Disclaimer: The keyword here is FANFICTION, folks.
Reen's ramblings: This fic is in response to ami-chan's from the Pinoy SK yahoogroup challenge for us members to write a prom fic featuring the people of SK. So…this is it Be warned, fic below may sound Sweet Valley-ish and may contain Korean telenovela-like plots. I can't help it! WAAAH! So curse me if I loved Winter Sonata that much. ) Characters may be OOC although I try for them to be not to. Read on, my friends!
It's a Prom ThingChapter 1
"I don't know what I'm going to do," moaned Tamao Tamamura.
"Do about what?" her friend, Anna Kyouyama, said coolly.
They were sitting on one of the many tables outside their school's vast yard. Both of them prefer eating their lunch outdoors rather than sit inside the cafeteria with the rest of the school's noisy, whiny, and (according to Anna) stupid population. If one would look closely, the students are really just divided into 5 groups – the jocks, the cheerleaders/the socialites, the nerds, the stuck-up super rich kids and…the rest who don't belong to anywhere else.
That is, according to Anna.
Tamao just sighed heavily as she propped an arm to her chin. Anna glanced at her, then shrugged and started to unwrap her sandwich. She delicately sniffed it – tuna – before taking a bite.
"What did you do that for?" Tamao asked almost incredulously, snapping out of her reverie. "You think your aunt would poison you or something?"
"Close enough," the blonde-haired girl answered wryly. "She can't even cook instant noodles to save her life. This is edible, though. Anyway," she waved an arm, "what were you going on about just a while ago?"
At that, Tamao's face fell again. "It's the prom," she nearly wailed.
"What about it?" Anna asked without batting an eyelash.
"Ever since I entered high school, I've always dreamed about the prom. I'd get dressed up and look really beautiful and everything would be perfect…but right now I don't even have a date yet…" Tamao trailed off miserably.
"I know why," Anna said as she took one last bite from her sandwich before wrapping it up again.
"Why?" the pink-haired girl asked eagerly.
"That's because the prom is still a MONTH away, doofus," Anna answered, rolling her eyes.
"JUST a month away," Tamao corrected. "You have no idea how much preparing one has to do for the prom."
Anna waved a hand dismissively. "Proms are overrated," she said. "All that romance and stuff makes me sick. Plus all that fuss about picking a dress and getting dates – not that I want to have one, anyway. Either I'm going stag…or maybe I'm not going at all."
"You HAVE to go!" Tamao exclaimed. "What if I do get a date but he breaks my heart? Whom will I cry on if you're not there?"
"No one's even asked you yet," Anna pointed out.
Tamao groaned, burying her head in her arms. "How come no one's asked me yet?" she asked sadly. "Am I ugly or something?"
"No, the boys here are all idiots," Anna said. When Tamao didn't say anything, she asked, "What are you bitching and whining on about? If you want a date so bad, then go out there and ASK someone OUT, for god's sake."
"Anna!" Tamao exclaimed again, this time looking horrified.
"Why, what's wrong with that? This is the modern world, girls do it all the time."
"Oh, yeah?" Tamao smiled a little. "If girls do, then why don't YOU go and ask someone out instead of going stag?"
"I TOLD you, all the boys here are idiots and I don't think I'm going," her friend explained a bit impatiently. "So go, go on and ask someone."
Tamao bit her lip, looking uncertain. "I don't think I can," she admitted. "I'm too shy. I don't think I'll be able to utter a single word, especially if I'm in front of—" she stopped, blushing.
"Of Yoh?" Anna smirked.
"Shhhh! Quiet, someone may hear us!" Tamao said, looking panicked.
Anna rolled her eyes again. "You're so paranoid. No one's even around us."
"Anyway," Tamao went on, still blushing, "Yeah, I don't think I can ask…him out."
The blond-haired student shook her head. "I never understood why you're so in love with that bumbling airhead."
"And I never understood why you always put him down," countered Tamao. "Do you…" she hesitated. "Do you know him or something? I mean, really know?"
Or something. "You could say that," Anna answered vaguely.
They fell into silence. Tamao had always suspected her friend knew a lot about Yoh Asakura, but she doesn't want to ask any further about the subject. In the…how long has it been? 11 months? So, almost one year…of their being friends, Tamao knew Anna will only tell if she really wanted to. So the best thing to do is shut up and wait. But sometimes, sometimes she thinks she can finally read Anna…One thing she knows, though, is that Anna will always be there for her.
The blonde-haired teen unwrapped her sandwich again and took a bite. She made a face and stood up, walking over to a nearby trashcan where she deposited the remains of her lunch.
When she returned, Tamao no longer looked depressed, and instead had a pensive look on her face.
"What?" Anna asked warily. She knew that look. It always followed with—
"Anna, can you do me a favor?" Tamao asked, giving her friend her most pleading stare.
"What is it this time?" Then Anna's eyes widened from their usual half-lidded gaze. "NO. Oh, no, I'm not going to ask Yoh out for you—"
"Please," Tamao begged. "I really won't be able to do it. And having him as my date would really make me happy and my dream of a perfect prom will come true!" She looked at Anna, jutting out her lower lip. "Please?"
Another thing Anna never understood is the fact that she can't say no to Tamao. Perhaps because she was the only true friend she's had in a long time. "Fine," Anna consented with a heavy sigh, "I'll do it."
:skip:
Anna sought to complete the most unpleasant task of asking Yoh Asakura out for Tamao as soon as possible. Lunch was long over, and now it was study hall for her and since she had nothing in particular to do, she began looking for Yoh. After gathering information from a few students whom she scared into submission merely by glaring at them, she learned that Yoh was in the gym for PE.
She marched to the gym and straight into the men's locker room, ignoring the "Hey!" and "What the hell are you doing in here!" of the guys around her. After shocking nearly the whole room as she walked around, she finally found him.
Anna stopped right beside him, putting her hands on her hips. "Yoh," she said his name in a brisk manner. Thank God he wasn't naked or just wearing a towel or something. Not that she wouldn't be able to look at him straight in the eye if he was.
Okay, so maybe she won't.
He looked up at her from where he was bent over his locker and gave her an easy smile. "Hi Anna!" he said cheerfully, standing up.
Damn it, she thought. He wasn't even the teeniest bit surprised, and greeted her like it was the most normal thing in the world for her to be in the men's locker room to go looking for him. It was fun unnerving those guys, but Yoh…oh well. That's Yoh for you, always blissfully oblivious to the obvious facts glaring at him in the face.
"Have you asked anyone out yet to the prom to be your date?" Anna asked straightaway. Might as well get this over with as soon as possible.
The whole room fell silent, the chatter dying instantly as Anna asked The Question.
"Oooooohh," one boy dared to utter teasingly. She shot him a death glare and he squeaked in fear, shutting up instantly and looking at the floor.
"What are you morons still doing here?" Anna said sharply. "Get your asses out and go to class," she commanded.
They all filed out of the room meekly, not even glancing back. Satisfied, she looked back expectantly at Yoh.
"Um…" he scratched the back of his head, feeling a bit nervous. The Anna he knew back then hadn't changed at all – she can still be as scary as hell if she wanted to. "Well, no. What about you?"
"Huh?" she said intelligibly, thrown off track. "Oh, no, because I'm not go—"
"Will you go to the prom with me, Anna?" he blurted out. It's definitely better if it's the guy who asks the girl, so he beat her to it. He gave himself a mental pat on the back for actually saying the whole sentence coherently.
Anna's mouth dropped open, and she was speechless for a moment. Yoh in particular was enjoying the shocked expression on her face, which was so different from the usual sneer she had on.
"Well, will you?" he prodded when she still didn't say anything for a full minute.
"I…I…" she stammered, inwardly cursing herself. Her mind was still in a partial state of numbness. Yoh asked her. Yoh asked her. Yoh asked her…
"Asakura!" The sudden shout coming from the gym startled them both. "What are you still doing in there? Get your butt over here! You are holding up the whole class!"
"In a minute, Coach!" Yoh called back, not taking his gaze off Anna.
Anna dropped her eyes to the ground. What should she say? No? Not in this lifetime? If I'm going it certainly won't be with you? Say you're not even going to the prom, you freaking idiot! her mind now screamed.
"Anna?" Yoh said, feeling confused. Why does she look all flustered? Wasn't she going to ask him out herself just a while ago? The way she was acting now unnerved him. The Anna he knew from back then definitely won't get unsettled like this.
He reached out to touch her arm. She stiffened a bit, but raised her eyes to his. And something…something positively melted inside of her when she met his warm brown eyes…
"YOH ASAKURA!" the coach was shouting angrily now. "I am going to fail you in this subject if you don't come over here RIGHT NOW!"
"Yes!" Anna answered hurriedly, hearing the teacher's threat. "I'll go with you to the prom."
Yoh dropped his hand and stepped back. "Great!" He grinned at her happily. "So I guess I'll see you around. Bye!" And he jogged off.
Two freshmen girls shot Anna half-shocked and half-disgusted looks of general disapproval upon her emergence from the men's locker room. Normally she would've shot back a withering glance that would send them scurrying away, but she was still not quite herself. She trudged back to the library for the remainder of study hall period, her brain still trying to process the events that had transpired not too long ago.
"Hey Anna," Horo-horo greeted, plopping himself down on the seat next to hers. "Have you seen Tamao around?"
Tamao.
"DAMN IT!" she nearly screamed, earning her the displeased attention of the whole library, the reprimand of the librarian and detention after class.
To be continued