Currently, there were less than 20 people in Kyoya's notebook under the tab 'watch closely'. Most were the obvious choices; children whose parent's business was still new and fluctuating, those who seemed to have the potential of growing close to another powerful heir, or ones he thought his father may soon request Kyoya to befriend.

Of course, there was an outlier, just as there always was. This time, her name was Akira Koizumi.

The girl had only begun attending Ouran a year ago, at nine years old. From what he could find, as she was a grade below him and thus he had to gather his information second hand, the other students had been thrilled to have a new face in their class, before the novelty wore off and the girl was left on her own. The reasons why, though, tended to vary wildly from person to person. Some claimed the girl glared at them whenever they got too close, while others said she only spoke of boring commoner things, and even more said she simply never spoke at all. Despite that, the overwhelming response when asked about Akira Koizumi was: "Huh? Who?"

This intrigued Kyoya like nothing else. Mysteries were so very uncommon in this school, and he didn't plan on letting one go to waste.

So here he was, attempting to discreetly watch her from across the cafeteria. She sat in the corner by herself, dark red hair blocking off most of her face from his view. She picked at her homemade lunch—an incredibly uncommon thing in Ouran. A few minutes later, Kyoya began walking over to the empty table, lunch tray in hand, attempting to make his posture as casual as possible. It was the exact opposite of everything that had been instilled in him since birth, but holding himself as if he was practically royal wasn't exactly the way to gain the trust of a commoner.

The forced casualty paid off, he knew, when Akira noticed him approaching and only shrunk into herself a little bit. Just that small motion gave him more information than he had gathered from her classmates; the girl was obviously timid and did not appreciate attention being drawn to herself. Smile, he thought to himself, but not too strongly. Make her think of you as a sort of a kindred soul—she'll open up faster that way.

"Hello," he said, the fake smile plastered on his face. "Is this seat taken?"

Akira's eyes grew comically wide, and he might have even laughed if he wasn't intending to come across as gentle as possible. She stared at him for a few more seconds, her mouth opening and closing in an attempt to find words before she simply gave up and shook her head vigorously. Timid indeed, he thought, smiling again as he sat down.

"Sorry to bother you. I had a disagreement with my friends," he reminded himself to look as sheepish as possible here, he had to come across as genuine, "and needed to get away. You don't mind, do you?"

"O-Of course not, Ootori-san," the girl said. He found it amusing how she tried to fix her own posture around him and attempted to appear much braver than she obviously was.

"Oh? You know me?" Kyoya said, unable to keep the genuine curiosity from his voice. He couldn't claim he had expected that—it seemed almost out of character. With the claims of her isolation, he assumed her to be the type with little to no knowledge of the rest of Ouran.

"The kids in class t-talk about you a lot." She swallowed noticeably, still holding her head up high and attempting to hide the tremor in her voice. Interesting. If he had heard about him, that either meant she was more sociable than he thought, or she had a habit of listening to conversations going on around her. He was leaning towards the latter.

A fake laugh from Kyoya. "Ah. I can't say that surprises me. I seem to be a center of attention for many of our peers." He made sure to sneak the word peers and our into there, trying to make the two of them seem more equal than they were.

Akira slightly relaxed, a small smile spreading across her lips. "That's an understatement. Some of them are obsessed with you. 'Ootori-san did this, Ootori-san did that.' It can get annoying." The second she finished speaking, her face immediately reddened as she realized what she had said, and she ducked her head, tucking her hair behind her ears. "Ah, s-sorry. Not like it's any of my business."

Kyoya purposefully waved it off. "No, speak your mind. Not like you're wrong." It felt wrong to speak so casually. "You only started attending Ouran recently, right? If you don't mind me asking, why is that? Most of the students here are in the school system by the time they can walk." It was worth asking, even if he already knew the answer.

Her face paled, and she began picking at her food, lowering her eyes to the table. "Oh, m-my parents… um, they won the lottery a little over a year ago. M-Mom put me into the best school she could right away."

And there was the real reason Kyoya was interested in the timid girl. Her parents were incredibly new to the world of wealth, and might be easily convinced to… invest in certain areas because of it. He needed every advantage he could get, and he had already nearly exhausted manipulating the other heirs for the time being.

Or maybe he just wanted a change. Someone who hadn't been trained in how and when to smile since before they were enrolled in preschool, someone who didn't calculate every move they made. While Kyoya was no doubt one of the best at the game, he was in no way the only one who played it.

"Is that why you're always on your own?" he asked with a gentle smile. The girl flushed again immediately.

"Sorta?" she said with a questioning tone to her voice. "I mean, everyone here is super nice and everything, but it's nearly impossible to talk with them. We just don't have anything in common, and everyone's personalities are so big! I sort of just end up shoved into the background. Which is fine!" she added in a rush. "I like being alone."

He laughed. She was right, it was nearly impossible to find a personality in this school that wasn't enormous. It was understandable that someone like her, one who isn't open until they begin to feel comfortable with someone, would be easily overshadowed. "We have that in common," he simply said. "I enjoy solitude as well." It was the first time in his conversation with her that he found himself telling the truth.

She smiled, but didn't end up replying, eating some more of her food instead. A few minutes of silence passed between them, and for once Kyoya didn't feel pressed to keep the conversation flowing. There was no need.

For the rest of the week, he spent his lunches in much the same way. They talked for a few minutes about various things, with Kyoya casually worming in a few subtle mentions of how wise it was to invest, and he noticed the girl beginning to stutter less and less. He tried to ignore the slight feeling of guilt growing in his stomach.

Their conversations were... different. There was no constant pressure, no careful maneuvering. He found himself lies becoming fewer and further between. He mainly let her talk about what she wished, which varied from 'that super awesome new anime episode on TV! Did you see how giant the robot was?' to 'today's class was actually interesting, but everyone was talking over it'.

"Ootori-san?" she said one day, her voice dropping slightly. She paused from her meal, her eyes wavering with uncertainty.

"Yes?"

"Why are you still here?"

There was a moment, just a small, minuscule moment, where he felt the mask slip before he put it back in place with practiced ease.

"What do you mean, Akira-san?" Add a bit of tentative curiosity to your voice, keep your eyes slightly wider than normal.

The red haired girl simply blinked, a conflicted expression resting on her face before she swallowed, and looked up to meet his eyes. "I have nothing to give you," she said, her voice more even than it ever had been in their brief acquaintance.

Ah, he thought, I may have underestimated this girl.

And so he blinked, finding himself, oh so unexpectedly, at a loss for words.

The mask was gone, now. His hands clenched around his lunch tray, and he began to stand up. "You're right," Kyoya simply said, his voice hollow. "I almost forgot."

He almost forgot.

He turned around and made his way to those who actually had something to offer him.

Weeks passed. He had been welcomed back to the most exclusive lunch table with nothing more than a few speculative glances. If his classmates noticed when he peered over his shoulder to find that particular red-haired girl, they didn't say anything.

Sometimes, he noticed, Akira was actually joined by a few other people at lunch time. It seemed that since his venture into her bubble, her classmates had once again become interested in the girl that Kyoya Ootori had given his time too.

She smiled and laughed on those days.

Kyoya supposed he could have stuck around her a little longer, maybe even should have, but he felt as if he was treading a dangerous line around her. Manipulating those who also played the game was interesting (fun, even) at times, but manipulating those who only looked up to him with wide, trusting eyes gave him an unpleasant feeling in his stomach that he would like to avoid. He didn't know if he could keep lying with a smile after she saw through him so easily the first time.

The days stretched, and he began noticing just how boring these conversations at lunch were. Always about the same things, always with the polite smiles, always with the subtle lies and embellishments. The boredom came, and Kyoya felt more frustrated with the mask than he had since he was a young child, being taught when and where to smile, which words to say and which too not.

Kyoya went home that day, more exhausted and annoyed with his peers than he should have been. The student council meeting had dragged on, about silly and inconsequential things with easy answers as always, and he only slightly felt like screaming as he made his way inside.

As he entered the house, greeted by the bowing of several servants, he heard tumbling steps coming from the floor above.

"Kyoya!" A high voice shattered the illusion of peace surrounding the house. Kyoya looked up to see his older sister leaning over the balcony, a large grin stretching over her face. "Come 'ere, come 'ere, come 'ere!" she called, gesturing wildly.

Kyoya sighed, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. He would never admit that his sister's overbearing presence was more of a relief than anything at the end of a long day. He kicked off his shoes, the servants rushing to put them away, making his way to his sister's bedroom.

"What is it, Fuyumi?" he called, peeking his head into the doorway.

Immediately, his sister began twirling, showing off what Kyoya recognized as a new dress. "Isn't it beautiful? Akimoto-san insisted on getting it for me!"

"The marriage meeting went well, then?"

Her smile briefly faltered. She was only twenty, but already being pressured into marriage by their family. If Fuyumi had a better standing with their father, maybe things would have been different, but she was never meant for the corporate life the rest of them; had failed at it, really. Their father's solution was to get her out of the house as soon as possible.

"Fantastic," she said, and he ignored the strain in her voice. "He was a perfect gentleman." Kyoya nodded. There was a stretch of silence, before his older sister plopped down on the bed with a sigh, looking up to the ceiling. "Boring, though," she amended. "They're all so boring."

She patted the spot next to her, so Kyoya sat, looking at Fuyumi wearily from the corner of his eye.

"Sometimes," she said softly, "I wish things were different."

So did he, Kyoya realized.

Without a word, Kyoya followed his sister's example, leaning backwards until his back hit the bed. Fuyumi let out a small chuckle. "Long day?" she asked, voice soft.

"Longest," he answered.

Silence stretched again, but it was never uncomfortable. For as long as Kyoya could remember, they had found solace in each other, in moments like these. The second born child, who could never live up to their father's expectations for her, and the fourth, with no expectations placed on him but his own. His older brother's would accomplish everything, after all.

"Akito told me to tell you he wouldn't be home for dinner again today," Kyoya commented. "Father called him in to help with work again."

"Dinner's keep getting smaller, huh? It's just you and me," she said with a small smile.

Kyoya didn't like to think of the day when it was just him at that suffocatingly large dinner table.

As if she could read his expression, his sister swept her arms around him, pulling Kyoya close and tucking his head under her chin. Fuyumi was almost never overly touchy with him, so Kyoya thought that the marriage meeting might have went much worse than she let on.

"Sometimes," she said again, "I wish you were born to a different family, baby brother."

Kyoya knew what she meant. She didn't want him to be part of a family where you didn't see your mother or father for weeks at a time, where you were encouraged to see your siblings as competition rather than family, encouraged to view those other than you as pawns rather than people.

And though he would never admit it to himself, or to anyone else... sometimes he wished too.

He went to school the next day, his mind reeling with wishes and changes. He stalked through the hallways without a smile as normal, and for once, his classmates decided to leave him alone rather than tag along behind him. A tuft of red hair peeked out from the crowd of students.

He knew who it was even before he could see her face.

Their eyes met,

and she smiled at him.

After a week of those smiles, he wondered what it would be like to get more than one a day.

After two weeks and another failed marriage meeting, he considered the consequences of what socializing with someone like her would mean.

After a month of seeing neither his mother nor father, and dining at a table where both occupants tried to ignore the extra plates of food with no one to eat them, he moved to sit with her at lunch again.

When she looked up, her eyes were wide, surprised, still chewing on a piece of food as she stared at him. But once again, she smiled. And she opened her mouth, the words tumbling out-

And he wondered once again what he was doing-

And she wondered once again why he was here-

Yet she said with that same damnable smile on her face

"Ootori-san... it's good to see you."