Disclaimer: All the character are owned by Hisaya Nakajo.

Chapter 2:

Akiha glanced at the retreating figure of the red-head who had stormed off down the stairs and looked at Kijima who was still on the floor, his clothes and hair rumpled from Umeda's fingers.

"You shouldn't have interrupted us. Next time respect your elders' privacy. An angry Umeda is not someone you want to deal with." Kijima said, lighting his cigarette nonchalantly as he spoke. It was getting tiring to continuously try to maintain the perfect image he had created.

"I'll remember your advice, senpai."

Kijima chuckled to himself as he watched the lanky boy chase after his boyfriend down the stairs. He will find ways to sooth Umeda later tonight; perhaps with one of his irresistible massages. That was his last thought as he closed his eyes and enjoyed his cigarette.

XXXXX

Akiha found Umeda in one of the classrooms on the floor below. Umeda had a grumpy look on his face and was tapping his pen loudly against the desk. Umeda pointed an extremely annoyed glance at the door, sensing his kouhai's approach.

"You sure took your time considering that you were the one complaining about me being late. What help do you need? Hayaku, I don't have all day you know…"

Akiha grinned to himself as he sat down and prepared himself for 'class'. Everything was going according to plan. It seems that all things were not that rosy in paradise after all.

XXXXX

"That's all for today." Umeda push up his spectacles and pinched the bridge of his nose with weariness. "I'll tell Yumiko sensei that you can stop taking lessons. You are doing well enough to handle it by yourself."

Umeda had been giving Akiha extra lessons everyday after class for a month now. As far as he could see, the golden-hair youth had no problems understanding his assignments at all. If there was any problem, it would only be Akiha's short attention span. He always caught Akiha glancing about instead of paying attention to what he was explaining. However, every time when Umeda posed a question, his kouhai was never stumped and always come up with the correct answer. He could not understand why Yumiko sensei said that Akiha needed help with his studies.

The words 'stop taking lessons' startled Akiha and made him snap out of the daydream he was having from staring at the sun playing with Umeda's hair . The sun had brought out the reddish highlights in Umeda's hair and the heat had caused the longish ends to curl up at the collar. His fingers itched for his camera or better yet, to run his fingers through each strand and watch it glow like fire in his hand.

"But senpai! I don't understand this… and this… and this!" Akiha agitatedly pointed randomly to various questions that he had no problem answering a few minutes ago.

Umeda stared at Akiha. Throughout the month, Umeda had sensed that there was something fishy with this arrangement. He was GAY and Akiha's overt looks at him when he thought Umeda was not watching did not go unnoticed by Umeda. Even if Umeda was that dense, those long hugs and light touches on various parts of his body would have set off the fire alarms in his head.

"You DO NOT need any more help from me. If you have nothing else to say, I'm going off."

"Senpai! Don't leave me." Akiha launched himself at Umeda's back and hugged Umeda tightly. "If I fail my finals it will be entirely your fault. Would you want my failure on your conscience, knowing that you could have helped me? Besides, it is only one more month to the finals." Akiha whined and wheedled and tried to change Umeda's mind.

Umeda tried to disengage himself from Akiha's arms. Failing to do so, he turned and fixed his steely gaze at Akiha in a glare. "Get… Your… Hands… Off… Me," Umeda enunciated every word slowly, his honey-brown eyes turning to light-gold as his temper grew.

The minute Akiha released his death-like grip on Umeda, he found his face plastered to the floor, his eyes staring at the sole of Umeda's left shoe. "If you ever touch me again, I will kick your ass. End of class. Sa-Yo-Na-Ra." With those words, Umeda turned on his right heel and exited from the classroom, with a cheerful whistle.