Edit: LOL HOLY COW IT'S A JUN AND RENA PICTURE 8D
http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luk0cihETv1qhn7u4o1_250.jpgThank you for all the kind comments everyone~
I sincerely apologize about the delay for this chapter, but I had such a hard time trying to figure out what to do. It took me 4 rewrites to come to this.
T A T
Please enjoy~ And special thanks to Nish for her epic PR skills!
Two Roses Chapter 7“Ju... ri... na?”
Jun remained mute and petrified. The girl stared with wide eyes down at him, mouth parted in surprise. Both seemed unwilling to speak and converse about the issue at hand; the girl because she did not know what else to say, and Jun because he didn’t want anyone else to know about him. In the small likelihood that his former friends actually believed him (Yuko and Haruna were the exceptions. He would be living with them, and they would have eventually believed him with constant observations and conversations if they hadn’t already acknowledged that he was Jurina), there would be a multitude of problems. First of all, he was a man. A man hanging out with an idol forbidden from dating was obviously going to attract a lot of unwanted attention, and he didn’t want to jeopardize his friends’ careers (again, Yuko and Haruna were the exceptions. He would be considered family, after all).
Second of all, if word ever got out to Rena, then any chance of him rebuilding his relationship with her were slim. Rena had always been more down to earth than Jurina ever had, and thus she would never believe that he was Jurina. Not until he proved it to her, anyway. And that was the plan: get close to her as Jun, convince her that he was Jurina, and they would live happily ever after.
If, however, he just blurted out to her, saying he was Jurina, then he could kiss Rena goodbye. Not literally, of course.
That meant the best course of action would be to avoid his friends until he had met up with Rena and spoke with her first, something he was still afraid of doing. He blamed his fear on the fact that his mind was still that of a fourteen-year old’s.
Luckily, his savior came in the form of a sexy and cute goddess.
“Mayu? Mayu, where are you?” a light, gentle voice called out from across the park. The girl in front of Jun jumped and turned to look for the owner of the voice, almost as if she was a puppy obeying the command of her master.
Remembering that the CG idol was not programmed for running, he took advantage of her distraction (a.k.a. Yukirin) and launched himself off the ground, praying that his manly legs would get him out of reach. He heard a surprised shout of indignation behind him, but he didn’t dare look back.
Which was a good and bad thing, though it didn’t prevent him from slamming into a massive man dressed in a black business suit and sporting a pair of dark sunglasses. Jun looked up and choked on air as he became petrified at the man’s stature. Oh God, he had run into a man who looked like he could pound Jun through the nearest wall and toss him effortlessly to the side as if he were nothing more than a rag doll. Upon closer inspection, he realized the man had jagged scars running across the bits of his visible face. He stammered to hack out an apology as the man (whose hair was cut military style) merely waved down at him and walked away.
What. What?
Jun struggled to breathe as his heart pounded relentlessly in his chest. That had not only been a close call... That... That had also been...
He knew that man. Jun twisted his face in concentration and tried to remember. Surely if he remembered being Jurina, he wouldn’t forget a face like that in any lifetime. Then it came to him.
That was the man who had pushed Rena out into the street.
With the realization, Jun whipped his head around and frantically searched for the terrifying man, but he was gone.
---
“Hmmm... I’m kind of hungry. Acchan, Rena, do you guys want to eat?” Takamina asked, blushing slightly as her stomach roared. Atsuko giggled and poked the captain’s growling belly.
“Wherever you’re going, I’ll go too~” the ace grinned. Takamina flushed further.
“S- so, Rena, are you coming?” she stammered out, looking pointedly away from the predator-like grin on her girlfriend’s face. Rena gently smiled at the two of them and shook her head.
“No, thank you. I’ll just walk around a bit,” she told them. “Enjoy yourselves.”
Acchan stopped her flirting and put her serious-face on. “Are you sure? Feel free to come with us! We’re used to third wheels, so don’t feel like you’re intruding.”
Rena knew she’d be feeling like a third-wheel anyway, because she already was now. “No, no. I’m not that hungry,” she politely declined.
“Well... alright,” Takamina conceded. They looked at her for another moment, hoping she’d change her mind. She merely shook her head again. “We’ll be going then. Want us to call you when we’re done?”
Rena agreed and then watched the couple walk away before they were swallowed up by the crowd.
She dropped her false smile and sighed. No matter how hard she tried, looking at her other friends and seeing how happily in love they were gave Rena an uncomfortable feeling of someone strangling her throat.
Would she have had a chance to experience that sort of happiness if Jurina were alive right now?
No, no, she mustn’t have those thoughts. Rena couldn’t afford to have those thoughts. Ignoring the painful constricting sensation in her chest, she concentrated on the roar of her stomach. Takamina had the right idea: it was lunch time after all. With a quick glance around, she spotted a bakery and made her way inside.
---
Hands shaking, Jun winced at the loud ring the bell made as he pushed open the door to the bakery. This was just the place to escape the massive crowd outside and also get something to eat. His stomach had been complaining after his near heart attack, something his heart still beat furiously from. Geez, what were the chances of meeting that man again? And... damn, what if he was imagining it? Maybe he was really going crazy? Because everything else that had happened so far was unreal.
He missed his normal life. Then again, if he recalled correctly, he had thrown his normal life away when Jurina became a part of SKE48. He signed himself up for this.
Heaving a dejected sigh, he trudged over to the treasure trove of delicious pastries and bread hidden beneath shining glass. At least food wouldn’t let him down. He approached the counter and waved over at the attendant. When she didn’t respond, he called out.
“Hey, can I get something over here?”
“Excuse me, can I order?”
… Eh?
Jun turned to his left and felt his heart stop. And as he gazed upon the elegant beauty of Matsui Rena wrapped up in a scarlet scarf and dressed in a warm black jacket, he thought,
I’m really gonna die at this rate. Like, really die. No more coming back to life as the opposite sex. Though if I died at this time and did come back to life, would I come back as a girl? Ah, but then I couldn’t possibly be Jurina because she’s dead, or if I did, then I’d be a zombie or someth-“Ah, I’m sorry sir. Please, go ahead,” Rena smiled at him. Before long, the smile slipped off her face and a look of surprise replaced it. “You...”
Jun braced himself, swallowing heavily and wondering if his face was red or turning blue. Judging by the burning sensation all over his skin, he was probably flushed scarlet. Not that the situation here called for blushing, but it was as if a veil had been removed from his eyes and he was really
seeing Rena for the first time.
“You’re Matsui Jun, aren’t you?” she asked, smiling up at him again.
Jun blinked a couple times.
Then he blinked a little more.
Finally, he dropped the shopping bags in his hands, gripped his hair in one hand, and slapped himself with the other. “Ow, okay, that hurt,” he whimpered. So this was real then.
Rena stared worriedly at his strange behavior. “Are you alright?”
“I... Y- you... aren’t going to say anything about me looking like Jurina?” he asked, incredulous. Rena cocked an eyebrow at the question.
“You may look like her,” she said. “But... you can’t be her, so what’s the point in saying anything?” A bittersweet smile settled across her features and she looked away. Jun gulped, knowing he had screwed up.
“So... how did you know my name anyway?” he questioned, determined to change the subject. Rena started from her reverie, reached quickly into her purse, and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Quickly unfolding it, she thrust it in front of his face.
“I think you might’ve left me a gift that night you took me home,” she grinned. Jun gawked at the sheet.
“This is my information sheet! I wondered where it went! Geez, I must’ve dropped it in... your... house?” His mind registered the entirety of Rena’s sentence. “Wait, you remember me taking you home!?”
She seemed amused at his panic. “Some parts are hazy, but overall, I do remember quite a bit of it. Like your parting gift; I suppose you’ll take responsibility for that?” she smirked.
His jaw hit the floor and his face was burning. This was not what he was expecting from his first encounter with Rena. Perhaps this was a little of Gekikara showing through? “Uh... I... Uh... Y-Yes? M-Maybe? What do you mean by t- taking responsibility?”
“We can start by being friends, right? I look forward to our friendship, cousin of Haruna-san,” she pleasantly stated, offering a hand. Jun had no idea what was going on through Rena’s mind, but nonetheless, he took the hand and shook as a proper gentleman should.
“As do I, Rena-san,” he replied. He cursed the blush that still wouldn’t go away.
Perhaps this was the best possible outcome that he could have expected. After all, Rena didn’t seem too bothered by his appearance, nor was she as depressed as he thought she was going to be. Was his luck finally starting to look up?
“I wonder though... How did Jun-chan even know where I live?”
“E- eh!? That... I mean... ah! I called Haruna-san and asked!”
---
“So... let me get this straight. You accidentally ran into Mayu, yes?”
He nodded.
“And then you ran into the man who killed you?”
He nodded agian.
“After which, you met Rena-san not as Jurina, but as Jun?”
He nodded a third time.
Haruna sighed. “You know, for a person recently deceased, you’d think they’d take a little more time to think about their actions before playing around with their second life.”
“Awww, come on, Nyan-Nyan! Go easy on the kid, will ya? He’s still only a kid at heart, after all,” Yuko smiled, clinging on to her girlfriend at the dining room table. Haruna’s eyebrow twitched.
“Don’t even get me started on you, Yuko, the child who thought it was a good idea to
run through the streets with a pair of boxers over her head.” Yuko immediately shut up. “Anyway, Jun, what are you going to do now? Surely you aren’t planning on telling everyone from your previous life about your true identity, right?” Haruna fixed the boy with a surprisingly hawk-like stare.
“I don’t know, Haruna-san. I don’t know,” he sighed, slamming his head against the table.
...I still don't like how I did that. Oh well. Look forward to more, yes?
Topic: Vanui's OS Collection (WMatsui, CenNezu, AtsuMina) (Read 51141 times)