CREDITS TO : UTA NO PRINCE SAMA 

CHAPTER 9  

Tokiya was about to get ready to sleep after going through a very long day as Hayato when the sight of untidy room quickly got in his nerves.

Or to be more specific, their shared room became messy because of Otoya's unorganized belongings. His laundry were scattered on the single bed while his stationery and text books filled the centre of the room.

"Otoya! Otoya!" he screamed for the red head a few times but gaining himself no responses. Most probably, the guitarist were hanging out with his classmates.

Tokiya sighed as he sat down on Otoya's bed before folding the red head's clothes. If you do not know much about Tokiya, you might think that he is such a sweet roommate but in reality, he organized the red head's belongings because his eyes could not stand with a messy room. It made his already exhausted head on the verge of explosion.

Next, those 'creatures' on the floor...

When he was about to gather all the text books, he saw a familiar handwriting on a book which was obviously not Otoya's since his was always crappy.

"Nanami Haruka," he read the name of the owner as she observed the handwriting rigorously. "The same handwriting.."

He quickly approached his drawer, taking out a pile of letters that caught his attention recently and comparing the handwritings.

"Who's this Nanami Haruka by the way?"

Out of the blue, he could hear the sound of Otoya and Syo chattered about a soccer game as they went into the room.

"Tokiya, you are early tonight. Wait! Why are you holding Nanami's book? Could it be that you are also interested with her songs? She is amazing, you know.." Otoya's question however received no responses from the blue head. Instead, the shorter boys were served with the sight of grim expression from Tokiya, making Syo flinched out of terror.

"Who is this Nanami Haruka?"

"Your wife," Otoya spontaneously answered, receiving a jab from Syo, right in his stomach.

"What?"

"A friend of ours. A Class student," Syo interrupted.

"Which one?"

"The one with short hair and golden eyes," Otoya held back his anticipation as Tokiya obviously showed interest to Haruka. This is a good news for the girl.

Ah, that one! That explained a lot. She does look suspicious from the start, Tokiya's mind was quickly served with the adorable face of Haruka.

But the adorableness was not his focus right now. Instead, he was goaded by her unpredictable personality. To be honest, it was hard to believe that Haruka is a shy girl (according to what Otoya and Syo have described her before) when in fact, so far, she was so bold in approaching him.

"I need to see her tonight. Can you tell her to meet me now by the lake?"

"Eh? Why all of sudden?" Syo and Otoya asked in unison.

"It's something to do with the letters that I got recently. Her handwriting looks familiar so I need to confront her. Now, call her."

"Wait.. Why do you look so scary, Tokiya? What do you want to do with our friend?" Syo asked out of alarm.

"Call. Her. Now," Tokiya sounded too much like Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada movie. His voice was slow and calm but for some reasons, he sounded like he was going to demolish the entire building.

"Okay, okay," Syo quickly grabbed his phone from his pocket and called the said girl.

"Moshi-moshi, Nanami. Are you busy? Good. Listen here. Tokiya wants to meet you now. Yes, it's Tokiya...by the lake. I.. I don't know but.." Syo suddenly spoke in a softer voice. "He sounds like he's going to commit a homicide or something. You better be careful,okay? It's okay. We got your back. Okay, bye."

"I heard you, you know," Tokiya's sudden remark sent Syo to scream his lungs out. "Don't worry. I am not going to kill anyone. So, is she available tonight?"

"Y..yes. She will go there now."

"Okay, thank you," he brought Haruka's textbook and his letters after pulling a sweater from his closet. He left the room quickly, sending the smaller boys froze for a while.

"That roommate of yours sure is scary. Right, Otoya?"

"Yes, downright scary."

Waiting for the moment when she would meet Tokiya was nerve-racking. The questions in her head about the real purpose of tonight's rendezvous met their answers instantly as Haruka saw the image of Tokiya holding a text book which is hers and a pile of letters that she recognized promptly.

Has he learned the truth now? Well, judging from how Syo-kun sounded just now, I think I need to prepared myself to tell him the truth.

"Nanami Haruka?"

The moment he said her full name, she blushed on the spot because she missed the voice calling out her name so much.

"Ye..yes, I am."

"Sorry if I interrupted your schedule.."

"It's okay!" she replied aggressively, much to Tokiya's shock. "Rather than feeling such thing, I am... I am glad because you want to meet me."

Wow, Haruka! You sure changed a lot since you have become his wife, even she herself could not help but feeling proud and amazed with the fact that she has this bold side when it comes to other things beside music. After she fell in love with Tokiya and married him, she slowly learned how to be affectionate towards him. As time goes by, the next thing she knew, she became clingy to him as much as he did.

"You are glad because you are meeting me? Are you sure?" the idol lifted his eyebrow, obviously looked dubious. "And why is your face red? Or rather, it's always red," he asked with his usual icy voice but knowing her husband for so long, Haruka knew he actually cared about her.

"Because you're here," Haruka answered, spontaneously.

"What?"

"Nothing!"

Tokiya sighed in disappointment. He closed his eyes, trying to be patient with this petite girl.

"Look... Let's just get down to business, okay? I cannot stand with this anymore. I don't know you and I believe you also never see me before but for the God sake, can you explain why on earth you..." all of sudden, he did not have any idea where should he start when he was supposed to interrogate Haruka. This girl in front of him was so annoying yet at the same time, she had this mysterious aura that made her irresistable in his eyes.

"These letters..." he showed them to her. "You wrote them, right? I saw the handwriting and.."

"Yes, I wrote them," she answered like nobody's business. Her absurd calmness was killing him inside.

What was the deal with this Nanami Haruka? Why could not she just leave him alone? He had a secret that he desperately needed to keep and knowing a so-called stalker who seemed to know a lot about him did not make him feel any better.

All of sudden, he landed his hands on a tree, right on top of the girl's head. He deliberately moved closer to her.

Slowly until his nose touched hers, sending a chill through the composer's vein.

He's so close! What should I do? Her face got even redder as her heart was about to explode.

"Toki... I mean, Ichi... Ichinose san, there are only both of us here..."

"I know."

"What happen if.. anybody sees us like this?"

"I don't care. All I want to do is staring at the gorgeous face of yours. Is it wrong?"

"No. I don't mean it like that."

In fact, I like it.

"If that's not the case, then what is it?"

"I... I..." as he expected, Haruka's face blushed even more. If this happened again, the possibility for the petite girl to catch a cold was high.

"You don't feel comfortable, am I right?" Tokiya smirked and somehow Haruka knew what that meant. "That's what I feel when you literally stalked me. Anybody can be pissed off if a stranger stalks him wherever he goes...especially when he desperately needs a privacy," he remarked as he backed away from her.

Haruka swallowed her saliva. She knew she was not supposed to but it broke her heart when Tokiya, the love of her life just treated her as a stranger.

"A stranger..." she looked at him, feeling determined out of the blue. "I don't want to be a stranger. I want to be more than that."

"Wait.. what?"

"I want to be someone in your life, Ichinose Tokiya. Just like how we used to be before."

"What are you..."

"I am your wife, Ichinose Tokiya. We used to get married for two years."

"Ehhhhhhhhhh????"

The poker face in front of her turned horrified and it made her chuckled. It was entertaining to see her husband like this.

"What do you mean 'we used to get married for two years'? I am just 17 and I don't suffer from amnesia to forget about my own marriage."

"I know this is insane. In fact, I myself still cannot figure out this situation but I believe, it has something to do with you. Whoever put me here might wish me to save you."

"Err..." Tokiya's head started spinning out of confusion."Wait.. let me compose this first..."

Got married... we? She and I? For two years already? Who the hell did put her here? The urge to pull his dark blue hair out of confusion and frustration got the best of him. As he decided to do so, he felt a touch on his shoulders.

"Toki.. I mean, Ichinose-san.. are you okay?"

"Of course I am not," he released himself from her hold. "Anybody will be panicky if the same situation happens to them."

"But swear to God, I come from your future, our future. It was confirmed that, in another ten years, on 24th April, we would get married."

"W..what? How can you be so sure?"

"Because it already happened. I came from your future so I already know what is our future."

"You sound like Doraemon who comes to Nobita's past so that he can help Nobita to get a better future."

"Hehe. You can say that but I don't have a 4D pocket like his," she giggled but Tokiya just remained serious.

"I find it hard to believe."

"I know but trust me.. all those things like hugging and kissing you all of sudden after the assembly, saying that I miss you so much, tending to address you as your first name, the letters.. and the fact that I know everything about you is because I used to be your family, your wife."

No responses from him. His mind was too busy analyzing the whole circumstances.

For the past two weeks,when he always said that Haruka was a nuisance, he could not help but observing the girl. Fate seemed to be nicer to her (and worse to him) when they always bumped into each other. However, without her being aware, he observed her character and that included how she behaved around other guys.

Nanami Haruka is a goody-two-shoes. That was enough to describe her. She is a naive girl who is not only polite and good-natured with everyone but she has her 'scary' side. She can be so determined to achieve her goal.

It is impossible for this nice girl to be so bold only with me unless I am really..

"I know you are Hayato, Ichinose san," she felt the need to prove to him that what she told him just now was not a pile of nonsenses. "I know your twin brother doesn't even exist."

Tokiya's eyes widened.

"I know you made an agreement with our principal so that you can debut again as yourself."

"What are you..."

"I know you have a secret that you want to keep. You don't want to be Hayato anymore. You really want to sing, right?"

"Nanami-san..."

"I know that you and your mother are not in a good term. She demanded you to be perfect. She hates you for admiring your father. Your relationship with her becomes worse after she left you and married Hayato's president," her golden eyes continued to meet his blue orbs as she talked. "I know all about you, Ichinose san. It's not because I am a stalker when for the time being, you can call me one but because I am your wife. I know every single thing about you. If you wonder about how I know about your scar when you cross-dressed on that day, the answer is still the same. I am your wife so it does make sense that I had learned about your body from head to toe."

Honestly, it was supposed to give him a shiver. Knowing that there is another person who knows everything about him apart from himself including about every inch of his body when he never made love with any girls nor exposing it publicly was downright creepy but..

For some reasons, he could tell that Haruka did not lie to him.

"If it is hard for you to believe me, you can ask other STARISH members."

"STARISH?"

"Er... I mean.. Ittoki-kun, Shinomiya-san, Hijirikawa-san, Jinguji-san and Syo-kun.. they are also from our future like me."

"Then correct me if I am wrong, Nanami-san."

"Yes?"

"Those people that you mentioned just now.. Is the reason why they freaked out when they saw me is the same like yours? They actually come from the future. Is that what you want to tell me?"

"Yes."

"How did we... I mean how did we get married?" Tokiya felt awkward but he could not overcome his curiousity. For someone who did not experience his first love yet, he wondered what was the solid reason for him to choose her as his wife.

"Em.. We just found out that...we love each other and you proposed me soon after that because you want to live together with me as soon as possible."

Well, that was... out of character, the idol thought in surprise without being aware about his romantic and cheesy side in future. He never imagined how he would react around someone that he chose to be his wife because he never experienced talking properly, let alone making friends with a girl. In spite of his playboy wannabe kind of image, he is bad at talking with girls.

"Then, are you basically happy to get married with m.. I mean the adult me? Or rather,was he a good husband for you?"

Haruka knew, as cold as he could be, he did not mean to be cruel. He just wanted to know so that he could analyze the situation thoroughly.

However,the question hit her like a school bus.

Was he a good husband for her? She found it hard to put in words how much she felt grateful to God for the bless in form of a perfect husband for her.

Yet, the perfect husband was no longer there beside her.

The perfect husband's death left a big scar in her heart so....

She could not help but crying instantly.

"Yes, very. I cannot describe how much I love him and how much I want to thank him for making me the happiest..."

Tokiya was bewildered as he witnessed the unexpected scene. As she wiped her wet cheeks, he felt his heart sinking. What the heck was wrong with him? But for sure, the unsettled feeling that killed him inside was more than a guilt for being the cause of her melancholy.

Along with an awkwardness, Tokiya patted her shoulder as an attempt to comfort her.

"P.. Please don't cry. Honestly, I don't know how to comfort a girl but I hope this will help."

All of sudden, Haruka embraced Tokiya as she could not surpress her longing for her late husband anymore, enough to make the 17 years old Tokiya jumped a bit.

Not again!

"I am sorry, Tokiya-kun.." he felt his white shirt slowly getting wet as she cried while pulling him closer.

Just what happened to me to make her cry like this? His hands slowly hugged her tiny frame. In his mind, all his curiosity and suspicion to this girl's weird behavior came second. All that mattered now was he had to comfort her.

If she is in this much pain because of me, I suppose a hug will be fine, right?

"You protected me from the guy who tried to hurt me.. You are dead without knowing about our baby.. I am so sorry for not being a good wife for you, Tokiya-kun. If only I could change something, I would rather be dead than you being the one who left me first."

Tokiya was too gobsmacked to talk.

Me? Dead?

"I am sorry," as she became more at ease, she moved backward from him. Again, she blushed.

Just like how it was before, Tokiya's embrace is so heart-warming.

"I shouldn't hug you so sudden like that. Gomenasai!" her cute voice turned higher in pitch as she bowed in front of Tokiya.

"Iie.. it's okay," he replied, trying to give a calm smile.

"Actually, I just told Ittoki-kun that I want to meet you again during our school day so that I can spend more time with my husband.. You know, all that time during school was a waste. If only I could figure out sooner about what I actually felt to him other than just being his fan.."

"Just what happened to him? Or rather, what will happen to me?"

"My late husband.. when he was 29 years old, he was dead from protecting me.. We were supposed to celebrate my birthday but we never made it. Our car was hit by another car and the.. the culprit.. It seemed like he is my fan and resented me for marrying my husband so he ended up killing my husband when he protected me.."

29.. another twelve years to go, Tokiya's body turned stiff. Honestly he did not know how to react when out of all humans in this world, he was 'chosen' to be the one who knows his lifespan.

"And to solve all the mystery about why the others and me came to our past, we need you to sing together."

"Sing?" Tokiya put on a 'where the hell is this coming from' face.

"Well, how should I put it... One of our friends, Cecil-san is currently a cat but he is a man.. I mean a grown-up man like you. He comes from Agnapolis, a country which the people there practice magic and worship Muse as their God. For some complicated reasons, he was cursed into a cat so we cannot communicate with him at all. Yet, we all strongly believe that this whole-return-to-the-past situation is all his doing. To clarify that, you and the other STARISH members need to sing a song in order to break the curse and turn Cecil-san into a human again."

The fish? It took all for Tokiya to not curse. Instead, he responded with..

"That sounds so ridiculous!"

"I know, Ichinose-san. You might think I am crazy but.."

"Nanami is right, Tokiya," suddenly their serious conversation was interrupted by other STARISH members who eavesdropped on them from the start.

"Syo-kun.. Guys, what are you doing here?"

"Nanami, I think it's the time for us to prove to Ichinose that every single thing that you told him just now was not a lie," Masato remarked, gaining himself a nod from the rosette.

"Please, Ichinose-san. All you need to do is singing this song with them and we will find out the truth," she held his arms as an attempt to make him convinced.

He sighed for God-knows-how-many-times.

"Okay, then."

"Alright. I am all fired up!" Otoya quickly approached Tokiya before showing him the lyrics, complete with the music sheet of Maji Love 1000%, their debut song. "Okay, Tokiya. I will teach you how to sing this song. The purple one is your part, next to me."

"What song is this?"

"Maji Love 1000%. Nanami is the composer. According to the future, this is our debut song."

"Our what?"

"Yes, Tokiya-kun. Instead of debuting as a solo singer, seven of us will end up as a band called STARISH and Haru-chan is the founder," Natsuki answered him ecstaticly.

"Eh?" Tokiya stared at each of them blankly before he noticed another strange thing. "Did you just say 'seven of us'?"

Tokiya finally knew the truth! After this, a lot of dramas will be unfolded as Tokiya slowly opened up to Haruka. Hope you guys like this chapter!