Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice or any of its characters. This story is purely for entertainment purposes and I do not stand to profit from it.

A/N: Almost didn't write this. So I'd like to thank all the reviewers of my earlier story Good Advise for inspiring me to make this fic. Thank you kaile12, Mokona05, viviennerosethorn for your suggestions as well as Sakura Breeze and HILLARYDv for encouraging me. This story is dedicated to all of you.

Chapter 1: A Date

MORNING

"Ack ..achoo" "I'm tired, I can't put up with you anymore."
"Achoo..."
"Don't even think of calling me again, I'm changing my number."
A soft sound of feet being thrust into shoes, a click of heels, the sound of a door being closed and she was gone. Goodbye Natsume.
I stared at the pool of blood before me. I'm in my dining room. The clean, white linen cloth on the dining table before me is splattered with my blood. Another coughing fit in the last six hours! My head hurts, my body aches all over, my throat is swollen from all that coughing and my eyes are stinging due to lack of sleep. I haven't slept in the last twenty-four hours.

Sharon, (the one who left just now after forbidding me against calling her again) and I had a huge fight yesterday morning. I got busy with the alcohol after our fight and was stone-drunk by the time she came back home in the evening. I was in this same dining room then, stumbling all over the place with an empty wine bottle in my hand, singing to some incoherent tune and banging the bottle against the linen-covered table, hardly aware of what I was doing. She made no comment at my appalling state, (she must have gotten used to it by now in our four month old relationship) simply pursed her lips and walked away to our bedroom.

I hadn't slept last night although I felt drained of all physical strength (Sleep and I have long ago parted from being close companions and are only occasional acquaintances now).
And just this morning now, she simply informed me that she was leaving from the living room itself and left without even coming to look at me here. I wonder if she feared that her conscience might force her to stay if she saw me in this state with all the blood around. But then again, that was the last thing I could expect from a woman who had entered into a relationship with me, only for the purpose of climbing the corporate ladder in our firm. I had met her when she was just a new entrant into our field but had risen through the ranks due to my sponsorship.

Physically, we had a great relationship. I only saw her at night and during quickies in the office. Four months and we had never had a single, heart-to-heart conversation. She never seemed to mind my drunken stupors, only being perturbed when she felt I embarrassed her at our rare public appearances together and our relationship somehow dragged through the past four months.

Then last month, my boss had started dropping hints about my services eventually being terminated in our firm and she had subtly moved on to him. "It wouldn't have lasted anyway and I'm not interested in having a so-called relationship with a rotten drunk like you." was all she had said when I confronted her yesterday. Oh yes, pity was the last thing I could expect from that cold-hearted bitch! She was gone now. The fourth in my string of 'emotionally-unattached' live-ins.

Another coughing fit seized me as I felt my head fall to the table and everything around me went blank.

AFTERNOON

I was woken up from my unconscious state by the piercing ring of my cell-phone. Thankfully it was lying next to me and I retrieved it quickly and answered the call.

"I heard what happened Natsume," said the voice of the one person in the world who had played a part in salvaging the remains of the life that I was now living.

"She left this morning Ruka, I..." Grief overcame me and I could continue no further. This man had been through everything with me, the horrific relationships, the stints in rehab, the drunken binges and now overbearing feelings of shame assaulted me as I spoke to him.

"How are you? You sound awful"

"The way you found me after I found about Ayumi's affair." (Ayumi was the third live-in eight months back. Off all the four, I think she was the only one who had cared but my behaviour back then was so unabashed, I had driven almost everyone to the edge. It didn't take her long to stop caring and soon, she too moved on to someone else. I had drunk myself to rehab after I found out)

"Not again," groaned Ruka. "Where are you now?" he asked.

"In the dining room. I haven't slept since yesterday. I feel weak and I'm afraid i'll fall if I get up from here and try to move."

"Okay. Stay there. I'm coming to get you."

In spite of the fear that I had expressed to Ruka, I managed to haul myself up and walk to the living room, moving around a bit before plunging on to the couch. It was one one o'clock now and I had nothing more to do except wait for my best friend to come.

Yes, Ruka is still my best-friend and has remained with me all these years after we left the academy. We went to the same law school, got a job in the same firm and he has been my regular confidant throughout these six tumultuous years.

He is extremely hardworking and is a highly respected litigator in our circle now. He's also never had a relationship these past five years. Just a brief fling in law-school that resulted in him being broken-hearted and swearing off love forever. Since then, its been a long, lonely journey for him as well.

How? Why have our lives become this way. How did everything go wrong?, I thought. I wish could rewind and go back to the carefree, secluded years in the academy. Back to everyone that I had ignored and now lost touch with, back to those boring lessons that I had had such fun in cutting while enjoying the pleasant breezes in my favorite sakura tree, back to being treated like a star by the entire school (Yes I had enjoyed that though I never admitted it and now this loneliness makes me want all that attention back!) back to...

I heard a car drive in to my compund. A few hurried footsteps and a moment later the sound of my front door bell ringing echoed thorugh the empty house.

"Its open Ruka," I said.

The door opened and a tall, blond man walked in. Ruka's face was clouded with worry. "Why was the door open, Natsume?" he asked

"Sharon never bothered closing and I'm too tired to get up and do the deed," I said.

Ruka slowly scrutinized my environment. "There are empty liquor bottles lying around Natsume. You have been drinking again haven't you?" he said as he sat down in an arm-chair across me. The concern in the tone of Ruka's voice made my emotionally starved life a lot better.

"Yes," I said "and if you look in the dining room you'll find that I've been coughing blood again."

A line appeared on his white forehead and he said, "Look Natsume, its been too long now and we've tried everything we could."

"I know, Ruka."

"You simply can't go on like this. You've already been to the hospital once and rehab twice and you know as well as I that you hate it."

"More than I hate Sharon and her new boyfriend."

"You know what you're running from."

"Don't start that again Ruka."

"You might have stopped me six years ago, Natsume but its time I bring it up again. You've been through too much... I'm trying to contact Mikan."

"How?" I asked

"All of us lost touch long back. I couldn't find anything about her, neither through the academy, nor through anyone else. So I'm trying to contact her through Hotaru.

"Forget it Ruka. There's no use of that now. I don't think she'll ever want to speak to me again. Not after..."

"After that 'momentous' incident Natsume, Mikan did try to reach out to you. You know how warm and loving she has always been. She doesn't care about that now."

"That was years ago, in the academy. She must have grown-up now, matured. I'm nothing but a faded, unpleasant memory in her mind by now Ruka and I pushed her away because I couldn't bear to hurt her anymore. She'll be happier away from me."

"How do you know?"

EVENING

Ruka's POV

I just couldn't avoid the uncomfortable sensation niggling me at the back of my mind as I slowly typed her name. The search engine showed 20,090 results for the name 'Hotaru Imai'. I clicked on the first one that gave her Wikipedia profile:

Name : Imai Hotaru; D.O.B.: October 25th; Occupation: Inventor, Tycoon. A pioneer in the field of supra-ionic radio communications. Has made numerous invetions in this field including the ionization accelerator and the anti-gravitational vacuumized energy transporter which have contributed significantly to the field of telecommunications. Education: Passed out with the highest grades in her graduation class, completed her diplomas in business and engineering within two years and went on to set up one of the biggest conglomerates in the telecommunications business under the name of 'Imai Industries' of which she is currently the chairwoman.

Wow! Now that has to be one of the most impressive resumes I ever read. I skimmed through the rest of her bio, Early life, Life after school, Imai industries, Personal life(read through that one to make sure she's single)... and scrolled down to the external links section at the bottom of the page and clicked on the one for access to her official website. The contact page on the site had a few cell phone numbers. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a towel-clad Natsume walk in from the bathroom. He walked up to my desk, placed a hand on the back of my chair and peered at the screen.

"So our Imai has made a name for herself in the world," he said, "looking through the contacts, I see. You should call her."

"Its her secretary's number, I'll schedule an appointment."

Three rings and I a heard an unfamiliar monotone at the other end of the line, "Good evening, you have reached Miss. Imai's secretary, please state your name and nature of business."

"I am Ruka Nogi, an old, school friend of Miss Imai and I'd like to talk to her on a personal matter," I said

"I am afraid, Miss Imai doesn't have time for old school suitors and admirers sir, if the nature of your business isn't important, I'll end our conversation here and you may join her fan page on Facebook and declare your endless love for her there," she said in the same boring, monotone without the slightest trace of anger, mockery or amusement in her voice to match the meaning of her sentence. She probably answers a hundred such calls from Hotaru's admirers in a day, I thought.

"Look, I'm not a suitor. Miss Imai will remember me. If you could just give her my name and number..." I trailed of hurriedly before she could dismiss my call. At that, she asked me to wait and after a few minutes I was put through to the one beautiful monotone I had grown up hearing. "What is it Ruka?" she said simply, as if we weren't speaking to each other after a gap of almost six years and had a casual conversation at least once everyday.

"I...um Hotaru... How are you?" I said.

"I'm fine thank you," she said, "I am in the middle of an important teleconference and am pausing just for you. So state your business quickly."

"Oh...um so, I wanted to talk to you." I said dumbly. Man, what should I say to her, I thought.

In front of me, Natsume made a few gestures about making an appointment with her to meet somewhere. But would she agree to see us so readily. Even after what happened between all of us all those years back at the academy...

"You are talking to me," she said with a slight hint of anger in her voice, breaking my trail of thought. "If you don't tell me what this is about, you are wasting my time, slowing down the growth of my business and that of my money." This time her voice had a hint of exasperation along with anger.

"Hotaru, I really need to talk to you about something important. Can we meet. Its nothing formal but I can make an appointment," I said

A minute-long pause during which I made uncomprehending gestures toward Natsume's questioning expressions while keeping an alert ear toward the phone.

"I am busy this whole week. The only time I'm free is now in twenty minutes after this conference. If it suits you, meet me at the Ediko Tsunachi in half an hour."

That sounds okay "All right, I'll see you there in half an hour, Hotaru," I said.

"Yes, fine, its a date then, goodbye."

'A Date'?...

A/N: I am sorry if this chapter was too dull or boring. The next one, I promise, will be much more fun (Mikan turns up in the next chapter). The incident that occurred between our four favorite characters (Well, mainly between Mikan and Natsume) will also be revealed in the second chapter. Till then, I'm waiting for your reviews, thoughts and comments. I'd love to know what you think. Constructive criticism is very much welcome and this time, I'll try not to be tardy and reply to all my reviewers. Thank you for reading.