Irie saw the bottle clutched in Kotoko's hands and groaned inwardly.

Reiko Reima's Hot Pink shade 1145.

She proceeded to sit at the low table in the center of the living room and unscrew the cap, which was attached to a brush loaded with the saturated, bright substance known as nail paint or nail polish. (He was supposed to be reading the newspaper, but he feared for the table. What?! That girl attracted trouble like honey attracts bees. He cared about his furniture!)

She started painting the thumbnail of her left hand. Everything went (sort-of) well until

slip!

"Oops!"

And there was a streak of bright pink on his father's prized mahogany table.

"Sheesh," the gray-brown haired teen grumbled. "I'm going to get the nail polish remover. Baka."

"A-ah. Sorry..." Kotoko replied and was not graced with a line from Irie.

Two or three minutes later, he was back with the nail polish remover and wiped the paint off of the table with careful strokes. Under Irie's hand, the pink came away from the wood like magic.

Wordlessly, he took that pink stained nail polish remover napkin and wiped the excess paint from her thumb. Then he quickly and purposefully painted her other nails, in quick bold strokes that never strayed outside the nail itself, immaculate and perfect.

Kotoko's blush was evident on her face as she stammered a "thank you."

"Don't think I care about you. I only care about the table, and I wanted to make sure there were no more slip-ups." He 'carelessly' walked away, not taking note of her hurt and disappointed face.

Why was he so cold? When he was painting her nails, he felt the soft skin of her hand and restrained himself completely from holding it. And he was painting her nails because he cared, even though it seemed silly, about her happiness. He was Irie, and his Iceberg Irie Rule Number One (as mama, papa, Kotoko's father, Yuuki, Jinko, Satomi and Kin-chan, mostly everyone, really, knew it) was "don't you dare show any affection to the one you hold dearest to your heart." And that happened to be the bubbly, klutzy, adorable (did he think that?) redhead.

Besides, she would ALWAYS come back to him.

"Wooooooooow, Kotoko-chan, you look soo pretty! Are you going on a date with Oni-I mean, Onii-chan?" (AN: Oni means demon in Japanese, and Onii means brother.) Mama was overly happy. Kotoko looked like a little doll-she had on mascara, lipstick, blush and her animated red hair was now in glossy ringlets down to her shoulders.

"No..."

Thick black smoke emanated out of Mama's body. The redhead tried to ignore it as she focused on her next question. "Oh..so are you going out with friends?"

Sheesh, so there's no chance of a date if it isn't with Irie? Kotoko thought, annoyed.

"Well...actually...I have a date. Watanabe-kun," she elaborated, referring to the blond, glasses-wearing boy from class A who commonly accompanied Irie, for example, the time he rejected her, etc.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT? WHAAAAAAAAAAT? ONII-CHAN, HOW COULD YOU HAVE LET THIS HAPPEN?" Mama screeched and Kotoko used the opportunity to let herself out quietly.

Irie was studying in his room when he heard the commotion. Deciding it was time for a break anyway, he stood up and left his room to lounge on the stairwell.

"What is it?" Kotoko isn't here, he registered in his heart but his mind was focused on his mother.

"Kotoko-chan has gone on a date with that Poopanabe guy." She hmmph'd with her nose up in the air and stalked into the kitchen.

His passive gray-eyes gave away nothing but his mind was reeling. Going into his room, locking his door and called Watanabe on his cell.

Ring ring ring ring ring ring- "Hello?"

"WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"Oh, hello Naoki-kun." Watanabe's voice was calm.

"YOU...YOU...HOW COULD YOU TAKE HER FOR A DATE? WE'RE GOOD FRIENDS! THE GUY CODE, EVERYTHING, YOU JUST DISREGARDED IT!"

"So?" was the reply. "You rejected her. The guy code only applies to actual crushes or exes. You make her feel nothing but pain every day. Wanna hear?"

A grainy recording played. It was obviously Kotoko talking to the boy a little earlier.

Irie? She repeated back, obviously asked a question. One word to describe him, a masculine voice said. Kotoko thought for a while and he could almost hear her sad smile from the silent recording. "...cruel."

The gray-eyed young man was silent after that.

"That's what I thought." Watanabe replied. "Goodbye."

Beep.