Executive Committee belongs to Kazuya Minekura.

Answer the Chase 1

Tokitoh Minoru was not one to mince words. Blunt and honest almost to a fault, he was not stupid, just reckless and impulsive. He had no patience for and saw no reason to meddle in the sly subtlety and bandying of words that the student council played at. That was, after all, what Kubo-chan was for.

So he thought nothing of the question that was asked him after phys. ed. that afternoon, nor of his own reflexive answer. "Of course." Stacking the last of the floor mats in the corner, he turned around and blinked. He'd hardly paid attention to the sounds of movement behind him, had assumed it was just Satsuke and a couple of other girls putting the rest of the sports equipment away. He blinked again after a quick, cursory sweep of the faces now clustered and jostling for position at the double doors to the storeroom. He hadn't realized there were that many girls in 3-C.

Shifting unconsciously into an almost defensive stance, Tokitoh scowled irritably. If they'd been there all the time, why the hell had Satsuke dragged him off in the first place to help with the cleanup on the girls' side?

"You don't deny it then, Tokitoh-kun?" What was with Satsuke's weird grin? "No – should I?" She tossed a smug wink over her shoulder at the 'oohs' and 'aahs' at his reply. Tokitoh was further confused by the gamut of expressions that confronted him: glee, disappointment, disbelief, amusement… shrugging off the peculiarities of girls, he stepped forward, done with cleanup duty, and paused in comic incredulity when the seething female mass surged towards him. "What the – geh, lay off! Oy, what the hell?!"

"It's true then!"

"But he's not being serious! Look at him!"

"Oh, please! It's so obvious."

"Hah, I knew it all along!"

Wha...? The frenetic babbling lost on him, Tokitoh manfully pushed his way through – or tried to. Where were the doors again? Not quite able to see above the maniacal bobbing of heads, he growled under his breath, unpleasantly reminded yet again of his painfully diminutive stature.

"Hey, ease up will ya? How 'bout a little room?" He flinched away from the chorus of "But Tokitoh-kuuuun!!" and vainly wished he were just that couple of inches taller, enough to intimidate or at least see over the horde dammit. As it was they were that close to glomping him. Grimly thinking of black holes and the point of no return, Tokitoh growled in frustration. "Geeze, what's the big deal with me and –"

 "Sumimasen." Deep but almost singsong, it could have been a word of magic, so abrupt was the hush that had fallen, and as Tokitoh watched in disbelief, the girls retreated, parting fluidly to give him a clear escape route to the doors. Damn, he's good.

One casual shoulder against the doorframe, Kubota Makoto pushed his glasses up slightly, the only hint of his amusement a faint twitch of his lips. "Aa, Tokitoh. Tatsuo said you'd be in here. Are you – " he gestured vaguely, tilting his head as if to better appreciate his friend's predicament " – finished?"

Tokitoh grimaced. Damn, Kubo-chan wasn't going to let him live it down; boxed in by a bunch of girls. Even as he grumbled his feet were already moving. Kubota straightened from his slouch, and not for the first time Tokitoh marveled, glumly and with reluctant envy, at his friend's height. No, Kubo-chan didn't have to pick his way through the mob that was the student body of Araiso Private High. He didn't have to, not with people more often than not scrambling to get out of his path. He was intimidating and he could see over everyone else. Damn, some guys just had it all.

As if to add insult to the injury, Kubota slung an arm over Tokitoh's shoulders, the latter being of a comfortably short height. "So Tokitoh-kun..." Kubo-chan's breath touched his ear in a whisper only he could hear, and the smaller boy turned his head slightly to glare at the mocking drawl on the suffix to his name. Kubo-chan knew he hated it when he called him that. "A bevy of adoring fangirls falling over each other to worship at your feet – a favourite daydream come true for you, I'm sure."

Tokitoh scowled. "Jerk." It was getting a little too warm – he was hitting the showers next. Kubota bowed his head a little in acknowledgement of the slur, and Tokitoh rolled his eyes when his friend smiled absently in some general direction at the girls. "Pay attention, Kubo-chan. Better watch where you're going before you trip up and go down."

"My well-being is in your hands. If I fall, I'm taking you with me." And Tokitoh huffed in annoyance. "Get off a bit. It's too hot."

"Aa yes, fighting your fans must have been quite the effort."

"Ha ha, you can be so funny. What about you, lazy ass? You wandered off before the last whistle, and conveniently left the cleanup to everyone else."

"Cruel of you to say so, Tokitoh-kun. True, but cruel."

"Don't call me that!!"

And Kubota's chuckle was a rich, lighthearted sound that had the abandoned girls sighing wistfully until the bickering duo left the school hall, and the air in the storeroom exploded in a flurry of wails and demands.

"Hah, pay up, he said yes!" Satsuke crowed and rubbed her hands together in mercenary triumph as she snaked her way through the group to collect her winnings.

"But you can't be sure. He was so – so callous about it!"

"Not callous – just, just comfortable! It's so obvious!"

"And Tokitoh-kun's not stupid – he can't be that deaf to what everyone else says."

"But you know how he is sometimes – he could be laughing it up now, like it's some big joke to him."

It was fortunate that the person in question was not there to witness the dark malcontent start to brew as the noise subsided and the mass paused as one to ominously consider painful ways of paying back such petty behaviour.

"But don't they live together?"

And just as swiftly as it had descended, the grim atmosphere was dispelled, and Satsuke went her merry way pocketing her cash.

TBC