Notes: Sorry for the lack of updates! I totally forgot about this, but I received a review complaining about the updates so…ehehe…here it is. Actually, this thing's been sitting in my computer since last March, I think…
PART FOURTEEN
RRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNNNNGGGGGGStudents piled out of their classrooms when the final bell rang. Hisaki and Youshi gathered by Hisou's locker but found that their two officer friends were nowhere to be found.
"Heya! Oi, where's Hisou and Aiji?" Hisaki asked as he approached them and smacked Youshi on the back. The smaller boy coughed a bit and leaned on the lockers for leverage. When he regained balance, he hoisted his backpack and said to them, "The principal called Aiji earlier during the last class. I assume that's where he'll be now."
"Hisou?"
Youshi shrugged, "Maybe he's there, too."
Youshi and Hisaki were already in the hall when Hisou and Aiji emerged from the principal's office.
"What did he want?" Hisaki asked when Hisou approached them.
"Meeting." Hisou said and sat next to Hisaki on one of the chairs lined along the hallway.
Youshi's brows furrowed, "The principal calls Student Council meeting here? I thought they have moderators or something for that?"
"Not usually, he doesn't. But there's some issue he wanted to discuss himself," Aiji said and sat next to Youshi. Then, he perked up, "Oh, hey! Guess what, guess what, guess what?! Look at this," he excitedly shoved a piece of flier at them.
Hisou reached for it and read the announcement, "Miniature Structure contest?"
"Yep, and…" Aiji said, grabbing the paper and tucked it in his satchel pocket, "I have an idea of what we'll do. You see—"
Youshi cut him off, "We?"
Aiji beamed, "Yeah! I took the liberty of signing us up! Don't worry we're gonna be a team!"
Hisaki's nose flared, he stood up and stood right in front of the younger boy, "WE?"
Sliding down his seat, Aiji nodded weakly, "Well, yeah. I was actually planning on just joining. Just me, but I found out it'll be a team effort. I thought the team would consist of just two members, so that'd be just Hisou and me. But I found out that they need four members in each team, so I thought I'd include you two."
"Whoa. Stop. Whatever you say, I'm not in." Youshi said stubbornly.
Hisaki blurted out, "Well fuck, if he ain't in, I sure as hell won't be."
Aiji panicked, "But you can't back out now! I signed us up already! I just needed you guys for the people."
"Aiji, why would you sign us up in something without even asking for our permissions first?" Hisou asked calmly.
Twiddling his fingers, Aiji said, "Well, I know I should've waited, but the signing up ended at sixth period. And I can't find any of you, so I thought…"
"You said you have an idea, what was it?" Youshi asked, looking at the flier.
Aiji's eyes lit up, "Okay. I wanted to do something simple and attainable. The school."
"WHAT?!" The others chorused.
At this, Hisou stood up, "Aiji, I understand you're psychotically attracted to the school, as to why is still a mystery to me, but believe me. I know how much you like school. But, don't you think this is a bit much?"
"No. I mean, look at it. It's easy! It's here! We can just take pictures of the exterior on different angles, and then you and Youshi could do the plan, 'Saki could gather the clay needed from his father's business, and then we could do the model together!"
"There's no way in hell I'm asking anything from the sonofabitch. 'Sides, I didn't hear yer part in it." Hisaki said, jabbing a finger at Aiji accusingly as if to prove his point.
Aiji sighed, "Well, of course. I'll do the research and help out with the model! You're not going to ask help from him, per se, just some clay. We'll do everything on our own. And for Pete's sake, take that finger away from me. So it's done. We'll take pictures tomorrow."
Hisou wiggled a finger in front of him, "Ah-ah-ahh. Since Youshi and I will be doing the plan, WE decide what we'll do. And it's not gonna be the school." He turned to Youshi, "Is that okay with you?"
Youshi smiled. Hisaki snorted. Hisou noticed this and discreetly kicked him, "Ow! Shit! What the hell's THAT for?" then he looked at Aiji, "I still ain't bein a part of this."
A bunch of basketball varsities turned the corner and they saw Hisaki sitting there. One of them, Kouji, a blue-haired youth, a bit taller than Hisaki, called out, "Hey! 'Saki, man! Let's shoot some hoops!"
"Comin!" he called out, then turned to others as he was walking away, "I tell ya, I ain't gonna be a part of this."
Whatever, buddy. Aiji thought as he shrugged.
~*~
"Okay, what do you think about this?" Youshi asked, showing the picture of an old castle.
He and Hisou had been in the library for almost the whole day, trying to see what would be the best structure they should do. So far, they have none.
"I don't know, isn't that a bit…I dunno…hard?" Hisou asked before going back to his book.
"Huh, yeah." Youshi said absentmindedly and resumed flipping the pages.
True to his word, Hisaki had not been very helpful of the project. In fact, he didn't even want to be part of its discussion. Youshi and Hisou, on the other hand, can't help but feel sorry for Aiji. He's been so excited about it since he showed them the flier last Wednesday. Besides, it's not like they have much to do anyway. The only thing they weren't so hot about is the idea of doing a replica of the school. They've spent a majority of their lives in school, there's no way they'd be doing it as a project.
And so now here they are, sitting in the library on a Saturday weekend. Having replaced their white dress shirts and black slacks with jeans and T-shirts, they sat in the library, looking through books about different structures around the world.
Youshi closed the book he'd been holding for the last hour or so and gently placed it on the table. "Tell me, why again, did we agree to doing this?"
Hisou looked at him sympathetically, "Aiji wanted to do this badly and we pitied him." He smiled, "Besides, if we're gonna do this, we're gonna do this well."
Sighing as he lowered his head to the table, Youshi moaned, "I refuse to spend my Saturday in a library, of all places!"
The librarian shushed them loudly and firmly pointed to the "SILENCE" sign by the wall. Seeing everyone looking at them, Hisou smiled apologetically and looked at Youshi. "Keep your voice down. The last thing we want is to be banned from the library now. Not until we find a good structure to do."
Youshi lifted his head from the table, took a deep breath, and looked at the book, as if talking to it, "Okay. Let's do this one more time."
They stayed there two hours more until they found exactly what they were looking for.
"I'm starving, you wanna go grab something?" Youshi asked as they were walking out of the library, rubbing at his stomach for proof. After finding what they needed, they had the pictures photocopied. The library doesn't let reference books be borrowed. The copies they had in hand were, to say the least, totally helpless because the copier could only make black and white copies. But they agreed to just look it up in the Internet.
"Yeah. I think we missed lunch," Hisou said, looking at his watch, 3:25.
They entered a restaurant and ordered their lunch there. As they were walking to their table, trays in hand, Hisou almost stopped dead in his tracks. We're on a date. Well, technically, we are.
They found a table by the window and sat across from each other.
"So, you come here often?" Youshi asked, attempting at small talk. He's been with Hisou all afternoon and the other hasn't mentioned last night at all. Didn't he get it or is he playing cool?
"Not really, just a couple of times, I think." Hisou said. He looked earnestly at his plate, trying to squeeze the stupid idea that they were on a date out of his mind.
I chose you…He still can't get Youshi's comment from last night out of his mind. And to tell the truth, he still doesn't get it.
After lunch, they went to the basketball court where Hisaki plays. They spotted him and some other guys by the bleachers and walked over to him. As they went to Hisaki's direction, Youshi tugged at Hisou's sleeve, "Hey, who's that?"
Hisou scanned the crowd around Hisaki, "Which one?"
"That one, with the sort of teal hair," Youshi pointed to the one sitting on Hisaki's right, making wild gestures while telling something. Youshi figured that maybe Hisaki got his mannerisms from that guy, or the other way around.
"That's Kouji. He's been in the same basketball team as Hisaki since junior high. Why?"
Youshi smiled, "Nothing. Just curious."
"Hey man! Over here!" Hisaki called out to them.
They walked over to where Hisaki and the others sat. Hisaki did the introductions for Youshi's sake. When he saw Hisou and Youshi together, approaching him, he had to use all his strength from letting out some wolf-whistles. They were just cute together.
After all of Hisaki's teammates left, he, Hisou and Youshi played Horse for a while and also left after he and Youshi kicked Hisou's ass. Hisou kept telling them that the reason was he wasn't appropriately dressed. Hisaki snickered, they've been teasing his best friend about his lack of basketball skills after he completed 'horses in the valley', while Hisaki only had 'H-o' and Youshi 'H-o-r-s'.
~*~
Hisou and Houki were out shopping the next day. Their Dad just made a deal and out of the generosity of his heart, gave them both shopping money as a bonus. Well, that and Houki's constant pleading.
They were walking out from one of the shops where Houki just purchased a pair of sandals and was about to get lunch when Hisou bumped into someone.
"Oh, I'm so sor—hey!"
Hisou turned to look at the one he bumped into and was surprised to see that it was Youshi, coming out of a telephone booth. "Hi, nice seeing you here."
Houki jumped from Hisou's back to take a peek at Youshi, "Hey…Youshi, right?"
Youshi smiled, "HI, Houki. So, what are you guys doing here?"
Houki gleefully held up her bags, "Shopping. Who were you talking to, your girlfriend?" she asked, leering suggestively at the blushing purple-haired boy.
"Ahahaha…no. That was my friend from home. So, what did you get?"
Pulling him with her, Houki excitedly told Youshi what they did all day, not noticing Hisou's blush from behind them. Youshi tossed Hisou a look as if to ask permission that he'd be tagging along. Hisou returned the smile and trailed after them, leisurely. They entered an Italian restaurant and sat themselves as a waiter took their orders.
AN: Crappy, I know. but I tried redoing it, and for some reason, I always end up with almost the same thing. Heh. Tell me if you hate it.
About the timeline…it's kinda screwed, I know. At first, I tried to make the days go together well, but as the story progresses; the time seemed to kinda slip away. Sooo…what I mean to say is, don't try tracing the days when certain things happen, you'd just get a headache trying to fit them with each other. I know I gave up since chapter 5. Heck, I don't even know what part of the school year they are in right now.