Chapter 4

Big News!

-x Kei's P.O.V

It was Monday morning and Kei was walking into school, already eager to see if Hikari wanted to meet up again next weekend too – not that he'd ever let anyone else know about his excitement. Unfortunately, he had had another of his dreams last night and after spending the day with Hikari the day before, he was worried that he'd find it difficult to be in a close proximity with her. Just as he resolved to keep her to a decent distance; he heard a voice calling him.

"Takishimaaaa!" Kei just managed to turn back in time to see Hikari running towards him and realised almost too late that she was about to jump on him – a rather rare occurrence.

"Hikari, what is it?" She looked up at him, her arms wrapped around his shoulders and a big grin on her face, Kei couldn't help joining in even though he had no idea what she was so happy about.

"Isn't today a wonderful day?" She asked, still grinning. Kei was starting to get suspicious – she was never normally this clingy, not that he would normally be complaining.

"Hikari, what's got you so cuddly?" He asked as she slowly disentangled herself from him, she giggled again, appearing to be very giddy.

"I have some amazing news, come on so that I don't have to tell everyone separately!" She grinned as she took his hand and tugged him towards the greenhouse where their fellow S.A. students would likely be waiting.

Five minutes later, everyone was gathered around the table in their usual seats, all staring intently at Hikari and waiting for her crucial news.

"Come on, Hikari! Say it already!" Akira beamed, forever enthusiastic wherever Hikari happened to be concerned in something.

"Well, I saw the Class President on my way to school this morning and he had something rather surprising to ask me." Kei felt his heart sinking already and his fingers dug into the ends of the chair that he was sitting in, he gripped so hard that his knuckles started to turn white.

"And?" Jun prompted.

"He confessed to me and asked me to go out with him." Hikari looked down at her lap and her face heated slightly. Kei felt emotions of pure jealousy and rage take over him, he couldn't believe what he was hearing and apparently by everyone else's expressions, they didn't believe it either. Akira looked horrified; Tadashi had dropped the cake that had been hanging out of his mouth, not caring when it finally dropped and stained his shirt; Megumi was gripping her notepad so hard her knuckles were flashing white as she stared open-mouthed between Kei and Hikari; Ryuu was looking at Kei worriedly and Jun was staring completely at Hikari, not sure what to make of her description of events. As for Kei, he was fighting back the tears that had suddenly appeared at the corner of his eyes.

"H-how?" Ryuu finally managed to mutter. He was clearly painfully aware of how Kei felt for Hikari and Kei knew now that this had happened that he had done a stupid thing by allowing her the space. She hadn't shown anything other than friendship towards the Class President and he was, of course, the usual type to admire her happiness and beauty. Just thinking about that pathetic excuse for a man made Kei's blood boil.

"Well, it seems that he's liked me for a while and I didn't think there could be any harm in it." Kei squished the armrests of his chair even tighter and felt the wicker snapping between his fingers.

"No harm in it…" Kei muttered as he stood, some of the strands of wicker falling to the floor from his strong fingers. He couldn't help but glare at Hikari who appeared to shrink back from his gaze, pushing herself further into the chair to get as far away from him as possible. Too angry to do anything more, Kei growled in frustration and stormed out of the greenhouse. As he stopped just out of sight of the doors, he finally let his scream of frustration and anger out and punched a nearby tree, successfully denting the wood as he huffed to himself.

"This won't last, you know." He heard a voice behind him and even in his fit of rage, he recognised Ryuu's voice.

"What wont?" The words were snarled out of his gritted teeth.

"Them two, there's clearly no affection on her side and he's nothing but annoying. Even for Hikari, that will get on her nerves. We all understand how you feel, Kei." Ryuu placed his hand comfortingly on Kei's shoulder but it was quickly swiped off as Kei turned the full power of his fury upon Ryuu.

"No you don't! You don't know what this feels like! I can deal with not having her for myself but to see her being owned by another man is more than I can take! I've got to get out of here."

"Now don't you even think about wimping out and flying off to London!" Ryuu's voice rose in anger for the first time in their friendship. "You think that you can really escape all of the pain and hurt by simply flying to London and getting this over and done with? Sometimes you're really thick, Kei! She may not be yours, she may not feel the same way but Hikari will come and drag you back and we'd all rather not go through that pain again!" Kei was taken aback. Ryuu was ACTUALLY shouting at him, an incredible occurrence even with the extraordinary circumstances. "Go find somewhere quiet and calm down, we'll sort this out." Kei did as his friend bid and left to go to somewhere he could be alone and let all of his emotions out. Probably somewhere with something that didn't matter if he punched it to smithereens and if Kei just so happened across the Class President on his way… he doubted he'd be able to contain himself.

-x Hikari's P.O.V

Hikari sat staring at the door that Takishima and Ryuu had both run through just after her surprise was revealed. She looked towards Akira who was starting to cry.

"My angel, Hikari!" She wept as she darted forwards and wrapped her arms around the black-haired girl's shoulders. As soon as Akira managed to get Hikari in a hold, her gaze also drifted to the doors.

"Do you think that Takishima will be mad with me for long?" She asked worriedly, her voice barely more than a whisper.

"I doubt it, Hikari." Hikari dragged her gaze away from the greenhouse to look at Tadashi, Megumi and Jun. Tadashi still hadn't picked up his cake but had managed to wipe his mouth and Megumi and Jun were still staring at her.

"What is it?" She asked the latter two, worried by their stares.

"Nothing, we're just wondering how you can say something that thoughtless in front of Kei." Jun responded, turning away and not looking at her.

"What do you mean?" Megumi began writing a response and Hikari waited until the pad was turned towards her.

"Are you really that thick, Hikari?" The words stung her but less than the implications of the situation.

"I still don't understand…"

"Kei's head-over-heels for you. How have you not noticed?" Tadashi asked, finally cleaning himself up and taking a sip of his tea nonchalantly. Hikari blinked suddenly.

"What are you saying, Tadashi? Kei doesn't like me in that way." Everyone, including Akira, snorted.

"He has been since childhood. It's a wonder that someone with as much intelligence as you is oblivious to the most obvious fact in the world." Ryuu finalised as he stepped back into the greenhouse. He turned to face Megumi and Jun.

"Where is…"

"He's cooling off, damn near broke a tree." Hikari looked oddly up at Ryuu before standing, surprising everyone, especially Akira who had still been holding onto her. She had to talk to him…