out some objects that is covering it. Haruki then got it on his hands to get a better look.
It was a picture of a little boy in the age of five or six, smiling brightly at the camera. But he was no ordinary boy, he was a cat person.
(Candy drew this picture and she knows that she's not the best artist so please don't roast her drawing on the comments （ ｉ _ ｉ ）but she hopes that you like it and if it's really bad, you can ask her to stop posting drawings.)
Natsuki, curious of what Haruki got took a look at the picture as well. "Haruki, isn't that you?" Natsuki pointed out.
Haruki turned to Natsuki, as if asking if he's joking or not. "Of course not, Natsuki-kun." He said, sighing. "He may have the same eye and hair color as I do but there's no way that's me."
Natsuki scracthed the back of his head. "Yeah, I guess so, my bad..." He said and turned back to the photo. "This guy's hair is a bit darker though and I just can't picture you doing that kind of post..."
"Me too..." Haruki said. "But, he's a cat person...It makes me wonder who this person is? He looks like a wonderful person..."
"Maybe we should ask Master about this." Natsuki said and Haruki nodded in agreement.
"But not now." Haruki said as he placed the picture frame back in the box, gently. "Let's focus on what Master told us to do first."
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"Waah~ it's snowing~!" Natsuki cheered as his eyes brightened and his cheeks flushed as he stared at the fragile white snowflakes drop down from the evening sky.
"Hey, Natsuki! Close that window, it's freezing." Akito scolded, but he doesn't to be bothered by the cold at all. He didn't even looked up from the book he was reading but slightly covered his face with it, instead. "Also, master's getting cold..."
"Eh? Really? So sorry~" Natsuki apologized as he closed the window.
"Ah, no, it was fine, I didn't mind it, though it is cold." (Y/N) said as she sipped her hot chocolate. "You can open it again if you like, Natsuki."
"Nah, it's okay. I like snow cause they're pretty but I'm not really a big fan of the cold." Natsuki said as he shivered and hugged himself. He went over to sofa where there was a big fluffy blanket and wrapped himself around it.
"U-Um...Master, you can have this if you're cold..." (Y/N) heard the familiar gentle shy voice and turned towards it and saw Haruki smiling at her with a slight blush on his cheeks. On his hand was a knitted (Favorite Color) scarf. "I-I made it myself..."
(Y/N)'s eyes shoned, impress by what he made. "Woah! Really!?" She exclaimed. "It's so well knitted! How are you so talented, Haruki!?"
Haruki widened his eyes and hugged his doll as his other hand played with his bangs. "I-I'm not...I just knitted that's all, and that's because of you, master." He said, softly. "I didn't know how to knit before but when you taught me...I instantly got so interested in it that I didn't realise I already made a scarf."
"But still though...Even if I was the one who taught you how to knit, you've gotten pass my league! I can't even make these stuff yet..." (Y/N) said, putting on the scarf. She leaned her head on it and smiled. "Yeah, it's really warm. Thanks, Haruki!"
Haruki looked down with a blush but with a smile. "...You're welcome..." He whispered and yawned. "I'm a bit sleepy, though..."
(Y/N) giggled and pat Haruki's head because of his cuteness, but looked around and noticed something missing, or more like someone. She turned to the other cat boys, who were minding there own business. "Um, where's Chikage?" (Y/N) asked.
"Don't know. Don't care." Natsuki replied as he played with a ball of yarn. (Y/N)'s eye twitched in his reply but decided to let it slip.
"No clue." Akito said, not looking away from his book. (Y/N) sighed and looked at Haruki who looks very sleepy but tensed up when he noticed her look. Understanding (Y/N)'s look, Haruki shook his head, signalling he also has no clue, before he hugged his doll.
"Owthhide."A short muffled answer from Fuyuko's mouth came as he mashed the buttons on the game controller, intensely. All the while, chewing on a piece melon bread in his mouth. (Y/N) tilted her head in confusion as she couldn't really decipher what he said.
Fuyuko, understanding her confusion, finally swallowed the piece of melon bread and began speaking again in a more understanable way. "Outside." He said again. "He went outside earlier. I don't really know where he'll go cause I didn't really interacted with him."
"Eh? But it's freezing outside..." (Y/N) said, softly with concern lingering in her voice.
"It's fine, master." Akito said as he finally looked up from his book. "He's part cat so I don't think that he'll get cold easily."
"But even so..." (Y/N) stood up and grabbed her coat, which caught the attention of the four cat boys. "I'm gonna go and find him."
"What!? But master, it's as you said, it's freezing outside!" Akito said.
"I know but I'm really worried, you know?" (Y/N) said as she fixed her coat around her body.
"Then, we'll go with you, master~!" Natsuki suggested, happily.
(Y/N) looked at them. "I know that Natsuki is bad with the cold, Akito will surely get sick, Haruki looks sleepy, and Fuyuko...looks too busy with games." She said.
Natsuki flinched and his smile twitched. "Busted..." Natsuki muttered.
Haruki snapped out of his, indeed, sleepy state and panicked. "A-Ah...T-That's not true! I'm perfectly awake!" Haruki suggested but couldn't keep his yawn in and immediatly covered his mouth.
"How did you..." Akito trailed off, confusion consumed him as he wonders how the girl knew about his weak immune system. He then shook his head turned to a certain white haired cat boy. "Hey, Fuyuko! Back me up he-"
He cut himself off as he saw that Fuyuko was indeed too busy to even respond. Akito's eye twitched and massaged the bridge of his nose.
"Besides, I need someone to watch the house for me." (Y/N) said, finally putting on a pair of boots. She turned to Akito, who was irritated, and smiled at him. "Please?"
Akito's face began to turn into a darker shade of pink and looked away in panic. "Ah! Fine! Master is such an idiot!" He yelled as he stomp away from her.
(Y/N) giggled as she found Akito's little outburst quite adorable and thanked everyone. She then opened the front door, only to shiver at the cold wind. (Y/N) took a deep breath before stepping out of the house, embracing the coldness.
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(Y/N) panted as five minutes of looking around and there was still no sign of black-haired cat boy. As she panted, she made a mental note to herself to exercise her body more. However, despite (Y/N)'s body being a little fatigue, she did not gave up on finding the cat boy.
(Y/N) kept on looking around for another ten minutes in different places she never gone to check. With a disappointed sigh, she turned around to go to another place. However, on her way there, she was met by a familiar cat boy.
"Chikage! There you are!" (Y/N) exclaimed happily, as she finally found the cat boy she was looking for.
Chikage looks suprised but turned to the other side as if trying to hide something from (Y/N). "Chikage? What's wro-" (Y/N) gasped as she looked down.
Tiny drops of blood was falling into the white snow below him, one by one. It looks like it was coming from Chikage's right arm. (Y/N) walked towards him but Chikage backed away. "Show me." (Y/N) said with a slight demanding voice.
Chikage bit his lips. "It's...None of your business..." He said, coldly.
However, the coldness of his tone didn't faze (Y/N) at all. She looked at Chikage sternly. He was slightly pail and was breathing heavily, all the while shivering in the cold. "Chikage, show me." (Y/N)'s tone began to turn soft. "Please. Let me help you..."
Chikage's lips twitched and narrowed his eyes. After a while, he finally gave in and gave (Y/N) the full sight of his right arm. (Y/N) widened her eyes as she saw the sleeve of it, ripped and that a giant slash was visible. Blood was coming out of it and Chikage's other hand was trying to stop it from bleeding.
(Y/N) quickly tried to find something in her pockets to help with his injury but found only a handkerchief in one of her pockets. She bit her lips from the lack of materials but guessed that it will do. (Y/N) wrapped the handerchief around his wound, hoping it'll stop the bleeding or atleast just stop it from dripping.
"How did you get this?" (Y/N) asked as she fixed the handkerchief in his arm. Nervous sweat was forming in her forehead because she doesn't actually know what to do for now.
"...A car hit me..." Chikage said, flinching.
"What!? Did you see it's plate number? Atleast the driver?" (Y/N) asked as she helped Chikage return to their home.
"No...The car didn't stop at all..." He said.
(Y/N) widened her eyes in horror and looked around. "Chikage, why didn't you immediatly go back home?" She asked. "This is not the way home, you know..."
"It's fine..." Chikage said, getting weaker. "My master...Endured a lot more pain than this...Because of me..."
As (Y/N) help him walk towards home, she listened well to what he was saying. "...I guessed...I deserve this..." Chikage said. "My master died...Because of me...So...Wouldn't it be fair if I die too...?"
(Y/N) gasped at what he said. "Chikage! That's not true! You're not gonna die!" She said. "I won't let you die..."
However, Chikage seems to be in his own world right now and (Y/N) looked around for help. Then, she saw a familiar car about to go to them and (Y/N) smiled in relief. It was her mother's car. She waved for her mother desperately and the car stopped, her mother coming out.
"What happened!?" She asked, kneeling down.
"Mommy...Please help Chikage..." (Y/N) said, desperately.
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"Here you go, Chikage, drink some milk." (Y/N) offered as she placed a glass of milk in front of Chikage who's arm was now bandaged properly.
"Thank goodness it wasn't that deep..." (Y/N) said, laughing as she scratched the back of his head with a tint of pink on her cheeks. "I panicked so much! I feel kinda embarassed..."
The other cat boy was in the kitchen as well, drinking their own glasses of milk. "Good thing Master's mother is a doctor..." Akito said. "If she didn't know what to do, it might've resulted into an even more serious injury..."
"Yeah...Hey, Chikage?" (Y/N) turned to the black haired cat boy who was not touching the glass of milk at all. She stared at him and sat down across from him. "You know, I kinda got a good idea of what happen to your master..."
Chikage flinched but looked down. "And...I just want to say...I'm sorry..." (Y/N) said. "I know, I can't do anything to bring your master back but...lighten up, okay?"
(Y/N) smiled brightly at him. "Your master probably wants you to move on by now and live a happy life..." She said, trying to cheer him up. "So, what do you sa-"
Everyone was then suprised and shocked at what happened. Chikage aggressively stood up from his seat with an angry look on his face, knocking the glass of milk down. Before (Y/N) knew it, she felt a sharp pain on her left cheek and she realised that Chikage just scratched her. The impact was so strong that she actually fell from her seat.
"Master!" The four boys quickly rushed over to their fallen master, who was slowly getting up.
"DO YOU THINK IT'S THAT EASY!?" Chikage yelled, his red eyes were widened in rage. "ARE YOU SAYING THAT I SHOULD FORGET ABOUT MY MASTER!?"
"YOU DON'T KNOW A THING! YOU DON'T KNOW THE PAIN OF LOSING SOMEONE IMPORTANT TO YOU!" Chikage yelled as (Y/N) and the other cat boys stare at him. "DON'T TALK LIKE YOU UNDERSTAND ME BECAUSE YOU DON'T!"
Chikage panted because of how much he screamed. (Y/N) felt something trickling down her cheek, it was blood from the scratch she just received. Fuyuko was the first one to see it and widened his eyes in anger. He stood up, clenched his fist, and was about to land a blow on Chikage but (Y/N) clinged to him, in order to stom him.
"No, don't!" (Y/N) said. Fuyuko looked at her, hesistating if he should follow her or not. Soon, he lowered down his fist and looked down.
(Y/N) turned to Chikage, who was still seemingly angry. "Chikage...I understand...I'm sorry." She said as she gave him a smile. "I won't bother you anymore..."
She turned to the other cat boys. "I'll just fixed this wound." (Y/N) said. "You guys stay here."
With that she left, Akito turned to Chikage in anger. "How dare you do that to our master!" He said. "She was just trying to help you!"
Chikage 'tch'ed. "What? So that I'll become one of her cat boys too? So that I'll become an idiot like the four of you!?" He said. "You four are such idiots! Falling for her words like that! You can replace your master that easily!? I thought you were loyal cat boys!?"
"We were." Akito said, sternly. "But we weren't lucky like you."
"Tell me, Chikage. Have your master ever humiliated you? Used you? Betrayed you? Abused you?" Akito said and paused for a moment to wait for Chikage's answer. However, the black haired cat boy only bit his lip. "See? You didn't felt any of those. You bathe in warmness and kindness everyday you spent with your master."
"We tried to be loyal. We really did. But we tried too hard that we physically couldn't anymore." Akito said. "We wanted a master like yours. Gentle, kind, and understanding."
"And we found all of those traits in (Y/N)-san." Akito said. "Now, do you need more reason?"
Chikage clenched his fist as the four cat boys look at him. He was about to say something when a voice stopped him.
"The atmosphere looks to be really bad in here..." A woman said.
The cat boys look to the direction where the voice was heard and saw (Y/N)'s mother smiling sadly at them. "Ms. (L/N)..." They all exclaimed.
"May I interrupt for awhile?" She asked. "I'll just tell a little story..."
The cat boys slowly nodded and each sat down on a chair. She smiled and took out a picture, making Natsuki and Haruki widen their eyes. "That's the picture we saw the other day, right?" Natsuki whispered to Haruki.
"Yeah..." Haruki said.
The woman smiled sadly. "This is Imai Chihiro."
"(Y/N)'s first ever cat boy and best friend."
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~End~
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A/N :
Shoot, this took awhile （；￣ェ￣） ! Anyways, I'm sorry because I just expirience some kind of amnesia and forgot my ideas for this chapter (._.) .
I wanted to think of an idea for this chapter so what I did is that I stayed extra long in the bath tub （≧∇≦）I was too busy thinking of an idea that I didn't notice how hot the water is.
When I finally came up with an idea (which was this one) I came out of the bath tub but began to feel dizzy. Now, the thing is, I'm not allowed to stay in a hot place for a long period of time but in this case I didn't notice how hot it was. So, before I knew it, I, uh...Passed out in the bathroom (._.)
I know it's stupid, but that's actually not the first time I passed out in the bathroom （≧∇≦）I woke up in my room with my mother cooling me down （≧∇≦）
And that's how it went~! Hope you guys love this chapter~!
(Cause I seriously placed a lot of effort on this one)
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**Please Wait Patiently For The Next Chapter, Nya~**