*** Chapter Two : First Encounters ***

Bells ring a melodious tune, indicating lunchtime for Sheyfields High School. When the teacher leaves the classroom, students exhale in restlessness. They soon gather to their respective cliques, sounding more alive than they are during lessons. While some are discussing what to eat, one student is already making his way to the canteen.

Strolling down the corridor with hands inside pockets, Hijikata heads to the cafeteria. His stomach is grumbling non-stop. He wonders what kind of dishes the school cafeteria offers. He recalls the food coupons in his pockets and retrieves them to have a look. The pictures actually look extravagant for a school lunch meal.

"Toshi!"

His name is called loudly behind him and he turns sideways. His brows furrow deeply seeing the tall spiky haired lad running towards him.

"Toshi!" the lad happily yelps his name one more time before throwing his arms up.

Hijikata evades swiftly with a step back and hisses. "Stop calling me that. I don't remember giving you permission calling my first name, Kondo-san."

"It's Isao! Call me Isao, Toshi!" Kondo corrects Hijikata with a big smile.

"Hijikata, call me Hijikata."

"So how was your lessons going, Toshi? How's it?" Kondo asks eagerly, folding his arms and his smile remainswidely stretched.

The lad drops his shoulders in defeat and walks ahead. "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" Kondo hurries to his side. "Were you paying attention?"

"I was not in class."

"What?!"

"I was at the rooftop," Hijikata says without hesitation. "For a smoke. And a good nap. School starts too early here."

In a heartbeat, Kondo grabs Hijikata by his shoulders and shakes him roughly. "Why did you do that?! It's against school rules! Do you want to get caught? You'll get expelled, Toshi!"

"Who cares?" Hijikata slurs, slapping Kondo's hands off him. "No one was searching for me when I missed class."

"That's because you didn't even come and introduce yourself to your class!" Kondo slaps his own forehead. "What am I going to do?"

Hijikata blinks his eyes in surprise. Kondo appears troubled because of his irresponsible behaviour. A pang of guilt hits him, not liking one bit that someone like Kondo will actually feel responsible for him.

How can he not be? Kondo is just too kind for his own good.

To actually burden himself by taking care of a gangster like Hijikata, Kondo can put saints to shame.

No one can simply fathom how these two lads of opposite personalities are brought together. Hijikata has the shortest of temper, a clear addiction to tobbacco at an early age and a foul mouth in which words will not leave without a curse or a swear. Kondo however is an honor student, respected and well-known for his friendly and happy-go-lucky attitude.

Their friendship begins since the day Hijikata was nearly killed by a mob of robbers. If Kondo did not interfere, Hijikata would have been stabbed at the heart and would not see another tomorrow. Kondo was simply passing by the scene and witnessed his predicament. His brave act is still etched in Hijikata's memory, how the young man mustered courage to punch a few robbers and led them to an escape.

But there is more than it meets the eyes. Who could have thought Hijikata's brave saviour can be a gullilbe, kind and soft-hearted boy?

Hijikata almost wanted to just give his thanks with a shrug of his shoulder and leave. When Kondo pleaded him to be his friend until graduation, Hijikata thought twice. Kondo was even willing to support Hijikata financially.

Hijikata may have abandoned his home and family to live in the streets but to leave the person who saved him from death is not something he can do. The reason he is still alive is because of Kondo.

The debt worthy of his life chains him to this rich spoiled brat. Sounds like a shougo anime to him.

"Okay, okay!" Hijikata blurts suddenly and pins his hands on his hip. "I'll join the class after lunch. I won't skip them anymore."

"Toshi..." Kondo scrunches his face, in the verge to cry. "Really?"

"Yeah, no kidding," Hijikata says and starts to move again to the cafeteria.

"Alright!" Kondo skips next to him happily. "Let's eat together."

"Isn't that why I'm here? I'll be your companion here for this third year of yours," Hijikata huffs.

"Yes, true! And I can't wait to show you who she is!"

Hijikata grits his teeth, knowing well what he means. It has been a month since the incident and he stays with the lad from then on. Surely it provides ample time for Hijikata to learn everything about Kondo, starting from his childhood turn-on moments to his current eye candy.

Her name is Shimura Tae. The way Kondo described her had Hijikata in the clouds, already picturing her to be the most beautiful creature on Earth.

A sudden grip on his arm is felt, so strong that Hijikata winces. He tries to pull back his arm but to no avail. Kondo is holding his arm as though he plans to break it off his body.

"What now, Kondo-san?"

"Isao, Isao," the boy repeats his own name and then points at one direction. "That's her, Otae-chan!"

Hijikata draws a painful sigh, trying to endure the incredible weight on his arm. Carefully he looks at Kondo's line of sight and captures the beautiful girl in her black vest, red ribbon necktie and short azure skirt. Her brown hair is tied loosely on a ponytail that leaves strands around her ears, making her look adorable and kind.

She is busily talking to her friends, with a very wide smile. It is no wonder a boy like Kondo can fall heads over heels for her. As her group is going to walk pass the two lads, the tremors of Kondo's grip is shaking Hijikata's arm.

Hijikata first-handedly discovers how incredibly nervous Kondo is around his crush. Hijikata cannot help but scrunches his face in disgust. He never favours the notions of love and relationships. He is in matter of fact the last person anyone will ask for help in this kind of situation.

An idea lights up in his head, thinking that he can do something for Kondo as to waive off his mistake for not coming to class this morning. In about a step next to them, Hijikata halts his stride and turns sideways.

"Oi, Shimura-san," Hijikata calls her out.

Kondo stiffens like a cat thrown into cold water and he whispers furiously under Hijikata's ear. "What the hell are you doing?!"

Hijikata ignores Kondo as he manages to stop the group and Tae turns to face Hijikata. She smiles gently, "Why, hello. I'm afraid I don't know you. And that's not how you should talk to a lady."

"More importantly," Hijikata literally ignores her small lecture. "This is Kondo Isao-san."

Kondo straightens up suddenly, wide-eyed yet affords a smile. "H-Hi, Shimura-san."

"Oh," Tae looks at Kondo and eventually returns smiling from ear to ear. "Hi, Gorilla-san."

"Huh?" Hijikata snaps, while her friends laugh in response.

Watching the group leave, Hijikata clenches his fist. "That girl, how dare she calls you that? Give me a moment, Kondo-san. I'll give her a piece of my mind and-"

His speech of revenge comes to a stop when he notices Kondo cupping his own red cheeks, humming happily.

"Did you hear that, Toshi?! She said Hi to me!" Kondo giggles with heart shapes on his eyes.

Hijikata gives him a dead eye look. "She called you Gorilla. Did you hear that? Do you know what a gorilla is, Kondo-san?"

Kondo grabs both Hijikata's hands and pulls themselves closely. "Toshi! You're amazing! You make her talk to me! Although I thought you were crazy to just call her out like that, it still works! I'm the happiest person in the world right now!"

"I didn't really do much," Hijikata looks away, feeling flattered.

"Ne, Toshi!"

"Huh?"

"Set me up with her on a date, I beg you!" Kondo asks loudly and bows in front of Hijikata.

"Oi, oi! Don't bow, Kondo-san!"

"It's Isao!"

"No, I won't call you that," Hijikata finally pulls the boy to stand properly. "Don't correct me anymore. I respect you so just let me call you as Kondo-san."

"Toshi..."

"And I don't know if it can ever happen but I will do my best to have you date her."

"Thank you, Toshi!" Kondo hugs him.

"Now can we go eat? I'm starving."

"Of course, Toshi!"

They travel down a few flights of stairs and finally reach the cafeteria. The place is crowded with students and filled with noises and chatter. Hijikata observes the things around him, noticing the elegant and wealthy way to eat lunch. When he was a street gangster, he barely had money to eat lunch. He usually snuck into someone's shop and stole food that could at least last him for three days.

Now it is different. He is a student of a school for rich brats that can eat anything they desire. It is close to heaven. Hijikata is getting excited to use his food coupons. When Kondo already takes his lunch meal, he informs Hijikata he will be sitting at the bench near the window. Hijikata takes note and places his order with a women who has China doll short black hair.

"Your coupon, kid?" The woman asks him but Hijikata is distracted.

"Oi, are you really a staff here?" Hijikata scowls.

The woman glares intently, already accustomed to serve stuck-up brats like him. "What joke are you pulling, kid? You're holding up the line."

"Then, explain the cat ears," Hijikata grumbles. "No way I'm eating food prepared by someone who's into cosplay. It makes me lose my appetite."

The woman furrows her brows in anger. "These ears are real."

"Huh?" Hijikata yells. "You expect me to believe that. What, do you have a tail too?"

The cafeteria lady smirks and takes out a notepad. "Your name, kid?"

"Hijikata Toushiro."

"I'll send your name to the principal for harrassing a very beautiful canteen lady."

Hijikata jawdrops and grabs the scribbled notepad before tearing them into pieces. He even takes the chance to glance at Kondo, and feels relieved that Kondo is well occupied eating his food. Hijikata cannot afford a bad record. He will disappoint Kondo.

"My bad, my bad!" Hijikata finally gives in and hands her his coupon. "Chicken Ham and Cheese Sandwich, please."

"Now, that's a good boy," she winks and takes the coupon. "The name is Catherine, by the way."

"Like I care," Hijikata grumbles to himself as he watches her disappear into the kitchen to prepare his food.

"Chocolate parfait, ready!"

Hijikata turns to see another canteen staff placed a cup of parfait on the other end of the counter. A lad in blue yukata with yellow band waist walks to the counter idly and examines the parfait like some sort of treasure. Hijikata is quite entranced by his long ponytail of silky black hair.

First is a cat ears lady and now a bishounen in yukata. How crazy can this school gets?

"Is it double chocolate this time?" The yukata lad reconfirms.

The canteen man nods, "Yes, yes. You better warn your friend to stop eating sweet stuff for lunch. It's bad for the teeth."

"But sir, you've mistaken. He doesn't really eat this. He literally drinks it like water. He swears this parfait doesn't even touch his teeth. So don't care. His brain is already ruined by the sugar," the lad nonchalantly explains.

"You're talking about yourself," Hijikata leaves a comment in the air, but to his surprise, his words do reach the lad.

"What did you say?" the lad in yukata faces Hijikata with an irritated expression.

Hijikata brings up his shoulders. "I can tell you're the type of person who is too embarrassed to admit your own doings and use an excuse of a friend doing it instead of you. To me, people like you leave a bad taste in my mouth."

"I never ask you taste me," the lad replies bluntly.

"That's not what I meant, stupid!" Hijikata snaps.

"It's not stupid. It's Katsura," the lad says with a little bow. "You must be new here."

"So what if I'm new? I'm not scared of you!" Hijikata grumbles.

"I'm not going to scare you," Katsura says with that emotionless face. "I'm just introducing myself. You should tell me your name."

"Why do I want to introduce myself to someone wearing a yukata? Why are you even in yukata?"

Katsura folds his arms. "I was making Japanese tea with Elizabeth."

"You're not making any sense. Why a western girl wants to drink Japanese tea? It's bitter!"

"Elizabeth is not a girl," Katsura replies hastily and suddenly looks away blushing.

"You gotta kidding me! Why are you blushing?!" Hijikata is infuriated that everyone in the canteen is watching.

"Stop, stop, you two!" the canteen man shouts and taps his hand on the counter. "Hurry up and take the parfait. It will melt before it reaches him."

"My deepest apologies," Katsura says and takes the parfait before bowing a little to the canteen man. "Thank you for the parfait."

Hijikara cannot figure why the lad's manner is annoying as hell. His disgust is quickly noticed by Katsura who faces him once again.

"I hope we will meet again, new kid," Katsura smirks alittle and that catches Hijikata off-guard. That smirk carries an evil aura that it sends chills up to his neck.

"Whatever," Hijikata replies and looks away.

Katsura carries the parfait with two hands. As Hijikata watches the lad walk away, whispers get heated behind him.

"Hey, this is crazy. Who is he anyway? How dare of him to talk to Katsura-sama like that?"

"Yeah, he's nuts. Nobody dares to even speak a word to the Terror Trio. If the Silver Prince sees this, boy, that kid is a goner."

"So sad. It is his first day and he already makes himself an enemy to the Terror Trio."

"This is the last of him for sure. I mean, he delayed the Silver Prince's parfait. What a horrible thing."

"Just another brat who doesn't listen. He basically digs his own grave."

"Chicken Ham and Cheese Sandwich, Hijikata-kun!"

Hijikata flinches too hard that he almost jumps on his feet. His mind is puzzled with words like Silver Prince and Terror Trio. He cannot get them off his mind. Those whispers are stemming fear in his heart.

"Hijikata-kun?" Catherine snaps fingers at his face.

Hijikata soon snaps out and gulps hard. "My bad. My sandwich's ready, isn't it?"

"Yeah, kiddo," Catherine pushes the plate of sandwich nearer to him. "Take it! So next!"

"Wait a second!" Hijikata interrupts Catherine as he opens his sandwich and looks at the contents. "There is no mayonnaise inside."

"You don't need mayonnaise inside a sandwich, kid."

"What kind of culinary college did you go to? Every sandwich needs mayonnaise," Hijikata angrily remarks and pushes back the plate. "Please add mayonnaise now."

"Alright," Catherine mutters sarcastically before grabbing the mayonnaise bottle and she squeezes a hill of the yellow condiment on top of the sandwich. "There you go!"

Hoping for a disgust reaction, Catherine stares at the lad but to her surprise, stars are twinkling in his indigo eyes. Catherine is feeling overly annoyed that she intends to move a step to the side when he moves also.

"There's still some left in that bottle you're holding," Hijikata points at her hand. "Can I have the rest?"

The bottle is slamned down on his tray. "Go already! Scram!"

"Okay, okay!" Hijikata scowls, carrying away his tray of sandwich and savouring the sight of his mayo coated sandwich.

When he reaches the seat where Kondo sits, he places his tray first before sliding onto the chair. Kondo pauses his eating of his rice and bites on his chopsticks. The mountain of yellow pile starts to make him nauseous.

"Ne, Toshi," Kondo huffs. "Can't you be more discreet about your addiction to mayonnaise?"

A low grunt escapes Hijikata as he starts cutting the sandwich with a knife and fork. "Someone has parfait for lunch and everybody seems okay with that."

Hijikata takes his first bite of his sandwich and he smiles gleefully, indulging the mayonnaise in his mouth and down his throat. He even licks the leftovers on his lips before taking another fork. He is wondering if Kondo will like to have some of his mayonnaise sandwich. Hijikata is stunned that Kondo has stopped eating as his chopstick is over the bowl, where rice fills about half of it.

Feeling guilt in his heart, Hijikata looks for Kondo's eyes which are downcast and serious. "Kondo-san, is something the matter?"

"Toshi," Kondo looks up to fix his gaze on his friend. "I believe the principal did warn you about the Silver Prince."

"So you also know about him?" Hijikata tries to act cool, despite Kondo's sudden seriousness. "You probably know about Terror Trio too."

The mention of the latter has Kondo wide-eyed and Hijikata cannot help but feeling bothered. He becomes more intrigued about these mysterious students of the school.

"Are you going to tell me about them, Kondo-san?"

"It's better that you don't know," Kondo states with his eyes looking down.

"Why not?"

"Toshi."

"You think I can't take care of myself," Hijikata spills the truth, continuing to eat. "Just so you know, before I met you, I was doing fine. I lasted two years on my own so I don't think that I am that weak."

"Itou-sensei."

"Huh?" Hijikata pauses his munching. "You mean the blonde student who used to be your best friend in this school? Why are we talking about him? You're missing him. Of course I am nothing like him, right?"

Irked beyond control, Hijikata digs into his sandwich and finishes it quickly that the mayonnaise smudges the corners of his lips. At the last swallow, Hijikata burps and continues to stare at Kondo.

"Are you going to finish eating?" Hijikata slurs, grabbing his juice box to drink.

"The trio killed him."

Out splurts the juice from Hijikata's mouth to the side. The surprised lad presses the napkin over his lips with his wide indigo eyes staring back at Kondo.

"You're kidding right?" Hijikata grumbles. "That is a bad joke to share at lunch, Kondo-san."

"You think it is a joke!" Kondo stands up and brings his tray away. "If you are really true to your words, that you'll repay the gratitude I gave you, then you should start obey the school rules. I..."

Hijikata swallows hard as he sees Kondo stammer in his speech.

"I don't want to lose another friend."

"Kondo-san."

Kondo leaves the table, returns the tray before disappearing into the crowd. Hijikata sighs and continues to drink his juice. The words shared between them continue to dwell in his mind. The sad expression on Kondo's face keeps playing in his vision too. Hijikata ends up biting on the straw hard instead.

"Fine!" Hijikata slams his fist on the table. "You want me to listen and obey the stupid rules! Okay, I will do it!"

He stands up and stares back at other students. "Stop staring at me, idiots!"

With that, Hijikata tosses his tray away and marches towards his classroom. Lunchtime has ended awhile ago and everyone in his designated class has returned to their seats. How he wishes he can get a smoke first but he cannot afford to be late for the class. Taking a breath in, Hijikata knocks on the door and opens.

An elder woman in formal black dress stands at the front. Her black hair is tied into a mushroom bun, making her obivious who she is.

"You must be the new transfer student."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Come in now," she calls him with a gesture of her hand. "You know you have missed a few classes before lunch. I suppose you have a good reason."

Hijikata musters all his strength to be polite. "I was sick but now I feel better."

The woman seems unconvinced but she is not bothered to dig the truth. "Well, attention class. Let me introduce to you our new addition. Boy, go ahead and introduce yourself."

Hijikata nods, swallowing his pride and fighting the redness from surfacing on his cheeks. "I'm Hijikata Toushiro from Fukuoka. Please be kind to me."

"Well done, and I'm Otose, your homeroom teacher. Any matter please approach me," the woman speaks before looking for empty desks. "We are pretty full here. Ah, over there, the second row from the window, the one at the very back. That will be your desk."

With a little bow, Hijikata moves forward.

"Where is your manners?" Otose snaps.

Hijikata nearly jumps at her loud voice. "T-thank you."

That feels like pulling a tooth from his mouth as he seldom gives his thanks to people. After all, Hijikata treasures his pride the most. Making his way to his seats, he notices some students already recognising him. Something about him being crazy, stupid and bad boy image reach his ears and if he has followed his heart, he either fights back those mouths or leave for a quick smoke.

But Kondo appears in his head again, as the guilt weighs in. He swallows harder, gritting his teeth and he tosses his bag to his chair, signing to his classmates, he is pretty frustrated with the dirty looks and whispers about him. Hijikata wishes he can just ignore but he unfortunately cannot.

Before Hijikata takes his seat, he glances at the seat in between his and the window. Surprisingly, the neighbouring seat is occupied.

How can he even notice before when the student of that seat is hugged his head by the arms, dozing off?

"Wait a second," mutters Hijikata as his attention on the entire class has long shifted to his neighbour.

"Hijikata-kun," Otose responds, sounding impatient. "Hurry up and sit. We're going to begin our lesson."

"Oi, Sensei!" Hijakata shouts as though he is freaked out.

Actually he is super freaked out as he points his finger at the sleeping silver head next to him.

"What the hell is he doing here?! I mean, you're kidding me right?"

Otose sighs. "Can you just sit down now?"

"No way I'm sitting next to the Silver Prince!"