Touching makes it better, the too familiar words floated around inside Mitsuko Souma's mind as the man's hands began to caress her with a more heated fever.

What really made this one better was the size of the wallet she knew was in the man's trouser pockets on the motel room floor.

A grin spread across Mitsuko's face. Then, right on cue, the drugs kicked in, and the man began to slow his movements before, finally, slumping forward against her.

With a sound of complete contempt, Mitsuko shoved the man away from her and jumped to her feet. She swiftly retrieved the wallet and stuffed it into her school bag before rearranging her uniform and skipping lightly out of the room.

Whipping her phone from her bag, she dialled her best friend.

"Hey slut" greeted Mitsuko in her usual lazy drawl. "At school already?"

"The new Science teacher is fiiiine" whistled Hirono, after a delay, as the man himself strode briskly past on the way to his class room.

Mitsuko sniggered, "Well clearly somebody didn't learn their lesson from last time"

"Clearly" Hirono replied, un-amused.

"Whatever. I scored us some cash so we can go out tonight" Mitsuko informed her in a bored voice, examining her nails in a disinterested fashion, while not bothering to look before crossing the road.

"Already? Shit, you're some eager bitch"

Mitsuko didn't like her tone.

"Later" she all but spat, disconnecting the call and throwing the phone back into her bag.

Hirono wasn't a best friend in the usual definition of the term. The pair didn't confide in each other, or have late night conversations about everything and nothing. Sometimes they didn't even like each other, but they were both aware that the main thing holding them together was their poor attitude towards life, and a constant need to indulge in acts that made their classmates afraid to go near them. Well, there was that other reason, but they never dwelt too much on that...

Whatever. Mitsuko didn't need friends. Only people too weak and afraid to live life properly lowered themselves to the degrading standards of others.

She wasn't in any particular rush, but there was a definite spring in her step thanks to the weight of the rich man's wallet in her bag.

...

Hirono sighed and dropped her phone into the hand-made pocket of her uniform skirt. Her parents always referred to her as a "lost cause", but what about Mitsuko? She was, in some ways, much worse than Hirono, what with the drugging and mugging.

The only drugs Hirono carried were for herself, and while she could understand it, she considered it an unnecessary waste for Mitsuko to use her drugs on other people.

And also, Hirono thought, unable to supress a smirk, if her parents really considered her a lost cause, then what the hell would they say about Mitsuko's way of living? She had no parents, no adult that really cared about her… did Hirono really care about her? As her best friend, she knew she was supposed to, but…

Yoshimi Yahagi appeared beside her, leaning against the metal locker and sighing deeply. Hirono simply looked at her questioningly.

"My parents found out about last Friday. I'm totally fucked" Yoshimi said, unimpressed.

Hirono flashed a mocking grin. "Damn. Grounded then, huh? How last year!"

Yoshimi shifted uncomfortably, averting her friends gaze. She couldn't deny the fact that peer pressure played a huge roll in her relationship with the two most tearaway girls in school. The prostitution, the muggings, the…everything just made her feel so uncomfortable….

But she had to play along. Else she might as well scrawl loser on her forehead and have Hirono and Mitsuko terrorise her instead.

...

"You know, there's really no shortage of eye candy in our class" Shinji Mimura sighed, leaning back in his seat and admiring the view.

Hiroki Sugimura rolled his eyes. They both knew who he was referring to.

Takako Chigusa.

Star of the track team. Proud. Fierce temper. Yeah. She sure was a Grade A babe.

It was something of a miracle that the two friends hadn't already come to blows over her. Perhaps they would, if Chigusa ever gave either of them the time of day.

She was currently in a heated discussion with Kayoko Kotohiki about something or other.

Shinji didn't understand why Hiroki didn't just ask the girl out. They were best friends, and for all he knew, Takako already did have a crush on him.

At that moment, the classroom door crashed open against the wall and Mitsuko sauntered in. There was an incredibly satisfied expression on her usually languid face and, against his own will, Shinji felt himself drawn to her beauty. Even more unexpected when she walked in looking anything but arrogant and insolent.

"A psycho bitch" was what he often referred to her as, but maybe that was part of the appeal?

His train of thoughts was derailed by none other than Shuya Nanahara, the other star of the basketball team and, like Hiroki, one of Shiji's closest friends.

"Hey, Shinji, do you think you could meet me after school down at the old park? I found some sick chords I think'll impress you"

Shuya lived for his guitar, it played second fiddle only to basketball, his one true love. Shinji was one of the only people who knew about the illegal rock music that Shuya played on his equally illegal guitar, and he always enjoyed listening to his friend play.

"Sure dude. Maybe afterward we can shoot some hoops at the old rec centre?"

Hiroki snorted, "Yeah, and I suppose the crack heads and whores will just leave quietly so we can play there?"

Shinji and Shuya regarded him.

"Well, we could always ask Mitsuko if she could move her gang someplace else tonight" Shinji knew the remark was out of line, but his attraction to her unnerved him.

He caught the dark gaze of Hirono on him and when he next glanced up, Mitsuko's Satan scowl was directed at him.

Shit.

...

Sho Tsukioka gazed at Shinji adoringly. Why wouldn't Shinji just notice him? Was it really that much too ask?

Tearing his gaze away with a long suffering sigh, Sho turned to the compact mirror he'd been absently fiddling with. He popped it open and propped it in a way he considered to be rather inconspicuous. This way he could look as though he was working while spying on The Third Man without fear of being caught.

Pretty soon though, his attention span reached its end and Sho began to fiddle with the mirror. He almost dropped it, caught it at an angle and jumped, almost dropping it again.

At its skew if angle, the mirror had caught the black, hollow gaze of Sho's very own gang leader (and secret lust fantasy) Kazuo Kiriyama.

Sho caught his breath. Did kazuo know that he was looking at him? Like, right now?

Before he could contemplate it further, Sho snapped the mirror shut and threw it down on his desk.

He heard the chair in front of his creak, and looked up to find Hirono leering at him; making eyes and blowing kisses, before proceeding to make obscene sucking motions with her mouth.

Sho curled his lip in contempt. "Do you enjoy being such a filthy piece of trash?"

"Excuse me?" Hirono laughed in outrage.

"You heard me. You're nothing more than a grotesque gutter slut" Sho's lips turned up into a nasty grin, "You do know that, right?"

"Fuck you, faggot. You're obviously just jealous that I can pull more guys than you"

"Obviously" Sho rolled his eyes in a gesture of contempt.

Hirono shot him a withering stare before turning back to face Mitsuko and Yoshimi.

Sho directed his thoughts back to his crushes.

Sure, Shinji was a babe, but the real prize would be Kazuo. Sho honestly believed that he could make the cold-hearted boy really feel something.

He would just have to plan his moves carefully, is all.

...

It would be entirely unjustified to say that Kazuo chose not to care.

He didn't choose to be in a car accident that killed his parents and left him an orphan.

He didn't choose to live the rest of his life with a damaged brain.

Kazuo didn't choose any of it.

But would he have liked a choice?

He noticed Sho's discomfort upon finding Kazuo's reflection in the compact. Kazuo wasn't blind. He knew that Sho entertained desires for him.

Maybe if he cared, he would talk to his supposed friend about it. If he cared (in a different way) he might just decide to play with Sho, and have himself a good time doing it.

His lazy gaze travelled the room and fell on the three delinquent girls.

If Kazuo cared, he might enjoy messing around with those three, too.