"Why don't you just tell her how you feel?" The Kansai-ben guy patted Kazukiyo on the back just a little too hard.

"No!" he said for about the millionth time, his voice cracking a little.

"Why not?"

Expectant looks like that always made it much harder to force out an answer. Kazukiyo shook his head. "Why not? I… I don't know. I guess I don't want to ruin what we have now."

"And… and that concludes our report," I said, stealing a glance at the girl beside me. Momoka was smiling out at their classmates good-naturedly. Even the quickest glance at that smile makes me feel like I'm going to melt. There's just no other way to say it; Momoka is the cutest girl ever.

She caught me looking at her and smiled back. If a glance at an indirect smile is capable of melting me, a full-on smile in my direction is the equivalent of direct exposure to the rays of the sun; I feel like I'll disintegrate within milliseconds. I could feel my face burning, but I smiled back, trying to act natural. The two of us took our seats, and as soon as I was sure I'd slipped from her mind completely (which doesn't take long at all), I went back to stealing those glances at her. We've been in class together for years, and this year we are both class representatives for class 1-A at this high school. One important reason I went here, I'll admit, was to follow Momoka. The other is because my father is an alumnus of Ouran, and I have to attend here as much to please him as to avoid any weird questions from the media regarding the school I chose. I'm telling you this for a reason. I'd like to say that I came here wholly to follow Momoka, you see, but that wouldn't entirely be true. I'd also like to tell you that if Momoka hadn't chosen Ouran, I would have followed her to her school of choice anyway… but I don't even know the validity of that statement myself, so I won't take the risk of saying it.

You'll have to forgive me. My mind tends to wander when I get nervous, and I often get nervous. I think that's something of a vice of mine. Not that it's a mannerism that I feel like I can control… never mind; I'm rambling again.

I've had a crush on Kurakano Momoka for more than two years now. Sometimes I get the feeling that everyone knows that except for Momoka herself. It's like some sort of divine protection brought upon me that prevents her from noticing, no matter how idiotically obvious I can be sometimes. I have never made any effort to actually communicate my feelings. You could say I'm the kind of person who just doesn't have a lot of self-confidence. Because of that, you might think it's an excuse when I say that I never even intended to tell Momoka how I felt, or otherwise act on those feelings. I've always felt truly privileged to be someone that Momoka smiles at and calls her friend. I don't want to waste that happiness on an attempt at reaching couple status that would most likely crash and burn in the early stages anyway.

Maybe, then, it was a fatal oversight on my part to communicate what I've just told you to Hitachiin Kaoru. I know there isn't much of a plausible excuse for that, but I can explain my reasoning. Somehow, at the time, I saw Kaoru by himself as being relatively harmless. It was the twins together that I thought of as dangerous. I thought that if I spoke to only Kaoru, nothing would really happen. This, however, proved to be a major miscalculation. Despite my constant high scoring on exams and otherwise nearly-flawless performance in school, I am the kind of person who occasionally fails to think things through.

"Hikaru."

"Hm?"

"I'm bored."

"Oh." Hikaru turned to survey his brother's face. "What shall we do this time, then?"

Kaoru acted his part perfectly, leaving an adequate pause before giving his answer. "Well, I did have one thing in mind," he admitted. He would have to be careful about how he phrased his pitch. If Hikaru wasn't interested, it would be shot down in a mere second. "Do you remember, Hikaru, the couples' game we played in junior high?"

"I remember it," Hikaru said. So far so good; he sounded interested. "Where exactly are you planning to stir up trouble?"

In response, Kaoru carefully slid a card across the table. It was small and elaborately decorated with the words "Couples' Matching" written on it in neat katakana. It was a card used in a game the twins had played with their classmates before. Paticipants entered anonymously by writing their names on the back of a card and then returning it. The cards were then sorted into male and female groups and shuffled. Afterwards, each participant received another's card. The person whose name you received was declared your "Winning Match." If two people were given each other's names, they were declared a "Winning Couple" and won a full-expenses-paid first date together.

Curiously, Hikaru flipped the card over. "Souga," he read. "Who's that again?"

"Our class rep. Kazukiyo."

"Ah. Right." Hikaru paused. "It sounds kind of pointless," he said, causing Kaoru's heart to sink. "Haven't we agreed? He's of the sort that's no fun to tease."

"It frustrates me," Kaoru explained. "I don't know why, but it's annoying. If you like someone, you should make your feelings known to them. You shouldn't just sit there and accept things how they are if you really love someone! I can't accept such an answer." Kaoru has a stubborn look on his face.

Hikaru shrugged, smiling internally. "So you mean to help those two along for the sake of your own peace of mind."

Kaoru grinned.

Hikaru grinned, too.

"It could be interesting."

Author's notes: This was fun to write. I love this couple to little bits and pieces. If you know of any other Kazukiyo x Momoka fics, please point me in that direction! Thanks. Anyway, I originally meant this chapter to contain what is now the beginning of the next one. There are three reasons this was released as it was. I wanted to post something and the part with chapter two was taking too long, I like cliff-hangers, and this part is exactly 1,000 words long. Wow! I think that's pretty neat.

Uhmm, I had trouble developing Kazukiyo's character. I empathized as much as I could and tried comparing him to my brother(Ha!) and voila, we have my interpretation of Kazukiyo. I wanted him to sound intellectual but not snotty or boring, and I didn't want him to sound TOO pathetic… but yes, I wanted him to be pathetic. A bit. (smile)

Also, the twins gave me such a hard time. I don't think I have the skills necessary to interpret them, so I might not write much more about them after this. (sigh) I rewrote their dialogue again and again and I'm still not happy with it. However, I won't point our what's wrong with it if you wont. XD Just kidding, feel free to give me advice; I need it.

I don't rightly know if the next chapter will be these two or Kasanoda and Tetsuya or a new couple… I guess it depends on what I feel like working on and what you guys want.

Comments? Crits? Requests for future chapters? Keep the reviews coming.