For my entire life I had gone by a completely invisible existence. I blended in very well with the background and everybody else just looked at me like I was air. I didn't have outstanding looks and I barely participated in anything. I mostly kept to myself and didn't bother with anyone. I was just a quiet loner observing from the sidelines. I didn't need anyone else and nobody else needed me. I was alone and I was fine with that.

I really hated interacting with other people. They were annoying and most of the time stupid from what I see. There was a boundary between normal people and me which I would dare not cross. I was content in my own comfort zone. I interacted more with technology mostly my laptop. It was one of the few joys in my life.

Nobody could understand me but me. Only I was allowed in my own wonderland. Until one day she trespassed into my world…

A ringing sound suddenly boomed into my ears. I rubbed my eyes open and checked my alarm clock. It was already eight am. I stretched my arms and felt my back aching. I found myself sitting at my desk in front of my laptop. Why I always forget to sleep in my bed, I don't know. I closed my laptop and prepared to get myself ready for university classes. I had taken a cold morning shower and didn't bother to fix my unruly hair. I liked it that way, messy and uncaring. After I was ready I put on my thick circular eyeglasses and grabbed my laptop. I headed downstairs to find the rest of my family at the dining table having breakfast.

"Onii-chan! Have some breakfast." Said my little sister as she brightly smiled at me.

"Can't eat now, I'm late." I told her then she had a disappointed look on her face.

"Mou, you never really eat breakfast with us…or lunch…or dinner. Not even snack time." She said pulling off one of her puppy dog expressions.

"Don't bother your brother, he's going to be late to university." Said my mom as she bit into her toast nonchalantly.

"I'll see if I can eat dinner later." I said as I put on my shoes. I could tell that at least lightened up her face a bit. If there were some people I could tolerate, it would be my little sister. She's more like a little puppy dog than a sister actually. She may be annoying sometimes but she is my sister.

I went out of the house to catch the subway to my university. I feel so groggy this morning like every other morning. I could almost feel myself sleep while standing up. I almost started to snore in public if it wasn't for the beeping announcement that signaled my stop. The doors finally opened and lots of people started to come out of the train. As usual people would bump into me and push me around until I could finally breathe in some fresh air outside of the station. It's a really good thing I always hugged my laptop bag to prevent it from being dropped or stolen. I don't know what I would have done without it.

I sighed in relief as I finally reached the university. My classes were going to start soon and I needed to hurry. While running with the thought of not being late in my mind I failed to notice a soccer ball lying carelessly on the ground. Thanks to that I accidentally stepped on the ball and fell flat on my face. The impact against the hard cement ground with my face was not very pleasant. I opened my eyes and my vision was blurry. Wonderful, my glasses flew away somewhere. I'm blind as a bat and I can hardly distinguish anything due to my bad eyesight. I was unfortunate enough to inherit this weakness from my grandfather. My eyeglasses were the most important thing, without it I couldn't see what I was doing. I cursed under my breath and started feeling the dirty ground for my glasses. After a few minutes had gone by I still couldn't find them and I was starting to get anxious. I never thought about getting spare glasses or wearing contacts because it didn't seem like I would use them and it was just a waste of money. Right now, I'm regretting not even carrying a spare. As I was still searching I could hear some footsteps that were getting louder and louder. It didn't sound like footsteps that were just passing by, more like footsteps that were approaching me.

"Excuse me." I heard someone say, I looked up to see a blurry figure that seemed like a human talking to me. Of course it would be human, idiot. I'm not in some fantasy world.

"Did you perhaps lose these eyeglasses?" the person asked. Judging from the voice it would be a female. I started to squint my eyes to see if it was my eyeglasses but the woman suddenly grabbed my hand and placed the glasses in my palm. I shivered at the sudden contact and was bewildered. I don't know why but I think I became more nervous then when I lost my eyeglasses. Was this the first time I made physical contact with another person? I never even had such contact with my own family for as long as I could remember. That was the first time I…I got my hand held like that.

"Are you alright?" she asked again. I snapped out of my reverie and hastily put my glasses on. Now that I could see I was right when I thought it was a woman who approached me. But something just suddenly struck me when I was able to see her appearance. She had long brown hair that was curled at the ends and such bright brown eyes that almost seemed to sparkle the more you look at them. Above all, her smile gave me an uncomfortable feeling that made my organs go all twisted in the inside. I thought I felt my heart drop down into my stomach, done in by gastric acids and my brain shutting itself off and squeezing out all reason and logic through my ears.

"Oh my goodness, look at you!" she exclaimed as her eyes and expression changed from bright to worry. She started scooting closer towards me while crouching down and moving her fingers to almost touching my face. I started to panic and push myself away from her scared as if she was going to put me under a spell.

"Your face, it's bleeding!" she said while her eyes were staring at me with concern. I raised my hand to feel my face and look at the blood that dripped down my palm. I may have scratched myself from that fall. How carelessly clumsy of me today, I have never felt more mortified to be witnessed in such a state. I saw my laptop was on the ground right beside me and grabbed it so I could run away and stop being such a pitiful person in her eyes.

"Ah, wait!" I ran quick but not quick enough for she was able to grab my wrist and put something in my hand again. I almost stumbled but quickly regained my balance and opened my hand to see a patch of band aid that I could cover my scratch with. I looked to see her with that breath stopping smile that nullified all my senses.

"You should probably get that treated." She told me with such glittering eyes that seemed to turn me speechless as I just awkwardly nod at her and hastily walked away from her to regain my mind and all my senses. If I had faced her any longer I would have lost the ability to walk and function to the level of an immobile mute. Even after clearing my head and grasping back reality, I could hear my loud heart beat like it was desperately trying to jump out of my chest. I took in deep breaths to calm myself down and function normally but that bewitching smile had been engraved to every cerebral of my brain. This could not happen, how one simple grin makes you feel so…so powerless. I have seen plenty of other smiles on different people and at different times. Some mocking, some fake, and some just forced. I cannot understand why this one person was different. I don't even know her name; it's pointless to think about it. I just hope I don't have to run into her again.

I suddenly remembered the band aid patch she gave me and decided to find a mirror in the restroom so I can cover up this stinging scratch. Thanks to that I was late for the first lecture and decided to skip it since I know that prickly professor was fussy over punctuality. For the rest of the day I went on with classes as normally as I could, scold my brain whenever the image of a sunny brunette with a warm smile comes up. It was a miserable thought remembering a stranger that gave you such a big impact yet not knowing anything about her except that she smiles so beautifully that I want to bang my head again on the cement ground and die from blood loss- why can't I get my mind to stop wondering about her? It was a fail attempt paying attention to the lecture so I just decided to sleep this off hoping that by the time I wake up she is just nothing but a faint dream.

"Onii-chan, are you finally eating dinner with- whoa! Look at you!" screamed my little sister as she pointed to the band aid on my face. I just glared at her for how noisy she was and went on my way towards my room.

"Was it a fight? Did you win? Hey, where did you get that wound?" she kept on pestering me while all I wanted was to lock myself in my room and continue with my project on my laptop.

"Stop annoying me I just tripped, that's all." I answered as I went in my room and slammed the door.

"Liaaaaar! That's what they ALL say!" she whined. I waited for a few minutes until she was gone and proceeded to open my laptop. I do all sorts of things with my computer. Graphic art, programming, animation and some game designing. I was supposed to be working on some gaming engine but for some reason…I don't know what I'm doing anymore. I feel like I just lost all knowledge and became a clueless idiot. As if I haven't slept enough in class I plopped myself on my bed and for the first time slept in it.

I woke up pretty early today and decided to have some breakfast first before going to university. The moment I came downstairs everybody else paused what they were doing and stared at me incredulously. My little sister even dropped her toast.

"What is it?" I asked slightly annoyed at the fuss they were making.

"The child is up bright and early!" exclaimed my mom.

"Onii-chan, are you alright? Are you sick?" asked my little sister, is it that hard to believe of my capability of waking up early?

"Forget it I'm not going to eat breakfast anymore." I said when my little sister grabbed my arm and made me sit on a chair.

"You need to eat breakfast in the morning! I'm so happy onii-chan is finally eating breakfast with us!" she said while beaming at me like a little puppy dog. I could see ears and tails coming out. My parents kept on feeding me too much food because of their overexcitement of finally eating with their only son. I don't remember when was the last time I ate with them so I felt like a bad son who only cares about work and studies. Maybe I should eat with them every now and then.

I arrived at the university an hour early and saw only a few people walking around. I inhaled the morning air and decided to get some extra nap under a favorite hidden sakura tree of mine. I lied down and watched the pink cherry blossoms dancing with the wind. I always come here whenever I don't feel like doing anything or just want to get away. I always felt sleepy all the time so I almost drifted away to sleep when I felt something hover over me.

"It's the guy from yesterday!" I heard a familiar female voice say. I opened my eyes and saw her staring at me with something hanging from her mouth. I sat up and she pushed the snack into her mouth.

"Hey, how's your scratch?" she asked smiling with her sunny eyes.

"What are you doing here?" I gruffly asked her.

"I asked you first." She said, how cheeky.

"Its fine, you don't need to worry about it." I answered. She held a small box towards me.

"Want some?" she asked offering me chocolate pocky.

"No thanks. I don't like sweets." I bluntly said. She pouted at me like a puppy dog. For some reason she reminds me of my little sister.

"So what's your name?" she asked. It took me awhile to contemplate on an answer.

"Hyuuga." I simply answered.

"Hyuuga? And your first name?" she asked again, why is this girl so persistent on my name.

"You don't need to know." I replied, she puffed her cheeks in annoyance. She looks like a cute chipmunk just now…wait; I never found chipmunks cute so why am I thinking like that just now.

"Fine, then I'll tell you my full name!" she said with a lot of energy "My name is Yukihara Mikan. Mikan like the tangerine! Please call me Mikan!"

"I didn't need to know all that, especially the tangerine part." I remarked. She was taking this too enthusiastically. She sat beside me while ignoring my statement and continued eating her pocky. This girl is just too weird.

"Um, why are you here?" I asked her. I'm actually surprised she knows this spot. Not many people come here after all.

"I like it here." She said while eating her snack.

"And you don't mind sharing this spot with me?" I asked her as I played with my long bangs.

"You don't seem like a bad person. A little strange but not bad." She said while giving me that disarming smile of hers. I looked the other way not wanting her see the redness on my cheeks.

"How am I strange?" I asked her trying to continue the conversation. This may be my record of longest conversation I ever had with another person.

"Well for starters you ran off when I tried to help you." I cringed when she said that. The memories of yesterday were truly mortifying "But I'm happy you used the band aid I gave you!"

I suddenly felt a jolt in my chest. The wonders this woman can make me feel with just a simple smile or sentence.

"Hey, what's your major? I'm studying education." She said looking at me with curious eyes.

"Education? You want to be a teacher?" I asked her, she beamed and nodded at me. I chuckled a bit at the thought. Imagining her as a teacher would be amusing.

"Eh? Why are you laughing? I'm going to become a good teacher someday!" she said with determination in her eyes.

"I think you would be suitable to become a kindergarten teacher." I commented, with her childishness young children would really like her I guess.

"But I want to be an elementary teacher." She said.

"Why elementary?" I asked her.

"I want to be like my homeroom elementary teacher!" she answered with pride. I wonder about that "Hey, you didn't tell me your major yet."

"Media arts." I simply answered her.

"Really? That sounds really cool, so you bring this computer huh?" she continued and we kept on talking to pass the time away. Well, if you consider her blabbing most of the time and me answering with short replies talking. It wasn't that bad.

For the past few weeks we would meet at the sakura tree and just hang out together. I would sleep or work on my laptop while she would also nap or read a book. I guess you could say we've gone from strangers to friends who would hang out though I had a hard time accepting the friend part of the relationship but nevertheless it was comfortable. She even told me I would look better if I cut my hair and wore contacts instead of my high prescription glasses. I never really cared about my appearance but I did think my long hair was getting a bit in the way. So one weekend I cut my hair but I still wore my glasses so there wasn't much of a reaction from other people. Just 'Oh, you cut your hair. You look cleaner now.' Comment by my mom and 'Wow, now onii-chan doesn't look like a hippy.' Snide remark by my little sister. But nevertheless Yukihara Mikan still smiled warmly at me and said I look more refreshing. Just that one opinion made feel like I made the right choice in cutting my hair. Not that I was looking for her approval or anything. It was just in the way, that's all.

During one of my classes my professor asked me to design a female character for an rpg gaming company where I could get paid for an internship program of some sort. I accepted the offer and for some reason they wanted a sunny character so I based the design on the person that always comes to my mind and makes me so anxiously restless. They were so satisfied with my work that they even reserved a job offer for me to work at their company once I graduate. I was just relieved it was done and wanted to rest.

A week after that I was at the sakura tree working on something new again on my laptop when she arrived as usual carrying her pocky everywhere with her and munching like there's no tomorrow.

"Hey, can I wear your glasses for a bit?" she asked out of the blue, I flatly refused her "Why? I just want to see what you see!"

"I see different than you. The prescription is going to wreck your vision." I explained, she did the cute little chipmunk pout again and crossed her arms.

"I just want to see what you really look like without glasses. It's hard to see your eyes with those thick circular things." She said as she started on the puppy dog eyes again.

"My looks are nothing special. You'll just be disappointed." I explained to her hoping she would be convinced. Sadly she was very stubborn and wouldn't give up without a fight.

"Please, I just want to see." She said with that hopeful expression again. If persuasion had a face it would be Yukihara Mikan.

"I still don't understand but if it will get you to stop," she gleamed happily and I just sighed. To be honest I'm afraid she wouldn't like me as much anymore if she sees my non-outstanding looks. I've seen guys around her before and they would always look like models from my little sister's teen magazines. I know very well about my zero percentage chance of actually ending up in a romantic relationship with her. It was a miracle that someone as stunning as her would be willing to talk to someone as plain and unnoticeable like me. How much I yearn for her frustrates me so that I can only look and listen to her but not hold her in my arms or kiss her. She was like the light that a measly little moth like me was attracted to and if I move in even closer, I know I would be destroyed. I stopped working for a second and reluctantly removed my glasses. I faced her and all I could see was a mass of blurry objects. I really hate this bad eyesight of mine. I can't see anything and I don't know what's going on.

"Wow," I heard her say, I take it maybe she hasn't seen anyone as ugly as me "Your eyes are red…they're beautiful."

"What?" I said completely unconvinced from that comment "If that was sarcasm I already know how unattractive I am." I put my glasses back on and continued typing on my laptop a bit pissed that she would think my eyes are beautiful when they're not.

"That's not true! I really love your eyes!" I suddenly felt my eyebrow twitch at that comment. Saying that she only loves one part of my body really upsets me for no reason. Is this because I have never received a compliment like that before?

"Can I just ask one thing?" silly woman, she was already asking.

"Go on." I said tiredly.

"Have you ever even seen yourself in the mirror before?" she asked, what kind of question was that?

"Of course I've seen myself; I don't live in cave you know." I answered back.

"So you don't even consider yourself good looking?" she asked again.

"Compared to the men who've you been around with I'm not even close." I replied as I was looking at the laptop screen. I don't understand what she's saying, she's not making any sense.

"They're the ones who are not even close." I heard her mutter but I decided to ignore it "You think you could take off those glasses when you're with me and not anybody else?" I raised an eyebrow, what kind of ridiculous request is that? She's been acting even more weird than usual.

"I won't be able to see if I do that." I answered.

"You can wear contacts." She suggested.

"I hate contacts." I rejected, she seemed to have a very disappointed look on her face.

"You don't get it!" she muttered again. I don't really understand what she wants but if it makes her happy.

"What if I don't do something on my laptop, I can take them off then." I compromised.

"Then don't work on your laptop right now." She demanded.

"No, I'm doing something important right now." I rejected her demand. She sighed then leaned on the tree trunk. After a few minutes she looked at me and said…

"I heard about the new character you designed." I heard her say, I suddenly stopped typing on my laptop.

Finally finished. I can sleep now.

Thanks to Neophyte's Serendipity for inviting me ^_^