"Time."
The tension that had been in the room evaporated as half of the class slumped back in their chairs, massaging aching writing hands and rubbing formerly hunched shoulders.
"Papers to the front."
They collected and passed their papers to the front. One stack was dropped by a red-faced Yoshimi who glared around as if daring someone to say anything, but soon all of the tests were up at front and the instructor waved his hand and left.
There was a collective sigh. Shinji Mimura hopped over a few desks to get to Shuuya Nanahara and Hiroki Sugimura, who were talking intensely about what they'd gotten on number three. Mitsuko Souma lounged in her chair, hips tilted just enough to give anyone in the class (except perhaps Kazuo Kiriyama) a red face. Haruka Tanizawa and Yukie Utsumi were clutching at each others' hands like if they let go they would drown.
Yutaka Seto busied himself with collecting the entire class's opinions on going out for burgers.
He started with Shinji and them, of course – Shinji was just about his favorite person in the world, and he wouldn't say no. "Hey! Shinji! Shuuya! Hiroki!" he said, bounding over to them and slamming his hands down on Shuuya's desk. "Let's go out for burgers. The entire class. What do you three say?"
Shinji cocked an eyebrow. "You're going to ask the entire class?"
"Yes, I am."
"Even Souma?"
Yutaka hesitated, but nodded. Shinji grinned and tapped his nose.
"Alright. If I can see you try to ask Mitsuko Souma out for burgers, okay," he said. He glanced at Shuuya and Hiroki. "You two in, too?"
"Yeah," Shuuya said. Hiroki nodded, silent as ever. Yutaka gave him a smile, and switched his gaze to Hiroki.
"Hey, you mind asking Chigusa? Since you're so close, is all," Yutaka said, his smile turning awkward. If he didn't know better, he would have thought that Hiroki was rolling his eyes at him, but it was Hiroki and he didn't do that, he just nodded and Yutaka decided to tackle some of the easy ones first to keep his confidence up.
Yukie and her friends were easy, one mention of Shuuya and they were all nodding enthusiastically. Same with Noriko Nakagawa and a few others.
Then his gaze switched to Kazuo Kiriyama and he gulped. It wasn't that he was especially physically imposing – he was actually kind of small, and he was quiet, and spoke politely most of the time. But he was also surrounded by delinquents. And the way that he looked at everyone was kind of terrifying as well.
He glanced at Mitsuko, wondering if she would be easier. She caught him looking and licked her lips.
Nope. Kiriyama it was.
He made his way over carefully, stepping over a foot placed in his way until he was directly in front of Kiriyama's desk. Kiriyama looked at him, gaze flat and uninterested.
"So," Yutaka said, ignoring the weird looks he was getting from Kiriyama's gang. "We're going out. Like, as a huge group, and I was wondering if you guys were up for it, too? It's me, Shinji, Shuuya, Hiroki…" he listed off everyone in the class except for Mitsuko's gang. "Also, I'm going to ask, like, Souma and her people, too, but I just haven't gotten to them yet."
"What makes you think the Kiriyama Family's up for something as lame as that?" Mitsuru Numai snapped. Yutaka flinched. "I-"
"We'll come," Kiriyama said, voice flat. Yutaka tried to find any sort of emotion at all in that voice, but couldn't come up with anything besides vague indifference. "It might be interesting. Are we all just heading out after we are officially dismissed?"
"Yeah, uh, that's right," Yutaka said. Kiriyama nodded to him, then pulled a book out of his bag and dismissed him.
Yutaka, taking the looks he was getting from the others as a hint, headed toward Mitsuko Souma as fast as his little legs could carry him.
"What do you want?" Hirono asked as he got close, and Yutaka flinched. These gangs really all worked the same way, didn't they?
"I, uh, you might have heard," Yutaka said, sending a nervous glance toward Shinji, who gave him a shark-like grin and a thumbs up. "We're all going out for burgers. And I was asking you guys-"
"I don't have any money," Mitsuko said, leaning forward with her elbow sliding across the desk. "Are you willing to pay for me, Yutaka?"
Yutaka flushed and glanced at Shinji, who was by now laughing so hard that he looked close to falling out of his chair. Shuuya was laughing a little too, and even Hiroki had a hand cupped over his mouth in an attempt to hide laughter.
"Uh," Yutaka said. He glanced around for a savior, and it game to him in probably the least likely of people – Yuichiro Takiguchi.
"I'll pay for you," Takiguchi said, and Mitsuko looked surprised. Takiguchi smiled. "I mean, it's just a burger, right?"
"Then I guess we'll come," Mitsuko said, and Takiguchi gave her a smile. She gave a confused smile back, and Yutaka Seto beat it out of there faster than he would have if he'd been on fire.
"That was worth it," Shinji said, a half-smile plastered on his face. "Oh, wow. That was fantastic. I thought I was going to have to step in when you went up to Kiriyama's guys, though. Looked like Sasagawa was about to throw a punch."
Yutaka winced. "Yeah," he said. "But. Hey, we're all going out for burgers now."
Shinji nodded, still smiling that peculiar half-smile. "Yeah," he said. "We sure as hell need it, after that last test."
This was requested by a user on Tumblr, who wanted pre-program, like a test type of thing. And… it turned into this weird mess of everyone! So that's cool.