"What a pain," Isuke complained as she slumped down on the bench tiredly. She leaned her head back and gazed up at the evening sky. It was a bright gray and the sun could not be seen through the thick layer of clouds. The temperature was cool and the air a little moist. The park was completely empty, there wasn't a single person as far as one could see.

The atmosphere was gloomy, which fit Isuke's mood perfectly.

The seventeen-year-old was exhausted. She was so sick of everything and everyone. She simply wanted to be left alone, not just now, but always.

Isuke, blunt and selfish as she was, was sick of other people trying to control her life. All she wanted was just to be able to decide things for herself, without others pushing their ideas and opinions onto her.

Lately, her Mama and Papa had been extra persistent about finding her a partner. Why exactly, was beyond her. Isuke wasn't interested in dating anyone at the moment, she was doing very well on her own.

Anyway, for the last six months or so, they'd constantly introduced her to possible suitors, none of whom she ended up liking.

To begin with, she'd only been slightly annoyed, but after a while it truly started to piss her off. She tried telling them to stop introducing her to guys they thought would be fit for her, but they didn't listen. At one point she decided to tell them that she was interested in girls, in hope that their search for a suitor would end. Unfortunately for her, since her parents where gay themselves, they easily accepted the fact and began trying to find a girlfriend for her instead.

Ugh, why couldn't everyone just leave her alone?

Isuke sighed heavily and closed her eyes.

"So annoying," she muttered sleepily to herself.

"What is?"

The sound of the voice immediately alerted her and in a split second she was on her feet, swinging her arm towards the one who'd snuck up on her.

The person avoided the hit by a mere inch and laughed nervously at Isuke as she calmed down upon recognizing the shorter girl.

"Geez, that was close! I swear, one day you're going to get me killed," she snickered playfully, her ever present grin plastered onto her face. Isuke always thought she looked creepy when she was smiling like that, and she often wondered if that was Nio's intention, or if she honestly thought it looked cute.

"I hope so," she replied drily, no sarcasm in her voice.

The blonde pouted, but chose not to come with a reply to her friend's rude comment.

"So, what ya doin' out here?" Nio asked, indiscreetly changing the topic.

Isuke rolled her eyes before she sat down on the park bench again.

She really did like this place. In a way it was like her escape from reality; the one place where she could be alone and think. Sitting on that exact park bench, staring at the blooming sakura trees and the smoothly flowing river was so calming. While she was here, she felt as though she could hide from all her problems for a little while.

"I'll give you three guesses," she commented drily. Nio pretended to ponder over it for a while, scratching her head and making "hmm"-sounds.

"Another girl, huh? What was this one like?" she asked curiously. There was no end to Nio's curiosity. She was just that kind of girl who'd go around asking and gossiping and eavesdropping until she knew everything there was to know about everyone.

"Like I would know. I left before they even introduced us properly."

"That's pretty harsh, not giving her a chance, I mean," said the blonde, "You must be getting really sick of this."

Isuke flexed and curled her fingers, admiring her recently manicured nails while trying to shut out the voice of her unwanted companion. Frankly, Nio's babbling was annoying her. All she wanted right now was to be left alone, and she just didn't take a hint. Isuke swore that if Nio didn't shut the hell up soon, she'd kill her.

"Hey, I have an idea!" she suddenly erupted. Yet again, Isuke felt the need to roll her orange eyes.

"Save it for someone who cares, Nio."

There were many things to say about Hashiri Nio. For one, she was good at coming up with ideas. Whatever the problem, she would have a solution, however it was rarely a good one and it almost never… well, solved anything…

"But this time it's a good one, I promise!" she begged eagerly, and Isuke figured she might as well hear her out. If not, there'd be no end to it.

"Then get to the point already," she snapped.

"What if…" Nio started, a knowing grin spreading across her lips, "You had a girlfriend? Then your parents would stop trying to find someone for you to date, and all those annoying exes of yours would lay off. It'd be like hitting two birds with one stone."

She did actually have a point, but…

"I don't want a girlfriend at all," Isuke stated bluntly. Seriously, her friend should know that by now, as she'd been saying nothing but that for the last couple of months.

"Then how about getting a fake girlfriend?" If it hadn't been for her dead serious expression, she would've laughed at the suggestion. It was too stupid.

What did she think this was? Some lame manga?

What was she supposed to do; find some random girl, take her home and say; "Hey, this is my new girlfriend, so you can stop trying to find me a suitor now."

Yeah, that seemed totally brilliant…

Isuke didn't say any of this out loud, but figured her expression said more than words could. The possibility of something else then came to mind.

"Are you sure you aren't plotting something behind my back?" For all she knew, Nio could be trying to find her a girlfriend, too. Perhaps her Mama and Papa had hired her to help them, because it seemed like something they could do.

"Of course not! I could never lie to you, Isuke. You're my best friend," declared the shorter girl. She smiled brightly and made a peace sign. That was another annoying habit she had. Isuke had always thought she looked like she was constantly posing for a selfie or something…

She didn't buy those words for a second. She was well aware that Nio lied to her almost as much as she lied to Nio.

"Come on, have some faith in me," she continued upon seeing Isuke's far from convinced expression.

"You just have to go out every now and then to make sure people think you're a couple. You don't have to like her; you barely even have to talk to her."

"You know, you sound like you already have someone in mind," she remarked unsurprised. Of course Nio didn't come up with all this on a whim. She had it all planned out.

"What do you have to lose?"

Isuke pondered over that for a minute. What did she have to lose? Just meeting this girl that Nio spoke of couldn't hurt. If she was terrible or Isuke simply decided that it was a dumb idea, she could just tell Nio she changed her mind. Besides, if she didn't get a girlfriend, life would go on as normal, having to meet yet a new girl she didn't like every week or so.

It couldn't hurt.

"Fine, whatever."

"I hope for your sake that she's at least pretty," Isuke snorted as they walked along the pavement, heading to meet this mysterious acquaintance of Nio's.

"Why for my sake?" Nio asked innocently.

"'Cause if you're wasting my time, I'll rip your arms off and beat you to death with them," she smiled devilishly. Nio shivered and stepped a bit to the side, gaining some distance from the other girl.

"She's gorgeous, alright," she declared optimistically, a hint of fear still in her voice.

"Yo, the name's Sagae Haruki. Nice to meet ya, dude."

Isuke immediately frowned. She could tell this girl was just the type of person she couldn't stand. Just her greeting was enough to leave her with a negative impression. In her mind, the slang made the girl seem lazy and rude. Calling someone you'd only just met "dude" was rather disrespectful.

Her appearance didn't exactly make up for her way of speech, either. She was chewing on a pocky while talking, and her style was rather tomboyish and cheap. Not that it looked bad - not that she looked bad - but it just wasn't what Isuke would go for. Some blunt, tomboyish girl who couldn't even muster up a proper greeting… She wasn't exactly impressed.

"I'm Inukai Isuke," she corrected, trying her hardest to hide her anger. The girl, Sagae or whatever, looked a little taken aback.

"Isuke? Sounds more like a man's name." It didn't seem like she was trying to insult her. In her mind, it was most likely a mere statement, neither a compliment nor an insult, but it pissed Isuke off, anyway.

"Yeah, and what about it?" she bit back. The redhead held her hands up in excuse, just now realizing her comment had been taken as an insult.

"Oh, nothing. I didn't mean it was a bad name or anything, Inukai-san," she smiled apologetically.

"Call me Isuke-sama, would you?" Although she worded it as a question, it was obvious, judging by her tone, that it was a demand.

"Sorry, Isuke-sama," she corrected herself. When Isuke kept looking just as insulted, she decided to turn to their fellow friend to avoid making the situation worse.

"I assume you didn't call me all the way out here for nothing," she said, "Mind telling me what this is all about?"

Nio reflected on how to present the situation for a while before deciding to be straight forward about it.

"Isuke is in need of a girlfriend, and I thought maybe you'd be a good choice."

Haruki smiled playfully at her friend.

"Playing matchmaker, are we?"

Her face then got more serious.

"But seriously, don't you think that's a little weird? You just asked me to be her girlfriend," she pointed out cleverly, taking out another pocky and putting it into her mouth.

"Fake girlfriend," Nio added, not having realized she left that part out the first time.

"Isuke wants to get her parents off her back, so she's going to pretend to be dating someone for a while."

"I never said that. It was your stupid idea, you know," Isuke pouted, but both of them ignored her.

"I see… I'm sorry, but I have things to do and charity work really isn't my thing, so-" she started explaining.

"She'll pay you."

Isuke nearly yelled out in pure shock. She'd never agreed to that. Heck, she'd never agreed to any of this! Nio had taken full control of the situation, and she wasn't doing a very good job with all of it.

"Paying someone to be your girlfriend? Haven't you heard that money can't buy you everything?" Haruki snickered at Isuke.

"Judging by that cheap nail polish, I'd think buying you off would be easy." It wasn't hard to tell that the pink nail polish wasn't high quality, just like the rest of her outfit. She wasn't very fond of cheap stuff. In most cases, prize meant quality. You couldn't get anywhere in this world without money.

Pink wasn't really her colour either, Isuke added in her mind.

"Ouch," she sang, not offended in the slightest.

"Now, now, you two," Nio interrupted, knowing that if she let their banter continue, it'd only make matters worse on Isuke's side.

"How about 5000 yen a week?" she suggested.

"What!?" Isuke nearly screamed.

"Sold," answered Haruki at the same time, without even a hint of doubt.

"Great!" Nio cheered, clapping her hands together. She looked like she was very pleased with herself at the moment.

Isuke felt the rage boiling inside of her. She wasn't overly enthusiastic about this to begin with. After meeting Sagae Haruki she felt even less up to it, and now she had to pay as well. Hell no!

"Excuse us," Isuke smiled falsely as she dragged Nio away by the collar of her jacket. She stopped a only couple meters away, so Haruki was still in hearing range. Isuke had done it more for the effect than for getting away from Haruki.

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked annoyed.

"Fixing your tragic love life, no need to thank me," joked the blonde, trying to ease the tension, which now lay so thick over them that you could almost slice the air with a knife.

"You must really be an idiot…" she sighed, "Deal's off, and I'm going home."

"But Isuke-" Nio began, but she cut her off mid-sentence.

"Don't stick your nose into people's personal lives."

Isuke wasn't up to listening to any more of Nio's silly ideas at the moment. There was no way she would pay that girl to be her girlfriend. She'd rather have her parents pester her, and that said a lot about how little she wanted to go out with Haruki.

Right now, she just wanted to go back home and sleep, hopefully without anyone bothering her.

It was nearly 2 a.m. and Isuke was still up. She was sitting on her bed, painting her toenails red. She couldn't get today's events out of her head.

Nio… Fake girlfriend… Sagae Haruki…

Thoughts swirled around in her head. She couldn't seem to get a good hold on any of them, though. It was all just a big, confusing mess. She kept wondering what had happened if she'd said yes to the deal. It was a thought that came to mind countless times that night, and every time she shoved it away forcefully, hoping it wouldn't return.

Not making a deal with Sagae Haruki was for the best, she told herself. It would only cause more problems than it'd solve. She couldn't even stand the girl, so how could she even consider it? It was stupid. Completely, utterly and undeniably ridiculous, in fact. She told herself that not making a deal had been the right choice.

Yet, a part of her wasn't so sure.

After finishing up on her nails, she laid back on her bed and stared at the ceiling. It was the same as always, and a part of her really hated that. She was so sick and tired of the way everything in her life was at the moment. She wanted everyone to stop nagging her. She wanted her life to change.

"Screw this," she muttered to herself as she closed her eyes and hoped for a better tomorrow that she knew wouldn't come.

She lay awake for what felt like an eternity, but when Isuke finally fell asleep that night, for some reason, she dreamt of pocky and cheap baby-pink nail polish.

Yeah, so here's my second fanfic. I'm actually kind of surprised, because normally I lose interest and inspiration so easily, but I just find Akuma no Riddle so entertaining and I love writing fanfiction from it. Wish there were more fanfics, though.

Anyway, this will be a multi-chaptered AU that I will try to update as often as possible, but there's no telling how long it'll take as it depends on if I have any spare time or not.

If you guys follow/favorite and leave a review it'd make me really happy. Critical response and suggestions are also welcome.

By the way, are there any characters and pairings you'd like to see in future chapters? Because I will be bringing in more characters later on. The main focus will still be on Haruki and Isuke, though.

Hope you enjoyed the first chapter.