Lost, Broken, and Confused

“Okay class! Homeroom has officially begun!” a woman clapped her hands together. She had shoulder length light brown hair and brown eyes. “Settle down please.” Soon enough her students settled down into their seats.  

“I have good news. We have a new student joining us here today. You may come in now.” She said looking at the door as it slid open.  

A young girl stepped in and stopped right next to Hiragizawa sensei. She was approximately five feet four and had dark brown hair tied up into a high ponytail. The girl opened her light blue eyes and faced the class nervously.  

“This is . She is a transfer student from France. Please make her feel welcome.”  

“Haaii…” the whole class shouted in reply. They all watched the young girl curiously and could tell that she was nervous from the way she stood there, fumbling her joined hands in front of her.  

“Let’s see…ah, there is an empty seat right next to Ootori-kun. Ootori-kun, please raise your hand.” looked over to the shy boy, who sat in the far right corner with his hand raised.  

“Hai.” The boy raised his hand shyly.  

“Arigatou gozaimasu.” said, bowing toward the sensei. She proceeded to her designated seat and sat down.  

“Konnichiwa, -san. Ootori Choutarou, yoroshiku.”  

The girl looked at him; her mouth was halfway open as she analyzed him. A soft smile formed onto her lips.  

“Yoroshiku…”  

The teacher looked at the two and decided to use this opportunity for to learn more about the school. “Ootori-kun, I’m depending on you to fill -kun in on what we’ve been learning.”

“Hai, sensei.”  

~~~ 

During break, some students had already started to gather around ’s desk. The new girl felt intimated by the amount of students that stood around her from all sides. She didn’t know what to concentrate on, the claustrophobic feeling of people around her, or the questions that were darting at her non-stop. 

“What’s your favorite color?”  

“Wow! Are you really from France?”  

“You’re Japanese is really good! Do you know any other languages?”  

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

“You’re really pretty!”  

's sweat dropped at the questions and comments being thrown at her. Sure, she was used to it, but still, she sometimes thought the attention was quite flattering. Everyone around her seemed to be happy, except a pair of narrow eyes looking at her from the front corner of the room.  

“Look at her…” a girl spoke in a low voice. She narrowed her dark purple eyes at the new transfer student. She moved a hand through her red long hair that cascaded down to her shoulders and then flipped it lightly annoyed that a part of it covered her face.

“Oi, oi what’s with the face Ayumi?” the other girl asked, with a slight tone of amusement in her voice. She wore her short dark brown hair in a messy fashion that ended at the base of her neck. “Hmm…” she shifted her light brown eyes towards the new girl. “Interesting, isn’t she?”  

“I don’t like her.” Ayumi spat out as she stared at her pink nails.  

“Are you a little jealous with the popularity of the new girl, or is it something else?” Misao asked still amused at the fact that Ayumi felt immediately intimated by the new girl. 

“You don’t get it Misao.” Ayumi muttered, getting annoyed.  

“Hmm…sure I do. You’re Nakamura Ayumi, the top ace swimmer on your swim team and popular? You have nothing to worry about.” Misao assured, looking at her friend who by now had smoke coming out of her ears. 

“That’s the thing. I want to maintain my status. What seriously ticks me off is how close they are already. Curse that sensei!” she thought aloud, clenching her right hand into a first.  

“You got all that from a yoroshiku?” Yuka asked, raising an eyebrow curiously at Ayumi.

“And the way he was helping her throughout class.” Ayumi muttered again in a hiss. 

“He is only doing what sensei is asking him to do.” Misao said to her hopeless friend. She stood there with her arms crossed, trying to subdue the anger in her friend, but it was like talking to a rock. She was simply in one of her stubborn moods now and was not going to listen to anything they had to say. 

And as Misao predicted, the sharp reply immediately followed, “Shut up. You’re not helping me at all.”  

Soon enough the bell rang and it was time to get back to class. Students moved their feet slowly to the stuffy classroom and a sigh could be heard from most of the time, indicating that they did not want to be there.  

“Awwh, I wanted to talk to -chan more.” A boy sighed and walked back to his seat. smiled at the boy but at the same time, she knocked her folder down and a couple of her sketches peeked halfway out. Ootori noticed them as he proceeded to pick up her folder.  

“Wow…that’s very beautiful.” Ootori commented, gazing at her mini arts and paintings.  

“Hm?” looked down, then suddenly, she felt embarrassed that he had seen her drawings. “Uhm…thanks. Mada mada-” 

He watched her as she picked up her folders in haste, he couldn’t help but ask, “May I have a look?”  

“Eh?” started to sweat. Surely, it wouldn’t hurt to have a cute guy look at her art right? “S-Sure…”  

~~~ 

2 Months Later…

“Choutarou-kun!” ran over to Ootori, who was happily chatting with his doubles partner, Shishido Ryou. Both of them stopped and looked at the girl as she stopped in front of them, trying to catch her breath from the running. 

“Ohayo!” said happily, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She moved her hands behind her back and stood next to Ootori who was a good few inches taller than her. She was glad that Shishido was almost her height, so she did not feel much intimated by Ootori’s height.  

“Ohayo, -chan.” Ootori smiled at his friend. returned the smile and looked over to Shishido.  

“Ohayo, Shishido-senpai!” she said excitedly, still with a smile on her face. She watched as he put his hands into his pockets and just gave her a nod with his stern face.

“Hey.”  

“Choutarou-kun, I want to show you my most current masterpiece, before class starts! It’s for the art competition! You think you can take a look at it before I submit it? Please? I worked very hard on it!” spoke fast holding onto the sleeves of his uniform. 

“Of course, -chan.” Ootori replied, politely.  

“Great!”  

, Ootori and Shishido didn’t notice the two figures spying on them from behind a trashcan glaring hatefully, not at all of them, but a certain young girl that stood next to them and had the two regulars’ full attention. 

“Is she trying to be sneaky with Ryou?” Misao hissed at Ayumi's jealously.  

“Quiet Misao. I can’t hear what she’s saying…” Ayumi shushed at Misao, while watching laughing with Ootori and Shishido.  

“Masterpiece, huh?” Ayumi muttered to herself as she heard that particular word. “Oh it’ll be a masterpiece alright…”  

~~~

“Wow… -chan, it’s amazing!” Ootori gaped at the portrait in amazement.  

“You think so?” asked, unsure of whether he was actually praising her portrait or just being polite about. 

“Hai! You’ve been so tired lately, because you’ve been up all those nights painting this?” He asked watching her thoughtfully. 

“Yup!”  

Ootori continued to observe the portrait. Then, he noticed something very familiar about it. It sort of looked like… him and Shishido? Could it be? He thought to himself. He looked at her “Ne, -chan…”  

“Hai?”  

“This…wouldn’t happen to be uh…uhm…” Ootori stuttered, slightly embarrassed, while a hint of pink came across his cheeks.  

“Ah, so you’ve realized!” She mumbled softly, her cheeks turning pink as well. 

“ -chan!”  

“What? I remember that match perfectly! You guys were incredibly awesome against Seigaku! And what do you call that? Sugoi! That was a really cool serve you did! I mean wow, it was so fast!” said, clenching her fists and looking at him with her eyes full of stars. Ootori could have sworn he saw an image of Jirou flash through his head.  

Ootori's sweat dropped at her awkward behavior, but he was still blushing from the embarrassment. She didn’t draw it while she was watching his game, did she? He thought quickly to himself. 

“Ne, -chan, how did you get the reference to draw it?”  

“Eh?” slightly tilted her head. “I took pictures silly!” she said, pulling a couple of pictures from her bag and holding them out for them to see.

“Huh?!” he exclaimed as he took the pictures from her hand. 

“Oh and plus, from my memory. I can observe and draw you know.” She said in a slightly bragging tone.  

“H-heh I see…” Ootori muttered embarrassed, he didn’t know what else to say.  

“Hm? Choutarou…you…don’t like it?” she asked, with big sad eyes.  

“I-Iie! I love it!” Ootori said sweating nervously and shifting his eyes back at the portrait. He had to admit, she was one heck of a fine artist.  

“Hey, Shishido-san looks great!” Ootori said, smiling at the picture of his doubles partner.  

“Ah…I sort of messed up on his left eye…” lowered her voice. “Shh don’t tell him!” she whispered rather loudly.  

“Don’t worry I won’t. Gambatte, -chan.” He smiled as he handed the portrait back to her. 

“Thank you, Choutarou.” smiled at him. Silence passed as they experienced an awkward moment. “N-ne…Choutarou-kun?”  

“Yeah?”  

“Uhm…I l-like...I have…” she couldn’t get the words out.  

Damn it. She wanted to tell him how she felt about him from day one. He was so kind and helpful to her. The first time she saw him play tennis on the Hyoutei courts was also another part of her reason for why she fell for him. Tennis was the other side of Ootori Choutarou that she had never seen before. To her he was a man of many words, but also a mysterious one at that. On the outside she saw a shy and friendly guy, who yes, he was, but on the tennis courts, it was as if he was truly a different person. She could see his passion for tennis and the hard work and dedication that he had put his time into. She wanted to tell him those words and the reason for her painting was because of her inspiration toward him. But, it wasn’t easy.  

“Hm? What’s wrong -chan?”  

“I-Iie! It’s nothing. Never mind. Ahah!” laughed nervously and sighed inwardly. “Oh forget it…maybe another time. But I really want to know…do you feel the same way as I do?”  She couldn’t tell if he really did. He seemed too nice to everybody it was hard to tell.  

Ootori looked at her with a confused yet concerned expression on his face. What was she trying to say?  

~~~ 

The sound of students chattering and laughing filled the air. sat happily eating her lunch next to Ootori and some of the Hyoutei regulars under the tree outside in the fresh air. It was nice to eat out there, away from the noisy and crowded cafeteria.   

“Ne, Choutarou-kun. Are you sure that portrait is alright?” said suddenly drowned in second thoughts. She kept worrying about it. She kept thinking he didn’t like it or that he was just being nice about it. She couldn’t help feeling paranoid about it. 

“Uhm-” 

“Nani?! -chan painted another portrait?!” Gakuto jumped excitedly.

“ -san’s art is indeed quite impressive.” Oshitari commented while pushing his glasses up.

“Oi, where’s Shishido?” Gakuto asked suddenly, noticing Shishido’s absence. He looked around left and right trying to see where his classmate had disappeared to. 

“He said he was going to take a short walk around campus. You know we have practice matches today and he wants to be in top form even if its just practice.” Ootori replied to his senpai.  

“Are you serious?” Hiyoshi asked as his eyes slightly widened.  

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s been practicing either.” Oshitari commented, with no worry at all.   

“He is one fearsome guy.” Gakuto sat back down, after realizing that he was standing up the whole time.  

“Don’t worry I’m sure he’s alright.” The regulars looked over to . “He’s made it into the regulars before, right?  I have to admit Shishido-senpai is very stubborn.” She chuckled. “He would have to think twice about slacking off, considering the fact, that he was…” she looked around and whispered more softly. “Dropped before…” The regulars sweat dropped at her quiet voice. It wasn’t like Shishido was around or anything. “Therefore!” she raised her voice again, startling them a bit. “Shishido-senpai won’t give up his position without a fight!” she exclaimed, standing up while clenching her fists.  

“Nn? Oi, what’s going on?” Jirou asked, waking up from his afternoon snooze.  

~~~ 

The classroom doors slid open as footsteps approached ’s painting. It was lying peacefully beside the teacher’s desk. had asked Hiragizawa sensei to keep it for her until after school. The painting was grabbed roughly by the corner and slammed onto a random student’s desk.  

“Let’s play with this painting now shall we?”

“Ayumi-chan, are you sure we should be doing this? Won’t we get in some sort of trouble?” Misao asked worriedly, looking around.

“If you don’t open your big mouth, we won’t.”

Ayumi flipped out a knife art she had borrowed from an art teacher, since they weren’t allowed to carry real weapons to school. Ayumi stabbed at the portrait and engraved marks down, across and around it, increasing the pressure as she went.

“A-Ayumi that’s enough!” Misao whispered hoarsely, suddenly very scared with her friend’s violent behavior.

Shishido glanced at his watch while walking down the hall.

“I should get back…lunch is gonna end pretty soon.”

“Ayumi-chan, you should cut it out now! We have to get back!”

“Huh?” Shishido looked over to the sound of a somewhat familiar voice. “That’s Choutarou’s homeroom.” He peered into the room just in time to see Ayumi stick the art knife in Ootori’s tennis bag, having it stick out halfway.

“Ayumi! What are you doing?!” Misao asked, shocked at what Ayumi had just done.

“Are you kidding me? Ootori isn’t getting away with this either. Choosing me over that classy-ugh. Whatever.” She murmured as an evil smirk planted itself on her lips.

“That little…” Shishido muttered beneath his breath,

“Oi! Shishido-senpai! Would you mind taking a survey? It’s for my pro-mph!” Shishido immediately placed a hand over the poor second year’s mouth and dragged him away.

‘Geez that was close…what the hell were they doing?”

~~~

“Hey, -chan, do you think we can take a quick look at your painting?” Gakuto asked, grinning excitedly.

“I’d like to have a look at it as well, if you don’t mind.” He agreed smiling.

“Hey I think that’s a great idea.” Ootori said looking over at . “You know, sensei said to submit the artwork after school too.”

“Sure, wait here! I’ll be right back!” she jumped up and made a dash toward homeroom. Eager footsteps approached the homeroom door. quickly slid the door open and walked to her teacher’s desk. She was greeted by an unwelcoming sight of her masterpiece; stabbed, damaged, and doodled on. Deep scratch marks were engraved into her painting in all directions. She stared in horror as Ootori and Shishido’s faces were scratched out. She ran her delicate fingertips softy over the portrait. Suddenly, she noticed some writing engraved into the painting on the bottom right hand corner. The writing was fairly small and messy, so she couldn’t tell who wrote it.

You don’t belong here.

Leave Hyoutei.

clasped her hand over her mouth. Beads of tears started to leak out of her eyes and stream down her cheeks.

“Who…could have done this?” she thought as she started to space out, her vision becoming a blur, due to her tears. unconsciously walked over to her desk and slumped onto her seat. She barely realized that the destroyed painting was still in her hands. Slowly, she placed it on her desk and laid her head against it.

“Why me?” she wept against her forearms. The lump in her throat refused to go away. The ache in her heat wouldn’t stop tormenting her. grasped at her chest. It was getting a little harder to breathe every minute. “Get it together …” she coached herself, trying to relax. Crying wouldn’t solve anything, and she knew that.

“Huh?” noticed something shimmer from the corner of her eye. There, something seemed to be poking halfway out of Ootori’s tennis bag. sighed and slightly smiled as she wiped off one side of her cheek with her left hand.

“Choutarou should know better than to leave his personal belongings out in the open like that…” proceeded to push the object back in, but there was something very familiar about it. Being an artist, knew everything about the subject. From the shading techniques to the art materials and in Ootori’s bag, it felt like an…art knife?

“No…” ’s hand was slightly trembling. She was in denial. No way could her best friend be the culprit. yanked the art knife out of Ootori’s bag and looked at her portrait.

“It can’t be, I…Choutarou said that he liked it.” She tried to persuade herself. Maybe Ootori took art too? There was one way to find out. Each art knife had a different size. looked at one of the single stab marks in the portrait. She flipped the blade open and braced herself for the moment of truth. Hesitating for a moment, she slowly moved the knife just above the mark, feeling the tremble in her hand come back to her once more. Slowly, but carefully she inserted the knife into the hole. Her heart stopped. Perfect fit.

~~~

“Oi, what’s taking her so long?” Gakuto wondered out loud.

“Hmm…maybe she’s embarrassed about showing her art to us.”  Oshitari mumbled, crossing his arms.

“Maybe she’s taking a restroom break?” Ootori suggested, leaning back against the tree.

~~~

Meanwhile…

“So, tell me Shishido-senpai, what do you think of the school’s system?” the second year boy asked excitedly, jotting down notes and looking up at Shishido at the same time. 

“Uh…”

“Damn it.” Shishido looked around. This kid was obviously not letting him go. He had to tell Ootori what he saw, but he knew he had to get rid of this kid first.

“Okay! Finally!” the second year said with triumph.

“Finally.”  Shishido thought, relieved to hear that the student was finally finished.

“8^th question and 12 more questions to go! We’re almost there Shishido-senpai!”

“RUGH!”

”Che, I don’t have time for this!” he said as he took off in search of Ootori.

~~~

“Mou, I can’t wait anymore. I’m gonna go look for her!” Gakuto said, getting up and dusting off his pants. Before he could even begin his search, was already walking toward him. “Hey -chan, what took you so long?! Ah, I see you’ve finally brought your painting!” he said happily as passed him without looking at him. “Huh?”

stopped right in front of Ootori and looked up at him with a stern yet angry expression.

“Hm?” Ootori blinked. “Is there something wrong, -chan?”

’s eyes widened at his absurd question. Something wrong? What kind of an idiot did he take her for?

“How could you do this to me?” she asked in disbelief.

“What?” Ootori asked confused with her strange behavior.

“Don’t act like you don’t know!” she held the portrait in front of his face. Gakuto, Oshitari, Hiyoshi, and surprisingly Jirou, who was well wide-awake by now, gaped at the destroyed painting.

“ -chan?!” Gakuto stared at the portrait, shocked and speechless. Even Oshitari had nothing to say about this.

“ -san…” Hiyoshi stared at her expression. She truly looked hurt.

“ -chan!” Jirou exclaimed, feeling sad for the poor girl.

“ -chan! What happened to your painting?!” Ootori said with a concerned face. couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Are you telling me that you didn’t do it?” the tears started to well up in her eyes again.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about !” Ootori said, not understanding why she was so angry with him. That was it. had heard the words of denial from him. A couple of seconds went by in silence, and the regulars were silent as mice, not wanting to make the girl any angrier. let out a silent scoff.

“ -”

“You know…I thought you would support me. I thought you understood me. But I never, not even from the back of my mind, did I think that you were going to do something as horrible as this! I hate you Ootori Choutarou!” With that said, she threw the portrait down to the ground and took off, just as Shishido came running to them.

“Oi, Choutarou!” quickly ran past him. “ -san?” Shishido looked at the direction had run off to. He quickly jogged over to the group. “Oi, what happened?” Ootori stared straight forward.

“Hey, Choutarou.” Shishido said shaking his doubles partner a bit.

“Nani…Shishido…san?” he said, not in the mood to be dealing with anyone at the moment. Shishido caught a glimpse of ’s painting on the floor. “What the…” he bent down to take a closer look at it.

“Ootori said he didn’t do it.” Gakuto said, taking a glance at Ootori.

“I really don’t think Ootori would even consider doing something like that.” Oshitari said, picking up the painting and handing it over to Jirou and Hiyoshi to see.

“She hates me…” Ootori said after a moment of silence. “For something I’m not even guilty of!” he slammed his fists against the tree trunk.

“Choutarou.” Shishido placed a hand onto his friend’s arm once more. “I know you didn’t do it. I know who really did.”

Ootori’s eyes slightly widened and he looked at his doubles partner. 

~~~

“Oi , oi! Did you hear what happened? Ootori messed up -san’s painting!” some students were already gossiping about what had happened that afternoon right after lunch had ended.

“Really?” the other student asked, astounded by the fact that a nice person like Ootori would do something so low.

“Iie.” Came the reply of a somewhat familiar voice behind him. The kid turned around and came face to face with the taller boy.

“O-O-Ootori-san!”

“Don’t talk about things you’re not even sure of.” He said with a serious tone in his voice.

“H-h-haaii!” the shorter boy quickly scrambled back to his seat. Ootori sighed inwardly, and proceeded to his seat. He slumped into it wearily and ran his fingers through his hair. He couldn’t believe what he had just heard from Shishido.

Flashback

“Choutarou, I know who really did it.” Ootori stared at him in shock.

“Who?!” he asked suddenly, grabbing onto Shishido’s shoulders, then letting go. “G-gomen… Shishido-san.” 

“It was Nakamura and her friend.” Shishido replied coolly.

“Are you serious?” Ootori asked surprised.

Ayumi wasn’t one to do something like that was she? She’d try to flirt with him at times, but usually he would just get uncomfortable and leave.

“Well anyway, she snuck something into your bag.” Shishido gestered to the destroyed painting, that was still lying on the ground. “I assume it was some sort of sharp object, right?”

“Shishido-san. Tell me…who was the other girl?” Ootori asked determined, not noticing that he had clenched his fists.

“Etto…what’s her face? I think it was that Misao chick.” Shishido said, after thinking a bit.

“Misao?! What does she have against me?” Ootori asked, not being able to believe that this was all happening. He was so confused.

“Whatever it is, make her understand.” Shishido looked at his doubles partner seriously and straight in the eye. Ootori’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Sh-Shishido-san…how?”

“Don’t think I don’t notice the way you’ve been looking at her. Che, I’m not stupid.” He crossed his arms and looked the other way. Ootori cheeks started to heat up and turn pink.

“A-Ah-”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell her.” Shishido smirked in reply.

~~~

“I wonder if she’ll believe me…” Ootori thought, running his hands through his hair. He started to zone out at his desk until he heard that the class had died down a bit when walked in. The class soon resumed to what they were doing, since they didn’t want to embarrass her. She took a seat beside Ootori, not taking a single glance towards his direction whatsoever.

“I…I should tell her now…” Ootori thought, while gulping down his saliva, feeling his mouth get dry. “N…Ne, -chan…”

“Mou! You have a big head!” exclaimed, pointing at him.

“H-HUH?!” Ootori was literally looking at her with beaded eyes. Did she just say he had a big head? How immature can a person get?

“ -chan, I’m trying to be serious here.” Ootori said with a stern voice, but unfortunately for him, it was'nt affecting her at all.

“Humph.” She turned the other way and crossed her arms.

“Class, please settle down. We’re picking out partners for the English project today, so I hope you are all ready for the moment of truth.” The teacher said, trying to be funny, but she wasn’t getting any laughter from the class. “Ahem…that was supposed to be funny,” she muttered, sighing.

“Ah…ha…ha…” some of the students tried to put up a fake laughter.

“Well anyway…” the teacher walked over to the board and posted some papers on. “You all will have one partner, which I of course have selected for you.” After that, the class started whining and complaining. Ootori sighed and looked down at his desk.

~~~

“Hey! I’m paired up with you Aya-chan!” a girl said with a big smile.

“Great! Let’s get started now! I wanna get it over with before I get home!” she said, dragging her friend out of Ootori’s way, so he could take a look.

“Let’s see…” Ootori tapped his index finger onto the surface of the finger and dragged it down to look for his name. His finger stopped at his and he looked to the right side of his name. His heart stopped for a split second. “My partner is…e-eh?! ?!” he thought gaping at the paper. Ootori heard a gasp. He whirred around and there was , also shocked with the pairing as well.

They both were staring at each other for what seemed like eternity when closed her eyes and walked back to her seat.

“Oh man…” Ootori sighed and scratched his head before walking back to his seat.

~~~

Later on during the class, everyone seemed to be okay with their partners. Chatting happily and helping each other, the students worked hard on their project. On the other hand, and Ootori weren’t doing too well. Half the time they would argue about whose idea was more reasonable and which theme for their project they would use.

“I don’t want to offend you or anything -chan, but I don’t think that theme is going to work with what we are doing.”

“Oh, and who made YOU in charge of our project?” said pointing a finger at him.

“I never said I was!” Ootori said raising his voice just a slight bit getting a little annoyed himself.

“Well, looks like it!” she shot him a glare.

“Hey, what’s going on? If you two are going to continue being disruptive in class, then I’d suggest you take it outside.” The teacher said, hovering over them with a threatening glint in her glasses.

“H-Hai sensei!” the two apologized, stood up straight, and bowed again and again.

~~~

It was finally after school. gathered her things and headed for the door. Ootori threw all his belongings into his bag quickly, in order to catch up with her.

“ -chan!”

rolled her eyes and turned around to face him.

“So, we’re going to my house for the project?” Ootori asked, feeling nervous, while grabbing onto the strap of his bag. He couldn’t have felt any more uncomfortable. He didn’t want to go through with this but he didn’t have much of a choice.

“Whatever’s fine.” She replied bored, looking up at him as if she was a rebellious teenager disobeying her mother.

She didn’t understand why she was acting so immature around him. It wasn’t like her at all. It was this feeling that she couldn’t control. If he showed that he didn’t feel for her like the way she wanted him to, she would want to throw a fit at him even if it wasn’t his fault. What the hell was going on here? shook her head with frustration. Ootori looked at her in confusion.

“Oi, -chan are you all right?” he gave her a concerned look. His eyes were soft and full of worry. ’s face began to heat up, the tint of pink in her cheeks grew darker. She shook her head once again.

“I’m fine!” she snapped at him and crossed her arms, looking the other way. “Look, I’m just doing this for my grade okay? Don’t think that you’re forgiven just yet. We’ll meet after your practice at 7 then.” began to turn and walk away. She had to get out of there now, before she would do anything that she would regret later.

Ootori stared at her unbelievingly. He couldn’t believe that she would think that he was the culprit. He frowned and made a grab at her wrist.

“ , will you stop with this nonsense?” Ootori said, his voice stern and serious.

He couldn’t take much of this anymore. cringed and turned around looking up at him with tears in her eyes that were threatening to fall. Ootori’s eyes slightly widened at her sad expression. She no longer looked like the girl who was angry with him. She looked more hurt than annoyed. The look in his eyes made her want to throw her arms around him and cry. She needed comfort but she didn’t want to embarrass herself.

“Release me, Choutarou.” She said, accidentally calling him by his first name. She wanted to cry. He didn’t love her, he ruined her project, he had hurt her, yet she can’t seem to let him go. All she wanted was to be in his arms. All she wanted was for him to love her and protect her. Was she asking for too much? Tears were forcing their way out of her eyes. She tried not to blink, to keep the tears trapped and not let them escape. Unfortunately for her, she couldn’t keep them in and they spilled freely out of her eyes. Ootori gasped at her sudden emotion.

“ -chan!”

“JUST LEAVE ME ALONE OKAY?!” she screamed croaking a bit, since her throat felt sore and dry. She ripped her grip away from his. Of course, she had wanted to run away from him, but her legs weren’t listening to her. They suddenly felt weak and wobbly. shut her eyes tightly. She wanted to die, right there. She had cried like a fool in front of Ootori. He must have thought she was weak and helpless-

“E-eh?!”

Before she knew it, she was being crushed to his chest. Ootori’s arms wrapped themselves around her protectively, one hand behind her head.

“ -chan…it’s all right…” he whispered to her soothingly, wanting to help her and comfort her.

stared off into space, shocked that after what she had said to him, he would still want to help her.

“Choutarou-kun…” she shut her eyes and wrapped her arms around his waist and cried away.

“Oi, Choutarou where’ve you been? Practice has-” Shishido walked in and immediately saw the two in an embrace, crying in his arms. Shishido looked at Ootori’s face. He was happy yet sad. Shishido stared at the couple, also happy for Ootori and sad for .

“I hope you two work this out.”

~~~

“Choutarou-kun! That’s a wonderful idea!” said with a wide smile spread across her face.

“Eh? You really think so? You hated it last time.” Ootori's sweat dropped, yet he was still smiling.

“Well that was last time!” exclaimed, clenching her fists. “You always have good ides Choutarou-kun!” Ootori blushed.

From the other side of the hallway, Ayumi glared at the two. She clenched her pencil so hard that it snapped.

“Oi, oi maybe you should give up?” Misao asked, looking at Ayumi with a bored expression on her face. Trying to ruin ’s life was getting boring.

“Never.” Ayumi muttered furiously, grinding her teeth harder together.

“What is it that you hate about her anyway?” Misao asked, now curious why Ayumi really hated .

“I have my own reasons you idiot. And you’re not much help either.” She snapped at her. Misao frowned, now pissed with Ayumi’s attitude toward her.

“You know, I’ve had it with your nasty attitude, Ayumi.” Misao said returning the glare.

Ayumi stopped walking.

“What did you say?”

“Yeah you heard me. I’m getting sick of being your torture slave. Oh yeah, I have to do this with you, and that and you know what? I’m getting tired of it. I get no respect from you and yet, I still do all this shit for you. And you really wanna know what I think of ? I actually think she’s pretty cool.” She said, nodding her head now, feeling braver every second. Now why didn’t she do this earlier?

“Now I know you did not just say that.”

“Geez you are so deaf.” Misao shook her head while putting her hands on her hips. “Stop telling me what to do, what not to do, who to like, and who not to like! I think you should apologize to for what you have done to her painting!”

“My painting?”A voice came from behind Misao.

 

“GAH!” Misao turned around, just in time to see staring at her curiously.

“What about my painting?”

“Don’t you dare, Misao.” Ayumi said giving Misao a threatening glare that always scared Misao. Misao frowned. She was tired of Ayumi’s tactics and turned to and Ootori.

“Ayumi.” She said, pointing at Ayumi. “She was the one that ruined your painting -chan. It wasn’t Ootori that destroyed your painting, it was Ayumi. It only looked like Ootori-kun did it, because she slipped the art knife into his bag”

looked at Ayumi, literally gaping at her.

“Ayumi?”

“Yeah, so what if I did it! What are you going to do about it?! Tell on me?” Ayumi smirked at . “I was doing everyone a favor. Your painting sucked, and I’m speaking for everyone here.” She smiled crossing her arms. stared at Ayumi for some time, before giving Ayumi as smile. She walked over to Ayumi and socked her square in the face.

“Aiee!”

“ -chan!” Ootori said a bit surprised with ’s sudden violent behavior.

Misao immediately put her hand over her mouth to hide her snicker. It was quite amusing indeed.

“You little b-” Ayumi only managed to get that much out, since a teacher was walking past her.

“I’ll see you later Nakamura-san.” turned around and walked off, Ootori following at her heel.

“Fufufu…”

“Misao, are you just going to stand there laughing at me?! Help me!” Ayumi screamed at Misao, with a red mark on her right eye. That was bound to bruise soon.

“Shut up, Ayumi.” Misao ran off toward and Ootori.

“ -chan…did you have to hit her?” Ootori said, his sweat dropping and still surprised from what she had done.

“Of course! She framed you and made me accuse you of ruining my painting!” exclaimed with a stubborn pout. Ootori smiled at her cute face. sighed and took a peek at him. “And I’m sorry Choutarou.”

Ootori stared at her for a couple of seconds, just realizing what she had just said. He took her hand into his.

“It’s okay, -chan…nothing like that will break us apart, ne?” 's heart stopped at his words and she smiled.

“Yup.” She hugged his arm and let her head rest on his shoulder.

“Mou, I wish I had a relationship like you guys…” Misao pouted at the two as they chuckled at her.

~~~

Kawamoto

Requested By: Butterfly Hime

Edited by Anon