Hey everyone, I'm back! Here's chapter 2 for ya!
Disclaimer: It is a known fact that people who wear contacts can never, ever, ever create anything close to, or in any ways resembling anything at all that would seem even like a minor infringement of copyright laws, with ideas or storylines having to do with the anime or manga of Gals! whose orginal ideas and storylines come from the brilliant mangaka, Mihona Fujii. Yes, I wear contacts.
Chapter 2: When Study Sessions Go Horribly Wrong…
"Have you even started one piece of your summer homework?" Miyu drew in a deep breath and let it all out again in one long, despairing sigh. "Really, Ran, you're going to have to start sometime! I remember last year you didn't even get half of it done because you started the night before school was back in, and even that was because your parents nearly tied you to a chair to keep you home to work on it!"
"Nag, nag, nag. You're getting worse than my mom Miyu, and that's an uber accomplishment. Not a good one, but still an accomplishment." Ran retorted idly as she twisted one of her few red strands of hair.
The red-streaked gal crashed down onto the pile of pillows she had strategically laid behind herself just as everyone was getting settled. Today was the day she, Aya, and Miyu had decided to meet at her house and have a studying day. This hadn't been her idea, of course. They had bribed her with a big bowl of her favorite type of Raman, and now she was stuck here, bored nearly out of her mind. If she had had any say in the matter, they would roaming the streets of Shibuya, with bags of clothes and jewelry they had just bought in one hand and in the other, there would be a magical, refilling plate of takoyaki (hey, a girl can dream can't she?)!
"I agree with Miyu, Ran." Aya tried once again to convince her fidgeting friend while finishing her last few math problems. "You are going to have to start working a least a little sometimes if you want to pass your next year of high school. Summer is almost over and we're going to be seniors. This is a big year for all of us with college entrance exams coming up."
"What do I care about those stupid exams? They are like a bajillion years away so we should enjoy ourselves while we still can! Come on, it's not too late to go out and have some fun!" Ran jumped up and tried to nearly drag Aya out the door, math book and all.
"Ran! We decided we would work today and that's what we're going to do." Miyu sent her a death glare as she put herself between Ran and the door.
"Listen to Miyu, Ran. If we work today, we can go out tomorrow and have all the fun we want with a free conscience."
Ran looked at Aya's pleading face, then she turned to Miyu's determined one. After a few silent moments, she sighed and slithered back over to her pillows, where she let out an even bigger sigh. She was letting her friends win for now, but she was also making sure they knew she wasn't at all happy about it.
The room was soon quiet again, except for the turning of a page or an occasional moaning noise from Ran. Aya had moved on to her English homework and placed her math homework in her now quite large "finished pile". Miyu was concentrating her history reading. She had her tongue sticking out, barely touching her top lip, as it always did when she was thinking hard; the harder she thought, the further her tongue stuck out. Ran watched that tongue a lot during exams; it always gave her a good laugh. Ran, herself, hadn't even started a single assignment, like her friends had noted earlier. There was still one week left until school started up again, so she could still put it off for a little while longer until her parents got into the picture. Now, she stole another glance at the clock. Fifteen minutes had passed and Ran Kotobuki had had enough. She glanced at her two homework-absorbed friends, smirked, and decided on a different tactic.
"Seen much of my big bro lately Miyu?"
Miyu glanced up from her book, surprised, and staring at a suspiciously smug looking Ran. Ran never talks about her and Yamato without Miyu bringing up the subject first. Nevertheless, Miyu took the seemingly harmless bait, "Miyu hasn't seen Yamato for three whole days! She is beginning to despair, thinking she might never ever see him again!"
"Never fear Miyu! Super Ran has come to your rescue. Today, big bro's shift ends at three thirty, and what time is it now?" Ran's Cheshire cat grin had made a sudden reappearance as she waited for her reply.
Miyu glanced at the clock and gasped. "It's three ten!"
"If you head out right now, you just might catch him in time to go out on a lovey dovey date!"
Miyu sprung up and Ran nearly pushed her out the door with a quick. "Have a good time!" When Miyu was out and on her way, a suspiciously smug Ran muttered in a near inaudible whisper, "One down, one to go."
Ran nearly skipped up to her room, feeling her freedom close at hand. As she entered she was silent for a few moments, slowly assessing her next prey. Aya had nearly finished her English homework by this time, man, that girl worked fast! She was seemingly completely absorbed in her book and probably hadn't even noticed Miyu had left or that Ran was now eyeing her like she was the last worm on Earth and Ran was the last bird. Finally, Ran decided to take the plunge.
"Hey, Aya?"
"What is it Ran?" Aya closed her English book, probably now finished with nearly all of her homework.
"How's it going with you and Otohata? Any progress lately?" She plopped down, cross-legged, next to Aya and gave the now red faced girl her complete attention.
"Well, um, I saw him about a couple of weeks ago…" she squirmed tried to shrink down behind her pile of homework.
'You're not getting away that easily' Ran grinned to herself, "So, what happened? Did you two make out?"
"No!" Aya nearly screamed back her reply, "We… just…" she thought back to that day with Rei that had gone from sitting in a relaxed silence, to a one way trip down one of the most bumpy hills around, "… sat."
"Omigawd Aya, seriously?" Ran was truly saddened by how slow her friend was wading through the game of love. "You have to take initiative girl! I'll tell you what you are going to do right now. You are going to go over to the Shibuya train station, and you are going to see if Rei shows up there. He comes to Shibuya a lot for his stupid model publicity crap and I heard that sometime this week he was going to have a photo shoot there. If he doesn't show up, you call him and ask him out to Shibuya yourself!" as Ran was giving Aya her lesson in romance she was helping the girl gather her things and, like Miyu, she very nearly threw the girl out the door.
With a new found determination, Aya gave Ran a cautious smile, "Thanks for the pep talk Ran, I needed that. I'll see you later." Aya waved then walked off with a fresh goal in mind.
Today had been a busy day, with a couple of purse snatchings and a robbery at a nearby convenience store on top of all the new paper work his boss had given him to fill out. Yamato Kotobuki groaned in frustration, it was past three and he was still drowning in work. If he hadn't known better, he would have believed he had more work than when he started early this morning. Suddenly, he heard another taping at his door. Gritting his teeth, he prayed it was just a pedestrian asking for some easy directions.
"Yes, yes. I'll be right there." He called out from behind his mound of paperwork.
He finished up one of his papers and headed out to see what sort of predicament he would have to help someone out of.
"Miyu!" Yamato found himself staring down his cheery, and undeniably beautiful girlfriend. "What in the world are you doing here?"
"Miyu heard you were getting off early from work, so she figured after you got off, we could go on a lovey dovey date together!" as she talked, she entwined her arms in his and gave him her prettiest smile, which she knew from past experience could convince him to do many things for her.
"W-who told you I'd get off early today?" a blushing Yamato tried in vain to keep his composure while having this blond bombshell latched onto his arm. "If anything I-I'll be working late today, because my boss just gave me a new stack of a paperwork. I doubt I'll be done anytime soon."
"What! But Ran told Miyu-"
"Ran did? When do I ever talk to Ran about when I get off from work?"
"Ooo, that Ran!" suddenly Miyu realized what was going on. "Today was a day that Ran, Aya, and Miyu had planned to use as a study day. Nearly, right after we started studying, Ran was going stir crazy so she must have used this excuse to trick Miyu!"
Miyu started to run back to Ran's house, where she would give that girl a piece of her mind but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.
"You don't have to leave just yet. If you want to stay, I won't stop you." Yamato lifted his hand from her shoulder and looked away, nervously waiting for a reply.
What he got instead was a giant hug from behind, "Miyu would love to stay!" she squealed in delight. "She will be as quiet as a mouse so Yamato can get his work done."
Yamato gave her a lopsided grin as they headed back into the police box and gave her the comfiest of the two chairs that were always in there. As she contentedly rested her head on her hands, watching Yamato at work, Miyu made herself a mental to note to thank Ran whenever she next had the chance.
"Ahhhh. Freedom… who knew it felt so good?" Ran laughed out loud just for the fun of it, "And now that I'm currently free of my 'friends turned workaholics', I can go and have a good time!"
Pushing through the crowds of people that now traveled through the busy streets, she made her way to one of the main malls in Shibuya that was within walking distance. Summer still seemed to be at its peak, as you could tell by just watching the panting pedestrians, who all looked like they might get a bad case of heat stroke at any moment. Ran herself was feeling the heat, even though she had been in a nice air-conditioned house only minutes earlier. She couldn't wait to get inside the nice cool indoor mall that had a food court with an ice cream parlor as well!
Just as that lifesaver of a mall came into view, her cell phone decided to ring. Controlled by habit, her hand reached down to grab her cell, but just as it touched the smooth surface of her newly bought case (a little gift from Second Place), the hand recoiled as if it had been burned by the touch. Little Miss Ran had realized that by now her friends had probably seen through that little trick she pulled and now were most likely out for her blood. She stood completely still and just stared at the phone for a while, half hoping that staring at the case long enough would will that stupid thing to stop ringing, for she knew who was most likely calling.
The heat and her destination were now forgotten and the pushes, shoves and shouts she received like, "Stop blocking the road you idiot!" and "Answer your damn phone and get moving!" or even a couple concerned comments of "Are you alright miss?" were completely ignored by the stone still kogal, as she continued to barricade the middle of a very busy sidewalk. After what seemed like an eternity or two to her, the ringing did stop, accompanied by Ran's small sigh of relief. Not a second after the last breath of her sigh escaped her lips, her cell phone started up the horrible ringing once again with a seemingly malicious vengeance! Ran was now staring at this hand held item like it was some type of deathly poison. About a few moments into the staring contest, the phone once again stopped ringing, and once again started up again! This continued for about four more sessions until Ran's eyes were blurred to the point were she couldn't see anything from keeping them open for so long and she was about to smash the thing against anything hard she was currently standing by (it was a good thing people were starting to try to move around the girl instead of trying to brutally convince her at about this point or they might have gotten one serious head injury). Finally, she just couldn't take it anymore; Ran Kotobuki had snapped. With a wild look in her eyes, she whipped the cell phone out of her case and…. answered it.
"Alright Aya, Miyu or whoever this is. I give up, dammit. What do you want me to do? Wear a sign that says 'I'm a loser that won't study' for the rest of the week? Or do you want me to study by myself in some dark corner for a whole day? I'll do anything! I really will, if you just stop calling me like that!" Ran made her way through that mass of people without must protest on their part and slid back against one of the nearby walls in defeat. She even considered taking off her sock and waving it like a white flag of surrender just for the heck of it.
"Um, Ran… did I call at a bad time?"
At the sound of that voice, Ran's head and body shot up straighter than they ever had before, most like correcting any bad posture problems she had made for herself with her usual slumping in class. This was definitely not the voice she was expecting to hear when she answered her currently nicknamed 'cell from hell'.
"What in the world was I thinking?" Aya sighed as she sank down onto the nearest empty bench. "Coming all the way over to the train station without any idea of knowing whether or not Rei would be here. Ran was just jumping to conclusions like she always does and I was a fool to get caught up in her excitement." Aya's slumped head continued to give its muttered monologue to the empty seat beside her as tears slowly started to blur her vision. "'If he's not there, call him.' she said, but what am I supposed to say when he answers? 'Hey Otohata, you weren't in Shibuya like I guessed you might be, so you'd better get over here right now and apologize!' That would be perfect, if I was Ran, but I'm not even close to being like her."
"Well, in my opinion that's a good thing, but you should stop talking to yourself. It's not healthy, and it might give some people the impression that you're a little crazy."
Aya's bobbed head snapped up and turned to the sound of the voice she had been hoping to hear all day, "Otohata! Why are you here, and how long have you been there!"
The guy currently sitting on the seat next to her crossed his legs and leaned backwards into the bench to get more comfortable as he replied, "I came and took a seat right about when you were talking about getting caught up in some excitement. And if I heard right, I'm don't need to apologize since I'm currently in Shibuya."
Aya's embarrassment at that moment knew no bounds as her eyes widened and finally overflowed with tears, "I'm so sorry Otohata! I didn't mean for you to hear that… I just…"
One look at Aya's face was enough for Rei, he just couldn't seem to stand seeing Aya tear up like that. "Don't cry. It's okay, I'm not mad."
Aya felt her face grow warm as she hiccupped and looked up into those two soft brown eyes. 'He may be able to hide his facial expressions, but his eyes could give away whatever emotions he tries to leave unnoticed' Aya thought as she sniffed and smiled weakly to herself.
"Gosh Rei, how many times are you going to make Aya cry? Even if I take my eyes off of you for just a moment, you're off somewhere making her cry. You're failing as a man, buddy." Yuuya laughed as he sauntered up behind the seated couple. "You should take some lessons from the master in manliness right here."
Rei rolled his eyes skyward. "Well, Yuuya, when you next see this master of yours, tell him he should really find another occupation, because whatever he is teaching you is really not working."
"Awww, how mean Rei. Your words struck me deep. I'm about to cry!" Yuuya grinned and placed his hands over his chest as he flopped melodramatically to ground.
"And that's about as manly as he gets." Rei wryly commented before he turned to Aya. "You can come with us for a while if you want, since you don't seem to be with Kotobuki at the moment. We just finished the photo shoot we were doing here a little while ago, so Yuuya and I were just going to hang out in Shibuya for a while."
"I would love to!" Aya smiled happily and wiped away the last of her tears. "So where are we headed?"
"Before we go, we have something extremely important to discuss." Yuuya had gotten up out of his 'death position' and was currently eyeing the two of them with an unusually serious expression.
"What is it Mr. Manly Man?"
Yuuya gave Rei a glare before continuing. "Before this, it was just me and Rei. Now Aya is currently in this group. So now, two has become three. Rei, we are no longer a duo! We are a trio now!" Rei's eyebrows were nearly above his hairline by this time and Aya just sat there with a blank look on her face, obviously completely lost on the subject. Looking at the reactions of his audience, Yuuya groaned and continued. "If you are a duo it's okay, because people can just say, "Oh, there goes Rei and Yuuya." but if three people are in a group it gets more complicated. You know, if people say, "Oh, there goes Rei, Yuuya, and Aya." it would start to sound like a list, it would be way too lengthy!"
"I think you hit your head a little too hard when you fell, Yuuya." Rei couldn't even fathom what was going through his friend's mind at the moment, not that he ever really could or wanted to for that matter.
"Rei you just don't get it!" Yuuya paused and took a deep breath. "We need a name!"
"A name?" You could nearly see the question marks surrounding Aya's head as she spoke. "Am I missing something here?"
"A name for people to call us, like… Hoshino and the Models! Or… The RAY, see R would stand for Rei, A for Aya, and Y for Yuuya, get it? Ray even sounds like Rei! Now doesn't 'There goes The RAY' sound so much cooler than 'There goes Rei, Aya, and Yuuya'?" he grinned triumphantly as he finally made his point. "What do you guys think?"
After a silence passed that could have lasted a lifetime and a week, Rei finally spoke. "Come on Aya, we should get you out of here before his insanity rubs off on you." Rei grabbed a still completely confused Aya's hand and made his way as quickly as he could without running through the crowd surrounding the station.
As soon as they were out of sight Yuuya couldn't help but burst out laughing. Holding his sides he crashed down onto the bench where his best friend had been sitting only moments before. "Now that has got to be the weirdest idea I've ever had to set those two up together!" he managed to add between bursts of laughter. A few minutes and a couple curious stares later he managed to get his breathing back under control. "Rei and Aya better become a real couple soon or I'll run out of crazy ideas to help them out." With that, he burst into an even louder fit of laughter only a moment later. "The RAY… my god… that would freak… anyone out…" by this time, tears were nearly rolling down his cheeks, he was laughing so hard. "Yuuya, my man… you really are… insane!"
"Really, Ran sweets, if this is a bad time just tell me to call back."
"Monkey Boy…" the realization slowly dawned on a now extremely annoyed Ran Kotobuki.
"What's the matter, my Ran?"
"You… you…"
For a few moments there was a silence on the line that seemed heavier than life itself. All that could be heard was rapidly quickening breaths of Tatsuki as he grew more and more anxious with each passing moment. He knew his girlfriend wasn't exactly in the best of moods at the time, but if only he could have seen her somehow, he would have known to hang up his phone right then, and climb a tall tree with enough bananas to hide out up there for a couple weeks. Unfortunately for this Monkey Boy, it wasn't currently possible for him to see that his Ran was currently emitting flames from the her body as she seemed to try to send him a death glare through the cell phone that would have even stopped Rei Otohata in his tracks. Tatsuki just had to choose this time, at the peak of her anger, to attempt to restart this deadly conversation.
"Come now, Ran-pyon, if you don't tell me what's distressing you I can't use my monkey magic to make it better."
"You…"
"Yes?"
"You… FREAKIN IDIOT!" Ran's words shot poor Tatsukichi like an arrow, literally. The outraged yell flew through one ear, echoed throughout his now stunned brain and flew out the other ear before seemingly circling back to repeat the horrible process all over again. For those of you who don't know, having an arrow stab your brain is actually quite painful, and when the cycle is repeated multiple times, the pain gets rather intense. As luck would have it, the enraged Ran soon decided to continue her rant. "WHO THE HELL CALLS SOMEONE'S CELLPHONE FIVE MILLION TIMES! A NORMAL PERSON WOULD CALL ONCE, MAYBE EVEN TWICE IF THE OTHER PERSON DIDN'T PICK UP! WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH THAT MICROSCOPIC MONKEY SIZED BRAIN OF YOURS WHEN YOU DECIDED-"
"RAN! Ran-baby please have mercy!" by this time poor Tatsuki was huddled on the floor, holding his head which currently felt like a jackhammer was drilling it into dust with one hand, while the other hand was working on getting that cell phone as far from his ear as possible. "This unworthy Monkey Boy thought that you had possibly left your cell phone somewhere for a short while and went to do something that wouldn't take very long, like a little trip to the bath room. He was very wrong and has learned his lesson and will never repeat his horrible mistake again." He waited, silently pleading, hoping he had calmed her temper somewhat with his groveling.
From the receiver he heard Ran let out a long sigh and he knew the storm had passed. If you need to calm a Ran Kotobuki, all you have to do is bow down before her like an obedient slave, or offer her up some food if you happen to have some nearby. Since option number two was out of the question at the moment, he thought he did pretty well with his first choice. His small victory smirk came out a lot more like a grimace courtesy of his still throbbing head; nevertheless, his hand now cautiously brought the cell phone back to his ear.
"Yeah, well you better not, Sir Stalker Monkey, or else I would have to file a restraining order against you." Ran finally spoke in a much more calm tone. "But quit that third person talk, one Miyu is enough for me."
"As you wish, my wonderful Ran!" Tatsuki's relief was completely evident even through that cell phone.
"Now, did you call me just to get yelled at or is there actually a purpose to you bugging me at the moment?"
"Ran, you know I would only call you to bestow you with the most wonderful news. Your happiness is my happiness. Your sadness is my pain as well. We are bound by fate and with this inevitable binding came my eternal wish to always make you the happiest gal on Earth!"
His headache now gone, Tatsuki was able to return to his normal (well, normal for him…) self. Ran rolled her eyes in exaggerated exasperation at the overly dramatic speech her boyfriend had once again spouted for her, as an almost unnoticeable slight smile graced her lips.
"So, Shakespeare, are you going to let me know what this wonderful happiness is you're supposed to give me?"
"I, Tatsuki Kuroy, have just gotten paid and am currently in Shibuya to give the amazing Ran Kotobuki the greatest day of her life! I'm chilling with my good buddy Hachiko at the moment and am ready to run to wherever my Ran is!"
"PAID! Why didn't you say so in the first place Monkey Boy?" Ran's eyes lit up like a couple of mischievous fireflies. "You know the indoor mall to the right of Hachi, a couple streets over. Be there in five minutes and you are completely and absolutely forgiven! You're the best Tastukitchi! Now hurry it up, I'm waiting."
And with that the line went dead, leaving a now dashing Monkey Boy to swerve through the crowds to his destination. "So long Hachi, it's been fun! Wait for me my Ran! I'm coming!"
End of Chapter 2
Tadah! How did you all like this chapter? Even if it's just criticism, I would love to hear it. Sorry, but I haven't written enough of the next chapter to give a teaser paragraph, but I can give out a tiny tidbit. Tatsuki's little surprise will be covered in the next chapter, wink, wink. Look forward to it!
So, until next time.
