Paper Cranes
by Autumn Win-Dow
Sequel to Paper Planes
Yuu could only sigh as he twirled his mechanical pencil in his hand. As he tried to concentrate on starting his history homework early, the whole classroom was dense of commotion and drama.
Mikan and Natsume were having a lovers' quarrel, Hotaru was ignoring both Ruka and Hayate - of whom were silently competing for her affections, Koko and Sumire were sending each other conflicted glances, and even Anna and Nonoko were arguing about a small matter - whether Misaki-sensei preferred either cake or chocolate as a Valentine's Day gift.
And even a boy with such a great patience as Yuu was irritated with it all.
He couldn't recall when the class had changed to this extent - only three years prior, their worst issue was in regards to the final exams, but now the conflicts of love and betrayal were leaking into the classroom's atmosphere.
As the kind of boy who concentrated more on harmony and studies than love and conflict, he couldn't make sense of it all.
Yuu decided that there was no point trying to work in an atmosphere with too much commotion, so he packed up all of his workbooks and exited the classroom silently.
However, this action was not left unnoticed.
"Where's Yuu going?" Mikan wondered aloud as she turned away from Natsume - of whom wasn't pleased at the fact that his girlfriend's attention had been shifted elsewhere.
"Maybe he's going back to the dorms." Ruka suggested, having just managed to shoo Hayate away from the middle school classrooms.
Unlike the others, of whom were oblivious about Yuu and his feelings, Kitsu knew all too well what the class representative was thinking about - after all, he was feeling the same way.
"Didn't Yuu top the class in the final exams recently?" He changed the topic, but his mind had already come up with a plan to reassure the bespectacled boy. "We should congratulate him."
"We did. In class yesterday. How could we not congratulate our friend?" Koko piped up, confused as to where his best friend was getting at.
However, Kitsu saw the way he replied as a good sign.
He continued to explain his plan. "I know that, I was there! But we've never really thanked him for his hard work as a class representative, paired with his ability to study hard! I think we should really appreciate what he's done for us over the years."
The class fell silent, realising that what Kitsu had said was true.
After a brief moment, Mikan's voice broke the silence. "We should get a present for him!"
"No way, Sakura!" Sumire huffed, flicking her hair over her shoulder, "We have to hold him a party!"
Kitsu had hoped that they would all be harmonious while taking aboard the plan, but in the end, he decided that the countless mini arguments about what to give Yuu were unpreventable.
Yuu returned to class the next day, as the only person who had completed his history homework.
He was expecting to see the same thing as usual - forged silences, bickering, and Kitsu standing near a window in order to perform a second free fall from the sill.
However, the murmuring which he could hear from the other side of door was unfamiliar - he couldn't quite grasp an understanding of what was going on, but he knew there was something. Yuu placed a hand on the door in order to slide it open, when he heard voices.
"What are you doing, Koko? You're taping it to the wrong spot!"
"There isn't enough! Why did we stop?"
"What are you doing, Natsume?"
"Ugh! Let Hotaru and I fix it; you can just help Anna."
Yuu slid open the door - the curiosity he felt was just too much.
Upon the sound of the door, the whole class froze in their movements. Yuu was bewildered to see an ornament of paper cranes - larger than any other he had seen in his years - hanging from the ceiling.
"Wha... What's going on?" The class representative breathed as he scanned the room - noticing his classmates' awkward expressions.
"...I guess the secret plan's blown into pieces?" Ruka joked, only to be smacked on the head by Hotaru.
"Yuu..." Nonoko walked up to him nervously, when no one else could. "This is a present from us for coming first in the final exams. Also, we thought that you had been doing so much for us as our class rep while we were concerned about our own issues, so this is to say thank you and to wish you luck!"
Yuu held his hands up in denial. "Oh, but it's my job-"
"No it isn't." The person he had least expected, Natsume, spoke up from the back of the classroom.
Yuu was absolutely confused as to what Natsume was saying. "What are you talking about, Natsume... It is."
"Your job is to handle problems and take care of the matters when the teachers have no time to." Natsume immediately retorted, rendering Yuu speechless. "You do much more than that."
"You're the one who choose to constantly watch over all of us." Another unlikely person said. "What you're doing here is the reason why our class is still stitched together like this."
The rest of the class nodded and smiled in agreement to what Natsume and Hotaru told him.
He stared at the large paper ornament in wonder. "...This is for me?"
Koko rushed forward and ushered him closer to the bundle, and Yuu was amazed when he actually noticed how many cranes were hanging off the threads.
"How many cranes did you make?"
"Only four thousand." Sumire spoke with a proud smile.
Yuu was absolutely thrilled at the thought of his classmates giving him a present, but he couldn't hold in his expression of disbelief.
"Four thousand?!" He gasped, his eyes now widening at the sight of the cranes. "You folded that many?!"
All they did in reply was give each other knowing smiles.
He smiled back at the idea that the whole class appeared as if they were in harmony for the first time in a long while, and had briefly discarded the drama in order to congratulate him on his test scores.
However, his expression became worried as he scanned the blissful faces of his classmates.
"...Did anyone do Jinno-sensei's history homework?"
The peace only lasted a short while, as the classroom was sent into a state of chaos once again.