AN: I needed a break from the serious stuff to check in with the school crowd and indulge in the Saiteru ship and Saiki's nosy friends trying to pry into his life.

This got inspired by the episode where Teruhashi got sick and everyone at school made the rumors progressively worse so Saiki had to mind control the school population to get everyone to calm down.

Remember Shinoda (surname) Takeru (given name), the boy from Year 2, Class 2 (with Toritsuka, Saitou, and Suzumiya), who was Chiyo's boyfriend for three months? He has a mole underneath his left eye. He was also the guitarist from the Eternal Diamond Veronica during the school festival. He makes an appearance!

Chapter 21 - A Transfer Student

Two weeks.

Two, almost three weeks, fourteen school days, eighteen days. It was already July, less than a month before summer break.

Teruhashi looked worryingly at the empty desk next to her from the corner of her eyes.

When was Saiki-kun going to come back?

The teacher droned on about classic literature happily, knowing that the only student who mattered in the world, Teruhashi, was paying attention. That was the power of the most perfect woman in the world.

Indeed, Teruahshi's perfection was still working flawlessly, and she dared say that it worked even better than last year. There was a hushed level of 'offu's from the male, and sometimes female, students in the class. There were more pronounced gasps from the male students who made excuses to get out of class so they can walk past Class 1, and catch a glimpse of the goddess.

Her friends though, particularly Chiyo, caught the slight dimming of her ever-present glow.

Teruhashi was the perfect actress, capable of looking like she was paying attention while she thought back to when she last saw Saiki.

He had been walking home, after mid-terms, looking like he wasn't feeling well.

Fortunately, all their annoying friends and interloping admirers were distracted by the impromptu ramen trip to de-stress from midterms; she had the very much rare occasion to have him alone to herself. It was nearly half an hour of pure bliss, one where she deliberately walked slower than usual after her initial exuberance. They held hands, like a couple, and she indulged in a silly girl's dream of a domestic future with the two of them holding the hands of miniatures mixed versions of herself and Saiki.

In hindsight, which was once she got home that day, she realized that it was rather immature of her to think of such things. They weren't even dating. She didn't even like children. Saiki seemed completely disinterested, like he always did.

And how dare he act that way toward her?

Saiki was the type of normal boy who should have genuflected at the mere thought of her. He should have uttered so many 'offus' that his lips swelled shut. Instead, Saiki reacted to her like she was air, the very bottom of the social hierarchy.

Any other boy or girl, Teruhashi knew the exact action to elicit admiration and worship. The simple daily count of 'offu' coming her way gave her that rush of dominating pleasure like the evil queen of a fairy tale who had just kicked the asses of the annoying princess and the pesky fairy godmother.

Saiki was different.

Saiki never reacted to her perfection.

Saiki was emotionally flat and cold like the Siberian Tundra.

Saiki was unimpressed by anything.

Saiki was so god-awfully average that it was frightening.

Saiki's indifference to her was infuriating and Teruhashi had made a point to be even more perfect as practice and get that ultimate 'offu.'

It was the appropriate payback for the weird things that he made her do. The butterfly fluttering in the pits of her stomach when she considered time with him. Her compulsive change in her plans upon knowing his plans. The automatic flush of her cheeks, pounding in her chest, and insuppressible smile when she thought of him. Her stupid giddiness they were together, and silly domestic dreams when they were in physically close like holding hands or sitting next to each other.

His sudden absence made all those reactions go into overdrive, in a bad way. Thinking about him was now painful and baffling.

Teruhashi kept on thinking about all the awful scenarios that could happen to him, like he got hit by a car, abducted and held for ransom, or he got some sort of incurable illness and died. In all her imagination, she thought of all the statistically improbable disaster befalling the magenta-pink haired friend of hers, something and anything that would forever keep him out of reach and break her heart. She thought of death bed confessions where they profess love to each other like some cheesy-not-even-b-rated-romance-movie and she almost cried herself to sleep.

Good thing she got Chiyo-chan, one of her few girlfriends who knew that Teruhashi liked Saiki, to talk to.

Chiyo-chan was a great sounding board and told Teruhashi that maybe Saiki won the lottery or something and was buying a castle in France. That Saiki was busy learning how to pilot an airplane so he could skywrite his eternal "Offu" for her before summer break so they can be a couple and go out on a bunch of dates without school hanging over their heads. Or that Saiki was actually a European prince and is a nobleman of "insert name of fancy-sounding French pastry" and was off to look at his estate. Chiyo got Teruhashi laughing so hard at the thought of "Saiki Kusuo, Count le Macaron" or "Saiki Kusuo, Duke de Croissant."

Which lead to the next thought.

-"Saiki Kokomi, Countess le Macaron" or "Saiki Kokomi, Duchess de Croissant." Those sound pretty nice. Gah! Why do I even like the sound of that?!-

Teruhashi was shaken out of her reverie by a change in the teacher's tone and the class's anticipatory mood.

There was someone outside the classroom, being accompanied by the the vice principal.

"Alright class, we're getting a transfer from Class 3," said the teacher. "Come on in, Shinoda-kun."

Teruhashi was suddenly alert. Why were they getting someone to transfer in? Class 1 was full.

It was Shinoda Takeru, Chiyo's three-month boyfriend from back in second year. Teruhashi recalled a few boy-complaining sessions where Chiyo expounded on all the demerits of Shinoda.

If Chiyo didn't like this boy, then Teruhashi didn't like him either.

Team Girl had to stick together.

Still, Teruhashi was Teruhashi. She smiled encouragingly at him and mentally ticked off his name from her memorized list of boys when she saw the quiet 'offu' from his lips.

She must practice and practice hard, for when Saiki came back, of course.

Saiki was going to "offu" so hard that his eyes were going to comically break his glasses. That would be the ultimate test of Teruhahi's charm.

"My name is Shinoda Takeru. Please take care of me," said Shinoda with a beaming smile, after the vice principal dropped him off.

The response from most of the class was lackadaisical. This was just another kid from a separate class in the same year, not one of the wacky transfer students they seemed to keep on getting back during year two. With their luck, the next transfer student from outside PK Academy would be a space alien.

The perverted monk kid did seem excited though.

Toritsuka and Shinoda were in the some-what popular school band, Eternal Diamond Veronica. Toritsuka must've been excited to have a bandmate in class.

"You can take the empty seat next to Teruhashi," said the teacher. "Third row, three seats back, behind Nendo."

Immediately, Teruhashi was startled by such words. She was so surprised and dismayed that she had to interrupt the teacher. "Wait. This is Saiki-kun's seat. Why is Shinoda-kun taking Saiki-kun's seat."

"Oh. Saiki Kusuo? He withdrew from PK Academy," said the teacher. "As of this Monday."

Immediately, the jaws of nearly a quarter of the faces in the Class fell.

"What!?" uttered Kuboyasu. "What do you mean withdrew?"

"Huh? Pal withdrew?" asked Nendo.

"What happened to Saiki-kun?" asked Hairo, straight out. "What school is he transferring to, then?"

"I'll pay for his school fees if that's why he had to leave," said Saiko.

"Is that why the locker onigiri surprises stopped?" asked Chisato, half crying.

"But he kept on returning homework! Why would he withdraw?" asked Chiyo.

"Quiet," the teacher immediately dismissed the outrage and all the questions that came up at once. "It was a voluntary withdraw. We receive paperwork on Monday indicating that it was to be effective upon receipt. He also missed too many days in a row without a reason. We would have to expel him per school policy anyway."

"Well, he was sick," Kaido provided immediately. "He had really bad stomach flu. His mom said so."

"If the school wasn't provided with a doctor's note, then he was not sick," said the teacher. "Shinoda-kun, go sit down."

Shinoda approached his new seat with a wide grin. He could not believe his incredible luck. Teruhashi Kokomi was the most unattainable, goddess descent upon the earth, woman in the entire world and he was going to sit next to her for the remainder of the year. If he played it right, he might even get to go out with Kokomi and Chiyo at the same time. He would be the greatest playboy in school and the envy of men all over the world.

Teruhashi's blue eyes were liquidy. Oh, she must have been so glad to have him sit next to her that she was about to cry tears of joy!

The rest of the class, though, saw the downturn on the corners on Teruhashi's lips and the scrunching of her eyebrows, completely crestfallen. Genuine Angel Tears was about to fall out of her eyes. Many pairs of eyes glared daggers at Shinoda. If the class was not in session, half the class would've stood up and beaten Shinoda on the spot for almost making Teruhashi cry.

Shinoda, oblivious to the sudden change in the mood of the class, fished out a kerchief from his back pocket and offered it to Teruhashi. "Let me be the kerchief that dries your tears," he said with all the warmth and charm of a Cassanova he could muster.

Teruhashi stared at the cloth as if was a poof of dung.

The handkerchief did smell bad, like mildewy laundry that got left in the washing machine to dry.

"Um...No. Thank you," muttered Teruhashi, turning her head away from the smell. The nasty odor had smacked her back to her sense. She must not let people see her disgusted reaction at this relatively good looking boy who just got assigned to sit next to her. Shinoda was fairly popular with the underclassmen. Flat out rejection of advances from someone like him would decrease her perceived perfection.

Undeterred, Shinoda unfolded the handkerchief and attempted the common romantic gesture of dabbing tears from Teruhashi's face.

Teruhashi's heart jumped when she realized what he was about to do. She needed something to protect herself, both from the smell and the invasion of her personal space. It was happening too fast to tell him no and it was not in the action of the perfect woman to swing an arm and knock that hand away, at least not in class.

Shinoda suddenly fell over on to his back. The back of his head contacting the linoleum floor with a dull 'thud.' The smelly handkerchief had flown somewhere.

"Oh, dear! Shinoda-kun, are you alright?" asked the teacher.

While Shinoda was getting his act together, Nendo, who sat in front of the desk and seat that was formerly Saiki's, said, "Hey, Look. I found a marble!"

"Be quiet, Nendo," said the teacher. "Are you alright, Shinoda? Do you need to go see the nurse?"

"I'm alright," said Shinoda as he got up. He grumped when he realized that the school idiot, Nendo, had stepped on his precious handkerchief of romance. On the way up to standing on his own two feet, he caught the gaze of Kuboyasu, the feared secret delinquent of PK Academy, who sat behind Teruhashi.

Kuboyasu's showed his teeth, and a vein popped in his head. He gave Shinoda the death glare of touch-her-and-you're-dead. Though Kuboyasu's arms were crossed, hiding his hands in his armpits, Shinoda could definitely see the small round things in his hand.

Great. Just great. Since when did the school delinquent claim Teruhashi as his woman? School rumors and official sources had indicated that Teruhashi was unattached!

Shinoda would have to get the details straight with Teruhahi's fan club, the Kokomins. They would resolve this. There was no way that the Kokomins would allow a delinquent to stake a claim on their most perfect goddess. He looked to Toritsuka, one of the higher-ranked members of the Kokomins, for support.

Except Torituska was looking past him. He wasn't sure who Toritsuka was looking at? Hairo? Who sat left of Teruhashi? Or Akechi who sat behind Hairo? Or that sexy gyaru Aiura who sat behind Akechi? All of those were the people who seemed dismayed by something, completely ignoring the glamour and mystery that is the transfer student.

"If you're alright, then sit down and pay attention," said the teacher, returning to droning on.

Shinoda sat down, ignoring the glare of daggers from pretty much everyone in the class. He thought of telling his friends back in Class 3 how he was so irresistible to Teruhashi that she almost cried at her luck of having him sitting next to her.

Teruhashi looked to Chiyo, distressed.

Chiyo gave a knowing look back.

This situation calls for a formal meeting with their school friends.

AN: I wanted to get a short chapter out before Thanksgiving as a THANK YOU to everyone who support this fic. I couldn't write this fic without your encouragement! Thank you!

Many thanks to: pinkshade, nikaistired, RedhoneysugarOrange, AC9123, I_Wish_To_Remain_Nameless, the luckydaikon, Yuu3, MentalMishap, and Helpless_UwU