Chapter Two
Preparations for a Meeting

The next day, all eleven of the Yukan Club and Flower Four members met up at a small café near the warehouse where the meeting would be held a few hours later. The group sat around one large table, with Miroku closest to the center of the café with Yuki to the left, followed by Soujiro, Seishiro, Noriko, Karen, Akira directly across from Miroku, then Rui, Makino, Domyouji, and Bidou to the electronic junkie's right. The café was decorated in a modern style, with black floors, cream walls, glass tables, and silver accessories scattered across the bar near the back wall and hanging on the walls. A large Picasso-style mosaic hung on the right wall, the left wall and the near wall with the door sported large windows looking into the street directly in front and to the left of the café. That day was a day for jeans, with almost the entire group wearing pairs in various colors. Soujiro wore a pair of casual jeans, though of designer making, as he never seemed to wear anything but, and a black dress shirt unbuttoned over a white tank top. Over the past few years he'd worn suits more often than not, but chose to take advantage over the rare day of no work and wear semi-casual instead of semi-formal clothing.

Rui wore a pair of black jeans with a white long-sleeved shirt under a long white trench coat with a fur collar, an outfit that he wore quite frequently – although that could be because he always wore mostly white and eventually all of the white blended together until it seemed he wore the same thing almost every day.

Akira was decked out in black jeans, as well, a black-button up shirt and a black blazer; much like Rui, his closet had one overbearing color, only instead of white Akira wore a lot of black.

Domyouji's jeans were a dark navy blue, offset by his white tank-top and bright red trench coat, the same one he'd worn when trying to win Makino back over during the forced engagement fiasco with Shigure a couple of years before.

Makino, as usual, simply wore a casual outfit of a ragged pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, this one midnight blue with white letters on it, an English saying she couldn't actually read.

The Yukan Club's technical genius, Miroku, came dressed in his usual unique style, a pair of baggy black jeans and a long-sleeved white shirt under his leather jacket. He had a small earring in his left ear, a small silver ring on his left pinky finger, and a silver necklace with a long silver charm around his neck.

Next to him sat Bidou, wearing a white button-up silk shirt with the top buttons undone, the collar upturned over the top of his fancy black blazer and black jeans. A large silver cross necklace hung around his neck.

Noriko wore a white button-up coat with a square-cut neckline, four large black buttons forming a square on the chest and a wide collar that covered the top of her shoulders. A string of pearls stood out against the black turtle neck she wore under the coat. She also wore a black skirt, which was no surprise, as the girl's friends had never seen her wear any form of pants.

Karen showed off her favorite color in an elegant, low-cut hot pink peasant-type shirt with flowing sleeves and a white collar. She also wore a pair of black, tight-fitting shorts and black flats.

Seishiro, as usual, wore a blazer, this one a soft gray. His tux shirt was white, with a gray tie that matched the rest of his outfit. To make his formal top more casual, he wore simple pair of perfectly clean white jeans.

Yuri didn't quite fit in with the elegant styles of the Flower Four, Bidou, Noriko, and Seishiro, fitting in with Miroku better with her funky style. She wore a long-sleeved black shirt with white lacing up the sleeves. Over this she wore a bulky down-filled red vest, only zipped halfway up. The hood was furred, like Rui's coat, and she wore fingerless black gloves on her hands, a pair of black boots, and a pair of jeans with grass stains on the knees.

"How do we want to do this? Do we want everyone to come or just a few people?" Seishiro began the discussion.

Soujiro leaned forward, his arms folded on top of the table. "Well, Miroku and Akira have to go; they're the ones that put this thing together. But should the rest of us even go? It may be better if we just sent those two and have the rest of us wait here."

Yuki pouted, looking up from her slice of cheesecake. "Why? I want to go!"

Seishiro sighed. "Yuki, we don't want to get in the way! This meeting is going to be tense to start off with, we're talking about a bunch of yakuza guys from five different clans in the same room. This could get ugly, and we don't want to make it worse by coming off too strong. I agree with Soujiro, Miroku and Akira should be the only ones to go."

"That would be a good idea," an unknown woman's voice said from the table next to them. The group looked over and saw a woman of medium height with long black hair and dark brown eyes sitting at the table behind Miroku, sitting backwards in her chair and wearing a red jersey.

"Who are you?" most of the group said in unison.

"Yankumi! You're early!" Miroku smiled at the same time.

The other ten looked at Miroku, surprised expressions on all their faces. "You know her?" Seishiro asked, surprised.

Miroku "Mmm," he said, nodding his head 'yes'. "This is Yamaguchi Kumiko, the heiress to the Kuroda Clan," he introduced.

"What? You're the one going to take over the Kuroda Clan?" Akira asked in shock, voicing the thought running through all of their minds.

Yankumi smiled. "No, actually, my husband is. I'm a teacher, leading the clan doesn't interest me."

"You're grandfather is actually giving you a choice? That's unusual," Akira said enviously. "My father never gave me a choice."

"What do you mean?" the teacher asked.

"I'm the heir to the Mimasaka Clan," he explained, "and I've never really been given a choice about taking over, it's just something I've always known I'd have to do."

"Do you want to do that?"

Akira frowned. "Not really, I don't really fancy running from police all the time. I'm planning on slowly turning all the operations into legal ones as soon as I take over."

Yankumi smiled. "If that's what you want to do, then I think you should do it! Fight-o, oh!" she said cheerfully. The rest of the group stared at her, an awkward pausing taking over the conversation.

"So, Yankumi, you didn't answer me, why are you here?" Miroku asked.

"Ah, that reminds me, you called me to this meeting and school starts in half an hour. I need someone to take over my class."

Miroku stared at her. "What do you want me to do about it?" he asked around his always-present sucker.

"Find someone to take over, obviously. My class is a bunch of delinquents, I can't leave them unattended!" Miroku sighed, turning to the others.

"If they're anything like my cousin's class was, she's right. Any ideas?"

"I'll go," Soujiro offered, "I should be able to keep them in line."

Seishiro smiled. "Alright, and we'll send Yuki with you."

Yuki once again looked up from her plate. "Why me?" she whined.

"That way you'll be out of the way," her intellectual friend told her. "If you were here you would just end up barging into the meeting and we can't have that."

"Fine," the girl pouted, "I'll go with Soujiro."

Yankumi smiled at the group. "Thanks, you guys. Just a warning, it's an all-boys school, Yuki, so they may go out of their way to impress you. Speaking of which, shouldn't most of you guys be in school?"

Miroku shrugged. "This is more important, Yankumi!" The high-school teacher sighed, agreeing reluctantly.

"Yes, you're probably right. Soujiro-kun, Yuki-chan, here's the directions, its Akadou Academy and class 3-D. They're in the building covered in graffiti, you can't miss it," she told the two, handing over a piece of paper with directions to the school written on it. "My cell phone number is written on that, too, call me if you need anything. So, Miroku, I'll see you in a few hours, okay? I have to head back home and brief Shin about everything." She stood up and left the café, waving her goodbye's as she went.

"She's a very interesting woman," Seishiro commented once Yankumi was out of the group's sight. Miroku nodded.

"Yes, she is. She tends to end up teaching classes full of delinquents on the verge of getting kicked out of school, and every time she ends getting them to graduate. The year she taught my cousin the entire class wound up being beaten up because they refused to defend themselves simply because they'd promised her they wouldn't fight until after graduation."

Domyouji snorted. "That's pretty stupid of them," he rolled his eyes, "if you just allow yourself to be beaten up you'll just end up more injured than you would have been if you fought back."

"Hmm, that may be so, Tsukasa, but think about it, that teacher got a bunch of trouble makers who probably fought pretty regularly before she became their teacher to stop fighting to the point that they wouldn't protect themselves just because they had promised her they wouldn't. That's pretty impressive," Rui commented.

Miroku nodded around his sucker. "Yeah, all of her former students love her. Actually, she's married to the class leader of the first class she ever taught now."

"She married one of her students? Isn't that illegal?" Yuki asked.

"Yeah, but she didn't start dating him until a year after he graduated, so they never broke any laws. Shin's actually pretty cool, I've met him several times. Akira, you'll probably meet him later, if Yankumi goes to a yakuza meeting he goes too, without fail." Akira shrugged vaguely, causing Miroku to frown. "What did I ever do to you?" Miroku asked himself quietly, "I don't remember doing anything to offend you."

Bidou, sitting to the right of him, shrugged his shoulders, leaning his head on Miroku's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Miroku! Everything will work out ok, you'll see!" he said cheerfully.

"Don't worry about what? What'll work out ok?" Yuki asked loudly from Miroku's other side, causing the entire table to look over at the three.

"Miroku? Is something wrong?" Seishiro asked.

Miroku blushed, slouching down in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest. "No, everything's fine. So, how long do we have until the meeting starts?"

"About an hour and a half," his friend said, glancing at his watch. "When do you want to head over to the warehouse? It may be a good idea to get there a bit early."

"I'll head over in half an hour then; that gives me sixty minutes to make sure no one planted any bugs or anything in the warehouse, as well as check for unwanted visitors. Mimasaka-san, is that alright with you?"

Akira blinked, looking up. "Mimasaka? I thought we agreed to call each other by our given names yesterday, why'd he switch back to family names?" he mumbled to himself, inaudible to the rest of the table. He simply nodded to Miroku before leaning back in his seat and closing his eyes. Much to his disappointment, however, he was only able to relax for a few brief moments before a tap on his shoulder made him jump in surprise. He looked up, surprised to see Seishiro standing behind him. "What is it, Seishiro?" he asked.

"Can I talk to you outside?" the younger boy asked, motioning towards the café entrance with his right hand. Akira sighed and nodded, getting up and following him out of the café, both sitting down on a wooden bench against the side of the building, out of the way of the busy Tokyo foot traffic.

"What did you want to talk to me about, Seishiro?" Akira asked curiously as he turned his body to the right to face the young genius.

Seishiro frowned. "What are your intentions towards Miroku?"

Akira blinked. "I don't understand, what do you mean what my intentions are?"

"Do you like him? Because yesterday you were flirting with him like crazy and then all of a sudden as soon as our fan clubs came into the club room you got really harsh and since then you haven't even said a word to him. What's with you?"

"Yes, I like him," Akira sighed, running his hand through his hair anxiously, "I just can't figure out why. I mean I fell in love with his music when I saw the band he was in a few years ago perform at a music festival, but Miroku himself? I've been a player since high school, I don't understand why I'm so fascinated by Miroku all of a sudden, it completely goes against my character," he explained.

"Well figure it out, because all ignoring Miroku does is hurt him, and I'm sick and tired of seeing him fall for someone only for them to wind up hurting him!" Seishiro glared at the older boy. "Miroku is a very giving person, he'll do anything he can to make his friends happy, and he'll sacrifice even himself if he has to. So when he falls for someone, he gives absolutely everything he has, and I'm not sure how many more times he can do that before he loses everything that makes him the Miroku we all love!"

Akira turned to face Seishiro completely. "What do you mean, hurt? He's been hurt before? Why did it? Tell me!" he demanded.

"Why should I tell you that?" Seishiro asked.

"So I can protect Miroku, that's why! Is it so wrong for me to want to protect the one I think I may be in love with?" The two both fell silent, shocked at Akira's revelation. "Wait, I love Miroku? Where did that come from?" Akira asked himself aloud.

Seishiro smiled. "It doesn't really matter where it comes from, as long as the emotions are real. Do you think they are real?" Akira hesitated, and then nodded.

"Yeah, I think I do…" he said, rubbing his hands through his hair.

"Good. Then my next problem with you is why you're ignoring him. What did Miroku do to cause you to flat out ignore him like you've been doing?"

"He let those… fans at your school faun over him! How could he do that! Didn't I make it clear I was interested in him? He's mine; no one else is allowed to touch him!"

Soujiro laughed lightly. "None of us actually like any of them, you know, but giving them time was decided as our best option. You see, our freshman year we were voted as the freshman class reps of our respective classes, and we all became friends through that. Before that, I'd been friends with Noriko, and Yuki and Miroku, as well as Karen and Bidou were already friends, but our three groups merged into one through the student government. It didn't take long for our entire grade to fall in love with one of us, and they began treating us like celebrities. It got to the point that we couldn't do go anywhere without being hounded for gifts and requests to go out on dates. That's when we began spending our day in the student government room, because we couldn't get peace even when we were in class. We had peace for a couple of weeks, but once someone figured out where we spent our day people started skipping class to come see us. So, we decided to set a rule that we'd only acknowledge our fans when we got to school and for ten minutes at lunch time. That way, we spend most of the day in peace, and the entire school doesn't get interrupted by them. The principal and vice principal constantly threaten us with expulsion for not going to class, but they never carry through with it, because they know how we got to that point, and in a way I think they feel guilty for not being able to put a stop to al the fuss over us in the beginning.

"So, really, Miroku didn't mean to make you mad, he just did what we always do to keep the fans happy. They're a lot easier to deal with when they're happy, so we play along. Please don't blame Miroku for keeping a routine. Oh, and a piece of advice, Miroku will probably like to be called yours once you're officially together, but I wouldn't say that when he could hear then. If he hears you saying that when you aren't actually together he'll just feel like an object to be owned and he won't take that laying down, okay? Don't kill any chance of a relationship before it can even begin, Miroku falls fast, but once he's been betrayed even if he still has feelings for you he won't go back, he doesn't forgive easily. Okay?" Akira nodded, and Seishiro smiled at the older boy before standing up. "Let's head back inside, shall we?"

Inside, Miroku watched as his friend left with the boy that had been his biggest frustration since the day before. "What's up with that?" he asked himself quietly.

"Miroku, do you like him? You act like you do!" Yuki chirped in his ear, an enormous grin on her face. Miroku scowled.

"Yuki, mind your own business, will you? Finish your cake," he ordered, pushing her off of his shoulder harshly. The energetic girl pouted.

"I don't want to, Mi-ro-ku! You've been acting weird since yesterday, so I want to know the truth!"

The teen rolled his eyes. "It's none of your business, Yuki. Even if I did like him, he doesn't like me. If you haven't noticed, he's been ignoring me since yesterday for some stupid reason."

Rui looked at the younger boy with a smile. "I wouldn't worry about that too much, Miroku-kun," he said, "Akira used to be a huge player, and he's only changed in the last year or so. He probably is only ignoring you because he doesn't know how to act with someone he doesn't want to play around with, or something similar. Even when he's mad at someone he doesn't ignore them, so I can't think of any other reason he'd act as out of character as he has been the last few days. Don't worry, okay? It'll all work out in the end!"

Miroku nodded hesitantly, twirling his sucker. "So, Akira used to be a player? Sounds like someone else I know," he commented, gesturing towards his friend sitting next to him.

"Hey," Bidou pouted, "I'm not a player!"

"Oh, really? What's the definition of a player?"

"Um, does it mean someone who dates more than one person at once?" Bidou answered slowly, tilting his head as if trying to find the answer.

Miroku nodded. "Exactly, and how many girlfriends do you have?"

"None, I don't have an official girlfriend."

"Really? How many do you regularly go out on dates with?"

Bidou began counting on his fingers. "Hmm, there are Katherine, and Sarah, and Mariko… about nine, I think. I may have missed a few here or there."

"That means you're a player, Bidou, there's no getting out of it!" Miroku said bluntly.

The blonde boy pouted as the rest of the table laughed.

"What's so funny?" Seishiro asked as he and Akira approached the table.

Karen smiled. "Miroku was teasing Bidou about his player tendencies," she told the student government president.

"Again? Sorry I missed it! Oh, Yuki, it's time you and Soujiro leave, you're due at Akadou Academy in fifteen minutes." Yuki and Soujiro stood up and grabbed their things.

"Where do you guys want to meet up after the school day ends?" Soujiro asked the rest of the group.

Seishiro frowned. "Hmm, we normally just hang out at someone's house if we hang out after school at all, so I can't really think of any good place to go. Do any of you guys have an idea?" he asked the others.

"We have a club house type thing we had built during high school that we still hang out, we could go there," Soujiro suggested.

"Yeah, that works, how do we get there?" He gave them quick directions, then left the café with Yuki, the two of them waving as they exited the building.

"Why don't we all break up as well and meet back here in an hour? The meeting doesn't start for another ninety minutes and waiting around here that long just to wait around some more during the meeting sounds like a pretty boring day," Noriko suggested.

Karen smiled. "Yes, let's do that, I really don't want to be more bored than I have to."

"Agreed," Miroku, Bidou, and Seishiro chorused.

Domyouji laughed. "What's with you guys and being board? You can't be board, that's a piece of wood!" The eight other members of the large group stared. "What? Is there something on my face?"

Rui sighed. "Not board, Domyouji, bored. They are two different words that just sound the same but have entirely different meanings." Domyouji tilted his head to the side.

"Huh? That makes no sense!" he protested. "There's no way!"

Makino sighed. "Domyouji, you're such an idiot," she mumbled to herself. Said boy reached over and hit her lightly over the head.

"Don't call your fiancé an idiot, its rude!" Makino pushed his hand away with a scowl.

"Then don't say stupid things, idiot," she told him as she rolled her eyes. Rui laughed at the two.

"Those two never change, do they, Akira?" The boy shook his head.

"No, they don't. Anyways, we'd all better get moving so we have some free time before the meeting starts. The group agreed, and slowly trickled out of the café in groups of two and three, heading off to find some source of entertainment that wouldn't take over sixty minutes somewhere near the small café.

Rui and Akira headed over to a nearby bar and went over to an empty pool table in the back corner, setting up to play a game. "So, Akira, what's going on with you and Miroku?"

Akira sighed, rolling his eyes. "What's with everyone asking me about that today?" he mumbled, reaching down and aiming at the white cue ball, beginning the game.

Rui shrugged. "I wouldn't know," he replied, taking his turn and sending a striped ball into the back left pocket of the pool table.

"That wasn't an actual question, Rui that was a… what's the word, it's the type of question you use when you don't actually expect an answer?" Akira said, leaning on his cue stick as he tried to figure out the word that was on the tip of his tongue.

"You mean a rhetorical question?"

"Yeah, that's it. It was a rhetorical question."

Rui smiled. "Well, mine wasn't, so what's up with you and Miroku?"

Akira frowned, waiting to take his turn before replying. "I like him, that's what, isn't it obvious?"

"Yeah, I kind of figured, but you started ignoring him all of a sudden. I had a feeling you were just jealous of all the fans at St. President's Academy falling all over him, but I wasn't sure when you started ignoring him. That isn't your style, Akira; you typically make it very clear when you're upset with someone for some reason."

Akira sighed. "It hurt when I saw him just letting them faun over him like that, and it surprised me, you know? I've always been a player, the one doing the dumping that comes from no where, I wasn't prepared to feel like I'd suddenly been dumped like that, and I didn't know how to handle that," Akira tried to explain, running a hand through his hair in frustration.

"That makes sense," Rui smiled at his friend. "Are you going to talk to Miroku and try to straighten everything out?" When Akira didn't answer for several long moments the Hanazawa heir sighed. "Akira, just talk to him, Miroku probably doesn't understand why you're ignoring him, and that's not going to help you win him over."

"I know, Seishiro already lectured me about that earlier."

"Then why'd you hesitate?" Akira shrugged. "I don't know how to deal with guys; I'm used to dealing with girls. Speaking of which, why aren't any of you surprised that I suddenly like a guy? It's not like I've ever even flirted with a guy before, shouldn't you guys be at least a little shocked?" he asked, tilting his head to the side and looking at his friend curiously.

Rui shrugged. "Not really, Soujiro and I known you were by since freshman year of high school and Tsukasa… well, you know how he is, we supported him with Makino, so even if he did have a problem he would never say anything. And as for Makino, well, she's just an accepting person all around," he explained. The other boy smiled.

"Thanks, Rui," he said, "but freshman year? I didn't even know then, how could you tell?"

"Easy, Akira, you tended to glance at guy's backsides as they walked by." Akira blushed.

"I did? I never noticed…" he said bashfully, then quickly changed the subject. "So, shall we continue our game?"

Nearby, Miroku sighed as he walked down the road, looking for something to do to occupy his time. "What to do, what to do…" he mumbled to himself quietly. "Oh, yeah, don't Shuji, Akira, and Nobuta live near here? Which road was their apartment on again?" He pulled out his cell phone and scrolled through his contacts quickly, selecting one labeled 'Akira!'.

The phone rang twice before someone picked up. "Miroku! You called!" a male voice chirped energetically.

"Hey, Akira, what's up?" Miroku smiled.

"Not much, just hanging out with Shuji and Nobuta in our apartment, why?"

"Want to come hang out with me? I have to waste time for an hour before I have a meeting and everyone else went off in their own directions without me. I'd walk Otokoyama but he's on the other side of the city."

"Sure! We'll see you in ten minutes!" Akira said, the tone of his voice clearly indicating that he sported a large grin on his face. "Shu-u-ji-kun! Nobuta! We're meeting Miroku! Let's go!" Miroku could hear his friend yelling in the background before the phone call disconnected, causing him to roll his eyes.

"Akira, you don't know where to meet me, silly," he laughed. "Five, four, three, two, one, zero." As Miroku finished counting down, his cell phone rang. "Yes, Akira?" he asked, not even looking at the caller ID.

"Hey, where do you want to meet up?" the older boy asked sheepishly.

Miroku laughed. "Why don't you meet me at the usual arcade?" he suggested.

"Sure, see you in a bit!" The boy once again hung up, and Miroku slipped his cell phone back into his pocket before heading over to the arcade a street over. When he arrived, he was greeted by the sight of three people standing near the entrance. One was a tall boy with short brown hair and deep brown eyes, wearing a pair of loose jeans, a red t-shirt, and a rain jacket. Next to him stood another boy of about the same height, this boy's dark brown hair was a lot longer than the first, going down almost to his shoulder blades in several layers and almost covering his dark eyes. He wore dark jeans and a thick fur-lined black jacket, a white scarf around his neck. On this boy's other side stood a girl about a foot shorter than the two boys. Her black hair framed her face delicately, her almost-black eyes gazing at the ground in front of her, a soft smile on her face. She wore a black, loose knee-length skirt and a matching dress shirt under a white blazer.

"Miroku!" the first boy screamed excitedly, rushing forward and jerking said boy into a hug.

"Hey, Akira, nice to see you, too," the police commissioner's son said with a smile, then looked over to the other two. "You too, Shuji, Nobuta, it's good to see you! Akira, you can let go now."

The boy pouted. "Fine," he said mournfully as he let go. The four entered the arcade, Akira bouncing up and down as he waved his arms as if they were wings. "Ooh! Rockband! Let's play!" he said pleadingly, turning around to face the other three with his hands held up in front of him pressed together as if he were praying. "Please?"

Shuji sighed. "We'd better agree or we'll never hear the end of it," he whispered to Miroku, who nodded in agreement. "Alright, Akira, we'll play, but remember we only have forty-five minutes or so."

"That's okay!" the hyper-active college freshman cheered, bouncing back and grabbing his friends wrists, pulling them towards the small stage off to the side with Rockband set up for people to play. Miroku followed, rolling his eyes. "I'm going to play drums! Miroku and Shuji, you two both sing and play guitar, and Nobuta, you play base guitar. Okay?" The three went along with Akira's demands, knowing it was easier to just go along with his desires than to protest.

"What are we going to play?" Miroku asked curiously. Akira tilted his head to the side.

"Hmm, good question. Ooh, I know!" Akira selected a song, and their game began. By the end of the song, a crowd of about twenty people stood around the stage, watching and listening to the four perform a song called 'Butterfly,' a long rock duet with lots of style changes.

"Wow, they're good!" someone in the crowd whispered.

"Play another one! Play another one!" another person begged.

The four obeyed, playing several songs before Miroku glanced down at his watch. "Sorry, everyone, I've got to go, I'm running late for an appointment. Thanks for listening!" he waved at the crowd, then put away the guitar and jumped off the stage.

"Hey, Miroku, wait up!" Akira hollered, "We want to come too!"

"If you say so," he shrugged, waiting for the three to catch up before leaving the arcade.

"So, Karen, what do you want to do?" Bidou asked as the two exited the café.

The girl shrugged. "Hmm, good question. Want to go tan ourselves in the park? If we have an hour to kill we might as well make it worthwhile," she suggested, tossing her hair behind her elegantly.

"Ok, that works for me! A tan would do lovely for my complexion," he said dreamily, pulling out a small compact mirror as they walked down the road to a nearby park.

Karen smiled. "And mine as well. A nice sunbath sounds lovely." A few minutes later the two entered the park and walked over to a sunny patch of grass. "Oh, wait," Karen said, "we can't lie on the grass! It'll stain our clothing!"

"Good point," Bidou sighed, "now what will we do?"

"Wait here, there's a store across the road that sells beach towels. I'll go buy a few. What color do you want?"

"I think I want a red one, made of Egyptian cotton with white roses!"

"Alright, I'll be back in a bit!"

Ten minutes later, time that Bidou spent sending several of his non-girlfriends flirtatious text messages, Karen returned with the two towels, Bidou's as he requested with a pure white one for herself.

"Here we go, Bidou! Let's sunbathe! We have forty minutes!" The two lay out their towels and lay down on top of them, soaking up the sun's rays peacefully.

After parting from the rest of the group at the café, Domyouji and Makino began walking down the road, Domyouji holding Makino's hand tightly in his own.

"Makino, what do you want to do?" he asked his fiancé.

"How about we go window shopping?" Makino suggested. "There are a lot of shops around here, so it'll be fun!"

Domyouji frowned. "Why go window shopping when we can actually shop and buy things? That sounds boring! Makino, what do you want? I'll buy you something."

"But I don't need anything, Domyouji! Why do you always insist on buying me things? I don't need a lot of material objects like you do, remember? I'm poor!"

"You are not; you're going to be my wife! My wife will never be poor!"

"What do you mean your wife will never be poor? We're getting married and I am poor, you idiot!" she glared at her oblivious fiancé, her arms crossed in front of her body in rage.

Domyouji glared back. "I have money! When we're married half of that money technically belongs to you, remember? You're the idiot!"

Makino sighed. "Whatever, Domyouji, I don't want to argue with you. Let's just walk around, okay? We don't have that much time to actually do anything, you know. It's already been fifteen minutes."

"Fine, since you insist, I guess you can show me another 'commoner's date.' Lead the way!"

"Soujiro-kun, are we almost to the school? You won't let me run so I'm getting bored," Yuki asked for the tenth time in five minutes. Soujiro sighed in annoyance.

"Almost, Yuki, it's up this street a bit and then over one. We'll be there in five minutes," he told her yet again. "Now, while we're watching Yamaguchi-sensei's class, make sure you don't cause problems, okay? We don't want to cause her any more trouble than we already have by making her miss school for the meeting today."

The girl sighed. "Yeah, yeah, I won't, I promise. I never cause problems, I swear! Oh hey look, there's the school! Let's go!" Yuki ran ahead over to a building to the left side of the private high school's campus, every inch of the building covered in graffiti of every type imaginable.

"Yuki! Wait up!" the college student yelled at his companion, "it's better if we enter together! This is a class of boys, you know, and apparently they're all trouble makers!" The girl stopped in her tracks.

"True," she stated, waiting for Soujiro to catch up. The two then entered the building together, following the loud yelling of almost thirty high school boys. The class members were all doing their own thing, talking to each other loudly to hear each other over the noise, which, naturally, just made it worse. Their entrance went unnoticed for several minutes before Yuki noticed a heavy-set boy in the center of the room. On his desk lay several bags of potato chips, their delicious sent carrying over the always-hungry girl in the front of the classroom.

"Ooh! Food!" she squealed, rushing over and stealing a bag of potato chips. She tore it open and began eating enthusiastically, the boy staring at her in horror.

"Hey! That's mine!" he yelled, "give me back my chips!" He failed to notice a boy with short brown hair with orange streaks wearing the school uniform over a baggy t-shirt sneak up and begin stealing from an opened bag that had yet to be touched. Another boy came up next to him, this one with long blonde hair with sky blue streaks. The second boy yanked the bag of chips out of the first boy's hands, grinning evilly. The first pouted and stole an unopened bag. They stood there, eating their chips happily as the owner of the chips and Yuki continued to argue over the bag she'd stolen.

As this happened, the rest of the class freaked out over the girl's presence.

"Hey, what's a girl doing here?" a boy with black hair and dark blue streaks in his hair asked.

"No idea," said another random student on the other side of the room, this one holding a rugby ball.

A boy in the back of the room with blonde streaks in his chin-length black hair stood up. "Who cares, it's a girl!" he said with a large grin on his face. Soujiro, standing at the front of the room, sighed in annoyance.

"This is not how I want to spend my day," he mumbled to himself.

"What are you two doing here?" a quiet voice asked. Soujiro looked up to see that a boy with long light brown hair that had been sitting next to the boy with blonde streaks in his hair standing in front of him.

Soujiro smiled weakly. "Yamaguchi-sensei is away on other business matters today, so she asked us to take over for her today. She doesn't trust a substitute, and I can see why, this class is crazy."

The boy nodded. "Yeah, pretty much. But it's entertaining, at least," he commented. As he spoke, the boy with orange streaks in his hair walked over to the boy with blonde streaks in his hair and poked him in the shoulder.

"Ren!" he said in a loud voice that went ignored by the rest of the class.

"What, puppy-chan?" he asked, turning around to face the shorter boy.

"You're a leader of this class, right? Act like it!" 'Puppy-chan' demanded.

"Huh?" the boy with blonde streaks, now known as Ren, asked, clearly confused.

Puppy-chan pointed over towards Soujiro and the boy talking to him. "Get your ass over there and deal with the newcomer with Yamato!" Ren sighed and obeyed, heading over to Soujiro and the boy known as Yamato.

"What's up?" he asked the two.

Yamato shrugged. "Asking why they're here, apparently they're Yankumi's subs."

"I see. What's with the girl? And why is she wearing a high school uniform if she's supposed to be in charge of the class?" he asked.

Soujiro smiled. "She's a senior at St. President's Academy," he told the two high school students, who looked at him with shocked expressions on their faces.

"That rich school? Are you serious? What the heck does Yankumi have to do with them?" Ren questioned.

Soujiro winced, not able to give a straight answer; it wasn't like he could just tell them their teacher was a yakuza clan's heiress- that would be a fast way to get her fired from her job. "You'd have to ask her that, it's one of Yuki's friends that knows Yamaguchi, I just met Yuki over there yesterday, and Yamaguchi this morning."

Yamato and Ren looked at each other and rolled their eyes. It was clear to Soujiro that the two somehow not surprised by Yankumi's random replacement selection, and from what he'd seen of the woman earlier that morning, he guessed that they'd long given up trying to understand their hyper-active, monologue-loving homeroom teacher.

"I see. Well, have fun dealing with us, even Yankumi can't control us," Yamato warned their college-student replacement teacher.

Ren smiled. "Well, most of the time, anyways," he corrected. They were interrupted by the fight between Yuki and the potato chip owner growing even louder.

"Give me my chips back, damn you! I want my food!" the boy hollered at the top of his lungs, then reached forward and shoved at the petite but athletic girl. Yuki stumbled, but quickly regained her footing, then shoved the desk into the boy's gut.

"What? You want your food? You have eight bags! You can't give up one? You're so selfish!" she yelled back. The two boys that had been stealing food from behind the food lover's back looked at each other, then hurriedly put their belongings away and moved to the side of the room to avoid the fight.

Ren turned to Soujiro. "Is she always like that?"

He sighed. "From what I know of her, yes. She seems to be obsessed with food and is a good fighter," he told the younger boy.

"Really? Well she shouldn't mess with him, he is also crazy about food. If she doesn't offer to buy him more soon it's gonna get ugly," Yamato commented, clearly bored but also worried about the possible directions the disagreement could go. It didn't take longer than a few seconds for his worries to come true, as the fight between Yuki and the boy suddenly became a full-fledged fight involving the entire class except for Yamato, Ren, and the two small boys with streaks in their hair on the side of the room. The two class leaders began to head into the brawl to try and break it up, but the latter two boys stopped them, the one with sky blue streaks running over and clinging to Yamato in apparent fear. The boy with yellow streaks in his hair tried to pull his friend away from the leader, but without success.

Soujiro sighed, realizing that it was up to him to try stop the mass brawl. He walked into the center, dodging rogue punches and kicks all the while until he got to Yuki. He grabbed the girl and pulled her back to the front of the classroom, reaching into his book bag on the floor next to the podium and pulling out a sandwich, handing it to the energetic girl. He was about to go and try to break up the rest of the fight, but the two class leaders had finally managed to get away from the two petite boys and moved to stop the fight before the older boy could.

"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing? The person you're fighting isn't even in the fight anymore!" Ren yelled at his classmates. The entire class instantly froze in their spots. The food-loving boy, however, turned towards Yuki, still protesting the loss of his food.

"Enough, Okuma, just get some more food and suck it up," Yamato ordered the boy, who pouted.

"Fine," he said reluctantly, going back to his desk and pulling several more bags of chips out of his backpack.

"Guys, just leave the girl alone and just go back to whatever you were doing, will ya? It's not like she's an alien or something," Ren then told the rest of the class, seeing them turn their attention from fighting to the girl, clearly about to go crazy over the girl, seeing as they were in an all boys school and being close up to a high school girl was quite a rarity.

Yamato smirked. "Idiots. Ren, you were doing it too," he told his friend and fellow leader, who looked offended.

"Oh, shut up," he scowled. He and Yamato then left the front of the room, going over and beginning to place their desks back into their proper place from where they'd been moved during the mass fight. The rest of the class followed, and everything slowly went back to normal. Well, Soujiro and Yuki had to assume it was normal for class 3-D, because it certainly wasn't a typical high school class.

After several minutes of relative (but loud) peace, Yuki turned to her companion. "Soujiro, shouldn't we be actually teaching something? This is class, after all," she asked.

Said boy couldn't help but laugh at the oblivious girl. "What do you know about class, Yuki? From what I hear, you guys don't even go. At least these guys actually show up to school," he teased.

"We go to school! Just not to class…" Yuki protested weakly. Soujiro rolled his eyes.

"Exactly. Let's just let them do whatever."

On the other side of town, Yuki and Soujiro's friends had all arrived back at the café except Miroku. "Where is he?" Seishiro sighed, "he can't be late, he's the entire reason we were able to get this meeting scheduled!" The café door opened, interrupting the boy's rant, and Miroku entered with two boys and a girl that were strangers to the others.

"Miroku! Finally, where have you been?" Bidou pouted. "We've been waiting!"

Miroku shrugged as he popped a yellow sucker into his mouth. "I was playing Rockband with Shuji, Akira, and Nobuta here and we lost track of time."

Bidou turned to Mimasaka Akira. "I thought you said you played pool with Rui-san during our hour break! Did you lie to us for some reason?" he questioned the older boy.

Mimasaka Akira shook his head as Miroku laughed. "Not that Akira, this guy's name is Akira, too!" he said, pointing to Kusano Akira. "I've known him since we were little and he just moved to Tokyo a few months ago for college. He lives a street over so I hung out with him and his roommates at the arcade since you guys were all off doing other things. They're the ones I played Rockband with," he told his friends.

"Ok, but why'd you bring them here? We kind of have important business to take care of, you know," Noriko asked her friend.

Miroku shrugged. "Akira here decided they were tagging along."

"And you didn't protest?" Bidou asked.

"Well, no, you don't know Akira. Trust me; it's a lot easier to just go along with him than protest. He's very…" Miroku trailed off, trying to find a way to describe his slightly (alright, more than slightly) crazy friend.

Shuji jumped in. "Akira is very persistent, and he doesn't let things drop. He can go on and on about something for days, and it's really annoying. If you just go along with him he gets over it and moves on, so it's easier to just let him do what he wants," the boy explained.

"Shu-u-ji-kun, don't be so mean to me! You're going to hurt my feelings!" Kusano Akira pouted, clinging onto his friends shoulders. Shuji shrugged him off, sighing.

"Sorry, Akira," he said in an exasperated tone.

Kusano Akira grinned, jumping up and down. "Yay, Shuji apologized, Nobuta did you hear?" The shy girl with the two boys nodded, still looking at the ground.

"Okay, whatever, but you guys are going to be stuck hanging out with us for awhile, Miroku and Akira have to go to a meeting now," Seishiro told the three.

Kusano Akira frowned in concentration. "We have to go to a meeting?" he turned to Miroku. "Why do we have to go to a meeting? I hate meetings!"

Miroku laughed. "Not you, Akira, that Akira," he said, pointing to Mimasaka Akira. "You guys have the same given name."

"Really? Awesome!" Kusano Akira said with another wide grin on his face, running over to Mimasaka Akira. "Hi, brother!" he said, "it's nice to meet you!"

Mimasaka Akira blinked in confusion. "Brother? How are we brothers? We have the same name, not the same blood."

"Well, in the Dobe Ju/'hoansi culture in Africa we'd be brothers! Your mom would be my mom, and your wife my wife, well unless her name had the same name as my mother, but that's not really relevant right now!"

"Huh?" the other eleven in the group of young adults asked in confusion, followed by a sigh from Shuji.

"Ignore him; he's full of random bits of knowledge. He'd actually be intelligent if he knew how and when to use it," the boy told the rest.

Seishiro smiled. "I can tell. Hey, Miroku, Akira! No, not that Akira, this Akira, it's time for you to go. We'll have a couple of us stationed here until the meeting's over in case things get bad, text us when it's over and we'll all meet up at the clubhouse." The two nodded and left the café with a wave.

"Kon kon, Mi-ro-ku! Ja!" Kusano Akira said, tapping his middle two fingers against his thumb with his index and pinky fingers pointed up so that his hand looked as if a dog was barking.

"Kon kon? What does that mean?" Mimasaka Akira and Miroku heard Bidou ask the door shut behind them.

"Hey, Miroku?" Akira asked once they'd left the café behind.

"Oh, you're talking to me now?"

"Um, yeah, that's what I wanted to talk about. I'm sorry I started ignoring you, I wasn't actually mad at you. I was just jealous." Miroku stopped in his tracks.

"Jealous? What were you jealous about?" Akira stopped too, reaching over and turning Miroku's body gently by the shoulders until they faced each other.

"Yesterday when your fans were all over you giving you gifts and love letters, I just got really jealous of them, and I have a reputation of a player, I wasn't expecting that! I didn't know how to deal with it so I just got so mad I couldn't talk to you," Akira tried to explain.

Miroku blinked. "But why did they make you jealous? I don't get it." The older boy laughed lightly, then leaned down and kissed the younger boy on the cheek softly.

"Does that explain it?" Akira asked. Miroku blushed furiously as Akira grabbed his hand in his as the two entered the warehouse.