Chapter Ten

-1- Boxing

-2- Dancing

-3- Stock (how much money you can make in a day without an advisor)

-4- Cooking

-5- Cleaning

-6- Budget creating

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-7- Kabaji challenge

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"Oh come on An!" said Akira, giving An a little shove. "You know I could beat you in a second!"

The tomboy flicked a bit of hair out of her face. "Watch me beat you in fifteen minutes, Kamio!" she said, grabbing a tennis racket and going out on to the courts.

Atobe and Sengoku peeked out from behind the nearby garage to see An hit a strong smash. Atobe glanced at Sengoku to see the love-lorn face Atobe wore in his mind.

He smiled to himself. Point proven.

Unfortunately, going down to the street courts for an hour had gotten them pretty far from where they should have been. Kabaji's house. But the younger boy still hadn't called them with an idea. Atobe kept glancing at his cell phone when they were in the limo again, willing Kabaji to call. The silence in the backseat was so thick that speaking into it would've been like swimming through concrete.

Finally, when they were pulling into Sengoku's driveway, Atobe's cell phone began to ring and vibrate.

"'Hi Barbie.' 'Hi Ken!' 'You wanna go for a ride?' 'Sure Ken!' 'Hop in.' I'm a Barbie g—"

"Hello?"

Sengoku stared out the window as Atobe chattered into his phone. He didn't even turn away from the bright green lawn when Atobe hung up.

"So! Kabaji has an idea, but he says he'd much rather explain it in person, so we ought to go over there now. Is that all right with you?" Once Sengoku had nodded, Atobe leaned forward and tapped Fairweather's shoulder.

"Drive," was the only word out of his mouth.

It took only a few minutes to reach Kabaji's house. Sengoku was rather surprised when they parked in the driveway. The bright red walls glowed even brighter up close in the bright summer light. The windows were wide open so he could hear a lilting, high-pitched voice of a woman on a television.

It was the red house! Kabaji lived in the red house! His father was the man Sengoku liked to watch drive to Oakwood. Sengoku quivered with excitement as they walked up to the front door and he nearly forgot to not speak to Atobe. But they weren't best friends anymore—they were rivals.

A tall, curvy woman opened the door and let them in when she saw Atobe. The walls of the living room were bright, eye-watering blue and the whole house smelled of curry.

They walked up to Kabaji's room, which was in what Sengoku assumed used to be an attic.

Kabaji was sitting on the bed reading, but got up when they walked in. "Atobe-san! I have an idea for the final challenge. It took me a while, but I got it last night. Let me just get drinks." He offered them sodas, which they accepted. Sengoku gazed around the room.

The walls were the only white ones in the house and dark wooden shelves went up the even parts of the walls, stopping when they began to slope. The bed was made of dark wood. It was covered with white duvet. All in all, the room seemed to be the least hectic in the house.

But the whole house had a very warm, full feeling. Sengoku liked that. His house, ever since his older brother had left for university, had a sort of chilly, empty feeling. It's probably the color, Sengoku decided. Maybe I can talk mom into painting some of the rooms with me later.

Sengoku looked at Atobe, who was staring at the book Kabaji had been reading.

The cover was silvery gray and showed three ink drawing, two hands in black leather gloves, a hand writing out Montmorency several times, and a man in a black top hat. Beside these, in old-looking script, were several bright red letters; Montmorency. Atobe rubbed his thumb along the sides of the pages and opened the book.

Sengoku was surprised to see the small Latin alphabet letters printed on the paper. A couple words had been highlighted, he assumed to look up later, but they were few and far between.

So much for the Yamabuki myth of Kabaji being an idiot.

Atobe smiled. "It's his favorite book," he said with a smile. "I'm glad his dad bought it for him in English."

He looked at Sengoku, trying to say with his eyes, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

Sengoku smiled back. He was about to say something else when Kabaji returned with a tray laden with food and drinks.

"As usual mom goes overboard," he said quietly, and set the tray down on the bed.

"So what's your idea, Kabaji?" Atobe asked and picked up a piece of naan bread.

"Okay, if you're with a girl, you'll have to put up with all kinds of cooking, right?" he asked. Atobe and Sengoku nodded, continuing to eat off the tray. "My challenge is to see who can eat the most disgusting food without gagging or giving yourself away. It's even better if you can smile at the end."

"That sounds great Kabaji!" said Sengoku. He had nearly forgotten after a year, he was still an actor, pretending to be happy was his specialty.

Kabaji looked surprised and immediately closed up. "Thank you, Sengoku-san," he said quietly, breaking eye contact.

Atobe looked thoughtful. "That is good. When should we come back?"

Kabaji raised an eyebrow. "Why would you be leaving Atobe-san? My sister made dinner last night."

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Atobe and Sengoku looked at the plates of food in front of them. They were sitting cross-legged on the white-carpeted floor of Kabaji's room. He had heated up several plates of steaming, strong-smelling curries and taken them up stairs, first putting a cloth over his floor.

Kabaji looked at his watch. "You start in ten seconds."

Atobe began to count down inside his head. His hands gripped the fork and spoon Kabaji had handed him. His knuckles were white. This was it. This was the end. This was the end of the competition.

He got the feeling that, had that argument never happened, Sengoku would continue being friends with him even if Atobe won. That meant he could apologize in due course. He wondered if he would be able to apologize to Sengoku if Sengoku won.

"Four… Three…" Kabaji counted.

Sengoku bit his lip. He could do this—he knew he could. Nothing could stop him. He could probably even take one of those weird juices Momoshiro had told him about.

"Two… One…" Kabaji tapped his watch. "Go!"

They both began to eat, not quickly, but steadily. The food really was bad. It tasted like all the spices had burned and the potatoes were under cooked. Sengokus's stomach had a funny squelchy feeling in it, but he finished the potato and green bean curry and proceeded to the next dish, lamb vindaloo.

Atobe gagged as he bit into the chicken tikka and felt a wave of horror crash into him.

Sengoku stopped eating and turned towards him. His eyes were wide with shock and a bit of rice fell from his mouth and on to his plate.

Kabaji had heard it too. A look of disappointment clouded his face for a moment before he said, very quietly, "Sengoku-san… wins…"

The redhead felt a wave of relief. He was safe, he had An. She was his. She would be his forevermore.

He remembered when he had called Momoshiro for the cooking competition. Momo had been on a cell phone so his voice had wavered a little as they had spoken.

"What's this for?" Momo had asked Sengoku when he was informed about the challenge.

Sengoku had explained and Momo gave a loud laugh.

"Don't be so certain you'll get the prize! Atobe's not always trustworthy and An has a lot of other guys fawning over her."

It wasn't until they were in the limo again that Sengoku could finally bring up the courage to look at Atobe. He slowly moved his head towards his recently acquired friend. He was surprised to see him smiling.

"Congratulations," Atobe offered a long, bony hand and Sengoku took it. "You did really well. I could barely get through the potatoes."

Sengoku laughed, albeit nervously. He wanted Atobe and him to become friends again. Would he simply ditch him now, even if he apologized? Sengoku had been so mean before and he knew Atobe would've apologized had he given him the chance. The noise of his worrying mind made it difficult to hear Atobe.

"Do you want to try and ask out An this evening?" he asked Sengoku.

Sengoku nodded and bit his lip. He was reaching towards happiness and now it was brushing the tip of his middle finger.

It was sort of scaring him and he couldn't work out why.

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Omigod! Sen-sen won! Exciting. Will he get An? Will he get in a car crash? Will he randomly fall in love with Atobe? Will he… um… ::ran out of ideas:: Oh well. Here's your preview!

Sengoku took a deep breath.

"An, I—"

I'm awful aren't I? I want reviews on this chapter by the way! I was so upset about the last one getting nothing. Nada.

-OFsI