One day, my chapters will not be ridiculously late, and I will no longer feel incredibly guilty.
Also, I apologize if this chapter seems off, but my beta abandoned me this week (everyone, boo at her! BOOOOOO.) and thus I have no comprehension/plot editor. ALL HER FAULT.
There was a certain entitlement to being a boy.
Or maybe it was just Minami.
She walked and grinned and talked and chewed gum with a confidence she hadn't had since the bonfire. Maybe it was the extra locks tangling down Aki's back throwing her off- 'he' wasn't there to curb her ego, and thus, she walked around like she owned the god damn town.
Of course, she had no plans to ever be a man after she won this. Except maybe during Halloween. But there was no harm in keeping the confidence, right?
Akihisa pretty much acted like himself but a tad more feminine (seriously, had no males in the area noticed him burping the alphabet?) while Tsuchiya just seemed so much more… noticeable. He blurred into the background most of the time, with his neutral expressions and dark day clothes. Not to mention the fact he tended to be on the floor more often than not.
Of course, this past month her change in attitude towards him was pretty damn drastic, going from the emotional equivalent of putting her fingers in her ears and singing to…whatever they were now.
But now other people took notice of him. Well. Her. He caught stares wherever the motley group walked, making him shrink back self consciously, which just made people stare more… Even Aki was paying more attention to him then usual.., which was sort of sad, as they were supposed to be really close friends.…And Tsuchiya didn't have many of those in the first place.
She shook herself from her sappy thoughts- Tsuchiya was an enemy now. There was no time for a pity party.
"Oi!" She said, spinning around. "Hurry up, you two!"
"Coming, senpai~!" Akihisa said cheerfully, voice painfully grating on her ears. Seriously, was no one suspicious?
Apparently, all people in the area were complete idiots.
…Maybe it was time to give them a little help.
She fell back, walking next to Aki, Tsuchiya slightly behind the two.
"You're doing decently." She said carefully, voice and eyes lowered. "But you're ignoring almost all of the guys. I haven't seen you talk to a single one. Not that impressive." She scoffed, shaking her head so that her bangs fell across her face.
"I could!" Aki chirped, staring at her and pouting defiantly.
"Oh yeah?" She rolled her shoulders, glancing over at a guy about their age around the area. He was closer to the non-crossdressing students then the three still in, but the sleezey, 'I-am-so-damn-amazing' expression that Minami hated was still easily visible. "Try him," she offered, pointing a thumb towards the teenager.
"Fine!" He huffed, pettitcoats of his dress flaring up as he walked away. Minami followed him, surprised at his perfect walk, hips sashaying and legs together, steps tiny. He was too damn good at this. Thus, her attempts to…up her odds. It wasn't cheating if there were no rules against it, right?
She turned to Tsuchiya next to her, whose eyebrows were raised in a silent question.
"You'll see." She said cryptically, crossing her arms.
She rejoined the others, in an unnoticeable but still in hearing range radius of the conversation. Aki had walked up, hands on his hips, smile confident, and introduced himself as "Aki-chan." The guy had bought it hook, line, and sinker.
Mizuki's expression was becoming darker by the second.
"Oh, wow, you're arms are so strong." 'Aki-chan' squeaked happily.
"Yeah, I know, babe." Minami rolled her eyes. Is this guy for real? Of course, his for real ness was essential for her plan…
…Her plan of absolutely winging it, but uh, still. She sat and watched the awkward flirting longer, watching everyone's expressions.
Sakamoto seemed to be storing this for future blackmail. Kinoshita was apparently experiencing as much second hand embarrassment as Minami was. And Tsuchiya just looked really, really confused.
…Mizuki was starting to scare her.
The conversation was going on for long enough that she was worried that they'd move out of her range, but Guy-Getting-Used dropped a line that sped things up rather quickly.
"Why do keep glancing over there?" GGU twirled a strand of Aki's hair, looking over in the rest of the group, who all feigned innocence (Kinoshita even started whistling). Except Mizuki, who was shooting daggers with her eyeballs at both of them.
"Uhhhh." Aki said, eloquently.
"None of the guys are your boyfriend, right?"
"Of course not!" Aki replied, squeak of his voice probably carrying to various countries around the globe.
"So they won't mind," he dropped the strand of hair, "if I do this?"
Minami realized what was about to happen before it did, and just managed to cover her mouth to muffle her scream of surprise.
… GGU had kissed Aki. On the mouth.
…. Not as planned, to say the least.
Aki's shoulder rose, hands spread, pupils pinpricks. But he didn't push away.…Was he that into winning the contest, or, uh…
Neither option was very welcoming in Minami's mind.
Whichever the one, Mizuki was a jealous girlfriend, which is always a bad thing to have when you are kissing random boys off the street. She sped to the scene of the crime with an agility Minami would never associate with her, and quite literally pushed GGU off Aki.
"He's my boyfriend," she said cheerfully, "So back off." Her voice kept the cheerful exterior, but there was a terrifying- almost demonic- quality to it underneath.
"A- he's- you mean he's a dude? B-b-but I- AUGH." His face had started to turn green, and he began wiping his mouth with his sleeve vigorously. "What the hell is wrong with you?" He shot the question at Akihisa viciously.
Aki shrugged. "Bet." Mizuki was grasping his arm, nails digging into the skin.
"Well, you're messed up in the head, man. I kissed a dude," he mumbled himself. Minami would assume GGU would of punched Aki in the face, if not for the fact he was in shock. And that Mizuki was sort of eminating a dark vibe of pure evil.
As the guy left, Mizuki spoke in a voice too quiet for anyone to catch. Then she walked away with Aki, still gripping to his arm.
…Minami could guess that he was in for an interesting conversation.
"Akihisa's out." Sakamoto said bluntly, and there was a double meaning there that Minami wasn't sure was intentional.
Not the exact plan she had, but it worked…
"So it's just Shimada-san and Tsuchiya now—"
"I surrender." It was the quickest response she had ever heard Tsuchiya give. Not to mention it was the first time he had talked today.
"Wait, seriously?" Sakmoto's raised his eyebrows
"….. She scares me." He said, glancing over at Minami, who just laughed. Seriously?
"…I can't to believe she did that to Akihisa-kun…" Kinoshita mumbled in disbelief.
"Hey, I didn't plan for- oh, whatever." She said, returning to her girl voice uneasily.
"Well. Congratulations, Shimada-san." Sakamoto reached around to his pocket, grabbing a small black chain purse that screamed 'stolen from Kirishima'. Minami grinned as she took it from him.
"Thank you very much." She said happily, pocketing the money without looking at it.
Of course, the shopping spree that came afterwards made the adventure today worth it all on it's own, but Aki's embarrassment in front of his friends (and girlfriend) and, of course, the fact she kicked everyone's ass were just some cherries on top.
The next two weeks were rather uneventful as fortnights go, with two crammed Sunday study sessions with hardly any conversation outside of "you did this equation wrong." Weekdays were even more dull. While it was true that Mizuki and Aki had been on the rocks since that eventful Saturday, Minami found herself… not really caring. The strongest emotion she had about the whole fiasco was actually pity for her best friend having to possibly deal with a break up, which was…surprisingly selfless for her.
She didn't really get this change in feelings, but she wasn't really going to object it either. So she just pulled through the days, enjoying the monotony for once. It helped that she has way more spending money on herself than usual.
It seemed the more comfortable was with a schedule and boringness, the more likely something would come along and completely explode the situation.
That something tended to come in the form of her little sister.
It had been a Friday evening, late, but not late enough for her parents to be home yet. Over night shifts on weekdays meant the only time she and Hazuki saw their parents was early in the morning (when they weren't sleeping in, that is) and Saturdays and Sundays. Minami had been a relatively good sister today, and was currently sorting through Hazuki's collection of knee socks (intensely impressive for someone her age) for the laundry.
And then the phone rang.
Minami sighed. "Get that for me, okay, Hazuki?"
"Okaaay~"
This wouldn't really be much of a concern, until Minami realized her sister never told her who called, ten minutes later. Which wasn't too unusual. Back to sorting. Light, light, dark, dark… how was Hazuki's wardrobe bigger then hers?
Well, she didn't have to wear a uniform, so that made sense, sort of— wait.
She blinked, listening closer.
….Hazuki was talking to someone on the phone.
Again, not much of a concern (friend from school, or something like that, she told herself.)
And then she caught the words "Kouta-nii", and Minami was running through the house on socked feet as fast she could.
"Hazuki, give me the phone!" She demanded, sliding into the kitchen.
"Oh, there she is!" Hazuki said cheerfully into the phone, and "Say hi, onee-chan!" to her sister.
"Give me the phone, now!"
"That's rather rude," her little sister pouted, still holding the phone tightly. "I mean, Kouta-kun went to the effort to calling me," sometimes Minami wondered if her sister seriously thought the world revolved around her, "and you're just yelling at the phone from me?"
Minami took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. There was only one way to handle her sister when she was being a huge brat. "I wasn't yelling."
"It was pretty close to yelling to me." She paused, holding the phone closer to her ear. "Nii-san agrees."
"Hazuki, can I please have the phone?" She ignored the comment, stepping closer towards her sibling. Hazuki side stepped away from her.
"I dunno," she said, "I mean, you get to talk to him every week, but it's been like… a month for me! How is that fair?"
"Hazuki…" There were walking circles around the kitchen now, Hazuki hold the phone on speaker as they avoided counters and other obstacles. Minami didn't dare to pick up her speed- anything besides patient and kind asking tended to make Hazuki absolutely refuse to cooperate.
"I mean, if mom and dad heard that a boy was calling the house for me, no big deal, right? But for you, the dating-age older sister…"
"You wouldn't." Minami froze.
"Well, I don't have to, but…" She grinned, index finger over her mouth in a "ssshh" motion.
Minami groaned in anger. "Why are you such a-" She suddenly switched to German, remembering there was someone overhearing this conversation, and proceeded on lecturing (and insulting) her sister loudly and angrily.
Hazuki replied back, also in German, until on-the-phone Tsuchiya was stuck in a sibling screaming match in a language he didn't understand. She felt sorry for him. And also wondered why he didn't just hang up yet.
"Fine!" She finally said. 'You get to talk to him for half an hour! And then you give the phone to me, no exceptions, and no telling our parents."
Hazuki grinned. "Yay! Thank you! You're the best sister eeeveer~"
"I hate you." Minami muttered, sulking off to her room and ignoring the unfinished laundry.
Having a younger sister sucked.
Now she was left with half an hour to wonder why the hell Tsuchiya was calling her.
She sat in bed, unmoving and refusing to return the laundry, throwing the occasional dart right into Aki's head.
Eventually the door opened and Hazuki stepped inside, innocent smile on her face.
"Here you go." She said sweetly, handing the phone to her sister. Minami didn't even give her a "thank you."
"Shoo."
"Okay!" She said, skipping out the door, happy as can be. Minami had no doubt that she planned to listen outside the room.
She sighed as she picked up the phone. "Sorry." She muttered automatically.
"…It's nothing."
Minami rubbed her temples. "What did you two talk about, anyway?" Pause.
"School."
"That's it?" Another pause.
"Mostly."
"So why are you calling, exactly…?" She ventured, lying back on her bed.
"…I have to cancel studying tomorrow." Thaaat would make sense.
"Oh. Alright, then, that's fine." She paused, about to leave it at that, but an extra word was blurted out anyways. 'Why?"
"… … I have a photography club tomorrow. It got moved." A club he conveniently never told her about, but it didn't really matter anyways.
"Well, have fun, I guess…. And one more question: how did you get this number?" She frowned into the phone, wondering if her home phone number was one of those things on his secret files he had.
"…. The phonebook?" Tsuchiya said doubtfully. …Jumping to conclusions was probably a really bad habit. She imagined his expression, confused, eyebrows furrowed at her stupidity.
"Oh. Right. Well, next time, just call my cell, okay? So you don't have to deal with the home phone police here."
He paused for a long while, and she imagined him nodding before remembering he was on the phone, which made her smile wider then she'd like to admit. "… Alright."
They exchanged numbers, Minami scrawling his on a scrap piece of paper. There was an excessively long pause, that, if it had been anyone else, she'd have assumed they hung up, but she waited patiently, twirling a pencil in her right hand while she waited for him to speak up.
"….Shimada?"
"Mhm?"
"….Do you… want to go? … To the club." The photographer added.
She blinked, surprised. "Sure, why not?" Without studying, her Sundays were excessively dull. "Meet at your house, then?"
"…Yeah." She could almost catch a smile in his voice.
"See you tomorrow." She replied, feeling weirdly excited at the prospect at seeing what he did outside of school. And, for that matter, the people he spent time with…What kind of people were in photography clubs, anyways…?
He hung up silently, and, being the master of timing, Hazuki burst in a second later, smiling.
"Oooooh, the photography club? Sounds like a daaate~", she said, sing-songedly, and then giggled.
In response, her sister threw a pillow at her.