Who would have thought that it only takes one look, one touch and one kiss – coming from a lonesome stranger, to break the calm and ever composed Student Council President, Shizuru Fujino. Is it really the case or will the tables turn?
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A chestnut haired girl was idly looking out in the glass window of their air-conditioned classroom, intentionally ignoring the oh-so-boring discussion about who-knows-what, as her mind was sent reeling recalling the incident in the Student Council Room early that morning. So many questions started crowding her already jumbled mind. Yet, the more she tried to gauge the incident, add in some assumptions and make a reasonable conclusion, the more she could not comprehend. In the end, her mind was screaming one thing - it just didn't make sense. Just who is this girl and what is she doing to me? Turning me to a complete idiot. Sigh…
The poor girl was so engrossed with her own little world unaware of the fact that everyone was staring at her, some even gawking at her adorable spaced-out expression. Reality only whipped her when her animated seatmate by the name Chie, the classroom clown, loudly called her name.
"Calling the poor soul of Shizuru Fujino, who is surely in the other realm of the world, please come back to us." Her seatmate stood up and animatedly acted as if she was pulling invisible soul from the thin air and pushing them back to the chestnut haired girl and performed some kind of a ritual involving weird swaying movements of her arms. The classroom roared in enthusiastic laughter seeing the stupidly animated act of their classroom clown followed by the shocked, then embarrassed expression of the chestnut-haired girl.
It was such a rare opportunity getting different displays of emotions from the ever composed and self-collected Shizuru Fujino whose facial features were always plastered with dazzling smile and her unmistakably striking crimson orbs, a façade of perfection she always wore to mask her real emotions from slipping by. She was the Student Council President, after all. I am the Kaichou, get a hold of yourself, she mentally reminded herself.
However, the one incident that bugged her to no end seemed to have taken its toll on her – she could not keep up her beautiful disguise any longer especially as her thoughts unconsciously kept drifting towards the arrogant blue haired girl. Bad girl, bad girl, she thought. Shizuru shook her head slightly as if that would have helped erasing her memory of a certain person and tried to focus on the class.
"So, Chie has done us a great deal by bringing back our lovely Kaichou to our world." Again, the class erupted with laughter which quickly died down when their red-haired professor called Midori continued talking.
"As I was saying, you are all required to compose a song due next week. Any music genre works for me but the theme should center about love. The more creative the compositions are, you can bet a higher grade from me. You can rap all you want, or go pop-rock, go classic, go epic – I don't really care. Just make sure to use the proper theme. All about love – puppy love, first love, filial love, crazy love – ah, too many to mention, you sure know what I mean. And Ms. President here will collect them for me next week. Please give them to me before we start our classes okay?" The redhead directed her attention to the brunette woman, sitting at the back of the class, in the right corner near the classroom window. Upon hearing her name, the brunette nodded her head in acknowledgment.
The class continued on their boring lesson until the bell rang, finally signaling the end of their last class for the day and everyone started scrambling towards the exit door of the class, some ready to go straight to their homes, others ready for some shopping and others simply just wanted to get out of classroom and clear their poor, aching head from all class activities and discussions.
Shizuru, however, took her time as she freely allowed her subconscious mind to yet recall the incident.
Early that morning, in the middle of their English class discussion, her professor called her attention that someone was waiting for her outside the classroom. After excusing herself, she headed towards the exit door, only to be surprised seeing the all-too familiar scrawny, short-haired girl and her blonde companion, waiting for her. She then approached the intruders with a sweet smile though she knew better that their presence meant business. Who I am kidding, their mere presence always means trouble.
"Ara! To what do I owe the pleasure of your lovely visits?" She directed her attention to the short-haired girl, Yukino, who pushed her eyeglasses she wore towards the bridge of her nose more of a habit than a necessity, while the grumpy looking blonde girl was keeping her back on her as she tapped her right foot rather annoyingly. The blonde girl, Haruka, seemed to always have a never-ending grudge towards the Kaichou for who-knows-what-reason and the brunette learned that ignorance was bliss.
"Kaichou, I am sorry for the trouble but you are needed in the Student Council Room immediately." Under the intense eyes of the Kaichou, Yukino fidgeted keeping her hands on her back.
"Do you happen to know why?" Shizuru inquired curiously, eyeing Student Council Secretary.
"Your troublemaker friend again, who else!" Haruka faced her angrily with her arms on her hips.
"You know what, if it were up to me, we should long time ago kick her out of this school! She is a good-for-nothing, scalawang, freshman, who will one day destroy our school's reputation. I don't understand why that little rogue is always up to something. Seeing her face is just so infuriating." Haruka continued her monologue of arguments, shaking her head vehemently.
"It's scalawag, not scalawang, Haruka," Yukino silently corrected her hotheaded friend.
Clearly, her antagonistic attitude towards the said mischief-maker comes from the fact that there were few times that Haruka ended up chasing the rascal around the campus, only to make a fool of herself, as the rascal always escaped her wittingly. That, coupled by the fact, that this rascal was a good friend of her greatest rival, Shizuru, only added insult to the injury.
No matter how many times, Shizuru was always left amused seeing the blonde girl on fire, literally on an invisible fire enveloping her, it was like Haruka was an erupting volcano, a ticking time bomb, ready to explode when the right buttons were pressed at the right moment. To divert the foul mood in the air, Yukino mentioned that vice-president was waiting for Shizuru in the Student Council Room.
Shizuru thanked the ladies then proceeded on the hallway and turned left towards a wooden door with the bold sign SC attached on it. She knocked to let her presence known from the inside, turned the doorknob and pushed the door open. She saw her handsome black-haired friend Reito sitting comfortably on a swivel chair, who nodded his head at her as well as her long acquainted troublemaker friend, Nao, sitting casually on the couch, waving at her in greeting. Such a scene was a déjà vu always adding up to Nao's notorious reputation as the school's most delinquent person.
However, she felt differently when the hairs in her back rose giving her goose bumps, as if someone was intensely staring at her, almost creating a hole at the back of her head. Instinctively, when she turned around, her crimson eyes slowly settled to a pair of amusing yet intense emerald eyes gazing at her, the owner of which was leaning beside the door, concealing her presence initially. It took a moment before Shizuru realized that she was rather staring stupidly when she saw the smirk, now unmistakably visible on the other person's face. Embarrassed, she proceeded to closing the door and curiously, threw a quick glance at the stranger, only to be more humiliated when the said woman was still staring intensely at her, with her smug smirk even getting more pronounced. Just who is this girl?
"Yow Shiz, my dear, sorry to snatch you away from class." Her redhead troublemaker friend, who was busy admiring her delicate fingernails, spoke in a carefree manner as Shizuru settled herself on an empty swivel chair beside Nao. Clearly, the redhead was not one bit sorry at all. In fact, her eyes showed pure mischief that Shizuru could only sigh. Really Nao, really?
Shizuru then looked at the Vice-President to give her the full report. Reito took this as a signal to further explain the situation.
"Well, you and I both know that Ms. Yuuki Nao here~"
"Just NAO!" She cut him quite dangerously, clearly annoyed at being addressed by anything other than Nao.
"Alright. So Just Nao was again caught cutting classes~"
"Funny – your sense of humor almost gave me a heart attack for being super dumb. And correction – I purposely let the Student's Council's dog to see me. Where's the fun in that if no one catches me right?" The redhead corrected him quite contentedly, as she remembered a certain blonde girl ready for a kill. Shizuru could only shake her head especially if Haruka would hear that comment being a Student's Council's dog. Shizuru imagined the blonde girl being a dog, maybe a Doberman chasing her crazy redhead friend in the campus and she could only chuckle softly to herself. She suddenly became self-conscious when in the corner of her eye, she could see the lonesome figure looking at her quite amusedly, clearing holding back laughter from escaping her lips. Huh! What is wrong with her?
"Fine. So anyway, long story short, she cut her class and she brought this stranger to our school campus." Both Reito and Shizuru then turned their attention to the lonesome figure standing beside the door. Being the center of attention, she just shrugged, not caring one bit that she was an outsider. Shizuru allowed herself to stare at the said lonesome. Her long silky hair as dark as the midnight ocean, those intense emerald green gems as bright as the green forest and that body despite being in dark leather suit still reflected her toned body. For a split second, her memory felt as if this person was familiar or that she reminded her of someone. But they were quickly erased when the redhead spoke.
"Bull's eye!" Nao cheered.
"Oh and as an introduction, this is Natsuki Kuga." Nao went on explaining.
"Oi Kuga, that guy there is Mr. Playboy." Pointing her finger at the black haired guy.
"And this one over here is Ms. Playgirl." Pointing her finger at the chestnut haired girl.
"Who do you like better?" Nao eyed her friend as she cackled like some wicked witch.
It took both Reito and Shizuru a matter of seconds before they could process what the redhead mentioned about them. Reito seemed to recover his senses faster than the brunette woman, simply saying that he'd rather take it a compliment that most of the girls are just so into him, without him doing anything at all. Shizuru, on the other hand, glared at her friend menacingly. Nao, who was so used to it, just laughed loudly.
"Ara, coming from my master who taught me the rules of being a playgirl, I am actually a nobody when compared to you." Shizuru retorted, clearly happy with a comeback to her old friend, who only laughed boisterously.
"Glad you are such a quick learner, my dear friend. One look is enough to know you've got the potential to be the most flirtatious Kaichou this school ever had." Nao retorted.
"That is why I have you wrapped around my little finger." Shizuru winked clearly winning the battle, to which the redhead could only gawk at her openmouthed.
The brunette felt like she regained her old self, outsmarting the redhead while maintaining her composure. However, only within a matter of seconds, her self-collected personality shattered in pieces when the lonesome stranger suddenly spoke.
"If you are to ask me, honestly, I think Ms. Playgirl here is more appealing and intriguing at the same time." Her emerald eyes twinkled with mischief as she regarded the brunette, who was unsuccessfully controlling her flaring emotions from showing on her already flustered face. The brunette was definitely shocked to hear the strangely sweet yet husky voice from the lonesome figure. Her efforts were futile as her cheeks were tinted with faint red hoping that the accumulating heat in the room was the culprit, rather than anything else, or anyone else. Of course she could talk, Shiz, she could talk!
As her raging emotions were in still in progress of being under her control, the lonesome figure as if taking her opportunity, walked towards her. She stopped in front of the sitting brunette towering above her like an iceberg.
"Hello Ms. Playgirl, a pleasure to finally meet you." She extended her hand in front of the dumbfounded Kaichou who unconsciously also extended her hand in greeting. Upon contact, the brunette felt the strong and powerful hand enveloping her own soft, delicate hand.
In a flash, Shizuru swore she thought she saw Natsuki smirk and before Shizuru could process what was happening, her extended hand clasping the lonesome's was being pulled forward, forcing her to stand up and stumbled towards the grinning lonesome.
Being in close range, Shizuru could even see the girl's features even more distinctively. Before she could scrutinize the intruder any further, the lonesome raised their holding hands together and to the brunette's shock, the blue haired girl kissed the brunette's hand. Confusion was one thing that was written on Shizuru's face to which Natsuki almost wanted to laugh.
"A lovely greeting to a lovely lady." Natsuki explained to her. Then added rather softly, "I will see you again, Kaichou." She then winked at her before she turned her attention at the redhead and waved. Suddenly, the redhead stood up and they both headed towards the door and was gone the next second.
Dumfounded, Shizuru could still feel the warm sensation at the back of her hand where the blue haired girl had just kissed. Shizuru almost wanted to slap her face to get a grip of herself. Not only did she let the lonesome figure get ahead of her, she also forgot to interrogate the real reason for the intrusion on the campus. She winced at the idea of being such a speechless wimp in front of the blue haired girl, called Natsuki, as if she could not recollect her thoughts properly in the presence of the owner of those emerald eyes. Some other small things that bothered her was the fact that she had to make a write-up about that incident to the Principal. She was supposed to give some punishments but she felt like she ended up being punished herself. Shizuru felt her world spinning at the absurdity of what had just happened. It just never occurred before – losing her composure quite badly.
Her senses were brought back to reality as she heard Reito laughing wholeheartedly and she jerked her head to glare at him.
"What is rather amusing, if I may ask?" She tried to sound impassive, but clearly her voice carried some annoyance.
"You, Shiz. For the first time, you amuse me." Reito answered while trying hard to control his laughter.
"Really, in what way do I look amusing?" She challenged him as she raised her right eyebrow inquisitively.
"Oh come on, there's just the two of us here. I'm your best friend after all. I know you."
"I don't understand what you are talking about." Shizuru stood up, clearly annoyed at Reito beating around the bush, and started walking towards the door.
"Tell me Shiz, I thought you dropped your mouth on the way here, or maybe someone had stolen your golden voice earlier, eh? You seemed to lose both earlier, don't you think so? Now, I'm thinking, is it just me or this girl is really something? The way I described what happened – wow – she had just eaten you alive. Looks like this girl had just whipped you. I'm not surprised to see the front page of the news tomorrow – Lovely Kaichou just got… what's the word... ah, stupefied! Headline of the day – The mighty Shizuru Fujino just got stupefied. Boom!"
"Shut up Rei. I just didn't get enough sleep yesterday. That's all." The brunette answered lamely, trying to cover up her rather absurd behavior towards the blue haired girl.
"If I sell this story to your classroom clown, I'll be an instant millionaire! Your fan girls will surely go for a kill just to know who stupefy their lovely queen." Reito continued his antics to which the brunette was surely getting more pissed off.
"Right. Who knows, I might also go for a kill, like right now." Shizuru emphasized the last word to which her best friend turned a little pale. After heaving a dreadful sigh, she left the room to avoid any further unhelpful comments from being thrown at her.
Now, sitting all alone in the classroom made Shizuru wonder why she had acted the way she did towards the lonesome, early that morning. She was the master of her emotions. She was always good at hiding them from plain view. She was the mighty Kaichou, the face of perfection that never faltered. But then, how would she explain in simple words what had happened to her early this morning? Her thoughts were again shattered upon hearing an intruding voice coming from the half-open classroom door.
"Hello stranger, thinking about me? Missing me already?" Upon hearing that husky voice, she perked her head up and turned her attention towards the door. Initially, she thought she was just hallucinating, but the girl with her bright emerald eyes and her ever smirking face was leaning on the door casually with her arms crossed – she was all for real.
You, the only word Shizuru could only muster under her breath. Oh kill me now, how could I end up being always so tongue-tied in front of her.
Smirking at the speechlessness of the brunette, "I have a name you know. And by the way, I am here to snatch you away."
What? Snatch. Me. Away? Are you so kidding me?
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