"Welcome boys! Welcome to Nihau island beach resort! Blalala..." (I'd rather not elaborate on this much!)

Natsume still carried the huge case with his right hand and his left was occupied by his own things. The three other guys, Tsubasa, Ruka, and Yuu were also on their stuff, though they kept worrying on Mikan's recent situation inside the baggage.

The whole population of the academy's boys were now quite crammed inside the hall of Nihau, and everyone felt sleepy because of the long speeches that Natsume had to burn part of the chairman's hair to make his talking shorter to a sure end.

And so when the whole place got mixed up with the owner of the resort panicking with his half toasted toupee on stage, Natsume and the gang easily slipped out of the scene and proceeded to their rooms. To everyone's luck Mikan's four good Samaritans (duh?) turned out room mates, together with their blind reading blonde friend. Koko wasn't much of a burden to them, and even if he knew of Mikan being around, he wouldn't mind, and so they were calmed. Though, they still didn't inform him about her.

As soon as the Hot4 had locked themselves in their room (except for Koko, who was specially appointed to read the chairman's roasted mind if it was still doing well), all three of them crowded the fire wielder on his bed as he unlocked the case.

"You can come out now, idiot." He smirked, lifting the lid up and he pulled out his soaked manga that lied on her face.

"Shit. That idiot drooled on it!"

"There goes your 300 rabbit manga." Yuu joked as everyone else laughed except Natsume of course.

After the trace of laughter finally drained down, they all looked down at her with beaming eyes, about to tease her for the shame she'd got.

But, all smiles slowly broke away when out rolled a weird, unenergetic Mikan, soaked wet with tears and sweat. Her eyes were shut, and her lips hanged, in a creepy kind of way.

With weird worried faces, the stared at each other, confused and baffled.

"Wake up, silly." Yuu poked her sides yet she didn't move.

She looked a little pale as her clothes stuck to every curves of her body. Her lips were white and her eyes looked dark like bruises, which made the four's heartbeats race even faster.

"Mikan... You could wake up now..." Ruka forced a smile on his lips.

Tsubasa knelt closer and gave her a gentle shake, "Hey... I smell fluff-puffs..."

But no matter what tease or call they made, Mikan never responded. The three kept waking her with tons of ways they could think of, but to no avail.

They stared at each other once again, breathing heavily and they answered each other with confused shrugs, until...

"Get out of the way!" Natsume hollered rudely and shoved them all from around her.

"Stop it!" he growled, pushing through as he examined her face with wide worried eyes.

Ruka's eyes showed a little pinch of jealousy, yet he held back words.

"No... Polka-dots! Damn you... wake up!" he shouted at her face yet it didn't budge.

Mikan... Wake up... Please... I beg of you... his thoughts raced with the beat of his heart and this lasted about minutes as they anticipated with uneasy faces.

Ruka slowly stood up, "What've we done?" he whispered and then noticed a drop of water fell on Mikan's cheeks.

Everyone knew it came from Natsume (but correction, it wasn't a drool), and it didn't take long for them to realize he was holding back tears.

"Natsume?" Ruka stammered, hugging his bunny.

Natsume panted, "She's... she's not breathing."

They all went blank for a second until Tsubasa's voice woke them up...

"Shit... Shit!!!" Tsubasa suddenly burst as he jumped off the bed and ran for the door, "I'm calling Narumi!"

Ruka remained baffled while Yuu panicked with Tsubasa.

"I'm going with you!" Yuu yelled, as he got tangled on the bed covers. He jumped off the bed, imitating Tsubasa's moves yet he ended up rolling along the floor... his glasses cracked broken. I guess this proves he wasn't a good athlete.

When Tsubasa was about to open the door with his shivery hands, a giggle brought them all back to their senses.

The giggle went louder, until it burst into laughter. Confused, Tsubasa, Ruka and Yuu looked back and saw her.

Confused as they were, Natsume slowly opened his eyes, and saw Mikan's jolly face once again. She was holding her stomach as she couldn't help stop herself from laughing.

"You could've seen how the four of you looked like! Jeez! How I wished Hotaru was here! You looked like... morons!!!" she spouted between giggles as she lied on the bed.

Natsume's eyes widened, teardrops still visible at the sides of his eyes. He was still leaning on top of her, right before her face.

The raven-haired boy's eyes were wide as he stared down at the now conscious Mikan who was recently laughing at them.

Yuu and Tsubasa went speechless for a moment, yet later on scratched their heads.

"You got us real bad back there, Mikan..." Tsubasa mentioned with a smile while Yuu giggled with his cracked glasses still on his face.

Ruka remained silent as his hair hid his face.

"That was totally funny!!!" she continued, not noticing Natsume's cloudy face, until...

"Natsume... you could've seen yourself, too! You were actually cry..." her voice and giggles trailed off as she felt drops of tears wet her cheeks once more until strong arms embraced her tight.

Both Mikan and Ruka's eyes widened, seeing Natsume shaking terribly as he hugged her, his eyes closed.

"N-Natsume?"

For a moment, he was calm and protective of her, until he snapped out of it and realized what Mikan had done.

His eyes vanished beneath his raven bangs and in split seconds, he pushed her away as he scratched his eyes with one swing of a hand, sat up, jumped off her and ran out the door, slamming the door shut behind him as he continued his way through the hotel's hallways.

Mikan was speechless, as she stared in thin air, dumbfounded.

"I think... I better go after him..." Ruka whispered and slowly opened the door,

"Wait!"

All eyes went back on her as she slowly got up from the bed, and ran to him. With bangs covering her auburn eyes, she took Ruka's hands in hers as her friend turned rosy.

"M-Mikan?"

She gave him the caress that told him that it was okay, that she was the one who's supposed to, and in no time, she ran out the door and was gone in there sight, leaving the room quiet once again.

Natsume... she whispered in her thoughts as she ran along the corridors. Tears falling behind her...

"Wow... Now Natsume's the one over reacting." Tsubasa joked as his sweat dropped. "They're both idiots."

Ruka's eyes vanished beneath his bangs, making them surprised when he himself ran out the door... following the two.

Yuu glanced at Tsubasa, who in turn shrugged his shoulders.

"There go those three idiots again."

"Should we follow them, too?" Tsubasa gagged as Yuu's sweat dropped and he shook his head.

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You're such an idiot!

I never thought you'd fall for it...

Mikan...

Those were the thoughts that clouded the three as they ran through the hotel suites. Maybe they all had their luck that no one was along the hallways, and so Mikan was safe. But that wasn't what was in their minds for the moment.

Mikan and Natsume were running closely to each other, for Mikan saw Natsume's back clearly, and he could hear her swift footsteps gaining fast behind him.

Yet, poor Ruka failed to take the same pathway as theirs, for he took a wrong turn right from the beginning and strayed to some place else, accidentally giving opportunity to the two to be alone.

"Mikan..." Ruka murmured, his eyes rummaging around him, and he sighed...

ooXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXoo

"Natsume! Please stop!"

That idiot... he thought as he ran fast a few meters ahead of her.

That corridor they had been running along seemed to be endless, and he felt exhausted until he came to a curve at last.

He shifted at a higher speed hoping to gain ahead of her, yet surprisingly; she kept it all the way, until he finally stopped along his tracks.

Mikan noticed his halt, and slowed her own paces till she made a stop.

Both had heavy breathing as their faces were covered by their bangs and their surroundings went darker. They sort of had reached a dark dead end and there were no more rooms in that part of the building.

Natsume panted as he reached for the nearest wall and leaned against it, his body slumping down to the floor and he sat, still breathing hard. Sweating hard, he remained silent, as he waited Mikan's words...