Hello~! Finally this fic reaches the tenth chapter! Oh, yes! Oh, no? XD We'll have some feedback questions in the end of this chapter. Hope you don't mind answering them :)

Disclaimer: Konomi-sensei owns everything here but the OCs.

Sorry for any grammatical mistake and typo! My beta reader is really busy these days D:

Have you listened to Shiraishi's Tsuioku?

Ch10: You Like Her, Don't You?

"Zaizen~"

The said boy turned around to see one of his senior as he heard his name called. He frowned as he caught a sight of Kenya. That annoying, stupid grin… He knew the bleached hair third year was up to something.

And most likely, it wasn't going to be a good thing.

"Zaizen-kun~" Kenya hummed as he slung his arm around the junior's shoulder. The other boy quickly shrugged him off. No skin contact, please. Not when they're both half-naked, not in public bathroom.

"What?" Zaizen coldly replied. What was with that kun suffix?

Kenya's grin widened as he saw the boy glared at him. "I see you're unusually being a gentleman today."

"What do you mean?" Zaizen questioned. He was still as cool as ever.

"Well, you helped Yamato and gave her a piggy back ride." Kenya said.

"She was hurt and I couldn't leave her in the middle of forest, could I?" Zaizen replied matter-of-factly.

"That's true." Kenya stopped for awhile. He tapped his point fingers to the chin and mused as if he was thinking. "To think again, you are really nice to her…"

"Huh?"

"You help her study." Kenya explained.

"That's… Just say I pity her because she studies hard yet she still doesn't understand the subject… And since English is my best subject…" Zaizen answered.

"You do that every day."

"That's because she is in the library every day."

"But you usually don't go there that often."

Zaizen opened his mouth but he shut it a moment later. He was silent for a while before he spoke. "What are you trying to say?"

Kenya knew Zaizen wasn't stupid. He was anything but stupid after all. This boy should know what the older boy meant. "I wonder what it is…"

Zaizen's eyebrows furrowed. Damn you and your stupid grin, Kenya-senpai!

"I also heard that you waited for her and escorted her home after the supplementary class the other day…" Kenya smirked.

Zaizen's eyes wide opened and his lips parted. "W- What? How-"

"Oh, I heard that from Chitose. He also attended that stupid supplementary class and he said he saw you." Kenya said. He was really amused by Zaizen's reaction. The usual composed boy was stuttering in front of him now. Not to mention the boy's cheeks were… red!

"You're blushing~"

"No, I'm not. It must be because of the hot water."

Kenya chuckled. The stubborn boy in front of him was very cute. (Zaizen might kill him though if he said that cute word loud.)

"You like her, don't you?"

"What was that?" Tsubaki gasped as she heard a loud crash sound, followed by some boys' screams.

"Ah… That must be the boys' another antic." Kouki replied calmly. "No need to worry."

Tsubaki stared at the other girl. "How can you-"

"Stay calm? Well, you'll get used to them eventually." Kouki chuckled.

"I see…" Still, she was amazed by how composed Kouki was. What if somebody got hurt?

"If Kouki-san says so, then you really don't have to worry about them." Tsubasa said. "If there was really someone's dying, they must be calling for us right now."

Tsubaki exhaled. Her brother was right (though the dying part was rather mean). For now, she had to focus on the carrots and onions; otherwise they wouldn't make it to prepare dinner.

There was no worker in the lodge so they had to prepare the meal by themselves. The girls didn't take a bath immediately after the practice ended like the boys; instead they were in the kitchen now with knives in their hands. It was hard to prepare meal for around 50 people. They were making curry and there were a lot of carrots, apples, potatoes, onions and beef they had to cut first.

"Yo!" Someone greeted as he slid the kitchen door open. The girls turned around to see who it was.

"Kura!" Kouki exclaimed as the said boy walked in.

"Did something happen? We heard a riot just now." Tsubaki asked to him.

""Oh, that was…" Shiraishi glanced at the curious girl. A smirked plastered on his face. "Zaizen-kun tried to kill Kenya but unfortunately he failed."

Her eyes widened. "Eh? Zaizen-kun was-"

"No need to worry. Everything is fine now." He casually replied.

She was still a little worried, but since Shiraishi looked very calm, maybe nothing bad had happened. (Otherwise everyone would have been in panic at the moment.)

"Anyway, how's the preparation?" He asked as he looked at the half-ready ingredients.

"So-so. There are still a lot of things to work on. I hope we can make it in time." Kouki replied.

"I see. I'll ask some freshmen to help you up then," he reached his hand past the girl and took an apple. "Not Kin-chan of course." He added playfully as he bit the apple.

"Hey! That's for today's dinner." She protested.

He chuckled then offered it to her. "Missing one apple won't hurt, will it?"

"Geez…" She pouted. Nevertheless, she still took it from him and ate it.

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away." He said patting her head lightly.

Suddenly the two was cut by a loud, forced cough. "Excuse me; I thought you said you were going to ask some freshmen to help us." Tsubasa said slightly annoyed.

"Oh, right." Shiraishi awkwardly replied. He quickly left the room and disappeared to the corridor.

Tsubasa frowned. "You guys, this isn't an appropriate time and place to be lovey-dovey."

"Sorry…" Kouki timidly squeaked. Tsubasa was scary even though he was younger than her.

"Don't you think so, onee-san?" He turned to his sister. "Nee-san?" Receiving no answer from her, he curiously tapped her on the shoulder.

Tsubaki jolted as she snapped from her thought and nearly dropped the knife she was holding.

"W- what?" She looked at him with puzzled expression.

He scowled. "Nee-san, you weren't listening at all, were you?"

'Geez, why can't they leave me alone?' Zaizen huffed as he walked out to the second floor veranda. His seniors, especially the idiot Kenya-senpai, had been pestering him since this afternoon. They kept calling him Zaizen-kun for a certain reason. They even referred him with that stupid suffix while talking to the others.

He exhaled heavily. He wished he hadn't gone here on the first place. Well, there had been some good things happening here, but still… Those guys were all pain in the ass. To think that they were older than him… Why couldn't they act more mature?

Right, it would have been much better if they had been more mature. Especially that stupid, idiot self proclaimed speed star. Had that guy not spoil his little secret to the other regulars…

He was cursing under his breath and strolling around when he saw a familiar girl with short dark brown hair was standing against the railing. She was alone. It was strange to find her without her brother. The siblings were usually together.

He looked around. Well, nobody but two of them was there.

"What are you doing here? You'll catch a cold." He said.

Tsubaki was surprised when she heard his voice and quickly turned at him. She was slightly relieved when she knew that it was returned to her previous state and gazed on the dark sky. "I won't."

He sneered as he stood beside him and leaned to the railing. He replied. "Right, idiots don't catch colds."

"What do you mean?" She shot a glare at him but he was looking away. She sighed and looked at the sky again after she concluded that he wasn't going to give her any reply. Both of them stood side by side without saying anything for a while. Sometimes she stole a glance. He was still looking straight to the sky. She didn't know whether he was simply admiring the beautiful starts (which was rather unbelievable) or was thinking about something… Just like her.

"So, what are you doing here?" He suddenly said, breaking the silence between them.

"I'm just… thinking about something." She answered.

"I see." was his replied before they went back to the silent phase.

"You know," she began after deciding that she should just spill her thought. "Back then when we were preparing the dinner I saw Kouki-san and Shiraishi-san together and somehow I feel… a little jealous… I- It's not like I have a crush on him or something!" She added as she felt he was staring blankly at her. "It's just… I think… It must be nice to have a boyfriend."

He could see her cheeks reddened even though it was lack of light there. Why did she tell him about it? He wondered why…

"I didn't know that you wanted to be like Kouki-senpai…"

"I- I'm not saying that I wanna be like her, it's just-"

"Having a strange boyfriend who is obsessed with freaking poisonous plant, flirting to each other even in public, and on top of that, being an idiotic couple. Really, who wants to be like her and having buchou as a boyfriend?" He cut.

"W- What? Wait! That's not what I mean!" She pouted. "I just wanna be like… like… anybody else…. Being a normal girl."

"Normal?"

She looked at him with a sad smile. "I never tell my family about this, but actually I also want to hang out with my friends after the school ends even just once. I want to go shopping with them and wear cute dresses girls usually do. Going to coffee shop, karaoke, game arcade, concert… Having a date, a boyfriend, being called by my first name…"

He listened to her without saying anything and let her continue.

"I think I should wait at least until Tsubasa turns fifteen, though I'm not sure my parents will let me do whatever I want once I'm free from my duty."

He looked at her. Somehow he was amazed by how she could keep up with such a life. If it had been him, he would have run away from home. Well, that might have been kinda impossible if he had been a girl, but at least he would have demanded for some freedom.

"I don't understand why you are really obedient to your family. What do you want to be? A Yamato Nadeshiko?"

"I don't-"

"You don't really need your parents' consent. You're not a little kid anymore."

"But-"

"Oh, I know. You're just too afraid to oppose them."

"I'm not-"

"I bet you're chickened out and don't even dare to speak up in front of them."

"Stop cutting my line! Show a little respect, you brat!" She finally burst out. "And I'm not that afraid of them."

Instead of being surprised or scared, a smirked appeared on his face. "Prove it then."

"Wha-"

"Say, are you free for the rest of the holiday?"

She blinked in confusion. Why did he suddenly change the topic?

"Then, this Saturday, I'll be waiting for you on ten o'clock in front of your apartment building." He straightened his back then turned around. He walked away leaving her behind.

She was still confused, no, she was even more confused. What had he just said? Was it… Was it really a…

"It is a date." He said as he stopped one meter away from the door. "Well then, good night, Tsubaki-senpai."

…

…

…

"What are they talking about? I can't hear anything!" Kenya grumbled as he pressed his ear to a wooden door so that he could hear more clearly.

"Shhh… You're being too loud, Kenya!" Shiraishi warned. "Zaizen might find us!"

Yuuji sighed as he peeked through a gap between the nearly closed door and its frame. "But really, they are so strange. I can't make a guess what are they talking about. First they looked like they were talking about a serious problem, then suddenly she got angry and a minute later she was speechless."

"That's called couple issues~" Koharu hummed. He then suddenly exclaimed (which made him receive glares from the others except Yuuji and Kintarou). "Don't tell me, they're a couple already?"

"Uh… What are you talking about? Why should we stay here? What's up with Zaizen? I don't understand." Kintarou whined. "And I'm hungry. Can't we get something to eat?"

Chitose chuckled. "Well, I suppose it'll take another 2 years 5 month and 18 days for Kin-chan to understand about this."

"Hum." Gin nodded in agreement. The others laughed in amusement seeing the redhead's innocence. Kintarou was still a little kid after all.

"Guys…" Koishikawa try to call out his friends. "I think, I think we gotta go…"

"Huh?" They all were about to turned to the vice-captain when suddenly the door in front of them was opened.

Zaizen stared at them. His eyes were slightly widened, showing that he was really surprise to find his friends there.

The boys gulped. They only had three seconds to save their precious life.

3…

2…

1…

"What the hell are you doing here!"

Seems that the Shitenhouji regulars really like eavesdropping XD (Oh, I do really want to be like Kouki and have Kura as my boyfriend~~)

The next chapter shall be *fanfares* DATE! Finally!

Okay, let's move to the questions I was talking about earlier:

1) OCs. What do you think about the OCs? Do you like Tsubaki and Tsubasa? Do you think they are Sues? Do you find them (or one of them) annoying? What about the other OCs?

2) CCs. Are the canons OOC? Does one of them turn into Canon-Sue?

3) Side characters. Do you think they (both side OCs and CCs) get enough screen time? Should they appear more often in the story? Do you find it annoying if I put in some OCs from my other story?

4) Storyline. Is it good enough? Do you find it too slow? Any suggestion/advice for improvement?

Please help me improving this story by answering the questions. Cookies for those who review this chapter and answer the feedback questions! Love you all! :3