Disclaimer: Anything you recognize belongs to their respective owners.
A/N: I'd like to inform you that this is a side characters and OC-centric story. So please don't be confused if your favourite main characters won't be appearing much.
TARGET ON!
"Time for a New Environment"
To say that Miki was flabbergasted is an understatement.
Surely, this was some kind of misunderstanding. There must've been some complications regarding her transfer. She must've heard wrong. She just couldn't believe what she was informed of.
Standing in front of the chairman with the oak desk separating the two of them, Miki held back her disbelief. "Me? Repeat my third year? Chairman Asano, I passed my entrance exams without struggle. Is it not possible for me to just attend high school and, at the same time, catch up with the previous material that I wasn't able to tackle?"
The chairman didn't budge though, shrewd violet eyes making contact with her piercing crimson ones. They coldly stared at each other's eyes for a while, completely disregarding the other figures in the room.
After what felt like hours, but was only minutes, the chairman finally replied, "That is a reasonable proposition, which I'm certain you would be able to execute remarkably."
Miki narrowed her eyes even further. "Then-!"
"However," the chairman abruptly cut her off, "That would have been possible if you had finished at least one semester in your previous school year which you, unfortunately, couldn't do so."
She then teared her eyes off of his, gritting her teeth as she fought back her anger. "Then why am I attending the lowest class? Aren't my grades enough for me to study at the main building?"
"Outputs are a crucial requirement for you to do so, which includes your final test results, Yamazaki-san." He said coolly.
Miki looked at him in the eye once again. "Chairman Asano, the situation is beyond my control. I couldn't help it if I had to leave right before finals."
"Miki." The man behind her hissed quietly.
In milliseconds, she cast a glance at her worried father then soon she felt herself calming down. She knew all too well that losing her cool will only worsen her situation.
"If I couldn't convince you, sir, any further. Can I at least know what to do in order for me to be able to transfer classes?"
Gazing at her, a smile worked its way on the chairman's face, "Do what the Class E students had to do. Place within the top 50 on your mid-terms and I will personally grant you permission to start attending classes here in the main campus."
"As simple as that?" Miki raised her eyebrows at that, suspicious.
"As simple as that." He confirmed.
Miki then lowered her head in deep thought, contemplating his answer. From what she knew, mid-terms in Japan normally begin towards the end of May. So, unless she was required to start attending classes at the beginning of March for adapting purposes, it would only take her less than two months surviving in that run-down building before transferring classes, had she placed within the top 50.
Her Japanese is well-taken cared enough in both writing and speaking terms, so she would have less problems learning everything in another language. Not to mention she already tackled all of her first semester lessons, so doing well in her exams and placing within the required ranking would be an easy feat for her, of course while keeping in mind of the competitive students in the school.
Her eyes subtly glinted in anticipation. They want her to excel despite the poor learning environment? Fine then, challenge accepted.
She raised her head and looked at the chairman once again. "I'll take that arrangement into consideration, Chairman Asano. I'll be sure not to disappoint anyone in this room."
"Any more questions?"
She shook her head, "No. There are none, sir."
The chairman then hummed softly then dismissed her with a raise of a hand. "You are dismissed, Yamazaki-san. Although I would like to have a brief discussion with your parents," he gestured to the two stern-looking adults behind Miki, "in private. Would you perhaps like to wait outside as we do so?"
"Well of course, sir." She quickly muttered an apology to her parents before walking past them and headed towards the double doors. She turned to face him one last time and bowed respectfully. "Thank you for having me, Chairman."
Then she left.
Later that day, Miki apologized once again during the ride home. Her parents just simply told her that they didn't mind at all, seeing that the matter was not a big deal at all.
"However, the fact that you've confronted the chairman without breaking a sweat shouldn't be overlooked." By the driver's seat, her father sharply looked at her with the mirror.
'Oh boy...' Miki buried herself further in her hoodie, bracing for the worst.
Then his gaze softened. "That was really brave of you."
Miki growled softly and glared at him. "Stop playing with my feelings, old man."
Her father snickered then turned his eyes back to the road.
"Stop teasing her." Her mother said dryly, pinching his arm albeit painfully.
"O-Oi! Watch your nails, woman!"
Miki chuckled at her parent's cute interaction, slowly relieving some of her stress.
"Ah. By the way Miki," her mother turned towards her with a concerned look, "I'm sure you've seen what happened earlier?"
Miki nodded with a slight frown, "You mean the future Class E students being a laughing stock of the entire campus? Even if they were buddies with them beforehand?" She leaned back to her seat, hands behind her head, "Yeah, I've seen it all."
"Are you still planning to transfer classes after the mid terms?"
She scoffed at that. "Nah. I changed my mind."
Her mother then frowned slightly. "You made a promise to the chairman, Miki."
"To place within the top 50?" Miki raised an eyebrow, "That I did, which I am certainly going to do. But to transfer to one of those classes with such cancerous atmosphere? As if." She lowered her arms then crossed them. "And besides, the chairman will only grant me permission to transfer classes. It's not like I have to transfer right after the exam results; that would need both mine and your consent to have me transfer."
Meeting her mother's emerald eyes with her own crimson, Miki smiled bitterly. "So, I can still stay in Class E while in the top 50. No promises broken. As simple as that." She more or less mimicked Chairman Asano's tone at the end.
"You're impossible." Her mother sighed at her answer and shook her head exasperatedly before going back to her own business.
Meanwhile, her father sighed softly. "Miki," he glanced at her through the mirror.
"Hmm?"
"Whatever your decision may be, as long as you graduate and live a stable life, we're fine with it."
Miki just hummed in her seat, not bothering to reply.
When it comes to sticking to her own judgement, in Miki's dictionary, defying an authority also means breaking the rules. Well, not necessary breaking it head on, but to find a loop hole around it and use it to her advantage.
But if she was ever confronted about it, she could always find the most reasonable excuses, especially with what is not specified in the rules.
Always doing it as she grows up, Miki had been twisting the rules with ease. Specifically, the rules that had to do with certain standards and requirements. But Miki wouldn't go that far. She may be seen as rebellious but she is no delinquent; she only twists the rules for small matters.
"Say, Yamazaki-san. Why are you wearing the boys' uniform?" A light-haired tall boy called Sugaya asked her as they climbed the mountain towards the school building.
Small matters such as her school uniform.
Miki briefly glanced at her uniform then shrugged. "I just don't have the right figure to wear the girls' uniform. Getting a new uniform tailored to my size will take a long time. Besides, the boys uniform fit me more comfortably."
Chiba, a long-fringed boy frowned slightly at that. "But aren't you breaking rules?"
She shook her head. "Not really. There are no rules against students modifying their uniforms and there are certainly no rules against wearing the boys' uniform."
"This school is not really strict with the dress code in the first place," a boy with a buzz cut named Okajima mused.
"Well that's ironic," Miki commented dryly, followed by various signs of agreement from the boys. They clearly know what she was implying.
About twenty minutes ago, Miki approached the trio for directions, assuming that they were also heading towards the old building. After brief introductions were made, Miki found herself sticking with them. The three certainly didn't mind the additional company, naturally letting her join their group.
The conversation was mostly held by Sugaya and Okajima while Chiba just listened to them quietly and Miki would only speak if they asked her something, even if the question is quite perverted.
An example of this was when Sugaya and Okajima were mildly arguing about their perception of the female body, which for some reason lead Okajima to compare the appeal of a girl with a small or a big chest.
"Miki, which do you prefer? Small or big boobs?!" He suddenly asked the unsuspecting female.
She stared at him blankly. "Neither," she replied dryly.
Sugaya elbowed him in the stomach and hissed at him, "You don't just ask that question to a girl!"
"I need another perspective! Miki seems open-minded enough to respond!" Okajima argued, rubbing his stomach to ease the pain.
"And what if she doesn't want to?" Sugaya crossed his arms, "At least think before you ask such questions! You don't want to scare the only girl who actually talks to you."
Okajima froze briefly then quickly turned towards Miki. "You're not going to ignore me, are you?"
"I might." She replied curtly, causing Okajima to flinch.
"O-oh..." Then he frowned.
"If you're not careful that is..." Miki returned his frown with a teasing smirk. "Dirty talk is fine with me but don't take it too far."
Okajima suddenly brightened up then gave Sugaya an 'I told you so' look; the latter rolling his eyes at that.
"By the way, how come you said neither?"
Then they're back at the previous topic.
Miki shrugged her shoulders. "I'm more of a butt person," she answered.
Both Sugaya and Chiba don't know how to react to her answer, so they just kept quiet.
Meanwhile Okajima, "Why?"
"It was probably because most girls prefer it..." She paused briefly, still formulating her answer. "I mean you've noticed that nowadays, no matter what size, a lot of girls hide their cleavages by wearing loose clothing. But they also wear shorts and skinny jeans or leggings, which gives you a full view of their behind," then she shrugged, "A lot of them believed that the butt makes up the most of their figures, followed by the waist, hips and maybe even thighs. And I kinda agree with them."
There was a rather long pause and the dazed look in Okajima's eyes implied that he is still processing what Miki had said (though she was only bullsh**ng him with her answer).
While waiting for his answer, Miki's eyes darted towards Sugaya and Chiba who were giving them incredulous looks, well, particularly Chiba who seemed mildly disturbed. She subtly studied his expression to decipher his thoughts, albeit a bit hard since the long-banged boy is purposely trying to show as little emotion as possible. But from the way she could see him clenching his jaw and the way his fingers lightly twitched, Miki came to three conclusions that he could be, a) surprised or amazed that she can handle the sleazy Okajima without being sleazy herself, b) disturbed that she gave an elaborate reason for her butt preferences, or c) irritated at her for some reason.
Then a hilarious thought crossed her mind. Maybe it's because I didn't punch Okajima in the face instead... She would really do that, actually. But she just met him, so she can't damage the poor guy yet. Besides, she's been forced into sleazy talks way worse than boobs and butts before so it's not like she'll be beating him up anytime soon. That is, if Okajima began to sexualize any of their classmates, then he had another thing coming worse than just a plain old beating.
But he wouldn't do that with her around, right?
Right?
Ugh no, he might, Miki immediately got rid of that horrendous thought.
Either way, whatever Chiba is thinking about the situation at the moment, Miki will agree with him wholeheartedly. The same goes for Sugaya, who looks to be more on the amazed side. In the first place, riding along sleazy talks is not an easy task.
She could be wrong though, about their thoughts that is. Maybe they just kept quiet because they find sleazy talks uncomfortable. There are those types of people after all. Then again, that would contradict the fact that Sugaya can still formulate his own opinion from an artist's perspective.
Does that mean that only Chiba-kun is uncomfortable being in the radar of sleazy conversations? She mused.
It would make sense why he looks more disturbed than Sugaya.
With that final conclusion in mind, Miki decided to stick to her own judgement unless either one of the two proved her otherwise.
Once she was sure that the two (finally) felt her gaze on them, Miki shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly at them followed by a barely audible sigh. Now hopefully, they would understand that she was basically telling them she's used to the sleaziness. (She remembered when one of her cousins once asked her what the quotation hand gesture meant. She had a short mental breakdown because of that.)
Chiba let out a small 'o' when he got the message then nodded at her in response. He then told Sugaya about it, the artist soon nodding at her after.
"Oh! You're right!"
Oops. She nearly forgot that she was still talking to Okajima.
Miki quickly turned her gaze back to him and found him about to ask another question again. She figured that the whole butt thing might have kept the boob-lover quite invested.
Although Okajima looked thoughtful at the moment, there was a subtle glint in his eyes. Like he had, what he thought was, a brilliant idea and is about to ask her opinion about it.
"Does this whole butt thing work with guys too?"
Or he would just show himself off unnecessarily in hopes of attracting girls... For a moment there, Miki felt bad for him. Although, as embarrassing as it sounds, it's probably better than the horrendous thought of him sexualizing their classmates.
Delete that last bit.
Miki stopped her tracks a bit then gave his entire behind a once over. She then looked at Okajima blankly and straight up told him, "You're not getting any girls with that flat butt of yours."
Okajima went silent at that, freezing in his spot.
Sugaya suddenly let out a "Pfft...!" sound and covered his mouth while Chiba had his back turned, shoulders visibly shaking.
"She totally saw right through you," Sugaya grinned, elbowing Okajima, thus waking him up from his trance.
Meanwhile Miki tried suppressing her own laugh, though failing at it, resulting to look like a wobbly smirk. She watched as Chiba, who probably sobered up, turned back to face them with his face void of any emotion.
Well, she would've believed him if it weren't for the fact that his face is literally turning purple what the heck?!
"W-we should get going," he told them, voice obviously shaking.
"You laughed," Okajima, who looked mildly offended, said to him almost childishly.
"No I didn't," Chiba briskly replied then continued his tracks. "We really should get going now."
They didn't follow yet though but instead watched his back as he was about to leave them. Then after a few feet away, Chiba was about to call them again.
Then suddenly, he snorted with laughter, a rather loud one. Realizing this, Chiba quickly covered his mouth with both hands, shoulders violently shaking.
"YOU WERE LAUGHING!"
When they said that the Class E campus is pretty run down, I was more or less expecting an abandoned-looking concrete building with molds on walls, broken windows, dysfunctional class equipment, and no air conditioning…
Miki opened her shoe locker, barely flinching at how creaky it was, and frowned at the amount of dust falling.
It just had to be made of wood…
She sighed softly, changing into her indoor shoes while her eyes darted around her line of sight, sharply observing the interior of the entrance hallway.
The first thing she noticed are the wooden planks on the floor that are either broken or lost their nails then the wooden wall panels are barely holding up. There are a few missing ceiling planks, probably from soaking too much water during the rainy season, that she could already see the roof which had a lot of small holes.
Then Miki's eyes sweep through the shelves of shoe lockers, noting at how dusty and unmaintained they were and at least ten of the lockers are broken. Her face then warped into a fit of disgust at the amount of molds building up on each and every wooden corner.
No renovations, no maintenance, no cleaning, no fixing, and no signs of life…
Her eyes darted on her left hand, which was strangely starting to feel warm all of a sudden, and saw a small ray of sunlight caressing the back of her hand. No sooner after, the rest of her body started to feel warmer as multiple rays of sunlight phased through the gaps between the wall panels and the small holes on the roof, thus illuminating the once dark and gloomy atmosphere of the entrance hallway.
The upperclassmen didn't even bother livening things up…
Which is kind of a waste, actually. An isolated yet active school building surrounded by the beautiful wonders of nature sounds like a more comfortable and peaceful learning environment. Minus the poor maintenance of the school equipment, the peaceful setting is enough to enable a young creative mind to produce fresh and excellent ideas that could help them with their studies or their field of interests.
Nature alone can calm a heart and clear a mind but if the old building was ever properly maintained, students might be more eager to learn and improve.
If anything, the condition of the school building isn't the most concern…
Miki's frown deepened, picking up her outdoor shoes almost absent-mindedly and placed them inside her shoe locker.
It's the discrimination…
She then closed her locker rather forcefully.
"Uhh Jenny-san!"
"Yes?" She spun to look at Sugaya with Chiba and Okajima behind him. "Oh, was I spacing out for too long?" There was a subtle concerned glint on Sugaya's eyes, Miki didn't miss that and just made an assumption.
They started walking through the hallways and towards their classroom. "Ah no, it wasn't that. We've been calling you but it's like you can't hear us at all," Okajima answered instead.
"You're probably have been calling me by my family name," she briefly explained. "We don't really use surnames back there so I can't really get used to it just yet."
They soon reached the entrance of their classroom. "So, how do you want us to address you then?" Sugaya took it upon himself to ask.
"Ah," reaching for the door and sliding it slightly, Miki faced them with a small smile.
"You can call me Miki..."
A/N: I've actually have been writing this fic since last year September and actually finished 8 chapters that time on ms word. But me and my dumbass self haven't thought of saving them on my docs and oh my god, around early January, my laptop just crashed on me thus deleting all my works T^T
Also, updates will be very slow since I don't have a laptop to properly write anything. I managed to publish this chapter after borrowing my aunt's laptop for a short time. Although if you want to see any of my ideas regarding the events in Target On, (WARNING: shameless self-promotion) you can check my tumblr fumiko-matsubara where I'm more active.
Thank you for reading and please review if you ever had the time! :)
~松原⽂⼦ 3