EIGHT

Kaede's eyes stared closely at Yohei.

"He may be acting like he hates you so much..." Yohei wasn't able to finish for he saw Kaede leaving him. "Hey!" He frowned.

"Mind your own business." Kaede eyed the other boy behind him and muttered coldly.

Yohei's eyebrows knitted to doom and he started yelling at the back of the Shohoku Basketball ace. "I don't know what Hanamichi saw in you! You are just one obnoxious, selfish and retarded guy!"

It seemed like Yohei was speaking only to the air. Kaede kept on walking in a pace as normal as he could, like no one was shouting at his back.

"You told HIM?" Hanamichi's copper-brown eyes almost swell out of his eyelids.

"I'm sorry, Hanamichi. I thought it could help." Yohei apologetically murmured.

"But why? Why did you ever think it could make a difference?" There was a shade of disbelief, disappointment and anger in Hanamichi's face.

The two were walking along the students-filled corridor of the Sophomores.

"I'm really sorry..." Yohei's eyes looked somewhere in front of them. Hanamichi became curious and gazed at the same way with Yohei.

It was in a very birsk moment. Kaede was on the opposite way to them and once that Hanamichi's eyes landed to his face, he let out a lovely smile. Hanamichi saw it and instinctively, Hanamichi grinned back at him.

That single second of eyes-struck and lips smiling seemed to pause for as long as a century.

The two crossed each other and they both felt an electric current binding them.

Kaede was already a meter away from Hanamichi, but the redhead was still wearing the same cute smile he gave to Kaede.

It provoked chuckles from Yohei. "So do you hate it that I told him or not?"

Hanamichi glared at him. "I'LL... KILL YOU!" Hanamichi was like a ressurected mummy in animated shows, running to capture Yohei. The raven-haired boy ran for his life along the corridors.

Takamiya, Noma and Ookusu were walking on the park with bags of chips and sodas for themselves.

"Yum! Yum!" Takamiya relished the sweet and salty taste of his cheese-flavored potato chips. "Mmmmmmm!!!"

Suddenly, Takamiya was seized by his two friends towards a very thick bush.

"Shhh...!" Ookuso told him while covering his big and wide mouth with the help of Noma.

"I can't believe Akira likes him too." A tall and muscularly built young man said. He was leaning his back against the hard trunk of the mango tree. The gundam recognized him as Kainan's former Team Captain, Shinichi Maki.

"Uh-huh." A softer voice answered. The gundam stretched their necks a little more to see the other speaker and it was Kainan's Jin Shuichiro. "I never thought he's a heartthrob here."

"Who wouldn't like him?" Shinichi uttered, like it was the most obvious thing on earth. "His smile is just so captivating it leaves me in bondage every time I look at it."

"Too bad, you're now in Tokyo University and you're seldom here in Kanagawa."

"It's ok." Shinichi's voice became more serious. "As long as I can make sure Akira won't touch him."

The two men left the area and finally the gundam found the right time to chat with each other.

"MAKI likes HANAMICHI?" Noma said, stricken with surprise.

Then, the three of them stared at each other. "Are you thinkig what I'm thinking?" Takamiya asked with his eyes glinting against the sunlight.

As if they were all computer-operated, they put their thumbs-up together and shouted in chorus. "Operation: Business!"

The three gundam traversed almost the entire Kanagawa during the weekends, posting and giving out posters to people.

The poster was in red color and with a picture of Hanamichi on it. The gundam had decided to make a profit out of their friend's admirers.

The business: Anyone who wants to court Hanamichi may go to his house on Monday, 5pm. $2 per suitor.

"Hehehe... MONEY!" Takamiya exclaimed.

TOBECONTINUED