A disclaimer: If you recognise something, it's not mine. For example: Oshitari? Not mine. Hibiya Park? Not mine. Chapter titles? Not mine. Now keep reading and carry on!

And a note to the anonymous reviewer: actually, no, I do mean die. Please look first at the singular of the word dice and then the phrase 'alea iacta est'.

with a little love and sunshine

Takahashi Akiko was blessed with many things. However, modesty was not one of them.

That was why, when her homeroom teacher said that the reason nobody wanted to be in the health committee was because nobody felt they could do it, Akiko's immediate response was to raise her hand and volunteer because there was no way that she would let something like that pass disregarded.

That had been at the beginning of April. Looking back, she felt like she had been duped, but the die had been cast – Akiko had already moved forward three spaces to Yet-Another-Kid-is-Skipping-Class Land. Seriously, it felt like half the school was holed up in the infirmary at times and the other half was out of it only because there was no room for them.

Didn't anybody have scholastic integrity anymore?

'Need a plaster!' somebody shouted, sliding the door open with a bang at the same time. Akiko just sighed, picked up a plaster and held it out behind her without turning around from her seat.

She could be doing any number of things right now. Finishing her reading for next week's English class, doing revision for maths...

Actually, those were the only two she could think of off the top of her head, but they were still far more desirable than sitting around the infirmary while the actual nurse chatted up the secretary over in the office.

Akiko despised the school nurse.

Back to her complaint about people skipping class. They were being completely inconsiderate of students who might actually need medical care.

'Hello?'

'What?' she exclaimed, turning her head around to look at the owner of the disruptive voice. What she found was a short young man with hair the colour of cherry cough medicine, which meant –

'That's not a plaster. That's a sweet wrapper.'

– he was Mukahi Gakuto, and Oshitari Yuushi could not be far behind.

She was about to say that no, she wasn't holding a sweet wrapper because she had taken the plaster straight from the box of plasters to her right, when she looked down and noticed that she was indeed holding a sweet wrapper.

Inwardly fuming at the nurse – the plaster box was not a rubbish bin! – she put the wrapper into the appropriate receptacle and quickly handed over a real plaster.

Now get out, she thought as loudly as she could, because Akiko really did not want to have to deal with Mukahi's other half. It was almost five o' clock in the afternoon on a Friday, and she had had a really long week so far. Wouldn't somebody just grant her this one wish?

Obviously, whatever deities had been listening were too busy playing heavenly billiards or something to do anything helpful, so Akiko tried her best not to look too aggravated when Oshitari Yuushi sauntered into the room.

'Gakkun, have you got – oh, it's you, Takahashi. You're looking particularly stunning today.' The dark-haired young man was smirking in that infernal way of his that Akiko's classmates seemed to find ridiculously endearing, but to Akiko –

Well.

To be entirely honest.

It was a little endearing. Oshitari had good looks – she had to give him that.

But it didn't change the fact that behind that smirk was a rakish boy who had a very nice spot on Akiko's list of People Who Annoy Her (and it was a very long list), so she settled for a terse nod as a reply. That was almost being polite – she could have said something like 'Your presence bothers me, so could you leave?' or 'And you're being particularly a pain today – so what?' but she didn't. As a representative of class 3A, she had to be on her best behaviour.

However, it was obvious that Oshitari didn't exactly appreciate her efforts to be civil, because he gave her a funny look. Not ha-ha funny but is-something-wrong-with-you funny.

'What is it?' she asked impatiently, because if they had nothing else they needed they could head on out. She had work to do – a whole pile of paperwork, actually, that the nurse had conveniently forgotten to finish during the day, and oh, Akiko was so responsible, so couldn't she just help him out? Just this once (and the six other times she had already done it – she was keeping a tally) and then he would never ask her to do it again!

Akiko really despised the school nurse.

While she had been giving running internal commentary about the nurse and his bad habits, Oshitari had been saying something or another, and he was still talking now.

'So what do you think?'

Akiko tried to think of a suitable response, but there really wasn't one since she hadn't been even remotely paying attention. 'What do I think about what?'

Another funny look, and then:

'Would you like to join the beautification committee?'

After pausing to make it look like she was thinking about it, she replied, very succinctly, 'No.'

Then she turned back to her paperwork, because she wanted to be back at home some time tonight and there was as little chance of the nurse's coming back to help as there was of Akiko's skiing in hell.

'Give it up, Yuushi.' Mukahi apparently felt like he had the need to pipe up. 'Takahashi's obviously too busy with her own stuff to join anything – there's no way she'd be able to finish all her duties here and still have time to garden afterwards.'

There's no way she'd be able to –

'I'll do it,' Akiko interjected before anybody else could speak.

'Are you sure, Takahashi?' Oshitari had an eyebrow raised, and if that wasn't just insulting –

'There's no problem.' She swivelled around in her chair. 'Obviously I'll have to talk to the nurse first and ask if I can just push my committee duties here until after beautification committee meetings, but there's no problem at all.' After all, she was the only one who took health committee seriously, so the nurse totally did not have the right to complain.

'Thanks,' Oshitari replied, in that Kansai accent of his, and then he started saying how the teacher had told him to ask her since she was somebody that the teacher, as a member of the school faculty, could depend on, and that he was sure the students on the beautification committee would really appreciate her help since they had just lost a member.

Akiko waited until he had stopped talking, and asked, maybe a bit pointedly, 'Is that all?' She gestured at the door. 'I'm sure you're both really busy, so...'

'Yeah, Yuushi; we should get back to practice.' Mukahi held up his hand in some sort of wave before ducking out. Oshitari, however, lingered.

'Takahashi – ' The bespectacled boy said her name, only to stop. His mouth closed, and it was like he wanted to say something but didn't think it would be appropriate, and well, that was just spineless. If he had something to say, he should have just spat it out.

However, she wasn't going to prompt him to stay more, since that would just make him stick around longer. 'Mukahi-san is waiting, Oshitari-san.'

He nodded, looking strangely dissatisfied. 'I'll see you around then, Takahashi.' He left, closing the door behind him. Almost immediately, Akiko heard him call out to Mukahi – they were probably heading back to tennis practice.

Good riddance.

Just as she was going to finally get back to her work, the door slid open again and her homeroom teacher walked in, beaming. 'Takahashi! I've got something I want to ask you.'

'If it's about beautification committee, Ichiki-sensei, I've already agreed to take part,' she informed him. 'Oshitari-san came around to ask me to join just a moment ago.'

'So that's why he was here!' Ichiki-sensei said with a laugh. 'I was worried he had gotten himself injured – the boys in tennis club get up to the craziest antics.'

Akiko had no idea what sorts of antics they got up to that could be so crazy, but she just nodded, wondering if that was all her teacher had to say.

'Well, the committee is having meetings outside of school this weekend for research – each of the pairs of representatives is going to visit different parks and gardens and look for ways to make Hyoutei even better than it is already. You are going to be going to...' Ichiki-sensei paused, pulling his mobile out of his pocket. 'Here, I've got the other class rep's contact details, so...'

Akiko held up a pen. 'What's the number?'

Her teacher started. 'You're not going to put it into your phone?'

'Well, I don't have one with me now, so – '

Taking the pen from her, Ichiki-sensei quickly jotted the number on the top page of her pile of paperwork. In pen. Indelible pen. Indelible permanent black pen.

'Sensei, you just wrote on paperwork that I have to do for Kisaichi-sensei!' She stared at the offensive numbers, willing them to disappear with her mind.

Ichiki-sensei just shrugged, since apparently he didn't understand how grave the situation was. 'Relax, Takahashi; it's no big deal. Kisaichi-sensei's not even going to look over them anyway, you know. After you leave he's just going to stick it in that black hole he calls a filing cabinet.

Akiko sighed, because she knew it was true – she was well acquainted with the filing cabinet.

'Call the number when you have the time, OK? Arrange some time to go on your little date, and really – ' Ichiki-sensei patted her on the head ' – thanks a bunch, Takahashi.' Then her homeroom teacher was off, leaving Akiko with vandalised paperwork and untidy hair and a growing feeling of displeasure directed towards the school staff.

.

'Takahashi-sama, welcome home. If I may take your bags?'

Akiko smiled a little wearily at the concierge, who had already walked out from behind the counter. 'I'll be fine today, but thanks, Gotou-san. Actually...' She fished a small piece of paper from her pocket, and handed it over to the stately young man. 'Could you call this number for me? I need to arrange a meeting for tomorrow; any time will be fine.'

'Where will this rendezvous be taking place?'

She thought for a moment before making a reply. 'Whoever's on the other end of the phone will know already. Just say it's Takahashi Akiko, about tomorrow's beautification committee date. Buzz me when everything's done?'

'Understood, Takahashi-sama,' Gotou said with a deep bow. 'Please enjoy the rest of your evening.'

She took the elevator up, looking at the mirrored doors as she smoothed out her school uniform. Her hair was still a bit rumpled after Ichiki-sensei's assault, but she'd fix that once she got a comb and a mirror. Sometimes, Ichiki-sensei just got on her nerves – he was too cheerful and too friendly. He treated all the students like his pals and while clearly the rest of her classmates enjoyed that, resulting in the affectionate nicknames 'Icchan' from the boys and 'Icchan-sensei' from the girls, she preferred authority figures who were a bit more professional.

Letting herself into her apartment, she was immediately greeted by her dog, and a smile broke out on her face for the first time that day. 'Bagel! Miss me?' The fairly large red Akita Iku looked up at her with dark eyes, and Akiko gave her furry companion a pat on the head. 'Today's been a long day – wanna eat dinner?' Suddenly, the phone rang.

Slipping out of her shoes quickly, she ran over to the living room, picking the cordless phone up from the side table. Behind her, Bagel trotted along gracefully. 'Hello; Takahashi speaking.'

'Takahashi-sama, this is Gotou. Appointment details for tomorrow have been decided.'

'Oh? What time?'

'Ten o'clock. Your classmate will be picking you up at reception; he insisted on it.'

'Thanks, Gotou-san.'

'It was my pleasure, Takahashi-sama.'

She hung up, and turned back to Bagel. 'Now – who's up for something to eat? We've got some fish leftover from yesterday that I have to fry up anyway.' Satisfied that food was coming, Bagel went to sleep on the sofa as Akiko went to the kitchen.

As she washed the rice, she wondered about why one of the committee members had dropped out. After all, it was already September – if the member had wanted to drop out, why wait until half of the year was over before doing it? This was just the kind of half-heartedness that Akiko disliked the most.

Hopefully, whoever she met up with tomorrow would be more responsible.

.

It was already nine minutes past ten. Akiko would give the other class rep one more minute, and then she was going to return to her apartment. She'd already gone for her morning run with Bagel, but she still needed to go to the supermarket and pick up foodstuffs for later and this was disrupting her plans.

'Takahashi!'

'Took you long enough – ' she started to say, only to see who it was who had spoken up.

Oshitari was smirking at her from the apartment entrance.

'Oshitari-san, what on earth are you doing here?' she demanded. Behind her, she heard Gotou stifle an exhalation – was he surprised by her outburst?

Oshitari just continued smirking. 'To pick you up, of course – or have you forgotten our date?'

'What date?' she asked in the same tone she had used earlier. 'I don't remember – '

And then she realised.

'Wait – you're the other beautification committee member?'

With a slight bow, Oshitari replied, 'At your service, other class rep. Shall we get to it? Hibiya Park isn't going to examine itself.'

It was at this point that Akiko realised that she had once again been duped. That didn't mean she had to go along with this happily, so when Oshitari proffered his hand, Akiko brushed past it brusquely and marched out the door. That didn't seem to deter Oshitari, who just followed her out. When she looked back, he was still smirking.

Hyoutei had better become the prettiest and healthiest school in all of Japan after all the effort she was putting into it.

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1. the point in time or space at which something starts.

Just as a warning, I tend to spell things British-y/Canadian-y, use single quotation marks and abuse the spaced en dash. (: This does not include ShinPuri because I am not reading it. Please review because these are uncharted waters for me and any form of direction would be very helpful. -awin