Scandalous - Streets of Grand City

Nemo felt extremely tired after his morning training session with Kara because he trained much harder with her then he normally would. Kara seemed to be half-surprised and half-proud that the Prince was now putting in more effort although once she read the news, Nemo was sure Kara would realize why. There was no doubt in Nemo's mind that his fight would be featured in the daily newspapers.

"Have fun at school," said Ursela as Nemo was leaving his apartment. "Oh and if you're gonna stay out late with a girl make sure you call next time, 'kay?"

"How-" started Nemo, wondering how Ursela knew that he technically was out with a girl. But he was only with her for less then a minute after they got out of the Oracle's little room.

"Ah, I read it in the newspaper this morning. You can't hide these things from the media, you know?" said Ursela. Nemo was confused, why was the media focusing on the five seconds he spent with a girl and not the fact that the phoenixes had risen again. Was his love life that important?

Nemo turned and ran down the streets. He had to get to the newspaper stands, to see if this really was true. Once he got to the newspaper stand, as if to make matters even worse, stood the girl from yesterday.

On her usual route to school, Hina passed by the newspaper stand she always passed by. Hina sighed as she knew it can't possibly have anything about the Legion of Demons but she decided to buy one anyway. Upon reaching for the newspaper, she sees her picture with the prince on it.

The clerk looks at Hina and then at the newspaper she was about to grab and says "Hey, that's you isn't it?" noticing that she also have the same ponytail as the one in the picture.

Not knowing how to respond, Hina feels she should just buy out the whole stand just to make sure that this won't go around but then she wouldn't be able to stop other stands from selling it. Or maybe she could burn down the entire stand... but that wouldn't solve anything and make her a arsonist.

"Uh... I'll take one." Hina replies and she places the money for it on the desk. She then takes one of the papers and begins to read it.

Nemo approaches the girl and taps her on the shoulder as she is reading the newspaper. "What is this?" he asks quietly, pointing to the newspapers on the stand before she can even turn around.

Hina startled by the sudden tap on her shoulder jumps a bit and upon hearing the familiar voice behind her. He asked her a question but she doesn't exactly know how to reply to his question seeing as even she doesn't know what the newspaer was talking about. So she decided to answer in the best way she thought she could.

"This... is a newspaper." Hina replies bluntly.

"I know that's a newspaper!" says Nemo, raising his voice. The clerk starts snickering, but when Nemo glares at her she looks away and whistles a tune. "I mean," says Nemo, lowering his voice to a whisper again. "Why does it say we're... dating? I mean, I don't even know your name!"

"Eh..." cries Hina as she also doesn't remember the prince's name. It was never of importance to her what the aristocrat's first names were so she never bothered to remember it. She then glaces at the newspaper hoping to find his name. It was no use, she wasn't at that page yet.

"I'm not at that page yet." Hina replies.

It takes Nemo a couple of seconds to figure out what the girl meant. "You don't know my name, do you?" asks Nemo, laughing a little bit. "My name is Nemo Seoul, I'm sorry for not realizing sooner. You see I'm used to people just KNOWING my name, you know?"

Hina then buried her face into the newspaper as the prince figured out that she didn't remember his name. She never imagined she'd be part of a love affair with a prince. "It'd be bad if more people saw us together. Maybe it'll die out after seeing no more contact between us is made..." Hina mumbled into the paper.

"I only wish it could be that easy," mumbles Nemo. "I'll have to make an announcement later, saying that we broke up or something like that..." This was why he hated the media. Instead of headlining some bull crap rumor they should've headlined the return of the phoenixes but apparently his love-life is more important.

Hina takes a look at the prince and then looks back into the newspaper. "Well... school is starting soon." she notes. "We'd better get going or else we're going to be late." and then walks a several steps away from the direction of the school.

"You first. I'll follow three meters behind." She says and then peeks out of the newspaper to make sure the Nemo starts moving before she does.

"Okay I guess..." agrees Nemo. As they walked to school, Nemo couldn't help but look over his shoulder a few times. He thought it was cute how she kept peeking out of the newspaper at him.

Maybe it'd be good to have a girlfriend like her... thinks Nemo as he walks. He immediately dismisses the thought. It was a stupid thought, he should've been thinking of how to fix this mess, not of how he could make it not a rumor. Any chance of him having a normal life, for a prince at least, was just shattered by yesterday's events. If he got close to anyone he ran the chance of putting them in harms way, and he didn't want to do that.

After walking together for a bit, Nemo realizes that they haven't been talking much. "So..." starts Nemo, making an attempt at breaking the silence and realizing that the girls name is still unknown. "You still never told me your name."

Hina watches as Nemo walks forward and then starts walking as well while reading her newspaper. During their walk, she would occasionally peek out to make sure she wouldn't bump into him or anyone else. Whenever she see the prince look at her peek out at him, she would pull the newspaper upward to hide her blushing.

Although as she read on, the more stranger the case seems to be. A picture such as the one on the front page could've been obtained easily using the school security camera or if someone stalker of the prince was watching them. Although the more surprising part was that she invited the prince out to the courtyard. This wasn't what happened...

Upon hearing the Nemo's words, she decided to peek out to see who he was talking to. To her suprise, Nemo was as if suddenly right in front of her. In surprise of how close the Nemo was to her, she jumped back a bit before she started to talk. She began to try and pick her words carefully in her mind but she only needs to say her name. "Ah... um..." Hina mumbles as she plays with the newspaper. "Hi.. na..." she finally mumbles but into the newspaper.

"Hina, eh..." Nemo says quietly to himself. After that micro-conversation, Nemo can't think of anything else to say. He sighs as they approach one of the four school gates, the walk had been so awkward for Nemo and probably much more so for Hina.

Waiting beside the gate was a group of girls that Nemo recognized, they were members of his unofficial fan club. As Nemo passed by them, he saw a couple of them make faces and mean gestures towards Hina out of the corner of his eye. He sighs again, realizing this wasn't as big of a problem to him as it was to Hina.

Hina ducked back into her newspaper as she watches Nemo be her vanguard. She then looks back into the newspaper and the events that it says happened doesn't go the way she remembers it.

She soon arrived at the school gate meeting with several malicious glares and jeers. She then covered her face with the newspaper and continued walking forward to not meet their eyes. Although as she was walking, her newspaper was suddenly taken from her by one of the girls.

She hummed and asked, "So what? Are you bragging about it by showing off this newspaper article?" in a rude tone. Hina suddenly became visible to all the members of Nemo's fan club and froze in place. She wasn't used to having so many people stare at her so she had no clue what to do.

She then looked up at the girl that stole her newspaper and said "C-c-can you please give it back?" while stuttering. The girl snickered as she saw that she was in a more authoritative position as she is Hina's senior and of a higher rank in terms of marks.

She then tossed Hina's newspaper into the air scattering it on the streets. Various members of the fan club then took a page and ran into the school building laughing. It was impossible to retrieve it but some of the pages were still left on the floor.

Hina gathered the pieces she could as she didn't finish reading the paper yet. As Hina attempts to pick up one of the papers, she couldn't. It was stuck. One of the girls that remained stepped on the paper that Hina was attempting to pick up. She then placed her other foot on the paper and ripped it by sliding her foot across it. She ran into the school afterwards.

Hina continued to try and collect what she could before heading on inside to her homeroom.

Several of Nemo's fan girls run right past him as he is walking towards the school. One of them is carrying a page from Hina's newspaper. Oh no... thinks Nemo to himself, spinning around to see Hina on the ground trying to collect her newspaper before the wind could carry them away. Immediately he ran back and assisted her in collecting the remains of her newspaper.

"I'm sorry about them," apologizes Nemo as he hands her the last wrinkled page. "If they try that again, just call my name and I'll stop them 'kay?" says Nemo, planning to follow Hina around for the rest of the school day in secret.

Hina glanced at Nemo with a tears rolling down her cheek before she placed her head down again. She then nodded as she received the page from Nemo while keeping her head down. Afterwards, she stuffed the pages of the newspapers into her satchel and ran into the school towards homeroom. She then tried to wipe off the tears using her sleeve while running.

Nemo watched Hina as she ran off crying into the school. He wanted to chase after her, but he couldn't. His legs wouldn't move so all he could do was watch. For some reason, Nemo felt a strong need to protect her, even from his own fan girls and that's what he would do. Even if he had to follow her around until all of this mess was over.