Iridescent
written by: ejo

Summary: When Natsume Hyuuga became the president, there was nothing he could not have, except for the previous president's widowed wife.

Author's Note: I don't know if you're going to be disappointed with this chapter but, oh well. Heehee.

Act 2

As soon as he heard her reply, he already knew. He had his suspicions, but her last statement made him conclude everything. She was the wife of the late Tsubasa Andou. Unconsciously, his eyes trailed away from her. He felt something heavy swirling inside his chest. He didn't know what it was. Was it guilt? Why would he be guilty when he didn't have anything to do with Andou's death?

"Surprised, aren't you?" she asked as she gave out a hiccup. He noticed how wobbly she was on the tall, metallic chair. She looked so fragile that she might shatter any moment now. Her voice was shaking and so were her eyes. Before him was a weak woman and that fact made him want to protect her from pain.

"You loved him much, don't you?" came from him. He shouldn't be talking about dead husbands to widowed wives. He felt shitty.

She took a sniff before nodding. "Very," she wiped her mucus using her bathrobe as a tissue. "You might not believe it but he's Tsubasa Andou, you know, the late president." she sobbed more, probably because she mentioned his name.

The raven-haired man leaned at her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. He didn't know what the right thing to do was, but he believed at these kinds of moment, his arms belonged around her. "He's a...good president." he complimented. He usually didn't compliment people, but that might do some cheering on his part for the miserable woman beside him.

She stared at him and then she smiled. "Thanks, Yuu."

Her smile hit him...badly. He hit him that he wanted to see more of her smiling face—he wanted to see more of her. He groaned mentally.

"You're welcome, Mrs. Andou."

"You don't need to sound so formal," she said. "Just call me...Mikan."

He smirked. "Mikan."

She glanced at the clock and noticed how late it was. She got off from the chair and gathered her things lying on the sofa. She turned back to him and said, "I need to go now. Hotaru—my friend—she's probably waiting in my villa to check my condition." she pulled her towels away from her hair, revealing an almost dry hairstyle. "She thinks I'm trying to kill myself."

"You did." he replied.

She laughed. "Well," she giggled this time. "Unsuccessful, but still."

"Should I...um...escort you home?" he asked sheepishly.

She shook her head. "You don't have to. You already did much for a total stranger like myself." she paused. "I could use another set of clothes though, I'll give them back to you tomorrow."

He tilted his head. "Are polo shirts and baggy jeans fine with you?"

She raised her thumb up.

He went inside his bedroom and took out a blue polo shirt and a navy blue jean for the brunette. As he got back to her, he handed out the clothes. "The bathroom's there." he pointed to his left.

"Right." she muttered as she scurried to the direction he was pointing at.

The bath's door tore open, revealing a woman wearing an oversized polo and outsized, baggy pants. She fumbled her fingers through her half dried hair. Natsume noticed her blotted nipple poking out from the cloth. He felt his cheeks turning hot as his eyes trailed away from her. He couldn't lend her underwear since he didn't have any stock of bras or panties.

Mikan released a fake cough. "Thank you, Yuu." she extended her hand to his. He grabbed it and gave it a shake. "It's really a pleasure meeting you. If my husband was here, he'll probably enjoy your company."

He won't. I'm his enemy.

"See you soon." he said. It was a few seconds later that he finally realized what he said. He clicked his tongue in frustration, comprehending on why he said something like that. He knew he should cut off his ties with her, knowing that her life was still tangled with politics. If there was one thing he learned from politics, it would had to be: you can never escape from it. Every move you made would be studied, every word you said could be used against you and every heinous deed would be remembered.

"Goodbye." she said as she left.

Right now, he was at the top of his game. Along with his line of supporters, there were people who want to drag him down. He needed to distinguish which persons were his friends or enemies or pawns or scapegoats. He was required to classify each single person around him. Yuu Tobita was classified as a friend, Tsubasa Andou as an enemy, but what about Mikan Andou?

His thoughts froze. He barely knew the girl, but why was he classifying her already? He only classified people when he predict that they were going to be staying or worth remembering in his life. Mikan Andou was neither of his choices.

Withered leaves needed to be cut off.

Mikan Andou was a withered leaf.

Mikan Andou had a simple life. She took up Linguistics and excelled at it like it existed for her. She could speak French, German, Latin, Korean, Chinese, English and even Greek. When a young senator requested for her assistance, she accepted his offer. She was asked to be the young senator's translator for France's newly appointed ambassador.

French was easy for her and getting paid for a hundred thousand was easier. As soon as the job was over, she returned back to her hometown. What caught her surprise was the unexpected visit from the young senator himself. They got off in a good start and realized how much they had in common. Both of them dreamt of a utopian society where the less privileged would have access to free necessities and commodities.

He was three years older than her. She was nineteen and he was twenty-two. They started to date after four months from their first meeting. Everything went great and without realizing it, they were madly in love with each other.

Their engagement took place when she was twenty and he was twenty-three. A year after that came their marriage which was seen with the public eye. Everyone stayed tune to them. They were different from the other politicians, they were affable to the public and both came from deprived families.

A few months past, an election was held. With an unimaginable eighty-seven percent vote from the people, the young senator was swiftly proclaimed as the new president of Japan. For three months, he strived to pursue his utopian dream. Little by little, his dream was taking step. For the first half of his year, he had managed to construct his housing projects and get sponsors for free food rations. His wife became his emissary for him to communicate with other leaders from all over the world.

At the peak of his career, when he was aged twenty-five, he was shot through the skull. He had died before his body could even reach the nearest hospital. His wife was at America at that time, who had been discussing to get free materials for construction supplies, was devastated when she heard the news.

Like a soaring needletail, she returned back home and attended his funeral. The vice president was found dead in his office and another set of election was made. Natsume Hyuuga won.

During her husband's term, the only group of people who had a disadvantageous position was the oligarch. Mikan conducted investigations and generalized that the oligarch was responsible for her husband's death. She just needed to certain which oligarch family would benefit from Tsubasa's death. There was only one family that penetrated her thoughts. The Hyuugas.

The plan was simple, really. All she had to do was get herself between his legs on his bed and induce him to tell her the truth.

Now that she had met him, she needed to come up with the next step. All she had to do was to make sure that he wouldn't know that everything was planned and keep on moving with her plans. Acting as a distraught, suicidal widow was easy. She already had experience the grief and that grief was made as her motivation to extract the truth from the veil of lies.

She entered the villa quietly. Everything was pitch black. Engulfed by the darkness, her hand was trying its best to find the light switch. When her bare skin felt an object that had the same sensation as a light switch, she clicked it and the lights opened.

"Ahem,"

Mikan turned and saw a raven-haired woman sitting on the cough. Her black, fitted, knee-cut dress, showed her smooth, flawless legs. Her fingers were tapping against the armrest, making the brunette more nervous than she was supposed to be.

"G-Good evening, Hotaru."

Hotaru's forehead wrinkled in disapproval. She pointed at the glossy clock hanging from the wall. It was already two-thirty.

"G-Good morning, Hotaru." she greeted nervously.

"Where were you all night?" her eyes landed on Mikan's clothing. "And where did you get those clothes?" she paused. "Those are male clothing, where'd you get them?"

Mikan heaved out a restless sigh. "I was taking a dip in the beach."

"At night?" Hotaru asked disbelievingly.

"Y-Yeah."

Hotaru's purple eyes narrowed at the brunette, making the latter uneasy. Mikan's fingers shuffled under the long, loose sleeves of the polo. She couldn't lie. Hotaru could sniff the hidden truth from a basket of lies.

"I was with Natsume Hyuuga." she finally admitted after a contemplative sigh.

For a brief second, Mikan noticed Hotaru's slightly drooped eyes turned wide-eyed. Her mouth formed a small, circular form, outlining tiny bits of wrinkle occurring on her jaw line. "With the president?" she asked in disbelief. Mikan swallowed before nodding, as more creases started to develop on Hotaru's forehead.

"Mikan!" she exclaimed. "Are you seriously considering getting your revenge at him for Tsubasa?"

She winced on her husband's name. She felt her throat run dry as she tried her best to seek the words she wanted to speak. "Hotaru," she said firmly. "You don't know what it feels like to go home and find yourself alone—"

"Mikan, don't give me that crap!" the raven-haired woman spat.

The brunette grunted and pushed her friend away. "Mind your own business, Hotaru."

"I am, Mikan," she snorted. With an expression of distaste on her face, she raised her hands to the level of her eyes and heaved a wistful sigh. "Fine, do whatever you want. Just leave me out of this."

Mikan paused and took a considerable amount of time to think. Hotaru was bringing her down and she needed to cut her off. "For once Hotaru, let me do this."

"You don't know where you're heading." she replied.

"Neither do you." she countered.

"Sir," there was a tense tone lingering over the other line. Natsume Hyuuga easily heard Yuu Tobita's jittering teeth. "The senate needs you. Staying longer there would delay the upcoming projects you have promised to the people. You need to go back now."

Natsume grunted. "It has only been a day, Tobita. Don't you think I deserve some rest?"

"No, Sir," Yuu replied. "You are now the leader of this country. You have responsibilities that you cannot escape until you go down of your position."

Natsume knew his secretary was undeniably right. He wanted to confess something to him, he was sure that he could help him—help him to let him realize something. Ever since he met the brunette, he felt countless of heart-fluttering moments and innumerable moments of thinking her.

"Yuu, I met a girl." he told him casually. Usually, that was where the trouble starts. In every chick flick and in every rom com story, trouble usually arrived with that line.

There was a short silence over the line. "Oh no." Yuu's jittering teeth started to be loud after that. Natsume's eyebrows furrowed. The moment stretched before he could reply.

"What?"

"You're in love."

"I'm not."

"You are." Yuu insisted. Natsume started to hear his secretary biting his nails. It was his unbreakable habit when he was nervous. Natsume sat still on his couch, trying to let Yuu's words sink into his mind.

Natsume sighed. "I told you, I just met her," he grumbled this time. "How is that related to me being in love? Make sense, Tobita."

"Why did you talk about her in the first place?"

"I… I don't know." was his reply.

"Because you're in love with her!" Yuu announced. He continued to insist he was right which made Natsume quite much annoyed with him. Love, bah!, Natsume thought.

"Who is she?" the young secretary pried. Natsume could feel Yuu's raspy breath getting heavy, he was possibly leaning to the handset by now. He always had a knack for gossips and numbers. And don't ever ask him why.

"Andou's wife."

Yuu coughed or more like choked in his own tongue, thinking he misheard his superior wrong. "Sorry, I think I heard it wrong. Could you repeat it again?"

"Tsubasa Andou's wife."

"You're in love with her?" he almost screamed. Admittedly, sometimes Natsume deemed Yuu as feminine, if not that then, well, gay.

"I told you, I'm not in lo—"

"Not to mention, she's the ex-first lady!" he made it sound like it was a big deal—which actually was! The young president regretted telling him. He noted to himself that he wouldn't mention anything related to a girl to his secretary anymore—ever.

"Yuu Tobi—"

"This is bad. Really bad. If the press picks up on this, we're doomed! I mean, your reputation is doomed! Wait, mine too!"

"Calm do—"

He raised his three middle fingers. "I would lose my job. Second, if I'm jobless, how can I get a girl? Third, no girl means no family."

"Yuu Tobita, listen to me." Yuu stopped dead on his words, realizing that he kept on blabbing. He swallowed and continued to stay silent. The other line was hushed as well. Fearing for the worse, he thought that it would be best if he hang up.

Just like on cue, it was like Natsume read his thoughts. "Don't you dare hang up on me, Tobita."

Another gulped came from the secretary.

Natsume ran his fingers through his hair and slumped into his seat. "First of all, let me defend myself, I am not in love," Natsume sworn he heard a croak from the other line. "Second, this woman—this Mikan Andou—I would never date her, she's off limits. Third, I used your name as my identity."

"What?" another croak.

"Do I have to repeat myself?"

"No," Yuu replied. "But I think the last statement blew me off. I think I heard it wrong."

"You didn't." and with that Natsume hanged up.

End of Chapter

A/N: Hey y'all. Thanks for the support you have given to this story. :) Don't forget to tell me what you think about this chapter.