It's the early spring when the school year started. Walking down the streets, I took the opportunity to take glances at the beauties known as Cherry Blossom trees, and thinking of how such sight's the polar opposite of what happened to me and Hiyori years ago. I still remember it..

"Hey, Hibiya"

The sight of Hiyori getting hit by a truck..

"Umm.. hello?"

And the scent of the her blood..

"..Hibiya?"

I still have to wonder what she was trying to tell me before each of her deaths.

"AMAMIYA HIBIYA!"

I jumped from the surprise.

"Y-yes.. ma'am?", I answered nervously, part of me still shaking.

"I have been calling you for like.. I don't know.. 5 minutes! Are you some kind of a retard?"

Ah, right, I forgot. She's walking right beside me. To be honest with you, that insult really didn't get through me; I'm somewhat used to it now. By that statement, I guess you can already imagine the amount of time she had insulted me. Well, at least I'm out of that depressing memory lane. Thanks, Hiyori.

"Uh.. I was.. uh-" trying to find the best word I know.

"Anyway,"

She cut me off right in the middle. Such manner. If I told my classmate right now that I used to have feelings for this girl, they'd be laughing their asses off, thinking that I'm some kind of a masochist.

Speaking of which, why did I lose my feelings for this girl again?

"I've been wanting to ask for a while now. How did the Dan find enough money for our tuition fee? I mean, the rest of them have to pay for their college fees too, don't they"

"Danchou told me about 'loans' or something. Don't really know how it works, though"

"Ah, I think it's when you.. like.. ask the money from the bank or something.. like that"

"Hmm, neat."

The rest of the walk isn't something special, we just talked about whatever random stuff that came up in our heads, mainly about the rumors that the other classmates were talking about the other day.

The road just outside the school fences are really quiet today – probably because we came early. Normally we would be accompanied by the sound of the other groups of classmates (mostly females) who just seems to always talk too loud. Occasionally some of the boys will break into fights, and when they do it, they just had to do it loud.

We arrived at class with much time to spare before home room. Hiyori was in front of me, so she slid the door open and walked inside. I followed her in as usual.

"Good morning," one after another, we said. But I forgot one thing: no boys would come this early. I turn my head in every direction, desperately trying to find a member of the same sex.

Dang it, being left alone with a bunch of girls – what a nightmare. I particularly hate it when they start chatting on loudly about some rumor that seems as if they themselves were the one who started. I just have to wonder how many times have they gossiped about me and another classmate going out.

Trying my best to avoid any sort of human interaction, I hurried to my desk and sat down without anyone knowing. I feel like a certain loner from a certain teenage love comedy or something.

I looked toward the window and used my Focusing Eye ability to see if there's any of the male classmates out there. The power is really useful in situations like this; I could see at a distance where normal people couldn't.

That said, though, I swear I've never used it to take a peek into the girls' locker room. Well, maybe once.. but just once! Anyway..

Gah, I should've expected this. I see no boys of my age, not even at the 5 meter radius away from school. This leaves me with only one choice, desk napping. It's the only way I could get myself out of this horrible society comprised only of girls.

I crossed my arms on my desk and slowly lowered my head.

"Good morning, Amamiya-kun!"

Aww, shucks. It's times like this that I want Danchou around me. Sometimes, not being able to be seen would be nice, and I'm sure Shintaro-san will say the same. I looked up to see quite a familiar sight. It's the face of non other than this classmate of mine.

"Good morning, Nakata.."

Nakata Shiori, probably the brightest girl ever in my class, and I mean that in the literal sense. She has a black hair that's tied up to the right. What's holding it there are 10 small beads held together by red rubber, each with different color, all of which are the shades of warm colors. Her eye's a shade of the color that I couldn't make out the name, something between yellow and red. Needless to say its different from those of the beads. And damn! Are those special size meat buns on her chest!?

Ahem.. She has her bad points, though. For one, she's energetic, overly energetic. My fellow male classmates don't mind that, though, in fact, they don't even care. She's the girl in the dreams of all the boys in this class (except me, of course). That girl is standing right in front of me, giving me probably the sweetest smile I've ever seen since the day I was born, and even trying to start a conversation.

Ah, yeah, I did say that one of the things girls like to gossip about is that a classmate and I are going out. She's the one.

I do not feel lucky, not one bit..

"I'm wondering if you want to accompany me to the mall after school?"

Now, that was unexpected. So much so that I thought I misheard something.

"Wha-what did you just sa-say?!"

Damn it Hibiya, 'tis not a good time to be stuttering, boy.

"Aww, dummy! I'm asking you if you wanna accompany me to the mall. Haha, your flushing face looks so adorable!"

She's right. I did felt my cheeks heating up, but never thought it'd be this obvious. It can't be helped; what she said just now could very well be translated as "Hey, go on a date with me!"

No.. actually, think positive, maybe she just wants an extra pair of hands for shopping, and I just so happen to be the only boy in the room at this moment.

"Shiori, exactly what business do you have with Hibiya?", said someone with a dangerously familiar voice.

I turned to my right to see Hiyori, who's crossing her arms, and giving Nakata a deadly gaze with the reason unbeknownst to me. Probably something to do with their opinions on idols. I heard that Nakata is a fan of the idol who publicly denounced Oba-san, or something like that. Huh, so girls are really loyal to their idols.

Wait, the heck?! No, that's not the problem here! Please, don't break into an argument in front of me. Living with Oba-san, I've had enough to hear about idols. And Hiyori, since when have you been standing there?! Oh, wait, your seat is right next mine.

"Nothing. Just asking him to go out with me after school, hehe"

Lady, that's probably the one of the worst possible way you could've phrased it. At this point, if she says something like "I'm asking him to go on a date with me!", it wouldn't make much of a difference, even if it's just a lie, honestly.

"Great. Then you don't have any problem with me joining you, right? I have things that I wanted to buy anyway"

"Sorry, Hiyori-chan, but I prefer going 1 on 1 with Amamiya-kun today. Maybe we could go together next time? It'll be just the 2 of us!"

"I want to go today, Shiori - did I make myself clear?"

"How about we let Amamiya-kun decide then?"

No, don't do this..

"Alright then, Hibiya, you'll let me go, right?"

I just couldn't say anything at that point; whatever the words that's on the tip of my tongue keep getting swallowed back. It feels as if two nations are going to start a war, and yours happen to be in between them. Making any decision at this moment will probably end up the same: one girl ends up wanting to slap another. I figured out the fairest way, though. I looked at both of them, each time in the eyes, trying to give them the "hey, I've made up my mind, and I'm serious" sort of face.

"Sorry Hiyori, maybe next time"

"Wha-.. what?! Hibiya, what are you-"

"You heard the man, Hiyori-chan~~"

Wait, is that what I wanted to say? Is that really fair? I guess I thought it's more fair for Nakata since she asked me first.

All is going well for her, it seems.

As for Hiyori, she seems speechless; her face all blank, trying her best to process what was going on. It took a little while, but her face did eventually comes back to being normal. She crossed her arms and looked to the side.

"F-fine.."

"Then, it's decided. See you after school, A-ma-mi-ya kuuun~"

With all that done, Tanaka hopped back to her seat, while Hiyori just sat down. I could see her eyes, it's all wet, but she's not crying. It's as if had she not hold back, she would've burst into tears by now. Well, girls are social beasts, of course they'd want to cry when they lose, but on what exactly? I don't know. All I know is as soon as I get back to the Dan hideout, I'll apologize to Hiyori for leaving her out. But for now I'll have to think of the things to do at the mall with Nakata.