Conversation among the three girls was sporadic the following morning, as Jinko was busy sharing songs from a new band that she had discovered. Between tracks they discussed their preferences and thus were almost upon Kinnosuke before they noticed him.

"Yikes!" Jinko jumped. "What are you doing in the middle of the path, Kin-chan? Taking up another donation? It better not be for Kotoko, since she took you down a few pegs the last time you tried it!"

"No," he growled. "But I do want to talk to Kotoko. Alone!" He glared at the other girls, whose response was to place protective arms around their smaller friend.

"Not on your life, Kin-chan!" Satomi countered. "Just because you're in love with Kotoko doesn't give you the right to nag her about it all the time. And first thing in the morning too! Now, get lost for awhile!" The three girls skirted around the young man.

"If that's the way you want it," he muttered then spun around. "Kotoko! Are you living with that Class A jerk Irie?"

The trio came to an abrupt halt. Satomi and Jinko turned to Kotoko with questioning eyes, and she marched back to face Kinnosuke. "What kind of nonsense are you babbling about now, Kin-chan?" she bluffed courageously. "Just because I don't want to go out with you is no reason to drag another person into it!"

"Nonsense, is it?" he spat out. "Then explain this!" He produced his cellphone with a flourish. The three leaned in and peered at it.

"That's Mirajane Strauss from Fairy Tail in one of her fan-service swimsuits," Kotoko stated in a deadpan tone. "Is that all?"

"No—wha—how did that get there?!" Kinnosuke began tapping keys on his phone as Satomi and Jinko exchanged raised eyebrows. "Here!" He held out the phone again.

"Eep!" Kotoko swallowed suddenly. There was a picture from the ice cream parlor, and one on the train, and even one outside the Irie home! "Uh, well, what happened was…" she began.

"And that woman," he brought up a closeup of Mrs. Irie, "was talking about you and that bastard Irie getting married. So what about it now?"

"Kotoko! I thought I saw you and Irie-kun getting off a train together!" Satomi exclaimed.

"And I could have sworn you were with him near the roster board!" Jinko added.

When Kotoko admitted that it was the Irie family that she was living with, the two girls drew even nearer to her.

"So, Kotoko." Jinko grinned at her. "Time to have a little girls' talk!" Satomi nodded in agreement.

"No!" Kinnosuke waved his arms and disputed with them. "Stop looking at it like that! That house is a dangerous place for an innocent girl like her to be in!" He charged on, unable to see that he had lost the attention of Kotoko's friends. "I don't know how I'll do it, but I'll get you out of that den of vipers somehow or another!"

"Vipers, did you say?" It seemed as if the temperature suddenly dropped five degrees. Naoki plucked the phone out of Kinnosuke's unresisting hand. "My family has offered hospitality to friends in need, and you describe us as poisonous snakes. Your imagination is running riot—as usual," he added snidely.

"B-but—hey, you, Irie!" He finally got his words back and began pointing erratically at the other boy. "You need to stay away from my Kotoko! She's a good honest girl. No taking her to expensive cafés and such to turn her head!"

"Expensive?" Naoki chuckled suddenly. "Oh, you mean like where ice cream is kept in solid gold buckets?"

Kotoko's eyes widened at the combination of the comment and Kinnosuke's discomfiture. "That was you, Kin-chan? Yuuki-kun and I thought it was so funny!"

"A-a-and who's this Yuuki, now?" he sputtered. "Another evil person that you've met in that house?"

"You're speaking of my younger brother," Naoki informed him, "and I don't think that his third grade self is much of a threat to Aihara-san." He tossed the phone back to its owner. "If you know what's good for you, you'll drop this ridiculous pursuit and stop bothering her." He spun around and rejoined a wide-eyed Watanabe. "I suppose I'd better clue you in," he muttered as they entered the building.

"I can't wait," his bespeckled friend chuckled in response.

Behind them came another shout from Kinnosuke. "Hey! What happened to all my pictures?! When did that bastard erase them? Oh, no! My Mirajane folder too!"


"Now, Kotoko, spill!" The three girls were crammed into a stall in the third floor restroom.

"Well, like Irie-kun said, my father and I are staying with his family until our house is repaired."

"Irie-kun! Irie-kun!" Satomi exclaimed to Jinko. "She says his name so calmly!"

"You can tell us, Kotoko," Jinko nudged her, "what's he like at home?"

"Um, he's pretty nice. Not too talkative—"

"Whoa!" Satomi held up a hand. "Did he help you study for midterms?"

Kotoko nodded her head sheepishly.

"You traitor! You got a personal tutor and left the rest of us to do retakes!"

"Sounds like you two are a lot closer than you're letting on."

"Not really. His mother treats me like a daughter, so I'm sort of an extra child in the family."

"Wait! Maybe that idiot Kin-chan is on to something!"

"What do you mean?"

"This could be Kotoko's perfect opportunity!"

"Huh?" Kotoko was getting dizzy from moving her head back and forth to follow the conversation.

"Irie-kun has never dated anyone, never had a girlfriend. Now Kotoko is right there in his house, in the next bedroom maybe?"

They looked at her in question. She gave a weak grin and nodded.

"It's a chance that just about any girl in this school would kill for!"

"What do you mean?" Kotoko asked.

"Go after the super prince! Make him yours!"

"Mine?"

"Ro-man-tic-ally," Jinko drawled suggestively.

"But I don't think about him that way."

"Are you really a woman?" Satomi stared at her.

Jinko was blunt. "Don't you think he's good looking?"

Kotoko thought for a minute. "Well, yes."

"And he plays tennis—"

"—so he has an athlete's body."

"Hmm. He is pretty strong." Kotoko thought back to him carrying in her boxes the first night and, more recently, catching her in the train and setting her back on her feet. She blushed a little at the second memory, recalling how close they were when she fell against him.

Her friends pounced on the extra color in her cheeks. "See! You've noticed him!"

"Now, you just have to make your move…"

"No, no!" Kotoko shook both her hands and her head in vigorous denial. "No one is making a move. I like my relationship with Nao—Irie-kun just fine the way it is!"

"Ha!" Jinko pointed at her. "You almost called him Naoki! You've gotten farther than you're letting on!"

"Don't be silly!" Kotoko pushed her way to the stall door and shoved it open. "Your imagination is as...as lurid as Kin-chan's!"

A group of young ladies applying lipstick at the sinks followed her with their eyes as she departed.