A/N: IMPORTANT little correction thingy about the fic...

In my previous note, it's said that the fic "takes place sometime after chapter 42 of manga", the correct one is "takes place sometime BEFORE chapter 42 of manga". To be exact, it's actually in the spring. Sorry for the mistake!

Ack, wrong school name...! Thanks for pointing it out. ^^V

Thanks for the reviews everyone!!

And yay, second season. Proves K-on is a serious money-making business for K(y)-O(a)N(i), like LOVELESS said.

Little trivia: For anyone who doesn't know yet, "the essay which started Ritsu's close friendship with Mio" is based on volume 3 special chapter 8.5 (chapter 35.5) of manga.

That is all! Hope you enjoy the chap!

Chapter 2: The Prince and the Devil

The first time Ritsu called Mio her "best friend" was back when they were still ten years old. At that time, they were given a task by their teacher to write an essay about their best friends.

"Ritsu-chan, who will you write about?" the teacher asked.

Little Ritsu, who was busily scribbling on a piece of paper, looked up to her and replied enthusiastically, "Mio-chan!"

Everyone in the class giggled and turned their heads toward Mio. The girl bowed her head in embarrassment. It was very unusual for them that a noisy and boisterous girl like Ritsu could become best friends with a shy and quiet girl like Mio. The teacher praised Ritsu's spirit which bolstered everyone's confidence to write and told the kids to finish their essays at home.

When they went home together that day, Mio remarked about what had happened at school.

"You're making me the center of attention in class..."

"What's wrong with that? You've read your essay in front of a whole lot more people before, "Ritsu said casually.

Mio bowed her head and mumbled, "But you don't have to shout..."

"I can shout whenever I want...yahoo! Mio-chan is my best..."

She panicked as people around them started looking and interrupted, "Don't be so loud!"

Ritsu found her expression amusing and said, "Mio-chan, at this rate you're gonna be an introvert..."

"No, I won't! You're really mean!" she cried.

"Then why can't I..."

"You don't have to shout my name out loud like that!" Mio blew up at her.

"Then whose name do you want me to shout out loud??"

There was a silence.

"Mio-chan...?" Ritsu said, "I'm just joking, I..."

She said nothing as she turned away and ran, blinking back her tears and ignoring Ritsu who called her name again and again.


That night, Mio stayed curled on her bed, her essay paper remained empty on her desk.

She didn't know what to do.

This should be a piece of cake for her as an excellent writer who had an award for her essay before.

The essay which started her close friendship with Ritsu...

Mio buried her head in her pillow. For the first time in her life, she felt how painful it was to be hurt by a best friend.

She could just pick up her pen and write everything she knew about Ritsu, but she couldn't. When she thought about Ritsu, pain and anger filled her heart.

However, every time she thought to write about someone else, she always stopped when she remembered that the teacher told her to write about her "best" friend. Ritsu was the "best" friend she ever had.

She could feel tears welled up in her eyes before she fell asleep.


The next day, Mio was the only one who didn't make an essay. The teacher scolded her and she only said she forgot to make it. Because of this, the teacher asked Ritsu to read her essay. Mio shut her eyes, both because she wanted to avoid eye contact with Ritsu and because she was about to be the center of attention again.

Or... Ritsu might not want to write about her anymore, just like herself...?

"This essay is about my best friend Mio-chan..." she began.

Mio unconsciously opened her eyes.

"When we first met, Mio-chan is a very shy girl, but I like her very much, because she's very cute. She's also a very quiet girl, and some of my friends think we have nothing in common. Yesterday I was confused about this, too..."

Some of the classmates laughed and she smiled nervously.

"...But we do have one thing in common. Both of us love music. We recently started to learn how to play the instruments that we like. Mio plays bass, and I play drums. One day we will form a fantastic band!

Mio-chan is a very nice girl, but it's not that we never fight at all. I'm afraid that I hurt her feelings. I'm really sorry about the bad things I have said to her..."

Mio stared blankly at one spot on the floor.

"...But I know she will never hate me," she continued, "Because she will only hate me, after everyone else in the world does!"

Mio raised her head and saw Ritsu grinning at her.

"Mio-chan is..." she took a deep breath and shouted, "The best friend I love most in the whole world!!"

The class clapped and cheered and Mio was already blushing. She had never felt embarrassed and happy at the same time.

"...What I think about her will never change," she said, "And I will do my best, to make her happy. The end."

The class was still cheering when the teacher asked Ritsu to hand her essay to Mio as a memento. When Ritsu apologized to her, she promised, in front of the whole class, that she would definitely write one for her, too. Ritsu only grinned happily to her.

Today, Mio couldn't remember anymore in which book she had slipped the paper into, and it might be a simple essay made by a ten-year-old little girl with no talent at all in writing, but Mio could still remember what was written on it, maybe not word by word, but every priceless thing that Ritsu wrote about her...was too precious to be forgotten.


"When did you arrive in Japan, Aoi-chan?"

"About a month ago. I moved here with my father..."

As soon as Aoi had been officially introduced, she was asked to sit at the table with the girls and Sawako. Mugi took out a new cup from the cabinet, which she had turned into the club's personal tea set storage, and kindly served a cup of steaming, hot tea for Aoi, as she was being barraged with questions. Mio had a sense of déjà vu when she watched the scene, it really reminded her of Azusa when she first joined.

"You've never come here your whole life?" Sawako asked curiously.

Aoi gave her a sweet smile and answered," No, I've never been to Japan before, but this place is my father's hometown."

"Do you like this school?" Yui asked cheerfully.

She nodded. "I really like it!" she replied, "And I'm looking forward to having a girlfriend at this school!"

"Eh?"

Nobody said anything within a few seconds. Azusa almost dropped her cup in astonishment. Ritsu choked on her tea.

"Wrong! Stop sticking the world 'girl' in front of the word 'friend'!" she said, giving Aoi a concerned look, "How many times do I have to tell you that?"

"Does that really make any difference?" she asked ignorantly.

"A hell LOT of difference," the drummer sighed, "Geez, this isn't brain surgery we're doing here. You've been here a whole month and it's beyond me why you still can't learn some vocabularies right."

"But you still teach me," she said, smiling warmly at her.

"'Cause you asked me to," Ritsu stood up and poked Aoi's head, "So study harder, okay?"

She smiled again and answered, "Okay."

"And you..." Ritsu gazed over at Mugi, "Stop making that face!"

"You two seems to know each other quite well," Azusa commented, "How did you two meet?"

Yui piped in before Ritsu could say anything, "It must be something like...'I was doing it for a bet', or 'I just felt like playing the hero', or 'I did it for money', right, Ricchan?"

"You're making me the good guy, or the bad guy?" Ritsu grumbled, pinching Yui's hand until she cried in pain, "Actually, we accidentally met at the station."

"Ritsu-sempai saved me from a bunch of bad guys," Aoi told them joyfully, as if it was an unforgettable, fated meeting, "Like a prince on a white horse!"

"Prince on a white horse?" Mugi repeated, pouring more tea into everyone's cup.

"That's very sweet," Yui commented, "And Ricchan, I think it su-"

"Damn, people, cut it out! What's with the whole fairy tale thing??" Ritsu interrupted and pinched her again.

"Not another fairy tale talent in this club," Azusa said, letting out a sigh.

"So how did exactly you two meet?" Sawako returned to their previous topic.

"It's no big deal. I saw a bunch of idiots teasing her on the station platform. I asked them to leave her alone, but when they didn't listen, I pulled Aoi away and ran," Ritsu explained casually, shrugging her shoulders as she sat back on her chair.

"You ran away?" Yui said with a I-thought-you-beat-the-crap-outta-them look.

"I'm doing it for the best, dammit! There are five of them and one of them is at least four feet taller than I am!" she said quickly.

"But, Sempai, you were so cool when you bashed his face with your drumsticks! "Aoi pointed out.

"Drumsticks?" Mio repeated, "I thought you're taking good care of your equipment!"

"I did that without thinking! I was holding my drumsticks when that guy suddenly grabbed my hand!" she cried. As careless as Ritsu was, her whole drum set obviously meant the world for her, and Mio knew she would cry like an idiot if someone would jokingly make a hole on her snare drum.

Seeing Ritsu's expression, Yui grinned and said to her, "Aren't princes usually use swords, Ricchan?"

"A pair of drumsticks is a very innovative weapon," Mugi commented.

"I don't want to be prince!" Ritsu said, totally embarassed.

"Or would you rather be 'The Prince of Correcting Pen' instead?"

"That's way worse!!"

"Thanks a lot," Mio said sarcastically before punching her head so hard from behind that her forehead slammed on the table.

"Yowtch!" she cried painfully as she placed her hands on both her front and back side of her head.

"Whoa, nice," Sawako commented, as if it was some kind of a martial arts show.

"You see, Aoi-chan, if you're looking for a good friend, avoiding Ricchan is your best bet," Yui explained to an obviously bewildered Aoi.

"I support that," Mio added, drinking coldly from her cup of tea.

"Why does everyone hate me today?!" she bellowed.

"I'm kinda in the mood for making fun of you," Yui replied. She threw a glance at Azusa and said to Aoi, "I think Mio-chan is a safe bet, you should make friends with her!"

Azusa suddenly understood Yui's actions. Either that she was trying to break the ice between Mio and Aoi, or she was slightly irritated because Ritsu seemed to give less attention to Mio because of her new friend. Judging from how she treated Ritsu, probably both.

"Do you know Mio-chan? She's quite famous here," Mugi mentioned. This time it was Mio who choked on her tea.

"No! No, I'm not!" she said quickly.

"Because of a certain BEWITCHING performance," Ritsu smirked evilly.

"Ritsu, shut UP!" she exclaimed. Ritsu felt danger coming and she quickly slipped from her seat to avoid being smacked to the table again.

"I've heard of Akiyama-sempai before," Aoi said, "My friend said she plays bass, and..."

"She's a great bass player, and she's experienced in composing music, too," Yui explained. Mio blushed even more as Yui was making her some kind of a promotional mascot.

"Speaking of music," Azusa said, trying to get the conversation straight, "What instrument can you play, Fujii?"

"Oh, that's right, you haven't told us," Yui said, eyeing her curiously.

"She'll take vocals," Ritsu suddenly said.

"Eh?" Mio and Yui said in unison.

"Vocals! She's got good voice and stuff, and she's also a very accomplished singer!" she said with a big smile on her face.

"Have you been in a music club before?" Mugi asked, looking over at Aoi.

"No, last year I joined theater. I can't really play instruments, maybe just a bit of guitar. I planned to join theater at first, but Ritsu-sempai asked me to join this club instead," she replied. Aoi noticed a bit of tension hanging in the air by the time she finished her sentence. It was as if everyone's mood suddenly changed.

"I planned for her to take over the lead vocals in this club," Ritsu said, "In this way, Mio and Yui don't need to work as much as before, right?"

Mio felt her clench on her teacup handle tightened.

Yui immediately said, "But Ricchan, I wanna sing!"

"The bottom line is, there are risks when the lead vocalist and the lead guitar player is the same person," she explained.

"But..." Yui was about to say something to her, but she turned around to Sawako and said, "Sawa-chan Sensei!"

"I support Ritsu. We've talked about this before."

"Of course you will still sing, but Aoi'll take the lead vocals. This way, we can make more vocal varieties, right?" Ritsu continued, "And we can make both your jobs easier, especially Mio's. You don't have to sing anymore if you don't feel like singing on stage. We've already had a new singer to replace you now!"

Ritsu put her arms around Aoi and smiled at her.

Those words somehow pricked Mio's heart like a thousand needles. Although she knew Ritsu had nothing against her, she couldn't help but think that Ritsu was pushing her aside. Her negative feelings were even reinforced by the fact that her mind had already been butchered for two days straight since the appearance of this mysterious stranger claiming to be Ritsu's "date". She felt her hands shaking.

"Ritsu-sempai!" Azusa suddenly stood.

"I'm going home," Mio said as she stood up, took her bag, and burst out of the room.

This surprised everyone almost immediately, and there was a brief silence until Aoi asked hesitantly, "Uhm...Is something the matter?"

"She's got a really important issue to take care of at home," Mugi quickly said.

'Nice cover, Sempai,' Azusa thought.

"How do you know?" Ritsu raised her eyebrows.

"Err... How do I know?"

"She forgot her bass," Yui pointed out, "So...Aoi-chan, can you please take this to her?"


Mio walked away from the clubroom so quickly that she was almost running. Her feelings were all messed up and she didn't even know the reason why... She didn't hate Aoi... nor did she hate Ritsu...but she couldn't think of anything other than the memories that flashed one after another inside her mind.

"She's a nice girl, right?" she heard Ritsu's voice.

"So study harder, okay?" she saw Ritsu poking the younger girl's head affectionately.

"Ritsu-sempai saved me from a bunch of bad guys, like a prince on a white horse!"

"But, Sempai, you're so cool!"

"We've already had a new singer to replace you now!" Ritsu put her arms around Aoi and smiled happily at her.

"And I will always do my best, "the warm smile of a younger Ritsu suddenly flashed in her mind, "To make her happy..."

Mio stopped walking. Girls wearing uniform with various tie colors threw a curious glance at her as they passed her in groups of two or three. She realized she had reached the school gates.

'Isn't it something she once said...?' she mused, 'And yet...'

'I feel like missing something...' she thought sadly.

It was at that point when she suddenly remembered.

"My bass!" she suddenly shouted.

How could she forget Elizabeth because she was so busily thinking about that idiot of a friend!

'What should I do now? I can't just go back there after walking away like that, it'll be embarrassing! But I don't want to leave Elizabeth at school! And if Ritsu takes it home with her, it'll be worse! Both for Elizabeth and for me!' she thought desperately.

"What should I do, what should I do, what should I..."

"Akiyama-sempai, there you are!"

Mio turned around and saw...her savior.

"You forgot this, didn't you?"

"Uh, uhm, I...." Mio muttered. This kind of situation embarrassed her more than anything. She opened her mouth and mumbled shyly to her, "T...thank you."

Mio looked at Aoi's smile.

An innocent smile without the slightest hint of bad intention...

Mio knew, there was nothing she hated from this girl.

But her thoughts had been wondering to all directions...ever since she first met this girl.

Wondering how she first met Ritsu...

Wondering how she spent time with Ritsu...

Wondering whether Ritsu went out with her when she cancelled her plan to eat at a new cafe with Mio...

'But why am I curious?' she thought.

"Here, Sempai," Aoi handed the bass to Mio.

"Oh, thanks," she said, hugging the bass, "Geez, if you didn't come, I..."

"I...I can kinda understand that..." she said after seeing Mio's expression.

Mio looked at her curiously and she continued, "I mean, I once dropped my most precious thing and spent the whole day desperately searching for it."

"Really...? What is it?" she asked, a smile spread across her face. She liked it when people she hardly knew wanted to share their stories to her.

"My pet iguana."

Mio was speechless for a short while. "Uh...where?"

"In an airplane to Mexico."

Mio didn't even dare to ask how that happened.

"...You are a strange person, aren't you?" Mio said, raising an eyebrow.

She didn't befriend a lot of those rich people like Mugi and Aoi. Except for Mugi, Ritsu usually disliked these kinds of people. Back in their junior high school days, she would occasionally say something along the lines of, "Just look at that yay-I'm-so-rich-and-I-know-seven-boys-in-the-biblical-sense bimbo...", "He thinks he's one of those big boys, but just look at him. I swear he adds his weight bit by bit by binging on chocolate at least twelve times a day", "That rich girl acts if she's big in here. She's very jealous of you, and when she asks how you grow your breasts, that really took the cake."

But Ritsu didn't seem to like having a bitch about this girl. 'That means...she's not as bad as those people, right?' she thought.

"Akiyama-sempai..." she called suddenly.

"Huh?" she said, wondering what she would tell to her now.

"I think I'm going to quit."

"Eh?" Mio almost thought she had heard it wrong, but Aoi's expression was solemn and confident. "Quit? Why?"

"Because you seem to be troubled by it..."

That was a very direct answer. Mio bit her tongue and said, "I'm not troubled. Who told you so?"

Aoi shrugged her shoulders.

Mio tried to make sense of the situation. "Uhm...quitting just a few minutes after you joined is a bit much, you know?"

"But it's not just you...Nakano and Hirasawa-sempai seem to be troubled, too..." she said with a sympathetic smile on her face.

"No..." Mio thought they had finally managed to find a new member that could inherit the club with Azusa. They couldn't lose this chance. "...Don't quit."

"But a band can only perform well when everyone does their bit and has nothing against each other, "Aoi said firmly, "Just like if the bass player and the drummer don't work together in the same beat, the whole performance will turn into a disaster."

Mio was slightly surprised with her analogy.

"Uh...why the bass player and..."

"Oh, that's the reason why my favorite band disbanded, "she explained. From her tone of voice, Mio knew it really bummed her. "The bass player was bitten by the solo debut bug or something and fought with the drummer. Although the band has the best of the argument, it made an impact and everybody left soon after."

"Solo debut...bug? Oh..."

"I don't want that kind of thing to happen in this band, "she said, "That is why..."

"Listen up, that's not gonna happen," Mio quickly said, "K-on is not that shallow. None of us will quit just because of a stupid argument."

"But..." she said reluctantly.

"Don't quit, I beg you!" she pleaded.

Both of them stayed silent for a while.

"Okay..." she said at last, "In one condition."

Mio sighed in relief. "What is it?"

"Please teach me how to play guitar," she said.

Mio stood there bewildered. "Eh?"

"Why 'eh'?"

"Why me?"

"Why not?"

"Why...oh, why're we using 'why's?" Mio sighed.

"I can play guitar a bit..." she explained, unable to take her eyes off Mio's bass, "And I thought playing guitar while singing is cool."

"Don't you understand why Ritsu wants to take over the lead vocals?"

"Don't you guys just want to add more members?" Aoi asked, tilting her head.

'We've been found out...' Mio thought.

"Why don't you just pay a professional teacher and learn music at home like other rich girls?"

"But Hirasawa-sempai advertised you."

Mio soon grew tired of making sense of this girl's logic.

She suddenly felt her cell phone vibrating in her pocket. She pulled it out and viewed the screen. In front of her, Aoi did the same with hers.

"From: Ritsu

We're going to the new cafe next town.

The food's every bit as delicious as a high-class restaurant!

Meet us at the station as fast as you can"

"...There's a new cafe next town?" Aoi said, clueless.

"It's a weird place named Bogus Cafe, "Mio explained to her, "But Ritsu said she heard the food's really good, and she really wants to visit this place. Last week she asked me to accompany her to go there, but she begged off at the last minute. She might want to make this a welcoming party for you or something."

Aoi listened to her as she examined her face curiously.

"W-what is it?" Mio asked, feeling a little bit embarrassed.

"You're very close to Ritsu-sempai," she said matter-of-factly.

Mio blinked a few times because of the sudden change of topic. "We're childhood friends."

"...Just now, I said I've heard about you from a friend..."she said, "That friend is Ritsu-sempai."

Mio stayed silent for a while. "...She must tell you awful things about me, right?"

"No..." Aoi replied, "She seems to really like you."

Mio didn't know what to say.

"She told me a lot of things about you. She said you're cute and shy since the first time she met you... She said you both started playing your instruments at the same time during elementary school... She said you are the last person on earth that could hate her because of her way of talking...And she said you are the best friend that she loves the most in the whole world..."

Mio didn't know which parts of Aoi's explanation was not true because of her tendency to misuse some Japanese words...

But she immediately recognized every bit of her words.

The precious little memory.

"Akiyama-sempai...your face is all red," Aoi said, pointing her finger to her face.

"Those are..." Mio turned her head to hide her face from Aoi, "...Really embarrassing."

"Really? I don't think so," she said innocently.

Mio sighed. Talking with this girl is as tiring as knocking some sense into Ritsu in a way. "...In which shameless country are you raised anyway?"

"A lot," she replied ambiguously.

Mio decided not to ask further. "No wonder you can tolerate Ritsu."

Aoi giggled and said, "Anyway, are you going with us?"

"Eh? But, I..." Mio was afraid her friends couldn't accept what she had done earlier.

Aoi seemed to be able to guess what she was thinking when she saw her expression. She smiled to her and said, "Don't worry about it. Just come."

"Well...okay," Mio mumbled, rubbing her head.

"That's good," Aoi said with a chuckle, "Oh yeah, one more thing, have you given her my present?"

"Oh, that, uh...I forgot!" Mio said, shaking her head, "Crap, I left it on my desk!"

"Oh, that's o..." Aoi said, but Mio quickly interrupted her.

"No, I'll bring it here. I'll meet you guys at the station, "she said, "By the way, why don't you just give it to her yourself today instead of leaving it to me yesterday?"

"Eh? I thought you're living with her, "she responded.

"Eh?" Mio said bemusedly. After a few seconds of thought and confusion, she screeched, "Wait, what!!"

Aoi looked as confused as she was. "Well, Ritsu-sempai actually told me waaaay more things about you. She said she's took a bath together with you, she said she's slept with you, she said you're a scaredy-cat and 'moe moe kyun' and she said she had a photo of you naked. Those made me think you guys're married or something..."

Mio blushed furiously as her head started swirling with embarrassment and rage. "That...I...urgh, that idiot!! That was long, long ago, dammit!" she blurted out, trying her best to brazen it out, "And in which country are you raised, really?? Those things don't always mean we're ma...living together!!"

Ritsu seriously didn't forget one too many things...why, then, did she always forget to submit forms if she had such a good memory?? Stupid Ritsuuu...!!

"So..." Aoi suddenly said, looking at her straight in the eye, "Are you Ritsu-sempai's girlfriend?"

The question came as a bolt from the blue and it stunned Mio for a brief second. Mio could feel the atmosphere tensed a little. "...No, "she spontaneously replied, "No, I'm not."

"I see, "she said before turning back and made her way back to school.

Mio didn't know whether she simply misused the world "girlfriend" like before or not. However, there was something in her suddenly cold expression which convinced Mio that...this time, she really meant it in every sense of the word.


"Have you heard of the new transfer student?"

"She's very cute, and you know what? She's really good at betting too! I never win from her."

"I heard her father's a boss in the nightclub and casino industry business..."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, he's known as one of the kings in that world, and rumor has it that he has been teaching his daughter about the black industry since she was five..."

"That's hard to believe."

"She will stop at nothing to get what she wants..."

"Be careful with her smile..."

"She is a devil in disguise."


A/N: My friend's in a band which is similar to K-on: the bass and guitar player are the vocalists of the band. They have no problems so far, and I personally like how someone sings and plays guitar at the same time. Aoi's position as the lead vocalist might be unacceptable for some, but let's just say her true role is as some kind of "catalyst"...if you know what I mean.

Not sure if they will ever perform with the new line-up in the fic though...

Yoko Hikasa sings so well she makes my brain fluids boiled dry.

Next stop! Chapter 3 = Mitsu chapter!