Cutie & the Beast - Part 1
You may have to read watashi no kaibutsu kun and my little Kazunari before you read this one.
A little boy was sleeping in his room. However, a glow from the closet woke him. He opened his eyes to see a vampire that often haunted him in his dream entered the closet. The door was closed behind him.
Feeling curious, the boy got up from his bed. He wanted to know where the vampire was going so he opened the door. What he saw on the other side of the closet surprised him. It was a factory with a lot of doors.
“Hi, little one! You’re here again!”
He was greeted by a handsome man with a sleepy smile. It’s strange. Even though it was the first time the boy saw the man, there was something familiar about the smile. And, that’s why he wasn’t afraid to take a step towards the man. However, as he entered the closet, he had a painful headache followed by a few blurry images running in his head. It took some time for the headache to go but when he looked back into the closet, the doors were gone and he was in a forest. The trees were dying. The man he had seen earlier leaned against one of the trees. When he noticed Nino was looking at him, he smiled sadly.
“It’s okay, Little Kazunari. I understand,”
It’s the same dream again. For the past few weeks, Nino had been dreaming of the same thing every night. And, he couldn’t stop thinking of it. The dream was familiar to him, at least the first half was familiar. What happened in the dream was something that he wanted to forget. However, no matter how hard he tried to do so, the memory refused to leave his mind.
Since he was five years old, he had been waiting for someone named Ohno Satoshi. However, three years ago, the hope to see Ohno again had been crushed by his own mother. Ohno that he long to meet was just a fragment of his imagination. An imagination that came from a beautiful dream he once had.
The beginning of the dream he had as a child was similar to the dream he recently had. He was woken up in the middle of the night because of the glow from the closet. Then, he opened the closet when he saw a vampire enter it. But, the next half of the dream was different.
In his previous dream, Nino had experienced an adventure with the vampire and Kaibutsu Kun, whom he thought was Ohno Satoshi. They were in the monster realm, trying to escape from an evil monster who wanted to kill Nino. It ended when he was sent home by Ohno, safe and sound.
However, much to his disappointment, Ohno Satoshi wasn't his Kaibutsu Kun. Ohno was a friend of his mother who was killed by police after he committed a murder. Before Ohno died, he had drawn Nino as a birthday present. A drawing that Nino thought came from Kaibutsu Kun. A drawing that he destroyed after he knew the truth about Ohno. A drawing that he secretly restored after his two best friends, Aiba and Jun left.
It happened a few days after Nino admitted to both of them that he was a fool for believing that Kaibutsu Kun is real. Both Aiba and Jun decided to change school without telling him anything. And to make things worse, he knew about it from his teacher. He was angry at them. How could they leave him alone? But, Nino didn't have the chance to ask them. He went to their house but it was empty.
"Hello, Nino!"
A cheerful voice greeted him. He turned away from the computer and saw Mao, a friend from his school. The two of them now studied at the same university but under a different programme. Back in high school, Nino didn’t really talk with Mao. Both Jun and Mao spend most of the time bickering when they saw each other so it’s hard for Nino to befriend her. However, after Jun and Aiba left him alone, Nino and Mao became friends.
Mao took a seat next to him in the computer lab. Next to Mao was her friend. She smiled shyly at Nino. And even though Nino had seen her a few times with Mao, he couldn't remember her name. Had Mao even introduced her to him?
"Are you doing your work?" Mao asked, narrowing her eyes at him. "I've been watching you, you know. You're not doing your work, right? You only stared at the computer screen, ne, Yuri chan?"
Mao looked at her friend. Yuri did not answer her. Instead, she tried to avoid looking at Nino. When their eyes met, Nino smiled at her and twin spots of red appeared on her cheeks before she quickly looked away and logged into the computer in front of her. Seeing her reaction, Mao tried to stifle her laugh. Hmmm… something was wrong here but Nino couldn't figure what it was.
"Are you done with your class, Mao-chan?" He asked Mao, ignoring the way Mao and Yuri looked at each other.
Mao answered his question with a shake of her head. "I still have a class at 2 PM. Then, I’m done for the day. How about you?"
"3 PM. I’ll finish my class around 6,”
"Are you busy after that?" Mao asked, giving him a weird look. Hmmm, what is she up to this time?
"Not really, actually," Nino answered. He had finished all assignments and there's no test or quiz this week.
"How about dinner with us?" Mao suggested. Yuri's head turned sharply at her direction when she heard that.
“Sure,” Nino agreed, glancing at Yuri. “If Yuri san is okay with it,”
“Of course, she is okay with it,” Mao declared. Nino was sceptical with her seeing Yuri didn’t look happy with the suggestion. However, he glanced at the clock on the computer and realized it was almost time for his study group.
“I have to go now,” Nino said, packing his stuff. “I have something to do,”
“Okay, I will text you the place for dinner. See you later,”
As Nino left the computer lab, he could hear Yuri scold Mao. Hmm... was it really a good idea to have dinner with them? He hadn’t talked to Mao for a while. So, he hoped they could catch up during dinner. But, if Yuri didn’t want it, he didn't want Mao to force her. Perhaps they could go out some other time.
Ah, what a tiring day!
To be honest, he was famished. His study group went longer than he expected. As a result, he had to skip lunch and go straight to his class. Unfortunately, he had two classes in a row. He survived the first one. However, for the second class, it was hard to concentrate because of his stomach. Despite trying his best to pay attention, Nino couldn't understand the lesson at all. As a precaution, he decided to record the class so he could watch it later.
After waiting for an eternity, the professor finally dismissed them. Nino was the first person to leave the lecture hall and he headed straight to the cafeteria.
Ah, thank God the line wasn't so long for the pizza. As Nino lined up, his phone vibrated and he took it out to see a text message from Mao, informing him about the place for dinner.
Nino smacked his own head for forgetting about dinner with Mao and Yuri. What should he do? Should he cancel it? The restaurant Mao suggested for dinner wasn't far but he was too hungry and he had to eat now. As he was looking around the cafeteria, he noticed sandwiches near the cashier. Well, he could settle for a sandwich for now and then go for dinner with Mao.
When Nino arrived at the restaurant, there's only Yuri. Mao was nowhere to be seen. He greeted Yuri and took a seat in front of her. Yuri smiled awkwardly at him, blushing.
"Where is Mao-chan?" Nino asked.
Right on cue, his phone vibrated and it was Mao who texted him. There was only one word in the text.
Enjoy 😉
At first, Nino was startled to see the text, trying to figure out what Mao meant by that. But, slowly, he understood. Yuri always looked shy around him and he knew why now. Not trying to sound conceited, but, it's possible that Yuri had a crush on him and Mao had tried to set them up. Hmm, what a cheeky friend he had.
Nino stared at the girl in front of him. Yuri lowered her face when she realized Nino was staring. She was indeed a pretty girl and from what Nino had seen, she seemed like a good person. Anyone who dated her would be lucky and Nino should be honoured that she had a feeling for him.
But…
It would be hard for him to feel the same way. Nino had someone else in his heart.
"Yuri san…" Nino called her softly. If Yuri liked him as he suspected, Nino should make it clear that he's not interested in her.
"Call me Yuri chan," the girl mumbled.
Nino gave her a smile. It was actually harder than he thought.
"I think Yuri san is more appropriate," Nino said. Yuri tried to keep her expression neutral but Nino could see the disappointment. "Do you mind if I ask you something?"
"Sure,"
Nino took a deep breath before he continued. "Do you like me?"
Yuri's face went red as she nodded her head. She looked straight at Nino with hopeful eyes. Oh man, she’s making it difficult for Nino to reject her.
“Yuri san…”
“It’s okay,” Yuri quickly cut him off. Despite how shy and awkward she was earlier, she now looked confident. “We barely know each other. So, I understand if you don’t like me. But, we can be friends, right?”
“Sure, we can be friends,” Nino answered, feeling more comfortable to be around her. As long as she didn’t expect more, he was okay to befriend her.
The two of them, then, looked at the menu, choosing what to eat for dinner. Once they decided, Nino called the waiter to order.
“So, Yuri san, are you in the same programme as Mao-chan?” Nino asked, trying to get to know more about Yuri.
“Un…” Yuri answered with a nod. “She is my lab partner for chemistry. She told me you're in software engineering. Is it hard?"
"It is," Nino confirmed. "But, I love it,"
The conversation continued with the two of them talking about their class and slowly, the conversation focused on their life. Nino didn’t reveal too much about his personal life. He wasn’t fond of sharing about it to other people. Sometimes, when they ran out of topics to talk about, the two of them would look at each other with an awkward smile.
Once they were done with dinner, Nino offered to escort Yuri home. As a guy, he had to ensure her safety. Besides, her house wasn’t far from his.
“Can I ask you something?” Yuri asked, sounding uncertain. “I don’t want to be insensitive. But, there’s something I am intrigued about when Mao-chan talked about you,”
Nino started to fidget as he heard that. Somehow, he kinda knew what it was going to be. Yuri mentioned insensitive and Mao-chan. So, it’s obvious what it was.
"If it's about my friends, I don't want to talk about it," Nino said.
It was a pleasant night and he really enjoyed talking with Yuri. Why did she want to ruin it by talking about that? In the first place, why did Mao tell her about them? He should have a serious talk with Mao later. He could forgive her for trying to set him up with Yuri. But, telling Yuri about his personal life… that's unacceptable!
"So, you never see them again?" Yuri probed despite what he had told her. Nino frowned as he looked at the girl next to him. There was something wrong with the tone she used. It seemed cold. "Not even recently?"
"Why do you care?" Nino asked. He didn’t bother to hide his annoyance. Yuri had crossed the line by asking about them despite his warning.
But, Yuri didn’t answer him. She only stared at him with her cold, piercing gaze. It baffled him. She suddenly seemed different. Where was the sweet girl he just had dinner with?
“Well…” Yuri said after being silent for a while, still sounding cold. “I guess, I don’t need you, then,”
Huh? What did she mean by that? Why did she suddenly change? The whole thing confused him. However, before he could make sense of what she said, he was strongly pulled from behind and then slammed to the ground. When he lifted his head to see who was responsible for it, he gasped in surprise to see who was standing in front of him.
The familiar red cape.
The blond hair.
A monster with a horn on his forehead.
Eh? That’s Kaibutsu Kun, right?
A/N: Writing this for arashi4dream1. When I read her comment about waiting for five years for the continuation of Watashi no Kaibutsu Kun and My Little Kazunari, I feel bad. But, it makes me happy to know that someone still remembers this fic. So, I decided to update this story. I really hope you like it and let me know what you think of it, okay. You can still check the previous version of Cutie and the Beast from the tag but it's awful so I don't encourage it.
And arashi4dream1, thank u so much for being my reader since 5 years ago.
And also thanks to Daisukidesu3, jkc80 and gambitsfox for always commenting on my writing. I'm still writing fics because of your support.
Also, thanks to all my silent readers. I'm glad to know that I have a few silent readers, thanks to the poll I created for How Dare You!
Really, words cannot describe how thankful I am because of your support. Thank you so much!