Misbehaving

swore as she quickly removed her jacket and shirt. She changed into another shirt and pulled the perfume bottle from her bag and sprayed perfume all over her body and hair. Why does he always have to smoke when he's around me? she thought, trying to get the smell of tobacco off her. It was bad enough that she had missed her curfew, but there was no way she was walking into the house smelling of cigarettes.

She inhaled nervously and walked in. The lights were off and she tiptoed in quietly, but…

<CLICK>

froze in her place and closed her eyes. She turned and saw her mother standing by the light switch with a very angry look on her face. " , where were you?"

"I had to study, mother. I lost track of the…"

"Don't lie to me!" she yelled. "Not only are you past curfew, but you’re lying to me as well. Were you with him again?"

looked down. She tightened her first and let out a sigh. "No, mother. I am not seeing Jin anymore. You and father forbade me to, don't you remember?" She looked at her mother with a straight face.

Her mother looked like she didn't believe her, but she didn’t say anything about it. "Go to bed for now, we'll discuss this in the morning."

didn’t say anything. She just walked up to her room and let out a sigh of relief. She was expecting a huge fight, but she was grateful that she didn’t get one. She lay on her bed when her cell phone beeped. She turned around and pulled it out of her bag.

<Alright?>

let out a sigh. No, it wasn't alright, she thought, but she didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. She text-ed him back, saying that she got in fine and without any trouble.

<Ok. Good night>

fell back on the bed and swore softly. What have I gotten myself into?

It had all started a couple of months back when she met Akutsu Jin, a third-year in Yamabuki Chuugakkou. She wasn't really the type of girl to go for the wild sort of guy, but he had caught her attention. Well, not only hers – after he had almost killed someone on the tennis court, it seemed like everyone knew him.

She didn’t know how it happened, but after that incident she was walking home alone down a path and saw him again. He was leaning by a wall, smoking. She admired his guts, knowing that if anyone saw him smoking like that in broad daylight then he could easily be suspended from school.

"What are you gawking at, brat?"

blinked, staring at him. Was she even staring at him? She bit her lower lip and didn’t say anything, but kept on walking. She knew the best thing to do with these types of guys was to just ignore them. However, she didn’t know how stubborn he was…

hugged her pillow and recalled her second meeting with him.

"Go out with me."

"You don't even know my name."

"It's ."

looked at him. She furrowed her brows and looked down. "I don't know your name."

"Jin."

She looked up at him again. "That's your first name."

He shrugged. "So?"

She did go out with him. Not once, but several times. Once, a relative saw her hanging out with him and told her parents. wanted to punch that nosey relative for butting into her private affairs, but refrained from doing so. Her parents had been furious with her and it was ironic that she wanted to tell them about him that week because they were dating and Jin had made it clear to everyone at school that she was his girl.

Since then, they had been watching her carefully. She had a specific curfew and they called her every second to make sure they knew where she was. was starting to get frustrated now. She had managed a few times to cover up her lies and see him, but it was starting to get harder.

Her best friend had helped her several times, but told her to stop seeing “that monster.” But ignored her. She knew a lot of people wondered what a plain and quiet straight-A student like her was doing with him, but she didn’t care. She knew a side of him that no one else did.

She didn't care…

She didn’t care…

She simply didn't care.

~~~

"You're late."

looked wryly at him and dropped herself on the ground by his feet. "Don't start," she said quietly. "I had to go through a lot of crap to get here." She rubbed her face with her hands and then hugged his leg. nestled her cheek against his lean leg and closed her eyes.

He dropped his cigarette, stepping on it with his other foot and looked at her. "Oy," he said, shaking his leg to make her move.

glared at him. "I was resting."

He sat next to her and leaned against the wall, pulling out another cigarette from the pack. took it out of his mouth. He didn’t say anything, but took out another one. She removed that one as well. And then another.

"Do… You… MIND?!"

ignored his mean stare and climbed onto his lap. "It took a long time to get the stench of cigarettes off me the other night. So do you mind not smoking?" she put her arms around his neck.

He rubbed his jaw but ignored her as he pulled out yet another cigarette. "Sorry, babe, but this is me and I need a cigarette now." He lit it and exhaled.

coughed slightly and turned her head. "You're so insensitive, Jin," she said softly. "You might not care about getting suspended, but we're in school and I do care if the teachers smell cigarettes on me."

"Che… You're always worrying about your reputation."

looked up. "Of course I care about my reputation." She glared at him. "It's important to me what people think of me."

"And yet you're still hanging out with me."

's eyes softened and she looked down at her palms. She was still sitting on his lap, so she took that opportunity and just leaned forward and placed her head on his chest. She didn’t say anything and he didn’t say anything. She just felt his arm around her while he still smoked using his other hand. They stayed like that for sometime until the bell rang. groggily moved away and looked at him. "I'm going to go now," she said quietly, searching his face for any signs that he may be angry at her.

He just nodded. "Go to class. I'll see you tonight."

hesitated. "I might not be able to meet you tonight." She stood up and pulled him up with her. She always admired his build. He was tall and beautifully built. He had lean muscles and a toned body. As much as he liked to show that he was lazy sometimes, she knew though that he did work out and exercise regularly to make sure that he was always fit.

"Why?"

hesitated again, but decided to be truthful. "I'm grounded," she admitted. "Mother was not too happy about me returning back home late the other night."

"Sneak out."

She blushed and shook her head. "I could never do that."

"Tell Aya to cover for you."

let out a sigh. "Jin, I just can't tonight. I need to lie low for awhile so my parents stop suspecting me."

He raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. He just gave her a quick light kiss and walked to the rooftop door with hands in his pockets. “Then I'll sneak in," he finally said. "I want to see you tonight."

's heart started beating fast. How many times had he done that to her and just walked off. They had kissed, but it was always light baby kisses and her heart always accelerated like that afterwards. She was surprised that he was careful with her. Was it because he knew that he was basically her first 'boyfriend'? let out another sigh and walked to class.

In class, she was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn’t realize Minami Kentarou was calling her until he poked her arm with his pencil. "Are you that worried over Akutsu's birthday gift, ?" he asked seriously, watching her.

stopped thinking and looked at him. A look of confusion was written all over her face.

"You didn't know?"

"I knew," she lied, looking away. Damnit! Is that why he really wanted to see me tonight? she thought and then suddenly blushed. I must've looked like such an idiot, sitting there with him during break and not saying a single word of happy birthday. Damnit! Damnit!

As soon as the bell rang, dashed out and pulled out her cell phone. She quickly dialed a number that she could rely on. "Hello?"

"Taka! Help me!" pleaded over the phone.

Kawamura Takashi was 's good friend as well. Akutsu would rather die than admit it, but knew that Taka would be considered his good friend since he always thought of his well-being. He calmed down and asked her what was wrong. He listened and finally said, "Just get him something after class."

"I'm grounded."

"I'll get him something then. Tell me your budget and I'll try to find something he likes. I'll even ask Yuki-san," he said, referring to Akutsu's mother.

"You will? Oh, thank you! Thank you!" she said. "Thank you!"

He laughed and told her he'd see her later. They bid each other goodbye and felt a bit of relief. The agitation wasn’t completely gone, but she felt a bit better. Now the question is: if Jin's coming over later, how can I sneak a cake in? Mother will ask who it is for and I can't lie because she'll see it missing.

She needed to think about that.

~~~

During the night, excused herself from the living room and rushed upstairs. She locked herself in her room and tried to calm down. She had been a nervous wreck all day and wanted to settle down, but couldn't. She was glad that the next day was Saturday, so she didn’t have to worry about school.

Taka had come over earlier and bought an ipod for Jin. His mother had admitted that she'd been saving to get him one, so he said they'd buy it and she could get him something cheaper and she agreed. had also asked Dan Taiichi to get him a small cake and he had done so and also helped her sneak it into her room so her mother wouldn't find out.

At around eleven, knew her parents were probably asleep already. She had heard them go into their bedroom earlier and they had shouted a goodnight to them.  

decided to read a book when she heard the beep.

<Open your window>

Her heart beat fast and she jumped off the bed. She quickly rushed to the window and opened it. He jumped in with a loud 'thud' and grabbed his upper arm. "Shh…They will kill me if they find you here," she whispered.

He lifted her chin and kissed her. It wasn't the small baby kisses, but a long and hard one. He finally let go of her and looked around her room. It had a nice color scheme to it. "It's comfortable," he said, sitting on her bed.

was still blushing over the kiss, but she walked towards him and sat next to him. "I'm sorry about today."

"Eh?" he asked, lying on the bed.

"It's your birthday, Jin." She poked his chest and leaned down to kiss his nose. "Happy birthday."

He held the back of her head and pulled her close, kissing her. He was lying on the bed while she was sitting. They kissed for sometime until she broke away from him and slid her hand under her pillow. She pulled out his gift and gave it to him. "This is for my birthday boy."

He sat up, taking it from her and looked at it. "Why?"

"I wanted to."

He shook it and looked at her. "You only knew today that it was my birthday. How did you get this when you're grounded?"

"Taka helped me."

He swore softly and lay back down. "That goody two-shoes."

She smacked his head lightly. "Open it."

"I don't want to."

"Open it!" she repeated.

He gave in and did so. He didn’t say anything when he saw the ipod, but just kissed her. took that as a sign that he liked it. The kiss turned into something more heated and she found herself on the bed with him on top of her. She moved away and sat up. "Erm… no." She blushed. "I'm sorry, but not at this age."

He remained quiet.

jumped off the bed and went to get out the cake. "I got you a cake," she said, pulling it out and placing it in front of him.

"You're a brat, acting all sweet and innocent," he muttered, pulling out a cigarette, but snatched it out of his mouth.

"My parents will be able to smell it if you smoke here!" She moved away as he tried to snatch the cigarette back.

'It's my last one, damnit!"

She pushed her tongue out at him, but she was too careless. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards him, catching her off guard. yelped, wanting to take a step back, but they both fell onto the floor with a loud 'thud'.

froze. She didn’t freeze because he was lying on top of her, but she froze because she was afraid that the loud noise would wake her parents up. She closed her eyes, her heart beating fast. A few minutes passed in agony and she was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. She opened her eyes and saw him looking at her when she remembered something. "What did you mean earlier?"

"What?" he asked, sitting up.

"You said I was acting all sweet and innocent."

"Figure it out yourself."

She hugged his arm. "No! Jin, tell me!"

"Come on, . I'm not stupid. One minute you're all sweet and nice and then the next you're all distant when you're with me. When you're distant, you disappear because you're parents disapprove of me, but now I'm in your bedroom."

's cheeks heated up, but she didn’t say anything. In a way he was right, but she didn’t want to say it. She liked Jin and she loved spending time with him. He was wild at heart, but around her, he seemed calmer and enjoyed hanging out with him. Why did things have to get so complicated?

"Oy," he said, knocking her head gently. "I didn’t say that so you could go quiet."

didn’t say anything. She just hugged him tightly.

~~~

woke up late in the morning. Jin had pretty much stayed up with her most of the night. She did most of the talking, but she knew he was listening. Although he tried to put on a cold act sometimes, she knew he cared. "It's so early," she murmured, feeling really tired. She stirred on her bed and tried to look at the clock. The result was surprising. "2 PM?" she almost squealed.

She flung the covers aside and headed quickly into the shower. She managed to dress quick after that and fix her bed and clean her room up a bit. When she was done, she headed downstairs immediately. "Mother?" she called out, looking around. "Mot…” stopped when she saw both of her parents in the kitchen sitting on the table, waiting for her.

"Sit down, . Your father and I need to talk to you."

~~~

Days Later

"Four days?” Taka asked as he arranged sushi on the table. He looked at Jin who was sipping a glass of water and frowned. He knew this must be serious, for normally Jin would rather commit suicide than tell Taka of his problems. "You haven’t heard from her for four days?"

Jin shrugged.

"Maybe is busy with something."

Jin grabbed Taka's shirt and pulled him towards him. "This is my girl, you ass. My girl sends me messages every hour and doesn’t sleep without sending me a good night message. Don’t go bull shitting me that she is busy."

Taka moved Jin's hand and smirked. "Well, I am happy to see that you're serious about ."

"Shut up."

Taka decided not to comment about that. He could see that Jin was furious. "Have you tried visiting her?"

Jin rolled his eyes. "Do you seriously think I'm allowed near her, let alone her house?" He raised his hand and rubbed his head in aggravation.

"Do you want me to visit her?"

“Che…”

Taka took that as a yes.

~~~

Later

"Grounded?"

nodded quietly. She had been home for the last four days. Her parents didn’t even let her go to school, so they could show her how serious they were. Her homework was brought to her home everyday by a classmate.

Taka looked at her and realized how frail she looked. She was pale and was it just him or did she look thinner? "Why?"

"I don't know."

Taka knew she was lying. " , tell me why. If you tell me, maybe I can help you," he said. He wasn’t sure what he could do. He could tell that her parents were strict about this. He had to come up with a lot of lies just to be able to see her. 

remained quiet. She kept her head down and refused to look at him.

"Is it Jin?"

looked up suddenly, but then looked away.

Taka knew he had hit the mark. "They saw you with him again?"

"No," she answered. "They found out he was in my room the other night."

Taka turned into a deep shade of red.

rolled her eyes and smacked him. "No, you idiot," she whispered. "I'm not like that! We just spent some time together because it was his birthday."

Taka let out a sigh. He felt bad for her. Actually, he felt bad for both of them. and Jin seemed to go well together. She had a calming effect on Jin and he seemed to bring out another side of her. He wanted to help but at the same time, he knew he might be interfering in something that didn’t concern him. "Have you ever considered working?"

blinked. "Huh?"

Taka smiled. "Work, . Hard labor. We're short staffed at my father's restaurant."

glared at him. "What does that have to do with anyth… oh!" she stopped and suddenly hugged him. "I love you, Taka!"

~~~

's parent did not approve immediately of their daughter working. Especially since she had exams to worry about, but a bit of persuasion from Taka, they finally gave in and agreed that this would be a sort of punishment for their spoiled child anyway.

Now, stood dumbfounded at the restaurant. She felt out of place, looking around. It was still not opening time, but she already wanted to dash out, but her determination won her over. This is the only way I can have some freedom and… and Jin as well, she thought, taking the mop out of the closet.

Taka had given her the main tasks and stuff earlier so she would know her way. She will do everything, but prepare sushi.

By the time it was mid afternoon, the place was crowded. The restaurant had a good reputation, and was surprised that the crowd never ceased to die. She was so busy cleaning that she failed to see the one person she had missed for so long. "Jin?" she asked, noticing him seated by the corner.

"You look busy."

wiped her hand with a towel and walked towards him. "You can always say hi," she smiled. Somehow a huge weight had been lifted off her chest. She was so happy to see him that she wanted to hug him, but she didn’t because she knew she would probably scare half of the customers.

"I did call, but it was switched off."

let out a sigh. "They took it away from me."

"They're that serious, eh?"

wanted to say more, Taka called out and said that Jin's drink was ready. She rushed to pick it up and carried it to Jin. "Here you go - one regular coke." She placed his drink in front of him.

"I'll wait until you're done and then walk you home."

bit her nervous. She so wanted to spend some time with him, but she looked down. "You can't. My mother is picking me up as soon as my shift is over."

He picked his glass and drank it. "School?'

hesitated. "I've been transferred."

He slammed the drink down, making several people look up and stood up, towering over . "Are your parents really that scared of me? What the hell are they thinking?!"

pouted and looked away. "You're making a scene…"

"Am I now?" he glared, looking around and saw that some people were looking at them.

"Sit down, I'll talk to you during my lunch break," she said, walking back to the counter.

Although was doing her best to concentrate on her work, she was well aware of Jin sitting there. He had one of his video game magazines and he was flipping over it as he waited. Finally, after what seemed like hours, Taka handed her a bento box and told her to enjoy her lunch break at the back with Jin.

~~~

"What are you thinking of?'

He was leaning against the wall smoking as she sat on the floor with her knees bent. She looked up at him as he put out his cigarette. He leaned down and lifted her chin, kissing her.

returned it and then smiled, rubbing her thumb across his lip. "I thought you were mad at me."

"I am."

He moved away, but she put her arms around his neck. "No…" she said. "Stay."

He stayed on the floor as she hugged him. He looked around the back and let out a sigh. "So which school are you going to?'

"Seigaku," she answered, her voice muffled.

He unconsciously moved his hand to her hair and rubbed it gently.

They talked for awhile until lunch was over and she left him. She was beginning to really hate her life.

~~~

continued to work in the same place and Jin stopped by almost everyday. Moving to Seigaku was harder for her than she had anticipated, but she was grateful that Taka was with her.

She let out a sigh one night by her window when she saw someone running outside. looked down and to her surprise it was Taka. "Taka?"

"I'm coming in," he said, ringing the doorbell.

ran downstairs just as she saw her mother opening the door. "I am sorry, -sama."

's mother didn’t say anything.

Taka let out a sigh. He knew this will get in trouble, but he had to do this. " , Jin…"

's mother looked at her daughter sharply.

"Jin's in the hospital. He got into a fight and someone hurt him pretty badly."

paled. She looked down. "Which hospital is he in?"

" !" her mother snapped. "Don't even think about it."

Taka hesitated.

grabbed her jacket and out it on. "I'm sorry, mother, but that boy means something to me."

Her mother was furious. "If you take one step out of this house then don't even think of coming back."

didn’t say anything. She just put her shoes on and walked out. Taka ran with her towards the hospital and they both went to the emergency.

They asked for Jin and were directed to his room. When they walked in, Yuki was in there scolding him. took one look at Jin and felt her heart ache. He wasn’t wearing a shirt; there were bandages around his chest and shoulder.

Jin looked up when he saw them. "Eh? You idiot! Why did you bring her here?" he demanded when he saw standing behind Taka.

Taka didn’t say anything.

walked in with a smile. She said hello to Yuki and then to Jin.

"Che, don't tell me that you're here to scold me too," he muttered. "What are you doing here? It's past your curfew."

looked at him with a sad smile. "I was worried, you smart ass."

He smirked and patted the empty seat next to his bed once he noticed that his mother and Taka went out, presumably to get something to drink. "Little brat," he murmured, bringing her close to him.

"You're wounded," she said softly, cupping his jaw. However, to both of their surprises tears started spilling down her cheeks.

"Hey… hey…" he said, when she placed her head on his lap and started crying. He let out a sigh and patted her head gently. "Are you that worried, brat?" he asked.

She didn’t say anything. She simply brushed her tears away and sat up. "It's alright," she said, kissing his cheek. "You're fine. I want to scold you, but I think your mother said enough for now."

He just nodded.

~~~

Finally, it was late at night. Taka and walked out of the hospital together. "What now?" he asked.

looked at him and smiled sadly. "I'm going to call my cousin and see if I can spend the night with him."

"You know that Yuki-san would've welcomed you to stay over."

She nodded, but let out a sigh. "I don’t want Jin to know."

Taka looked at her. "It's not healthy to keep hiding these things from him."

bit her lip. "But, it's these things that will make him leave me!" she said, rubbing her eyes. "He may not look like it, but Jin doesn’t want trouble my way. That’s why he's careful sometimes," she explained. "I mean come on… you know Jin. Since when does something stop him? He could've easily barged in through the front door if he wasn’t happy with my parent's decision."

"But, …"

"It doesn’t matter," she said with finality.

~~~

Two Weeks Later

Do they seriously not care? thought, depressed, sitting at her cousin's kitchen table. He was cooking some breakfast while she just stared at her empty plate.

"Eat up."

looked up and saw . He was a university student and had let her stay with him for the past two weeks, but she knew that she couldn’t impose on him any longer. "I'm sorry. I'm a burden."

smiled. "Are you going to be apologizing every morning?" he asked, placing the omelet onto her plate. "I told you I have an extra bedroom so I don’t mind."

She nodded, but still couldn’t find the words to say anything. "But…"

"No buts, sweetie. Eat up."

looked at the plate then back at him. "Why haven’t they called ?" she asked softly. "Do they hate me that much? My mother hasn’t even tried calling my cell phone."

"My aunt is a very proud woman," he answered, sitting down. "You need to be patient." 

"I don't care anymore," she said, picking up a fork and starting to eat. "It shows how much she cares. All she ever cared about was my good grades. She never considered my feelings at all."

studied her. "I'm going to be honest and say I'm not really supporting you a hundred percent here, . You chose a wild boy over all this."

looked up surprised.

"Of course I know why you're here," he said, pouring tea for himself and her. 'I had to dig up information."

looked down and stared at her knees. 'But this is not about Jin, . This is about them always interfering. They always want me home by a certain time, I'm not allowed to parties, I'm not allowed to movies… etc."

"You've never been to the movies?"

She blushed and shook her head.

"I see."

"They changed my school without asking me! I was happy there!" she added, her face heating up from anger. "She just wants people to say that her daughter is top of her school, etc…"

He folded his hands and leaned his elbows on the table. "Tell me why you ran out that night, ? I want to try and understand your situation."

hesitated, but figured that he was her only ally at the moment. "I ran out that night because Jin was in the hospital. He got hurt really badly and she wouldn't let me go, so I just did what I did."

"You really like this guy?"