Citrus?

This chapter will take place immediately after chapter 36 and is a theory fiction, so by no means does it mean that Saburouta will be following the same direction that I think she will take. This will also be 6 chapters in length and between 2500-3000 per chapter.

The main characters.

Yuzu: 18

Mei: 18

Chapter 37: Broken Love.

Summary: takes place after 36. But we see how Mei copes with life without Yuzu, while Yuzu's friends try to get Yuzu to open up (not including Harumin).

Disclaimer: Citrus, is the property of Saburouta, the characters, the story and anything relating to Citrus, do not belong to me

Waking up from her slumber, inside a dark room, a young girl with long blonde hair slowly picks herself up to ready herself for another day of schooling, glancing over to her right in hopes that the girl with long black hair had returned. Yuzu let out a sigh, not taking notice of her mother calling out to her. Positioning herself on the side of the bed, she looked at the ground and took a deep breath, she looked back again, "Mei, where are you?"

"Yuzu!" Yuzu's mother called out to her, quickly gaining her attention.

"Yes mother!" Yuzu replied after thirty seconds.

After getting dressed, she emerged from her room to see Matsuri and Harumin standing at the entrance, waiting for her to hang out with them for the day, Matsuri quickly noticed that something was amiss, noticing that something was wrong with Yuzu's attire, "let's go," Matsuri scathingly told the two girls, opening the door, she looked back at Yuzu and noticed another thing, part of her hair was a different color, apart from her normal blonde hair that Yuzu was often so proud of, she could visibly see black tips at the end.

After a couple of hours, Yuzu, Harumin and Matsuri eventually made it to a theme park, the three girls walked around, enjoying the sights that were on offer, they enjoyed the rides, but Matsuri still noticed something was off, Yuzu was still putting on a brave front, trying to hide her pain, 'this isn't working the way I had hoped,' Matsuri thought to herself.

As time went on Yuzu continued to smile, pretending that nothing was wrong with her, but Matsuri knew better, she peered to her right and spotted Himeko and Suzuran watching from a distance, she nodded at the two of them to signal that they were almost ready to enact their plan. The group brought an ice cream each at one of the stalls, but the hurt expression emerged on Yuzu again, her thoughts now turning again, failing to notice that she had dropped the ice cream, "I will get another one," Yuzu bravely smiled, but was stopped by Matsuri.

"Harumin, you go on ahead," she informed the older girl calmly, she turned her gaze to Yuzu and grabbed her arm, Harumin walked away oblivious to what was really happening, "you and I need to talk," Matsuri forced her childhood friend away from the festivities.

"Now, when we are having a good time?" Yuzu questioned her pink haired friend.

"You are not having a good time, you are only pretending to," Matsuri chastised her childhood friend, leading her away towards a secret location, where they can talk in private, "you can only hide so much from me, I know you well enough to know that you are hurting," Matsuri expressed her displeasure at her friend's dishonesty.

"I don't know what you're talking about Matsuri," Yuzu tried defending herself, but Matsuri wanted no part of the response.

Mei sitting in her study, with only a small light on the desk, a pile of official paperwork from the academy she would one day inherit as well as paperwork of her studies. Her hand was trembling with her handwriting becoming less and less illegible, as she continued to write, the pen snapped in half, "another pen," she whispered, she tossed the remains of the pen in the bin. A bin that was filled with other pens that were broken, seemingly numbering into the hundreds, also accompanied with paperwork that had been thrown in the bin as if to hide something, as well as unusable pencils that she had also broken in the process.

Mei stood up and approached the door. The door opened revealing a man wearing glasses and dressed in a suit, "I am making dinner soon," he informed his soon to be wife, but was ignored, Mei walked passed him avoiding body contact in the process, she glared back with a cold expression, "Mei?"

Mei turned back and started walking back to her room, "I am not hungry, eat dinner by yourself," coldly telling her fiancé.

"Are you alright?" he asked, only to be ignored by Mei who made her way to her room.

Entering the room, she slammed the door shut, locking it immediately and fell on her bed, she looked upwards to the ceiling and raised her hand, staring at the engagement ring with disgust, her other hand clasping the conceal ring given to her by Yuzu, trying her best to keep her emotions in check, she started to doze off, ignoring the calls of her fiancé.

During her sleep she started to toss and turn, "Yuzu," she called out a number of times, each time becoming more urgent, "don't leave me," her voice trembled, fear becoming ever apparent in her voice.

As the night wore on, Mei's nightmare continued to get worse, seeing some of her friends looking at her with disgust, until eventually she spotted Yuzu standing next to Matsuri, "I no longer love you Mei, I have decided to start dating Matsuri," Yuzu's voice echoed in her mind, noticing Matsuri poking out her tongue and smirking at her, clinging to Yuzu's arm as they walked away from Mei.

"Yuzu!" Mei tried to reach out to the girl, but to no avail.

Suddenly leaping up, sweating profusely, "Yuzu!" Mei called out to Yuzu again, panting heavily, she noticed the sun had risen, placing her hand over her forehead, she looked up at the chest of draws and spotted a small teddy bear, one repaired by Yuzu, "what am I doing?" she asked herself, trying her best to get some sense of composure back.

Making back to the study, she entered the room and approached the desk, grabbing an envelope that was placed at the front, "why am I expecting a letter from Yuzu?" she asked herself, opening it to reveal a result from one of her assignments. After unfolding the paper that was contained in the envelope, it revealed a very low grade, "twenty five percent," she uttered, she ripped up the paper and threw it in the bin.

Repeating the same events of the previous day, for what seemed like an eternity, she continued her studies to the best of her abilities, resisting the urge to open the top draw next to her, In recent times the urge to not open the draw started to falter, remaining at the desk for hours eating at certain times away, she had been alone all this time, even with her fiancé making it back home late in the day, not once even greeting him home.

Mei walked out of the room, only to be greeted by her fiancé, he was holding a bag filled with food from a fast food store, "come on Mei, how about we watch TV and have Chinese?" he suggested, but the request fell on death ears, Mei walked into the kitchen and grabbed food that she had prepared earlier in the day, walking passed him, ignoring his presence yet again. He tried to make sense of this, it had been seven months since they were given the house, sleeping in separate rooms for the whole time, "something isn't right," he whispered to himself, trying to piece together Mei's cold personality, which continued to become ever colder towards him and even towards her grandfather in the process.

This time noticing his presence, she turned to look at him with a deadly glare, "if you want to know, I will never love you," she hissed at him, she turned away and marched to her room, "someone else already has my heart won," she informed leaving him uncertain as to what he can do to help Mei out, she opened the door and prepared to enter her room.

"I am staying home tomorrow, how about we discuss this arrangement further?" he suggested with a glimmer of hope.

"Do whatever you want," Mei slammed the door shut and locking the entrance in the process.

"You left the door open," an elderly man entered the house.

"Good evening sir," Mei's fiancé greeted the grandfather.

"How are things going between you and my granddaughter?" he asked with hope.

Taking a deep breath, the young man turned towards the elderly man and let out another sigh, "not very well sir, when I first met her, she was a nice and caring person, but now she is becoming increasing colder," the young man informed the grandfather with a hint of concern, he turned his attention to the room, thinking about the first meeting, "she has even stated that she will never love me."

"Ridiculous, Mei is a very dedicated young woman, she will do what is right," Mei's grandfather replied in her defence.

"Sir, have you considered calling this whole arrangement off? I really don't think it will last long between us," he enquired about calling the arranged marriage off.

"You promised that you would never run away from this again, did you not?" Questioning the man he chose for Mei.

"You're right," he replied softly, but doubt continued to creep into his mind, "I have noticed that some nights, Mei has been throwing an amazing amount of paper into the recycling," the manager informed the grandfather as he was leaving the house.

Mei's grandfather made it to the end of the driveway and noticed some of the paper on the ground, picking it up he unfurled it. Horror etched on his face, something he didn't expect from such a dedicated young woman, "twenty percent?" he questioned the grade, he opened the bin to discover a large quantity of paper contained within, he picked up what looked like a report card, opening it, he was mortified to discover that the normally straight 'A' student that's his granddaughter had her grades drop by so much that a majority of them had turn to 'F' grades, "what's going on with my granddaughter?" he asked all the while feeling his health starting to give way. Bravely walking to the limousine whilst holding onto the report card of his granddaughter, clasping his chest but signalling for the driver to drive off from the house.

The next day emerged Mei sat up, clutching her head, "the same nightmare," she whispered, thoughts of Yuzu playing in her mind with memories of the nightmare replaying in her mind. After an hour she dressed up and unlocked the door to her room, she exited the room and made her way to the kitchen, she turned to see a pile of pancakes on the bench, choosing to ignore them she poured a bowl of cereal instead, eventually making her way to the study.

Unlocking the study, she entered without locking the door, her hands were trembling, an involuntary action that rattled the spoon against the bowl, she placed the bowl on the desk and with hands on either side of her, she tried her best to hold back her emotions again, she moved towards the desk chair, sitting down and taking a brand-new pen, she tried to write on her next assignment, peering over to the draw again, she tried to return her focus on the paperwork, her hands shaking and her handwriting now a complete mess, she could barely write even a line, "what's wrong with me?" she started losing resistance. Without thinking her right hand moved towards the draw and opened it, revealing a photo that she had hidden for the last six months, a photo of her and Yuzu. Yuzu with her arm around her shoulder and smiling while Mei kept her emotionless expression, "Yuzu, I am sorry," she apologized to the girl.

Mei continued to do her paperwork after putting the photo back, she continued to falter, looking back at the draw. Mei tried her hand at writing with hopes that seeing the picture would give her the courage to continue on, but to no avail, Mei's hand was shaking violently, in the process the pen snapped in half again, throwing it away, she reached out for another pen. Her hand fell short of the new pack of pens, she was unable to continue, she had suddenly realized her problem, "enough!" she screamed out, her hand swinging away, sending all the paper on the desk flying in every direction, now feeling angered by being trapped in the house that she wanted to get out of.

As her anger reached its peak, the fiancé opened the door, to see Mei surrounded by paper, new pens and pencils scattered across the floor, she looked up to see his concerned expression, he noticed her starting to cry, "are you alright," he asked kindly, but was ignored, Mei stomped passed him, avoiding body contact again, "you should go and get some rest," he told Mei, he looked down at the paper on the floor, he heard Mei yelling out, but he had no clue as to why, he watched Mei walking towards her room and waited until he heard the slamming of the door to make his way towards the room.

Once Mei had entered the room, she locked the door, with her back towards the door, she slide down and broke down in tears, uncontrollable, she tried her best to wipe them away, but they continued to flow, "I can't take this anymore, I want to go back," she told herself, crying that never stopped which prevented her from hearing her fiancé approaching her room.

He placed his back against the wall, overhearing Mei crying stating that she wants to go back home, he looked at the ground stunned at the revelation, "she hates it here," he whispered to himself, a sudden urge of hesitation entered his expression, he glanced at the engagement ring and guilt suddenly washed over him.

"I want to see Yuzu again," she cried out. He remembered Yuzu, a cheerful person, always smiling and working hard, he knew that Mei was her step-sister, so he didn't take much notice of her wanting to see Yuzu again, "Yuzu," she called out repeatedly, as the manager was still didn't come to a conclusion, "I need you Yuzu, please, come help me."

He didn't know why she was stating this, why was she after Yuzu, those thoughts rushing thought his mind, he started to walk away from the room, still oblivious to what Mei was getting at, "Yuzu, I love you!" The fiancé stopped, incapable of believing what he had heard, he had finally heard the reason why Mei wasn't acting herself in recent time.

He walked back to his room, his thoughts directed at the engagement ring, "I cannot go through with this, I don't want to hurt Mei anymore," he whispered to himself, he turned to the phone and dial in a few numbers, "sir, we need to discuss something important tomorrow," he informed the person on the other side of the call, before hanging up.

At the theme park Yuzu and Matsuri made it to the secret meeting spot, at this time Himeko and Suzuran emerged from the corner, catching Yuzu off guard, Matsuri stood between the two other girls, "I don't need to talk to you Yuzu, we need to talk to you," Matsuri informed Yuzu of the trio's intention to get to the bottom of Yuzu's change.

"We know everything Yuzu," Himeko confessed to Yuzu, much to her shock.

Suzuran placing her right hand over her face, repeating her normal habit that typified her observation abilities, "you are wearing that chain with the ring," her observations shook Yuzu to the core.

Matsuri approached Yuzu and grabbed some of her hair, "your hair coloring is also fading, you took pride in having the same hair color as your father," Matsuri reminded Yuzu of the fading hair color, showing it to her. She lowered her glance to a loose button on Yuzu's shirt, "the bottom button of your shirt is undone, and the top button is in the wrong place," Matsuri directed Yuzu to the mess her attire was in.

A false laughter echoed from Yuzu, she swiped Matsuri's hand away from her hair, "w-what are…are you t-talking about?" She asked, her voice trembling and another fake laugh emerged, as she tried her best to smile at her friends. A false sense of bravery was starting to crumble, the wall that she had built over a short space of time started falling around her, "I….I d-don't need….M-M…..Mei," Yuzu started to break in front of her friends.

"You're lying Yuzu," Matsuri replied, noticing the first tears coming from Yuzu's eyes.

Tears started welling up, Yuzu, tried to get another false smile on her face, covering her mouth and turning away, she cleared away the tears that emerged, she turned around and smiled, "you see, I am…" Yuzu attempted a sentence before finally breaking down in tears, falling to the ground her wails shook her friends greatly, "I need Mei around, I love her more than anything," Yuzu cried about her love for Mei to her friends.

All three of them watched Yuzu crying, Matsuri approached her childhood friend and placed her hands on her shoulder, "it's alright Yuzu, let it all out, we are your friends and we are here for you," assuring Yuzu that her friends will be there for her, while Yuzu continued to cry out for Mei repeatedly, while her friends watched in despair, powerless to say anything or even do more to consul Yuzu in her grief.

Hope you liked this first attempt at a prediction, please remember that Saburouta will more than likely do something completely different to what you see here. But there will be other chapters to follow, the ideas I have are ready to be typed down, so this won't take long for me to complete.