On the roads leading to Tatagemi High, a slick black motor is seen defying the traffic police by speeding down the road with an abnormal speed. It slowed down to a halt before making a turn into the school. The driver muttered a soft curse and removed his helmet. A head of gray hair was shaken out and magically fell into place. The reckless driver is non other than Kai Hiwatari, who is currently very late for school.

Clad in the black school blazer and sporting a shiny silver earring, Kai slung his bag over his shoulder and sped towards the classroom, hoping to go unnoticed by the discipline authorities. Unfortunately, a teacher's head poked out from the door and the teacher beckoned him into the room. His pride made him saunter jauntily into the room and he expected a reprimand from the teacher. The teacher opened his mouth, and Kai spoke, "Sensei, I got caught in a heavy traffic-" and was interrupted before he could finish his sentence. "Hiwatari, this is a new transfer student. She recently moved here following her father and family. If you could show her around the school and make her comfortable, I will gladly overlook your lateness, for once. By the way, she will be studying in the same class with you."

Relieved, Kai took a good look at the newcomer, silently appraising her. She was not exactly the prettiest girl in Tatagemi High, but she had a mysterious aura that surrounded her, which made her intriguing. And her eyes, gray orbs, hidden behind a pair of rimless spectacles which made him feel… He suddenly became aware that the girl was staring at him, and he was embarrassed for looking at the girl too long. He regained his composure and extended a hand, "Hi, I'm Kai Hiwatari." And the girl murmured, "Shizuka Kaeri," and stretched an elegant hand out. They shook hands briefly and Kai said, "We better get going then," and led the way to their classroom for the year.

Upon arriving the classroom, Kai noticed that the teacher inside was already taking the attendance. Taking a deep breath, he rapped the door and made his way into the room, where he was immediately greeted by his group of friends from last year. He sat down and tried to spot Shizuka, who calmly sat down in the front of him. "Well," the teacher said, "I would like to introduce a new student, who would be joining us from now on. Let us welcome Shizuka Kaeri. Kaeri, would you care to make a brief self-introduction?"

Shizuka stood up and said, "I'm Shizuka and I'm born in China. I came here following my father, who moved here because of his job." As she was speaking, Kai studied her and formed an impression of her, which was, calm, cool and collected, for a girl who was new here. He was a little disturbed that he should pay so much attention to Shizuka, which was not like his personality. However, he couldn't help feeling a teeny bit attracted to this girl, who was definitely not like his group of noisy, giggling fan girls who seem to follow him wherever he goes.

Suddenly, he felt something poking his ribs. That something was the elbow of his childhood friend, Tyson Granger. Kai frowned at him for interrupting his thoughts until he spotted a goofy grin on the face of his friend. His frown turned into a questioning look and he poked Tyson back in the ribs. Tyson stifled a chortle and said, "Well pal, are you thinking of-ahem- this girl, what's-her-name?" Kai retorted, "What's your business if I am, and it's Shizuka." Tyson did not reply, but he was puzzled because in all the years he knew Kai, he did not ever shown any interest in girls, (not that he was gay), but he did not pursue the subject.

After all the students settled down, the teacher began to teach the most boring subject in the world-History. In a fruitless effort to make the lesson more interesting, he tried to get students to answer questions and unfortunately called upon Kai for the first question. Kai, who wasn't even sure what the question was, answer offhandedly, "Sensei, I don't care what happened a few hundred years ago because it's got nothing to do with us, right?" and looked around for approval. His group of friends sniggered loudly and his fan girls giggled like a group of idiots.

Kai then looked at Shizuka, hoping to get a sign of acknowledgement. Instead, what he got was a glare, and a terribly nasty look. Baffled, he stared at her raising her hand, and answered the question confidently. Kai then wondered, what kind of person actually studied history and so diligently at that. He came up with a conclusion: only girls like Shizuka.

Kai was so absorbed in watching Shizuka, that he gave a start when he heard his name mentioned by the teacher. As it goes, the teacher was saying, "Nice to see that you have been studying, not like somebody with the name of Kai, Shizuka." Shizuka's face flushed with pleasure and some of the boys in the room snickered just loudly enough for Kai to hear. Kai flushed, too, but with fury at the humiliation this newcomer managed to bring to him. His eyes glittered and he vowed to make Shizuka's life so miserable that she would be wishing she was back in China. Tyson saw that look and thought, "Uh-oh, not that again…" and felt a twinge of sympathy for Shizuka.

The next few weeks, nothing particularly interesting happened. The life of the students became so boring until they resorted to playing tricks on each other. Poor unsuspecting Shizuka was the prime target of the tricks played by Kai and his gang. Nevertheless, she didn't show any signs of weakness or relent. She either ignored or tolerated them and her pride prevented her from telling or confiding in others. If she did, some helpful soul would have told her not to cross the path of Kai, in any case. Instead, she was attracted to everything about him: his looks, his not-a-care-in-the-world attitude, his way of talking and his coolness like all of his fan girls, but nobody would have guessed it, she hid her feelings so well.

Just when the students' life began to look so bleak that they nearly played all tricks available on one another, the school authorities announced a much-anticipated event of the year- the annual school prom night. This caused a huge ripple among the students, and girls were heard whispering over what they would wear, and the guys were too busy trying to find a dance partner. In this event, all the fan girls of Kai were eyeing him hopefully and trying to guess which one of them they will bring. Currently, Kai was not interested in anything else, except to give Shizuka the worst payback of all-public humiliation as the final retribution. On the other hand, Shizuka was turning down all the invitations she received from guys. A reason was that she prefers poring over books than things like this. Although so, she was still hoping to be invited by the school celebrity, none other than Kai himself.

On the other hand, the vicious Kai was devising a plan to humiliate the unknowing Shizuka, preferably on the prom night, where everyone can see it. After cracking his brains with his gang together for a while, he came up with a suitable idea, which came from his friends. After much discussing about the plan, they finally had all of it sorted out and ready to carry out on the prom night.

Feeling very much better, Kai carried out the first step of the plan, which was to ask Shizuka to the dance. He phoned her and Shizuka agreed without any hesitation. Actually, Shizuka was leaping in joy, unseen by anyone but herself. Then Kai mentally gave himself a high five. The first step went without any problem.

On the night of the prom, Kai went to fetch Shizuka as promised. He drove his ultra-cool black bike and waited for her at the gate of her house. Then, he tried to visualize what Shizuka will wear for their 'date'. The image that came to mind was a pair of specs as she always wore, smooth black hair tied back in an old-fashioned ponytail, and…he couldn't imagine Shizuka in a fashionable dress, however hard he tried, because the students in Tatagemi High never saw Shizuka in anything except the school uniform and she didn't even wear some accessories to go with it.

Too absorbed in his thoughts, Kai didn't noticed Shizuka until she was standing in front of him. He raised his eyes to her and what he saw nearly took all his breath away. The girl standing in front of Kai had nothing in common with the girl he saw in school everyday. Her long black hair was combed into an elegant bun, with a few wisps of hair tangling about her ears; she had replaced her glasses with lenses that emphasized the beauty of her eyes, and she was wearing a sleeveless cream-colored gown with a silver necklace with a pendant in the shape of a key dangling down to her front. He stared, mesmerized and totally forgot his plan for the night. He continued staring until Shizuka smiled shyly and asked, "Ano…Kai, don't you think we should go now?" Then he snapped out of the trance and answered hurriedly, "Yes," and helped Shizuka onto the bike.

On the way to the school, the combination of both the cool night breeze and Shizuka's slender hands around him made the ride the most enjoyable one Kai had ever experienced. A moment later, they both arrived at the school. Kai gently guided Shizuka down the bike and led her to the hall with an arm around her waist where the event was scheduled to begin shortly. There, they were greeted by a group of Kai's friends who were prepared to carry out the secret plan to humiliate Shizuka later that night. However, they had no idea that Kai had already forgotten the whole of the plan for he was suffering from "severe intoxication" of Shizuka's beauty.

After Kai and Shizuka entered the hall, there was an audible gasp which seemed to ripple across the room. Actually, all the students were very surprised that Kai, who could have anyone for his dance partner would choose Shizuka, of all people. Kai's fan girls were furiously jealous, heartbroken and the guys, well, they were gloating over Kai's inevitable embarrassment on bringing such a plain girl to the prom. Instead, the scene that greeted their eyes was an impeccably handsome Kai, with an arm draped around an astonishingly beautiful girl whom they have to rub their eyes to make sure they didn't recognize the wrong person. How could the plain, quiet girl who seemed to be buried in books every day be this elegant goddess like person standing beside Kai right now?

The couple seemed oblivious to the many glances thrown to them, and they calmly walked to the center of the room, where they began to dance. Surprisingly, Shizuka whom everybody thought was inactive in physical activities, danced like a professional. In Kai's arms, she looked as though she belonged there, for they were perfect partners. Together, they probably gave all the students a scene that they would never forget. Everybody just gaped at them; there were nothing else that possibly could be done. The center of the room was now clear, as every student stepped back to see Kai and Shizuka dance.

However, there was a group of students who didn't saw them; they were Kai's group of friends. They were at backstage, carrying out the plan, which was to humiliate Shizuka. Now, they were trying to disconnect the power outlet of the hall. If everything went according to plan, after they disconnected the power, the whole hall will pitch into darkness, although the students can still see in a short distance. Then, Kai will pretend to want to kiss Shizuka. Afterwards, another group situated in the hall will give a signal and the lights will go on again. When that happened, well…just read below.

What Kai's friends weren't aware of was that Kai was already dazzled by Shizuka's beauty that he totally forgot what he was to do. Just when they were dancing happily, the lights suddenly went off. The hall was pitched into darkness and the street lights just added an eerie glow to everybody's face. Kai was startled and heard Shizuka give a small moan. He instinctively put an arm around her to comfort her. Shizuka, who was afraid of darkness, then buried her face deeper in Kai's chest. Kai looked down at the girl in his arms, who managed to transform herself into a goddess that night and couldn't help himself. He gently cupped Shizuka's face in his hands and bent down to kiss her.

Another group of Kai's friends who were spying on them then gave a signal and the lights went on as suddenly as before. The spell between Kai and Shizuka was harshly broken and they both blinked at the unwelcome intrusion. What the whole body of students saw was Kai cupping Shizuka's face and then somebody shouted, "Hey, do you think that Kai is actually going to kiss you when he can have any girl in the school? Dream on, China girl!" The whole hall erupted into laughter upon seeing Shizuka's dream shattered. Shizuka broke into tears and gave Kai a resounding slap that echoed around the now silent hall. Kai was too startled to give any response. Now, he was thinking that he could pound himself for being such a jerk and for forgetting the plan which had been negotiated a few weeks before. He stared, unable to do anything else, at a distraught Shizuka running out of the room. The whole hall then broke into laughter again; the guys laughed at Kai who had been slapped, and the girls mainly laughed just because they were jealous of Shizuka who had the privilege to be Kai's partner.

The sound of their laughter seemed to jerk Kai out of a trance. To everybody's astonishment, he then gave chase to Shizuka in a run. Kai searched everywhere for Shizuka, through all the classrooms, the corridors and even the toilets! At last, he saw Shizuka sobbing in the school garden, under one of the pine trees. He approached cautiously, not knowing what Shizuka would do in her present state.

Shizuka heard him and lifted her pretty face, which was now covered in tears. Kai took another step towards her, and Shizuka suddenly was in front of him in a fast movement. Kai braced himself for another attack which surprisingly didn't come. He stared at Shizuka who was talking in a tearful voice, "How could you come near me after what you have done, you bastard! You were just using me…to get your petty revenge. I hate you, Kai-" She stopped suddenly because Kai was holding her in his arms, and her last words were muffled against his chest. Shizuka started hitting at him, flailing and struggling wildly to get free from him but failed.

Shizuka lifted angry, fiery eyes to him but stopped fighting him when she saw his face. He was looking very remorseful, unlike his cheerful self she always saw, and admired at school. Kai stared down at Shizuka with intense eyes, and Shizuka couldn't help but shiver at the look of intensity in his eyes. Kai gently cupped Shizuka's face once more, in his warm hands and said, "Forgive me, but I wish to continue where we left off just now, when we were rudely interrupted." And he kissed her. Shizuka did a quick breath intake and tried to pull away, but his mouth covered hers and her traitorous body just responded at every touch of him.

It was a few minutes before they released each other. Shizuka's face was flushed- this was her first kiss and Kai was still lightly holding her. Shizuka opened her mouth but Kai hurriedly cut her off. "Shizuka, please hear me explain. I didn't intend to do this to you. Please don't leave me, Shizuka. I can't stand it if you do. Before you came, I have never liked any girl-" Shizuka then held up a hand to silence him. "Kai, do you know what I always imagined my first kiss to be like? Well, it is exactly like you kissed me just now…" She lingered a moment but never got a chance to finish her sentence because of a certain guy named Kai. The boy, now with a supremely happy smile on his face, swept Shizuka off her feet and kissed her again, this time with more passion. Shizuka merely wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back. All this was observed by Tyson, who was hidden in the shadows of the pine trees. He smiled, happy for his friend for finding a girl that he liked. His friend could be truly happy now.