New Story

Ichigo and I were in the library sitting on opposite ends of the small table. She had her head down, headphones in and was studying material for the upcoming essay we were supposed to submit, I, on the other hand, decided to divert my attention elsewhere, but if I’m going down, I’m taking her down with me.

I know we got in trouble the last time we spoke a little too loudly, so I thought of a different, clever way to talk to Ichigo. I grabbed my notebook and started writing in a black Sharpie; 

“O Ichigo, Ichigo, wherefore art thou Ichigo?”

I held it up and tapped on the table. Ichigo looked up at the notebook and blinked a couple of times. Once she read it a smile crept up on her lips, I could tell she was holding back a laugh at my stupidity but to my surprise, she started writing in her notebook.

“New phone who dis?”

I started laughing at the note she wrote and quickly scribbled something on my paper.

“Do you want to discuss what our new story should be about?”

I turned the page around and watched as Ichigo scanned the page with her eyes, soon her eyes lit up and she aggressively nodded before starting to write something down.

“Yes! Yes! A thousand times Yes!”

Her enthusiasm was contagious and soon I found myself rather excited to be working on this with her too. I thought about what our story should be about and soon I knew something I wanted to write about.

“How about Fantasy?” I wrote it down.

“Romantic Fantasy!” Ichika replied.

“Do you want it to be a typical Romantic Fantasy or something unique?” I asked, making sure to keep my voice low, but loud enough for her to hear.

“Hmm,” she thought carefully.

“What do you have in mind?” she proceeded to ask, also making sure to keep her voice down a few decibels.

This time it was my turn to think.

“I’ve always wanted to do an ‘Enemies to Lovers’ trope,” she grinned.

I chuckled, “Right, enemies to lovers it is then.”

“Yay!” she cheered and clapped her hands quietly.

I smiled at her before writing down a few things in my notebook in bullet points.

· Fantasy Romance

· Enemies to Lovers

I tried to rack my brain, thinking of all the romance novels I have read that are either Fantasy or have the ‘Enemies to Lovers’ trope. But here’s the thing now, I’m not much of an ‘Enemies to Lovers’ fan as much as I am “Friends to Lovers’ so I haven’t read anything to do with the trope we are dealing with now.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

Should I tell Ichigo that Enemies to Lovers isn’t my thing, so maybe we should change it?

Tap! Tap! Tap!

But she seems so excited and technically this whole us writing a story together was HER idea so maybe I should go with what she wants.

I heard a rustling noise before feeling something hitting my head, it wasn’t hard enough to hurt but it startled me. I looked down to see a screwed-up paper ball in my lap and a scowling Ichigo in front of me. She signalled towards the paper which I unscrewed.

“I’ve been trying to get your attention for 5 minutes now while you’ve been up with the fairies! I have an idea!”

I looked up at the girl sitting across from me, her scowl now changed into a small, excited smile. She was fidgeting a lot more than usual and was bouncing a little in her chair too.

“So, what’s the idea?” I asked.

“Okay, what if we write about a witch and a wizard who are rivals? And they have to come together to go on a quest to save the Queen whose dying! Their mission? To retrieve a magic flower with healing properties,” she explained.

I thought for a while, “Okay, okay I like that.”

Ichigo looked at me intently, “But?”

“But it sounds a little… cliché,” I admit.

“Oh,” she breathed out, softly.

“It’s okay! It’s a good start though, much better than what I would’ve come up with,” I chuckled, trying to lighten her mood.

“Do you have any ideas?” she asked.

I thought for a bit before an idea finally crossed my mind.

“How about we write about a prince? Not just any prince, a fairy prince? And he encounters a human girl who enters their world after a tragedy and they hate each other, he’s mean to her all the time, but she has one dream to become a knight! So, she has no choice but to put up with the prince!” I explained my idea.

I looked at Ichigo eagerly who had a gentle smile, “I love that idea! I do. But I’m afraid it’s already been taken.”

“Wait, really?” I asked surprised.

Ichigo bit her bottom lip softly while nodding, “It’s called ‘The Cruel Prince’ and it’s a trilogy I highly recommend it though.”

I gently hit my head on the table and looked back at the girl who was looking back at me with a small sympathetic smile. She reached across and placed her hand on top of mine, that small gesture surprised even me.

“If it’s any consolation, it was a really good idea! So good that it’s already taken,” she nodded before pulling her hand back.

I looked down and instantly missed the warmth her hand provided; it was soft like powder and honestly, my heart skipped a beat, butterflies erupted in my stomach, and heat rose to my face and ears.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

Ye-“ I cleared my throat.

“Yeah,” I nodded.

“Are you sure? You’re looking a little red,” Ichigo pointed out.

Seriously? Was it that obvious? Way to be subtle, Kyo!

“I’m fine just a little hot,” I smiled before taking my blazer off.

I rolled up my sleeves to my forearms and saw Ichigo’s eyes widen, I looked down to see she was staring at my arms, I don’t know why though.

“Ichigo, are you okay?” I asked.

“U-uhm,” she stuttered.

Her face went a little pink, starting from her ears and moving towards her cheeks.

I chuckled at her and saw her still staring at my arms.

“Y-yeah, I’m okay,” she cleared her throat.

“Are you sure?” I smirked.

Now that I think about it, I know exactly why she was staring, as I looked down, I realised my veins were popping out of my arms. According to my knowledge of girls from my very vast collection of books, I know they have a secret obsession when it comes to veins, it’s like they’re vampires without the need for blood.

“Ichigo,” I smiled.

“Yes?” she nodded, slowly.

“My eyes are up here,” I pointed up to where my eyes were.

Ichigo’s eyes went wide and her cheeks were practically matching the colour of her hair now, I tried not to laugh at her expression but it was so hard not to, she looked so cute, like a kid caught stealing cookies after their parents told them no.

“I-I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she shrugged while looking away.

“Oh really?” I asked.

“Yesh,” she replied, folding her arms across her chest.

“Okay,” I smiled, raising my arms in mock surrender.

A few minutes of comfortable silence went by before Ichigo perked up, “I have an idea! You kind of gave it to me from that prince one that you had.”

“Okay, I’m all ears,” I nodded, sitting up straight and leaning forward.

“How about we write about a guy, just a regular guy who goes to Uni and doesn’t talk much to anyone, but he has a secret! The secret is he’s living a double life! He’s a bodyguard to Princesses and one day he has a mission to protect a princess whose being ‘stalked’ by a neighbouring King who’s fallen in love with her.

So, the guy goes and finds out she’s prepping for her coronation that’s in a few months, but the palace is under attack by the King, the guy takes the princess and saves her. He takes her back to his headquarters which takes in the rescued Princesses and changes their identity to keep them safe for a short while.

So, the princess doesn’t trust anyone there apart from the guy so he has no choice but to take her home. Of course, he’s trying to live a normal life but it’s hard when you have a girl living with you who's far from normal and won’t stop acting like a… Princess.” She explains.

“I know it’s not fantasy but I just couldn’t help but share this idea with you,” she looks down.

“That. Is. Brilliant!” I tell her.

“Really?” she grins and almost lifts from her chair in excitement.

“Yeah. And of course, he’s still a bodyguard so he can go on missions to save other princesses,” I carry on.

“YES! And our girlie pop can be a little jealous because she thought that he was supposed to be with her, and she refuses to talk to him for a few days after he comes home, and when he asks her ‘What’s wrong?’ she can say something like ‘Why don’t you ask that girl you were saving?” Ichigo snaps her fingers.

“Yup! And he can reply with, ‘It’s my job. What do you expect me to do?’” I smile.

“It can be one of those cases where she falls first but he falls harder!” Ichigo grins.

“Exactly,” I nod.

“But then she’ll have to go back, and the guy quits working at the agency,” Ichigo then says making me look at her.

“What? Why? He needs to work there, doesn’t he?” I ask.

“Not if the Princess hires him as her bodyguard,” she winks.

“Brilliant!” I clap.

“Thank you,” Ichigo giggles.

“But what about the other King?” I ask her.

“He’ll pop up now and then,” she shrugs.

I nod and think this would be the best book ever written, but there’s just one other thing.

“But let’s just keep it PG,” I tell her.

“What do you mean?” Ichigo asks.

“Well, judging by the other book you wrote I don’t think I’ll be able to… handle any… lemon,” I laugh as Ichigo picks up her notebook and starts to hit me with it.

“You. Are. So, mean!” she says in between hits.

“Are you ever going to let me live that down?” she asks.

“Not if I can’t help it, I won’t” I wink.