Pink

A week later she was asked by her mother to answer the phone. “I don’t know who it is, but he has a nice and charming voice,” was all Hinamori-san said to her daughter before hiding herself in the kitchen. It was Sunday morning and all family members were at home. Amu took the receiver and pressed it to her ear. “Hello?” actually she was eager to know who it could be, since her mom could recognize everyone of her older daughter’s friend by their voices. And then she heard the very voice she thought she would never hear by the phone. “Thanks God, you’re at home, Amu! I need your maternal instinct”. Well, if to say that Amu was surprised, it would be a underestimating. The girl was totally shocked after those last words. “What nonsense are you saying?! And how did you know my phone number?!” she exclaimed in a slight aggression. “In the phone book, where else do you think? You have never been so kind to give it to me personally”. She just could imagine him rolling his eyes at the moment as he usually did in similar situations. “In any rate…” he continued, “you have to help me. I don’t know how to treat children”. What was he telling? Did he have a child or what? But as far as she knew, he wasn’t married…maybe he was divorced then? Or…wait! What was she thinking? “But I believe, you told me that you loved kids,” her voice sounded teasingly. A heavy sight echoed in the phone-tube. “It’s absolutely another case. My address is Hijikata Toshizou Street, 5/115. Please, come as soon as possible”. “W-wait! I never said that I would come!” “I’ll be waiting. Good-bye!” And before she could utter another word, he hag up. The girl looked at the tube in her hand in amusement. “What was it just all about?”

OooooO

He lived at an apartment, but that apartment was almost the same size as her whole house, since it was located in an elite area of the city. Hinamori’s eye twitched. She still couldn’t believe that she had actually come. “What am I doing?” she dropped her forehead on her palm while standing in an elevator, waiting for her stop. “Anything is on your mind, young Miss?” she heard an elderly voice addressing to her. The girl opened her eyes and glanced at the owner of that voice. It was a woman in her late 50s. It looked like she was an elevator operator. The woman was smiling at her kindly. “Nothing, actually,” was Amu’s quite reply. “Just thinking”. “You look troubled. Something’s bothering you, dear.” Was this woman a spy or something? Why was she interrogating her? Amu didn’t like when strangers were too interested in her life. But a sudden idea lit in her mind. And she asked politely: “Excuse me, how long do you work here?” “5 years”. “I know that it may sound strange, but you might know all the tenants here?” The woman was listening attentively to what the girl was trying to say. “Do you know Tsukiyomi Ikuto, that lives in # 115?” The operator’s face brightened when she heard the name. “Of course I do! He is a very nice and attentive young man, always ready to give a helping hand to those who are in need. He is a rare type of a man nowadays, unfortunately. Tsukiyomi-san even managed to find out about my Birthday and greeted me with a gift!” the woman’s face was shining like a diamond from pleasant remembrances. Amu was a little surprised. She thought that he would be spoken as a strange and mysterious guy with his own vision of the world, but all she could utter after hearing such wonderful description, was “oh”. “And I assume, that you want to become a singer, young Miss. You are on the right path. Tsukiyomi-san is a profy when it comes to show-business. And with your appearance and gracefulness you will reach the top very soon!” the woman exclaimed enthusiastically, making the girl feel uneasy. If to be honest, Hinamori was so amused by those words, that she didn’t know what to answer. But to her great luck, the elevator’s doors had opened and with a quick “thank you” she sneaked out of the small cabin. When she reached a door to a certain someone’s apartment, Amu stopped her hand from pressing the door-bell. Really, what was she doing here? Why was she letting herself getting involved with his problems? No, it was absolutely a bad idea to come here. He was the person who spoiled her favourite high-boots! But then again, he was also the one, who took her out of that green labyrinth and then accompanied her to the opera…not mentioning, that he cured her form that terrible depression. At first she didn’t notice it, but then it became as clear as water: he really helped her back then just by being with her during her not-so-happy day-off. Amu’s eyebrows knotted in frustration. “OK, just this ones,” she told herself and pressed the door-bell, that sounded like a piece of some classical composition. The door opened in a few seconds, revealing a very exhausted face of the owner of the apartment. Amu was taken aback. She had never seen him in such bad condition: pale skin, blank eyes, and it looked like he got even slimmer than he was before. If you add some thick mascara around his sparkless eyes, he would become a perfect version of a Goth. “You came after all,” he said with a half of a smile on his lips. “Please come in and feel yourself at home”. She stepped inside unsurely and took off her fur-hat, smoothing her long pink locks. And he witnessed as those beautiful strands fell on her shoulders like long threads of pink beads. If only he had a chance to touch them and make sure that they were as soft as they looked like. “You know, you look terrible,” she spoke, placing her eyes on him. “Yeah,” the young man ran his fingers through his thick hair. “I haven’t had much sleep lately”. That answer surprised her, but she didn’t say anything. Instead of that, she heard his gentle voice again. “Let me take your fur-coat”. “No, it’s alright. I came only for 5 minutes,” was her quick reply. “Ok, I will give it back to you in 5 minutes”. He was stubborn. Amu unwillingly unbuttoned her upper-clothes and felt as he laid his hands on her shoulders from behind. He took her fur-coat carefully and hung it in the dresser. Then he spun around and faced the lady of his heart with a serious expression. “I have a problem and I need your help”. She sighed, trying to look indifferent. “Yeah, you’ve told me about it earlier. So, where is your child?” the last words were said in a teasing manner, but to her great surprise he didn’t fight back, but just asked her to follow him. Could it be that he really had a child? Hinamori glanced at him from the corner of her eye. He was still so young…he once told her that he was 23. Well, it meant that he was old enough to have a child…or even children. Amu shook her head to clear it from stupid thoughts. Why did it bother her so much in the first place? They passed a long corridor and walked in a huge room with a very bright pink-coloured leather sofa in the middle, that was standing with its back facing them. Amu couldn’t believe her eyes. The room was in silver and grey colours, high-tech colours if to be correct, and that bright object looked like a challenge to those designers who had decorated the apartment. “He is here,” she heard the young man’s voice again, as he walked to the sofa and bent over it, putting his hands on his knees for support. Hinamori was wavering, but she griped herself together and made several confident steps towards the pink element of décor. When its seat came into a view, the girl gasped in terror. There she saw a little black kitten that looked like it had fallen from the 10th floor. Its eyes were spiral-shaped, a tongue was hanging from its mouth and its fur was all tangled and crumpled up. “What have you done to it?!” she cried and took the animal in her hands. An almost lifeless body stretched out on her palms, not producing a single sound. “You are a heartless monster!” she sent him a furious glare. “It really hurts to hear those words coming from your lips, Amu,” Ikuto said calmly laying his amethyst eyes on the younger girl. She frowned. He did it again—put her in an awkward situation. “His name is Yoru,” he added nonchalantly. Her gaze fell automatically on the fur-ball in her hands. “He looks even worse than you,” Amu pointed out with reproach. “I guess he is not used to travel by plane”. “You mean, you took him abroad? Are you crazy?! He is still too small for that!” She was lecturing him as if he was some kind of a kindergartener. Ikuto glued his gaze to her pretty face and spoke very seriously. “I couldn’t leave him alone in France, that’s why I took him with me, but my schedule was too busy, so we had no other choice but travel together”. She chuckled sarcastically. “Ha! And where have you been to then?” “China, Greece, Germany, Italy and now Japan,” he counted by his fingers. Amu’s eye rounded in amusement. She looked at the man the same way people usually look at phenomena. She slowly sat on the sofa beside Tsukiyomi, still being under affect of his words. Her face showed nothing but a total astonishment. “I wonder how he is still alive…” she muttered, glancing at the cat at her lap. “I had no other choice”. “You could have leave him in France, there could have been a solution, in any rate, he would have looked better than he is now”. “Yeah? And how could I actually do that when he got attached to my chest like a second skin?” They fell silent. An atmosphere of slight aggravation was dancing in the air before the girl started to speak again. “Did you feed him?” “He doesn’t eat anything”. “I just can’t believe it!” she through her forehead on her palm dramatically. “ Why didn’t you show him to a veterinarian?” there was a lecturing tone in her voice again. “Because I came back to Japan this night,” he answered tiredly. Amu sighed in defeat. Tsukiyomi was a really strange person. As the elevator operator had noted, he was ready to give a helping hand to anyone who needed it, but then he didn’t think about the consequences that very help could lead to. Just look at this poor kitten and you will understand what we mean. “Ok, bring me a glass of water,” she ordered after a minute of silence. To her great unexpectedness he didn’t say anything or fight back, but stood up and headed to the kitchen. While he was absent, Amu took a pill against travel sickness out of her bag and when Ikuto returned with a glass of crystal clear liquid in his hand, she dropped a pill in it. “What’s this?” he arched a dark eyebrow, watching as the pill started to melt in the water slowly. “It will help to stop the nausea”. She answered knowingly. “Bring me a syringe”. “I don’t have any,” was his surprised reply. She looked up at him and rolled her eyes dramatically. “You are so helpless, then go and buy it”. And he did it without hesitation. She watched as he walked out of the room, put his coat on and left the apartment without any other word. When he left, Amu stayed in the living-room with a sick kitten at her lap. At first it was ok, but then she started to feel a creepy feeling of loneliness. The room was too big and it made her feel really small ad unprotected. Besides, it was almost empty and colourless. The only bright object was this pink leather sofa that, somehow, helped not to fall into a deep and gloomy depression. “I wonder if he feels the same way as me,” she looked around once again. No, there was absolutely nothing special that could catch your eye in this room. This pink sofa was like a saving island from some another, brighter world. To her mind, it was the only “live” thing in this room. Her musings were interrupted by the click of a door-knob. A second later a handsome young man appeared in the room. His midnight hair was covered with a thick layer of white snow. “Nice timing,” the maiden said indifferently, taking the syringe from his outstretched hand. He watched carefully as she filled the syringe with a medicine, that she had made earlier, and poured it into the kitten’s mouth slowly. The animal made several gulps before throwing his pink tongue out of his mouth again and pretended to be dead. “Will he be alright?” the young producer asked with concern, bending over the girl’s form, to get a better look of his pet. Amu didn’t notice it, since her head was still lowered due to the procedure she was busy with. “Let’s wait. We will see the result in 15-20 minutes. It’s a good medicine, it always helps me when I’m sick,” she told him, finally lifting her head from its current position. And when she did it, she found herself staring in the tired violet eyes, that were looking at her with a sad smile hidden in them. She didn’t know why, but she couldn’t avert her gaze from his mirrors of soul somehow. Then she felt his warm breath on her cheeks. It was like velvet touching her skin. An unwanted blush appeared on her face, she didn’t notice it though. But to her great regret, the musician straightened himself and broke their eye contact by doing so. He sighed deeply and uttered, running his fingers through his hair. “Ok. I’m very grateful for your help. If to be honest, I don’t know what I would have done without you. You may go now, I don’t want to spoil your day-off.” She heard his every word and the last phrase made her chuckle in disbelief. “You know, Tsukiyomi-san, you have already spoiled my day-off, so don’t try to push me away since I won’t leave a poor ill animal with someone who can’t take care of himself in the first place!” And the girl crossed her arms on her chest, glaring at him with challenge in her golden eyes. If to be honest, he was taken aback by her little outburst. And what did she mean by those last words? Ikuto sent her a short glance of amusement, and to his surprise she answered his mute question right away. “Judging by your look, one may thing that you have been suffering from insomnia for a long time now,” she told him arrogantly, lifting her nose in the air. “Not insomnia, Amu,” he breathed out, letting his lips form in a brief smile, “I’d call it a lack of sleep due to time and climate difference between countries I’ve been to recently”. “What does it matter anyway? The result is on your face”. “I’m very flattered that you care about my health this much,” he showed her a handsome smile, that turned into a cheeky smirk the next second. “You will become an ideal wife, Amu-chan”. But instead of saying something mean in return, she lowered her eyes and fell silent for a moment. Then her lips moved to say: “I don’t know if I ever become a wife,.. but at least I can take care of a sick person”. He didn’t need to think twice to notice that his words wounded her. Ikuto was sure that the reason of her distress was straightly connected to that blond guy. His jaw squared visibly. The vision of her saddened face brought an unbearable pain to his heart. Her love for that Tadase-kun was like a castle built on sand. There were promises, the future was planned, and she hung on to the castle on sand, but like any other building without a foundation, it just corrupted. And it happened because of the guy’s indifference to the girl’s feelings. Was he blind or just pretended to be one? How couldn’t he see that she was suffering from loving him? Ikuto looked away in irritation. How he wanted to beat that too-sweet face of a certain heart-breaker. But the most oppressive fact was that she didn’t pay any heed to his--Ikuto’s feelings. Or maybe she just didn’t want to. Ah, life was cruel… He did try to show his affection towards her, but he did it very carefully in order not to scare her. The man was reproaching himself with his hesitations. He was known as a confident person with a strong will-power and discretion. He had never been afraid of making a first step into uncertainty. And that’s why the young producer was almost angry with himself for being absolutely out of his character. It seemed that he unconsciously changed the paradigm and now didn’t know how to turn into his usual self. But on the other hand, something was stopping him from making those fateful moves. Ikuto was out of spirits due to his tangled and discrepant thoughts, which materialized in a dark aura around him. A black rose of misery started to bloom in his heart, making the atmosphere around him become more and more heavy. He was absorbed in his mental debates so much that he didn’t notice as Amu stood up, laid the kitten on a sofa and walked to the doorway. Only after several attempts of asking him something, she got a reply. “Sorry, I…got carried away. What did you say?” he questioned her, offering an apologetic smile. She rolled her eyes artistically, blowing a strand of fore-hair off her eyes. “I’d call it spacing out. I asked you to show me your kitchen”. His eyebrows arched synchronically to that statement, as he looked at her in wide-eyed astonishment. “Why?” “Because I am surrounded by 2 sick creatures in this room and my conscience just can’t let me watch how you two are helping each other to die slowly”. “But I thought that you wanted to leave in 5 minutes,” he parried not believing that she actually wanted to spend some more time with him. “I won’t leave until I make sure that the kitty is safe and sound, and while the medicine is working, I’m going to land some vital strength to Yoru’s apology for a daddy. So, Tsukiyomi-san, will you walk me to the kitchen?” she said with a triumphal grin on her lovely face. Oh, so that was the matter. She decided to stay only because of a kitten. Yeah…life was indeed cruel. The amethyst-eyed man sighed and headed towards the door, walking past the pink-haired maiden. “Follow me,” he said somehow dryly. “How do you orienteer in this apartment? It’s so huge!” Amu asked while walking behind the owner of the place. “Don’t you get lonely by staying here all alone?” She didn’t know why she asked him that question. But she felt like she wanted to learn more about this stoic person. Hmm, stoic wasn’t the right word to describe him. He was very active and playful when it concerned her person, but in a public he held himself aloof. “Utau visits sometimes,” was his simple reply. But Hinamori could see the hidden meaning behind those words. He did feel lonely after all. Utau was married now and she lived apart from her family, so that meant that he was the only tenant in this giant flat. “Here is the kitchen,” he said finally, walking into another room with the best conveniences and devises a kitchen could ever dream of. “Emm…and how I suppose to cook in this laboratory?” she uttered with a sweat-drop on her temple. “I wonder if you have ever used it before”. Ikuto turned his head and gifted her with an incomprehensive look. “Why? I use it every day”. It was the last thing she was ready to hear as an answer. Her amusement had no limits, but she forced herself not to show her confusion in front of the midnight-haired young man. “Ok. Now, you may go to the living-room and watch after the kitty”. She walked past him and starting roaming through the wall-cabinets. And he watched as she continued her observation, opening one cabinet door after another. A dangerous yet pleasant thought sneaked like a thief into his mind. He imagined that she was a married woman who bustled about in the kitchen only to make a delicious dinner for her beloved husband. A genuine smile touched his lips while his eyes carried a gentle gaze. It would be lovely if that little fantasy of his happened for real. “What are you going to cook?” His sudden question took her off guard. She jumped on the place she was standing from unexpectedness and turned her head sharply to look at him over her shoulder. “You are still here? I thought I told you to go and check the kitten’s condition,” she lectured him for his disobedience, knotting her thin pink eyebrows. The vision made his smile even wider. She was something. The young man chuckled soundlessly and answered in a light tone, turning to leave. “Hai-hai, Hime-sama”. “Weirdo…” she whispered watching him walking down a long corridor. To her great luck, she found all ingredients she needed to make her fare. When Amu returned to the living-room with a silvery tray in her hands, she stopped on her tracks due to the scene she became a witness of. Tsukiyomi was sitting on the pink sofa fast asleep. His head was lying on the back of the sofa, turned to left a little. The features on his face were calm and peaceful and she could swear she saw him smiling in his sleep. The girl didn’t know why her own lips turned into a brief grin. He looked so boyish right now and much younger his age. Her heart started beating faster at the thought. She needed to wake him up, but at the same time she didn’t want to disturb his slumber. It must have been exhaustion that forced his body to fall asleep when he had a guest in the house. She lowered her head in musing of what to do in that situation since she had to wake the producer up, when something black caught her eyes. Amu’s head snapped up and she noticed that the kitten was playing actively with a string on the man’s long sleeve. And that man didn’t even feel that his hand had been scratched and bit by his pet. Amu was so glad that the animal got better so fast that she exclaimed happily: “So you have finally recovered, you little rogue!” The girl put the tray on the low glassy table and walked to the sofa. The kitty wasn’t just hunting after Tsukiyomi’s hands, but it also tried to play with his hair by jumping on the young man’s chest and shoulders. Hinamori watched the scene and couldn’t but get amazed that the owner of this apartment didn’t even stir in his sleep while the cat was playing with his hair standing on his shoulder just on its two paws. “He must be really tired after those exhausting business trips…” the maiden’s features softened. She needed to wake him up, but at the same time she understood that she had no right to disturb his peaceful slumber. And so, Amu decided to let him be. She walked closer to the sofa to take the cat away, so that it wouldn’t bother its master with its playing and jumping around. Her golden eyes fell on the man’s face as she bent down to take the kitty in her hands. Unconsciously to herself, she started examining his regular features, though they looked quite manly at the same time. But what surprised her the most was the fact that he had a very calm and boyish expression when he slept. Well, she had never seen him that close before, but when he was in a public, he looked older than now. He was a producer after all, a director of his own music centre to that. There is nothing to be surprised of that he tried to build up a stoic façade. He really was a little too young to bear such responsibility as producing a famous pop-star who just happened to be his own sister. A sudden feeling of loneliness ran through her body when she thought about his lonely life in this huge abode again. She didn’t want to pity him but couldn’t fight her kind nature. With a heavy sigh, she closed her eyes and opened them again. She shouldn’t interfere in his mysteries. He was a stranger to her after all, a little lunatic person with his own style of living. Amu shook her head to clear her thoughts. While watching his sleep, the pink-lover got so carried away that she had absolutely forgotten about her kind intention to free the ‘sleeping handsome’ from the irritant. The young maiden didn’t even notice that all her thoughts were attached to a certain amethyst-eyed person that liked to tease her and play on the strings of her nerves so professionally. And when the realization fell on her poor head, she got so distracted and mad with herself for feeling something unusual towards the man. So, she took the active kitten in her hands and tried to straighten herself, but Amu wasn’t a person who could boast about her good luck. Her legs got tangled with Tsukiyomi’s long ones and the next second she fell flat on his chest with a yelp. The cat made it in time to jump out of her hands or else it could have become a victim of an accident. Ikuto’s eyes flew open from unexpectedness and a sudden weight on his body. His mind was still fogged after a pleasant dream that he was watching. His amethyst eyes fell on a reddish face of the main heroine of his fantasies, that was half-lying on his chest with her arms on every side from his figure. In a moment like this, he really wanted to know if he was still dreaming or not. Amu witnessed a shocking scene. His clouded eyes cleared instantly and a bright and playful smile appeared on his handsome face. The mirrors of his very soul showed a seductive gaze, yet it was gentle and intriguing at the same time. And the next moment she heard his sweet velvet voice. “Oh, Heavens! What good deed have I done in my life that you decided to send me your Angel?” and after those confusing words to the girl’s ears, he wrapped his arms around her small form and pressed it to him even tighter. “Do I really deserve it to hold the lady of my heart in my arms right now?” His smile got even brighter. “Is it reality or am I still dreaming?” His eyes were mesmerizing her. Amu swallowed hard. She could swear that she saw a shining light around him with a twinkling stars as an addition to this stunning view. And what was it just now? A blooming rose on the background? No really, his charm was driving her crazy. He was too bright to look at. Why did he turn into this radiant creature when he saw her? Where did he take those charms in the first place?! And why was he sparkling like a crazy diamond?! But to her great horror, Hinamori felt like she started to get absorbed with that light. She could hear her mind calling out for help. But she had no strength to struggle. Nobody knew what could have happened if she stayed under his powerful charms a little longer, but right now the pink-haired girl started to believe in fairytales. Amu summoned all her willpower to close her eyes, or else she could have got blind because of all the sparkling around. She breathed in deeply and understood that it was a bad idea to do, since she caught a trace of his cologne. He smelt so nice. It was a fresh scent of his shower gel and shampoo mixed with his unique aroma. Oh dear mommy, what was she thinking? What was he doing to her sense of shyness?! She had to stop this situation right now! The girl made a deep inhale before she opened her golden eyes and looked at the shining midnight-blue-haired young man with determination. “Tsukiyomi-san, please, let go off me. You are not dreaming, it’s reality”. Her voice was shaking a little but she tried very hard to make it sound sternly. At first she thought that he didn’t hear her because his warm palm lay on her pink cheek carefully. A breathtaking smile was still playing on his lips as he curled a little strand of her pink hair on his pointing finger. “You are celestially gorgeous…” he uttered almost soundlessly, but she managed to comprehend those meaningful words. “Ts-Tsukiyomi-san!” she cried out in embarrassment and broke his tight embrace by pulling herself away from him with all strength she could gather at the moment. To her great fortune, she stood up on her feet and made several steps away from the dangerous pink sofa the insane musician was sitting on. It was a miracle that she didn’t stumble over his long legs again, or else everything would have repeated again. He was looking at her with disappointed eyes. She was surprised to see that he took his other hand and pinched himself. Then his eyes grew wider but a moment later a visible pout appeared on his face. “So I wasn’t dreaming after all…what a loss…” and he ran his fingers through his thick dark hair. “Excuse me?” her voice sounded annoyed while her golden orbs were boring a hole in his figure. He placed his amethyst eyes on her cute flushed face and she noticed that they were not showing any sign of that seductive gaze anymore. “Sorry for falling asleep. I guess, I need to rest a little today. I didn’t think that I was that exhausted to fall asleep while the lady of my heart is still at my flat”. “Please, stop telling nonsense,” she lowered her head to hide her blush and irritation. How could he be so absolutely calm after everything that he did?! At first he was trying to blind her with his shining charms and now he was his usual self… no, wait…maybe she saw his true self some minutes ago? Oh boy… she didn’t know how to behave around this freak! “But all I say is true. You still don’t know me, Amu. Whatever I say I really mean it. If you want to know me better, I’m an opened book for you, just try to read it”. She didn’t say anything. He was playing with her again by telling those confusing words. But yet…his tone didn’t prove that that was just one of his pranks again. His voice sounded caring and… somewhat…pleadingly? “H-hey! So, you are ok now, aren’t you?” A sudden change of his voice returned her to reality. She looked up and saw the kitten that was now sitting at his owner’s lap while biting his fingers. “Yeah, he got better,” she said doubtfully. Ikuto lifted his eyes and sent her a grateful look. “It’s all thanks to you, Amu.” “I didn’t do anything!” the girl’s face turned pink from embarrassment. “By the way, I’ve made an energy drink”. She took one mug from the table and handed it to him. “What is it?” Ikuto asked making a sip of warm liquid. “Hot chocolate,” she answered before sipping from her mug. The man’s eyes softened as a wide smile appeared on his face again. “You couldn’t know that I love chocolate as much as I love pink, could you?” “I…emmm…” She really didn’t know that and now she didn’t know what to say. He loved pink. She did too. And it seemed that their love for chocolate was equal as well. Was it fate or was it just someone’s stupid joke? “Thank you for coming, Amu. I’m really glad that you came,” his sincere words made her heart skip a beat. “It was nothing,” was all she could utter, averting her gaze from him. After an hour or so they said good-bye to each other. He said that now it was their duty to take care of Yoru. She tried to complain, trying to point out that Yoru was his cat, not hers, that was why all the responsibility laid on his shoulders. But Ikuto protested against that statement. He reminded her that they had found the kitten together and now they had to look after it together as well. “We are his parents now,” was his forcible argument. Somehow, that remembrance made her eyebrow twitch. Amu opened the door and stepped into her house. She took off her upper clothes and hat and walked into the kitchen where her mom was cooking dinner. “Are you back, dear?” Hinamori-san asked her daughter with a kind smile. “Yes, mom,” the teenager answered solemnly. “Do you know what happened today?!” Amu shook her head in negation to her mother’s excited exclamation. “I’ve seen Hatori-kun on TV today! The News showed some congress that was held in Germany. There were lots of delegations from different countries and Hatori-kun was among them. The reporter said they had gathered together to try to solve some global problems and…” But the younger Hinamori didn’t want to listen anymore. She turned around and headed to the staircase that led to the first floor where her room was situated. “Global problems!?” she cried in irritation and fury. “He can’t solve his personal problems!” Amu hissed through gritted teeth angrily before slamming the door of her room and falling on the bed soundly, throwing away all the pink lacy pillows that were laying on it peacefully. She tucked her face in the pink blanket and made a deep inhale, praying to forget the blond biologist once and forever.