A/N: Here's the sequel to the bittersweet one-shot I previously published, Hiraeth (which I suggest you read first, before reading this)! I originally intended to leave the ending like that but heck, we both want to know what happens after that, right? RIGHT? Selective memory erasing procedure was based off of the process done by Lacuna Inc in the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind... the rest are just mere products of my imagination. Spoilers from different chapters of Kaichou Wa Maid-Sama manga by the amazing Hiro Fujiwara; some are canon, some not.

Anyway, here it is! I've been dying to post this and for you to read it! Thank you for supporting Hiraeth and I hope you can support this too! I'd love to see your reactions in your reviews, HAPPY READING!

TADAIMA

只今

(I'm home)

Misaki jolted up from her sleep, panting heavily.

Last night was another night of confusion for her; reality seemingly becoming a distorted dimension.

The line between what's real and what's not was slowly coming to a blur.

These past few days felt as if she was born into an entirely new world, yet her awareness of everything is a concrete proof of contradiction to what she's feeling.

There was nothing wrong, it seemed.

Her life is the same as before.

But that man, with the blonde hair and emerald eyes which can hold so much emotions...the image of him stayed deeply buried within her. She couldn't comprehend the reason behind her inability to forget him despite it was the first time that she met him all her life.

Yes, he acted so weirdly it bothered her to the core but she was deeply unnerved regarding his persona. Is there something that happened in the past that she had unintentionally forgotten?

A drunk night perhaps and she unknowingly ended up in bed with him like in those hook-up movies?

Misaki's face heated up as she tried to slap herself out of it. That is just not possible because: first, she doesn't drink, and second, she wouldn't let herself get carried away like that.

She reached for her bedside table and opened a drawer, retrieving a small yellow post-it note from inside. She can't exactly remember when she made it. As to why she made it, she wasn't exactly sure either; but it has become a habit of hers to read it ever since she found it posted on the bedside table about three days ago.

Oddly enough, it seemed to calm her that what she deemed as reality matched what she wrote on the paper.

"Please read out loud," the words displayed.

"My name is Ayuzawa Misaki."

"I live with my mother, Ayuzawa Minako and my sister, Ayuzawa Suzuna."

"My father left us years ago with a debt."

"I am a third year in Seika High and the current President of the Student Council."

They were pretty basic facts - ones she perfectly know well - but the act of reading it out loud comforted her raging thoughts. Judging from the effect it had on her, she most probably made it with an important purpose behind. She can't be bothered with it though; just making it through her days without being bombarded with chaotic thoughts here and there was already a task.

Nothing changed.

It's all the same.

"I'm perfectly fine," she stated with assurance to herself.

She tried to, at least.

Usui Takumi gripped the cup in his hand.

Life was playing a cruel game and it decided to pick him as its opponent.

He watched as Ayuzawa Suzuna retrieve something from the bag she carried and slid a small card across the table.

Please avoid at all costs mentioning Usui Takumi to Ayuzawa Misaki or any event that may have any relation to him.

It seemed as if he was struck by lightning.

He cannot control the tremble that made its way to his hands that he had to put down the small piece of card back down. Sighing deeply, he run his hand through his hair in frustration.

The girl across him stayed silent, observing how he shifted from being collected into this mess of a man right now. Her gaze holds something that he couldn't describe; but if it was close to anything, it seems that she was ready to answer the questions that held him preoccupied as of the moment.

It was days later that he decided to confront someone regarding the chaos that stormed his mind through day and night. He was never a confrontational person; suppressing his emotions was something he has grown to master, coming from a household where his mere existence was denied to reality. But he was never going to make progress if he just sulked all by himself inside his apartment.

If he was going to get answers, he better get moving.

And so this was what pushed him to meet with the sister of the person he ever held so dearly with his life..who one day just ceased to remember him.

He ordered coffee for them both, in a cafe just a few blocks away from Ayuzawa's neighborhood.

Suzuna accepted his request when he appeared at their doorway, days after his initial bombardment which caused quite a chaos in her sister's new life - one where she relatively erased Usui Takumi from her existence.

"What...happened?"

Of all the questions Takumi had in his mind, these two words were the only ones that voiced its way out of him.

One year can sure change a person... but was it enough to make a person forget someone to the point of non-existence?

Suzuna heaved a deep breathe; this would surely take long.

She looked at him first. This man used to make her sister jumped from the highs of elation to the lows of fury. But when pain served as the middle ground that kept her sister preoccupied and helpless for so long, she was not going to take any of it.

"My sister has suffered for one year, Usui-san." Her voice took on her usual monotonous tone... but it slowly pushed her on edge to reminisce (not so happily) about the times that have passed.

"I think you know why, though...with you leaving her suddenly like that."

Takumi kept quiet, the familiar feeling of guilt and despair seeping into him once again.

Suzuna passed another white card across the table.

"Selective Memory Erasing Procedure?"

To say that he was astounded beyond words after that was an understatement. It was just incomprehensible for him, a slap of irony to the intelligence he possessed.

"You're probably thinking that you should get her back, right? Make her remember you again?"

Takumi just looked at Suzuna, whose eyes peered at him, waiting for his response to a question with the most obvious answer.

It was his first instinct.

To get her back.

To get her back in his arms and never let her go again.

He cannot continue on with life in a world without Ayuzawa Misaki; after the past year, he knows he cannot go on anymore without being able to hold her hand again.

He needs her.

He needs to-

"Don't." Suzuna looked at him with the most intensity she has felt in her being. "Don't you think you've been selfish enough? Our family was abandoned by my father years ago, with only a huge amount of debt in his tow; I think you know the effect that this has induced to my sister, right?"

He knows. Misaki has always been known as the Man-hating, Demon President of Seika High - he knows that her father was the prime mover of that aspect of her; she was forced to inherit the role of the breadwinner of the household for her family to survive...she was forced to sacrifice a lot of things, just to be able to bring in income for them. He has come to know this from the nights he spent with her, lying on the couch in his apartment with his arms around her - the nights he desperately wanted to go back to.

His breath hitched, suddenly realizing the weight of his sins.

"You were the only man she trusted, Usui-san. And being abandoned by a man she trusted with her life twice? I think it's more than enough reason for her to come upon this."

Suzuna pondered if what she said was enough; the man in front her was deduced to silence for a while now... her words must have been ruthless to him.

She heaved a deep sigh; she was sure she had done enough to send him into bouts of internal torture that he will bring upon himself later, after the words she told him.

"If you were able to get her back, how are you so sure that you're not going to abandon her again?"

"It hurts so much, Suzuna. I just want it to end."

She cannot bear looking at her sister in the state she was in that time again.

"I think it's time for you to let go."

Ayuzawa Suzuna took her leave after muttering her word of gratitude for the drinks he bought her.

Takumi stayed still in his seat for a while, with only one thing running in his mind.

He was the one who destroyed the woman he loved the most.