Hi. I don't really know what to say here, but this is not your author; she's currently extremely busy and stressed out. I'm her friend.
So from what I can tell, she usually apologizes after a long time of not updating. She is terribly sorry for not updating for such a long period of time. As I've mentioned earlier, this week has been hectic for her. She'd had barely enough time to finish this chapter. (Like, right now, she's probably sitting on the floor with dozens of books scattered around her. Her hair is probably all messed up like a nest from the stress.)
Uh, she did say that all the reviews will be answered the next time she updates. Sorry.
I guess that's all.
Ridiculous, I thought as I walked down the hallway filled with chattering students. He wasn't worried about me. He was watching me as entertainment. Satsuki was wrong. She was wrong. What did she know about Usui Takumi?
"Misaki!"
I snapped out of Annoyanceville and came back to the real world. Sakura was calling me, waving her hand up high even though we were only 10 feet apart with no students in between us.
"Misaki!" she called again. "How awesome is this? You got second place on that mock exam!"
Second place.
"Second place?" I asked, forcing my brows to not furrow. "Who's first?"
I had a feeling that I wouldn't like the answer to this.
"Usui Takumi," Shizuko pitched in.
No. Way.
No. Friggin'. Way.
I left without saying a word.
My head was pounding.
I refuse to be humiliated like this.
Flash images of the blond crashed through my mind, forming uncontrolled chaos, my mind going amok.
I refuse to be humiliated like this.
He was probably laughing his backside off right now, watching me with those tricking green eyes of his, scrutinizing me, searching for my weakness. And I'd given it to him. I told him my weakness the day he discovered my part-time job, and I'd stupidly told him everything: The day that my dad left my family, the point where I felt so weak and frail that I didn't think I could carry on, everything. He knew that I didn't have spare time to study more than I already am, and he was using it to his advantage.
And even with all that information, he still wanted more.
I refuse to be humiliated like this.
I didn't want to be looked down upon!
ZRRACK!
I slid open the door to my next class, panting, extremely infuriated. I just wanted to sit in my seat and forget about all of it. I knew I was kind of making a big racket for such trifling matter, but I just held a deep grudge against anyone who used my weakness against me and beat me at something, and sitting down might help me regain my composure.
But it seemed like I wouldn't be getting any rest in the class, because just as I took a stepped in, a group of boys looked up from the magazines that they were holding and tried to hide it under their blazers.
"What are those indecent magazines you're looking at?" I asked, deadpanned.
"T-they're comics!" they replied, but the hesitation in their voices was a dead-giveaway.
As I approached them, my hands ready to swipe the magazines away from them, they continued to babble on, "What, just because they have some gravure images doesn't make them 'indescent'!"
I silently cleared my throat, and growled, "Confiscated," all while yanking the magazines away from them.
They muttered some curse words, and if it wasn't for the blood pounding in my head, I would've punished them for those, too.
"Why are the girls allowed to bring magazines while the boys aren't?" they complained. "You're being unfair! You're not giving us equal rights! Bias!"
What?
The room was silent. I knew for a fact that the boys were still arguing about their confiscated magazines, I saw their mouths open and shut and their tightened jaws. But I couldn't hear anything. My mind was too focused on the way I'd been treating the students in the school in the past. Was I bias? Was I performing inequality? Apparently so, according to the boys in front of me.
"If you're going to enforce the rules, then enforce it to both the boys and girls!"
I took a deep breath and said, "Fine. I'll review the case after checking the contents of the magazines. Those that are just inappropriate for school are banned." To the class, I announced, "Give me the names of the magazines that you'd like to read at school. Both male and female."
The boys looked surprised then. They stared at me, wide-eyed, before looking at each other and the other students who were in the class as well.
"But there will be a lot of them, and you're already so busy with your current work…" one of the girls in the back of the class said.
"It's fine," I said, trying to muster an easy tone. "It's my duty as President."
They looked at each other uncomfortably, as if doubting I could do what I said I would. I looked at the boys apologetically, and I wanted them to see the guilt in my eyes. I wanted to say that I was sorry, but I was too proud; my ego was taking over.
However, the boys looked ten times more guilty and sorry than I was. They were looking down at the floor, their shoes, the piece of gum stuck on the floor, everywhere but at me. They fidgeted quite a lot, too. And not only that, their brows were slumped down like the roof of a house.
I grabbed a piece of crumpled paper from the table beside the door and crouched to pick up the gum from the floor.
"Tell that to the other classes, too, would you?" I asked, already heading for the door. "I will really appreciate it if the names come by today, afterschool. Place them by my table in the Student Council room. Thank you."
And I left, feeling as if I'd yet again bit off more than I could chew.
Silly feelings. What did they know?
xXx
I sighed as I closed the 286th magazine given by the students. Nope, nothing inappropriate here…
"P-p-p-president?"
"Yeah?" I looked up while placing the magazine on the Allowed pile.
"Err… Well," Sawa, the Student Council accountant, stuttered. "The accounts for last month aren't… adding up p-properly…"
It took me a moment to realize what he was talking about.
"What?" I growled, slamming my desk with magazine number 287. "I told you to count the money accurately!"
"I-I am so sorry! I'm s-sorry!" he squealed, his arms curling around him like a porcupine.
I sighed, feeling the throbbing pain from my temples, and murmured, "It's fine. I'll do it myself."
He paused before turning away, looking somewhat relieved while also guilty, and left the room, leaving me all alone in the godforsaken room, reading through hideous amounts of magazines.
It was around 5 to 6 in the evening when the sun started sinking down the horizon. Crimson light filled in the room from the window, casting long shadows across tables and cupboards. The place was eerily quiet, but I was quite used to it now. After all, I had been staying late for a long time now, had I not?
I was starting to feel quite warm, since the air conditioners were turned off over two hours ago, when the last staff of the school had left. Instinctively looking around to see whether there was anyone in the area, which was – I have to admit – a tad bit stupid, I took off my blazer, untied the ribbon around my neck, and unbuttoned the first two buttons of my button-up uniform.
"Are you a masochist, Pres?"
My heart lurched to a halt.
I whirled around, my head pounding from all the blood that was rushing through it, and found myself looking at Usui Takumi leaning on the doorframe to the room.
"W-what are you doing here?" I asked, my question sounding more to an accusation than an inquiry. I was suddenly aware that my uniform was exposing too much of my skin that the school's regulations had allowed.
"You enjoy weighing yourself down, driving yourself into a corner… I guess you're a sadist, too, then," he continued, ignoring my lack of hospitality to his presence.
"What –?"
My mind was too blurry to comprehend what he was saying; I could barely make out each word coming out of his mouth.
"I think you should loosen up a bit. I mean, not to be inquisitive in any way, but…" his voice trailed off from my senses. I could still see his mouth moving, but even his image seemed to be swaying like a drunkard.
The red of the class suddenly seemed too sharp for my vision. My eyes were blurry and my mind confusing. My body felt weightless for a moment, my limbs feeling as though all the gravity that had been acting on them was suddenly gone. Also in that moment, my vision moved, from Usui Takumi to the ceiling to the lamp above me.
Then the back of my head made contact to something solid. My vision stopped moving and settled to the part of the wall where it ended and the windows started. I could feel air tickling down my cheek.
"Just watching you like this…" Usui Takumi said, now suddenly very close to me.
Then there was one nanosecond where I realized that not only was Usui Takumi perilously close to me, he was the pillar I was leaning on. His hands were around my waist, securing me from falling any farther. Our bodies were practically one, mine emitting more heat that his.
And there was a fourth of a nanosecond where I wished that I hadn't unbuttoned my uniform so much.
"Let... go of me," I whispered, the immense pain in my head becoming more and more painful with each breath. "Usui Takumi, let go of me."
His hands snaked up from my waist to my chest, where I had opened the buttons to my uniform, and I felt my heart quicken from the touch of them. I had the urge to slap him across the face right then, like how I would usually do, but my hands were sore from the exessive lifting of books and my body felt like it was going to fall over had Usui Takumi not be there to be the spine of me.
He exhaled, sending warm breaths to my cheek, my nape, and I trembled.
I hated being weak, but I didn't have another option in this case.
His hands rightened my collar, before buttoning up my uniform, his fingers constantly brushing against my bare skin.
"... You really make me worried," he finished whatever it was that he'd said before.
Worried.
I somehow managed to gather up enough strength to slap him away. He didn't seem surprise by my sudden reaction and continued to stare at me with those unreadble green eyes of his.
"I," I breathed, "don't need help... from the likes of you."
That was when I saw the hurt in his eyes. It was only a small spark of hurt, but hurt nonetheless.
But it was gone just as quick as it had came. If he had been hurt a second ago, it seemed like he'd forgotten all about it then.
"Oh" was his only reply.
He turned around and stepped out of the doors, his shadow following in his wake.
The sun had completely set now, and the school was engulfed in pure darkness. And despite having more-or-less shooed him off, I had a feeling that Usui Takumi was still lingering somewhere around the school.
People, GO SPAM HER WITH LOVELY REVIEWS.
