In the improvised changing room, everyone got their hands full, either with fetching missing items or running around the room from one student to another to help the actors getting dressed or coiffed. The performance was starting in less than an hour.

Ritsu put on the long and formless black dress with the help of one of her classmates in charge of the costume, followed by the black gloves. She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled, covering her hair with the pointed hood of her cape that covered just the back of her head. Her witch image was amusing to see, her whole body was plain black. She gave a twirl, like a little girl who got a new dress, making the long black sleeves and the bottom of her dress swayed with the enthusiastic movement revealing her black boots and letting the cape float lightly in the air.

"It's very light."

"Yes, it's to contrast with the Princess' heavy dress. At first, I thought the Witch dress was too plain but on you it gives off an enchanting vibe."

"For a witch, this sounds more like an insult." The girl laughed at her joke while she did a final check of the costume.

"Simple things seem to suit you the most, Asaka. Ah. Don't take it the wrong way."

"I'm not. It's true that I don't like flashy things."

"If I were to say that to Himeno, she'd yell at me."

Her assertion was correct, Himeno wasn't the type to be merely satisfied with simple things; eccentricity and coquetry are more suitable terms to define her.

Ritsu stared at the latter who marveled at how the princess's dress beautified herself twirling around to show off. A pinkish whirlwind spun around the class, displaying her greatness to everyone's eyes, especially to certain jealous girls who still envied her role.

"Himeno, would you stop moving around for a second? We still haven't fixed your hairstyle!" the girl in charge of Himeno complained. "Get back here, right now! Stop moving or you'll ruin your make up (by sweating)! I feel hot just looking at you!"

The princess stopped dead in her track and looked down on the girl. "What are you talking about? «Sweat» is an unknown term for a girl like me. Unlike you all, I'm a princess!"

Her claim incurred the deadly wrath of all the girls. The princess role went completely to her head, even then it was a bit of an offense to all the humble princesses. Sometimes her haughty character was very difficult to deal with if there wasn't someone to restrain her. Like Akashi for instance.

"We don't have the time to wait on her. Instead of styling her hair, why don't we put on a wig?" suggested Yoshiwara who was supervising the last preparations on the girl's side.

"A wig?!"

"Yeah. Your long black hair is wasting the costume. Pink and black mixed together are not to my liking."

"Who cares about your liking? And why should I wear a wig when Asaka is not?" Ritsu facepalmed at the mentioning of her name. "You think a blonde witch is more credible?"

"We're already fixing her hair. Contrary to YOURS! So if you have time to complain, get your hair styled for god's sake!" Yoshiwara got impatient, nettled by Himeno's attitude. "You're the last one that has to get ready!"

"Isn't that normal? The princess has to keep everyone waiting." She sneered loudly, placing a hand near the corner of her mouth.

"...I give up. I'll go see if the boys are ready which is probably the case since Akashi-kun is over there..."Yoshiwara stomped out and went to the next room where the boys were changing.

All of a sudden, the girls heard a piercing scream, it was Yoshiwara. Some of the girls, including Ritsu, rushed into the hallway to see the girl in the King's arms surrounded by other boys.

"What the heck! Yoshiwara has fainted!"

"What did you do to her?" a girl asked as stupefied as the rest.

"The hell I know! She opened the door and then she passed out!" The King shook her. "Come on! Snap out of it! And why is she grinning like that?!"

Indeed, everyone was wondering why she had this blissful face.

"It's clearly a heatstroke. Take her to a cool place and fan air over her. She'll eventually regain consciousness very soon." Akashi's poised voice ordered while revealing his fully dressed self to the light.

The prince himself was absolutely breathtaking. All the girls were awe-stricken by the emerging silhouette of their blazing prince, gaping so widely that drool could almost drip from their mouths.

His majesty was brought out by that immaculate white tailcoat with an embroidered collar sewn in gold thread from where a gold lace ran down the edge of the double breasted coat with three golden buttons fastened on each side. The plain black pants with a thin strap of gold down the sides constrasted vividly with the pure white, adding a solemn charm to his imperial self, emphasized by a flamboyant red cape over his left shoulder and partially covering his arm, attached by two golden lanyards passing under his right arm topped by a black and gold epaulette; and a red scabbard fastened on his belt that was holding a longsword, revealed by its black hilt.

The costume was magnificent, yet it couldn't have given off the same aura on somebody else. That supreme aura came from Akashi himself, he didn't a need a crown to command respect, a simple feathered black tricorn was enough to suit the humble prince he was.

In a single instant, the blazing prince had conquered all the girls' hearts. Not a word nor a breath was uttered during that sacred moment where girls indulged themselves to the sweet world of dreams, fantasizing wildly of their supreme prince on his white horse.

"Hey...Your faces are all red...and very creepy by the way." The King freaked out as he gawked at the bunch of girls who bore the same blissful expression as Yoshiwara. The girls felt the temperature rising, that vision was almost too much to even bear to watch.

"I-I-It's the heat!" a girl lied averting her eyes from Akashi.

"Don't all faint on us! Go drink water or something!"

"W-We won't, dummy!" another girl retorted who snapped out of her fantasy.

"Good then. Are all the girls ready?" Akashi asked melting all his girl classmates' hearts again.

"W-We're all ready except for Himeno..."

"I see." All the girls jolted as his red eyes stared at them, examining the costumes of each girl thoroughly. "The costumes are very well-made. That's great work."

"T-Thank you! We did our best!" the girl that had supervised the costume making exclaimed.

"Oh my! Akashi-kun, you're gorgeous! Like a true prince!"

Himeno charged out the changing room and ran to her prince for the day.

"Likewise."

"Hehe! We match perfectly together! We'll be the star couple of the school festival, you can count on it!" She fawned over him under the astounded gaze of the rest of the boys. "Say, Akashi-kun, after the play, d-do you have some free time?"

Everyone gasped when she asked him out, the next second everyone shifted their attention to the latter in wait for his answer.

"Some other time maybe. I have a prior commitment with somebody else."

"Who?!" Himeno cried aloud as she expected a positive response even from Akashi. She cleared her throat, trying to stay a refined girl in front of him. "Ahem! Who, if I may ask?"

"A friend."

Ritsu knew that prior commitment he mentioned was the friendship quiz contest and this mysterious friend was none other but her. After they cleared the Haunted House event, when Akashi and her reached the second year floor to participate in the contest, Momoi's bunch of admirers assailed her, bombarding her with one question: Where was her pink haired friend? Immediately riled up by them, she fled, dragging Akashi along with her. Their escape resulted in a tremendous waste of time that her red haired friend didn't mind to let her know after he made the bunch of idiots scram, bored to run around aimlessly. And that was the reason why they had postponed it to after the play since they had to attend a last briefing with the whole class and had to prepare themselves.

"Can I tag along too?" Himeno wouldn't let the chance to spend the festival with Akashi slip so easily. Plus, she was suspicious about the gender of that friend, already scheming something if it was a girl.

"I only need one person for―"

"I can just replace that person." She cut him off to spout nonsense.

Akashi slightly narrowed his eyes, his annoyance passed unnoticed to the princess and the rest of the class, except Ritsu. By the look of things, tears would fall soon if she didn't shut her mouth. Her assumption may be off the mark, but she couldn't let the prince break the princess's heart when they still hadn't stood on stage yet. So sometimes one had to show some lack of self-preservation for everybody's interest.

"Himeno-san. That's not nice of you."

The Princess glowered at the Witch's intervention drawing all the attention to her.

"I never asked your opinion, Asaka." Ritsu pretended to have not heard her remark and went on, reminding herself she was doing it for the class' interest and not for that haughty princess.

"Whatever. You should take Akashi-kun's feelings into consideration. You're being a pai...selfish." Himeno's lips twiched nervously as Ritsu almost let the word that was betraying her thoughts slip out. "The least you can do is share Akashi-kun with his friends after the play. You're already keeping him to yourself during the whole play since you're his princess. And if I may add one more important detail...You two share a kiss at the end. Isn't that a unique privilege only a princess like you can get? I doubt he would kiss his friends."

Himeno became bright red at the mention of the kissing scene.

"So, it would be very gracious of you to let Akashi-kun spend time with his friends."

She hoped by buttering her up the right way, she would eventually give up and leave Akashi alone before his legendary sharp tongue would make the poor princess cry and ruin her make-up.

"T-T-The kiss...with Akashi-kun...His lips on...mine..." muttered the princess, losing herself in her world of fantasy. Suddenly, she sniggered and lifted her head with eyes full of stars, shaking her prince's arm. "...O-Okay! Next time then! We can always hang out another time, Akashi-kun!"

Mission accomplished. No shedding tears, a princess fully driven by love, and merry people.

"...Since we'll be sharing an intimate moment together soon."

Her finger brushed his chest, tracing a line to his heart. Akashi's reaction caused everyone to shudder; he seized Himeno's wrist instantly, who jolted in excitement, and called Ritsu's name.

"I come to understand why witches had to die in stories... It is regrettable that this role fits you so well, Asaka"

She ignored the comment for her own good.

"She's a deceitful girl. Black is the best suiting color for a girl like her."

"...As always, your kind words go straight to the heart, Himeno-san..." Ritsu sighed. That was what happened when she tried to help a conceited girl. Good acts were never rewarded and gratitude was always replaced with contempt. She was too soft-hearted, and a fool to boot to leave Akashi in the hands of that nasty princess.

"Then it means you do not know her well. White is the best color to define her." After putting the clinging pinkish princess in her place, he pushed her away. Finally free, his pair of red eyes shifted to Ritsu whose lips moved silently, expressing her thanks to him. He nodded and turned to the whole class, returning to his class representative role.

"Is everyone ready? Shino-san and the others are waiting."

"Yeah! By the way, Takaya is staying behind to look after Yoshiwara."

And the troop set off to the stage. The Prince led the march, by his side the Princess, followed by the Witch and the rest of the actors.

"Over here, Aomine-kun!"

Momoi gestured and leaned forwards for her childhood friend to spot her among the countless heads that came to watch performances from different clubs wriggling happily in their seats. The boy fought his way through to reach the open seat that Momoi kept warmly.

"Take it." Aomine said, handing a crêpe to Momoi and slumping on the chair. His nonchalant gaze fell on his teammates occupying the two seats next to his childhood friend and he was very surprised to see them. "What, the Midorima substitute plan worked?"

"Yep, when we got rid of them, we texted Momo-chin and she said to come here since they can't cause an uproar here." Murasakibara replied as he was devouring his fourth pocky box, leaving crumbs to fall on his uniform he had changed into not long ago along with Midorima.

"They were completely fooled!" Proud of herself, the pink haired girl raised her thumb up. "Murasakibara-kun and Midorin had fooled everyone!"

"Eeeh..." Aomine gaped, impressed by their feat.

A grunt was emitted right beside the giant body. Midorima sitting to his left, his brow twitching nervously, was holding himself back from making any comment on the previous situation.

The Midorima substitute plan, as Aomine stupidly named it, was in fact more of a last resort solution than an actual plan. One hour ago, while they were still running around the whole school campus, they bumped into Aomine and Midorima who were lazing under a tree and decided to ask for their help using the brief break they gained thanks to Murasakibara's long legs. The two boys refused to put their pride at stake as they were still in skirts. For them, parading in the school compound like that was simply out of the question. How could they be the least credible in their girl outfit to stop a whole bunch of infuriated guys? Was what they told Momoi when she tried to persuade them.

But they were running out of time, an incoming dust storm burst into their view. Midorima and Aomine freaked out, they had underestimated the number of her admirers. In the urgency of the situation, Momoi thought of using a substitute that would wear her wig to let them think it was her. The two boys opposed, but Momoi yelled back, threatening to add changes to their training menu.

And so the substitute was decided by rock-paper-scissor. Midorima lost, Momoi and him exchanged their wigs using Murasakibara's body to swap places discreetly, and the next second the giant carried Midorima in a bridal style as the girl advised Murasakibara to hide Midorima's form when he was running. The giant scrambled. When the bunch of admirers was about to get past Aomine and Momoi, the tanned boy hid quickly his childhood friend behind the tree feigning ignorance while the guys rushed after the squirrel.

After recalling this moment, Momoi gave him a compassionate look, thanks to him she was able to secure herself from those obstinate guys. "It's all thanks to Midorin!"

"Mido-chin was really heavy. Plus it was hard to run and listen to him grumbling. And those guys were a pain to deal with when they saw him with Momo-chin's wig."

"By the way I didn't ask you how you dealt with them." asked Momoi turning to the boy.

Midorima reajusted his glasses. "...We send them to Asaka. It was the most efficient way to get rid of them since she was with you. Anyway, she seemed to have a lot of free time to spend. "

"EEEH?!" Momoi cried aloud, startling the people around her who turned to her with round eyes. "How could you do that?!"

"Whatever. They swallowed it."

"B-B-But she won't manage to get rid of them all alone! We have to―"

"The play «The Sleeping Beauty», performed by class 1-A, will shortly begin in gymnasium B. I repeat..."

"1-A? That's Akashi-kun's class!" At the announcement, Momoi calmed down and peered at the empty stage.

"And Asaka's. Meaning she's safe and sound."

"It's in your best interests that that's the case!" She puffed her cheeks at the warning, then took a bite of the crêpe. "So their play was programmed at this hour?"

"What, Akashi's going to act for real?" Aomine gasped in surprise.

"I don't know. He told me his class was performing a play but he never said a word about a role in it." Suddenly Momoi laughed it up, thrilled by a silly idea. "What if he plays the prince?..."

All the three boys kept silent as their silence was speaking for itself. Imagining their vice-captain as a prince charming was beyond this world. It would never happen.

The gymnasium lights slowly dimmed, several succinct knocks on the floor announced the beginning of the play. As they silenced and drew the public eyes to the stage, three distinctive knocks echoed in the darkened place.