Chapter 1
"We're almost there!" squealed Kotoko Aihara, bouncing up and down in her seat, looking outside her window in excitement. Shigeru Aihara looked back and chuckled. He moved his gaze from her to the window, where there were finally signs of civilisation, and sighed. His eyes scanned over the houses that they would soon be considering as part of their neighbourhood. He was still unsure about his decision to put all his money towards this house. The restaurant brought in a steady income, but he had a bad feeling about this. Seeing his daughter so happy though gave him new confidence in his investment. She was sad when they first left for Tokyo from Kyoto, but the further the trip progressed, the happier she got. He hoped that she might set up a better life here because than her one in Kyoto, despite being top of her class, she had trouble getting friends.
"Only quarter an hour left now," the driver said, tilting his head to peer left out the window.
This only seemed to excite Kotoko more and she continued to look over at her dad throughout the rest of the journey.
"It's so big!" said Kotoko excitedly to no one in particular staring up at Tonan High School. It was the same thing she had said when she reached the house, running round in circles around the dining table with arms high above her head and a delighted expression on her face. Of course, she didn't make the same pose now, seeing as she was in school and she wanted to preserve what little dignity she had left. She was exploring the school grounds, waiting for her phone to ring and tell her that she could come into the office and start the test. Finally resting on a bench that provided an excellent view of the school she waited for the ring. This test, she was told, would decide which class she would be placed in; Class A was the highest while Class F was the lower group. Although she hadn't done the test yet, she was confident that she would get into one of the higher groups if the 10th place in the national test was anything to go by. Kotoko wouldn't tell this to people of course. She tried to be as modest as possible, especially in a new school.
"BRRING, BRRING!" the phone cried. Kotoko sat straight up, startled from her daydream. She blinked ahead a few times before moving her gaze to the phone. It continued the annoying noise before Kotoko silenced it with a quick movement of her hand. "Hello?" she said into the phone, despite knowing who was on the other side. After listening to directions to the room of the test, she muttered a thank you before hanging up and rushing to the given place.
The hecticness before the first day of school couldn't be avoided. The boxes scattered around the house only added to the unorganised feeling that consumed Shigeo and Kotoko. She was desperately trying to get away without saying anything that might suck her into helping out. She knew it was selfish, but she comforted herself with the thought that we all should be sometimes. So, gulping her drink and toast, she rushed out the door with a quick kiss on the cheek to her father as she passed.
Stepping outside everything seemed still for a second. She stood there, eyes closed, breathing in the clear air. The appearing voices and a car passing reminded her that school started in less than 10 minutes. Glancing quickly at the owner of the voices she saw the uniform that she currently wore reflected on two young girls.
'Perfect', she whispered to herself, giving a little smile and a sigh of relief before setting off behind the schoolgirls.
The walk was shorter than anticipated. And funnier than anticipated. She observed the girls lowered voices and concluded that they were suspicious of her, though after one had turned their body all the way round and took in her uniform, their eyes widened with realisation, they went back to their usual banter. Within a couple of minutes of following the girls (whose names she learnt as they addressed each other... loudly - Satomi and Jinko) she recognised the uniform on other groups of people. She also recognised that they were groups of people. However, she brushed it away instead concentrating on the map in front of her on her phone of the overhead view. She had looked around before, but she realised that she had only circled a small block of the grounds. It wouldn't have taken an Einstein to realise that the school grounds were humongous, but on further inspection it seemed all her rooms seemed to be in one area so hopefully finding her way around would be easy.
Now at the gates it was almost comforting being in the huge gaggle of people where she could do pretty much do anything and no one would notice. After a scan of the directions, she started to head to the office assuming that this is where they would expect her to be for collection of her new timetable and form.
She stood nervously outside the room which was labelled Class A12. Slowly pushing open the door open, she peered inside and instantly what little noise there was descended to nothing as all eyes turned to her. She came completely in and turned to close the door before scampering over to the teacher's desk and placing down the information sheet the office had given her. His eyes scanned the paper then looked at her and stood up. Rotating to face the class he introduced her and asked for a hello, which in their case seemed to be opening their mouth and making a sound that sounded faintly like hello. As he went to sit back in his chair, he waved his hand vaguely to the corner of the classroom where a tall boy sat, one elbow on the windowsill, looking out to the court. Walking over, she regarded him. He was lean and looked like the type that she reckoned more than a few of the girls had a crush on.
I won't be involved in such stuff, she decided.
He must have heard the footsteps because he looked over to her, resting his gaze on her before looking back, rolling his eyes as he did so.
The audacity.
Kotoko, actually quite offended at the eye roll decided not to make quick judgments in her first day at a new school, so she moved past it and, before sitting down, bowed and said: "Hello. I hope we can be friends!". She bowed once more and sat down, opting to ignore the judgement stares from…well…everybody.
Now knowing the route, she started to head home with music to block out all the voices around her. Halfway home, the two girls from that morning appeared as she rounded a corner. Her eyes lit up at the prospect of having someone live this close. She started speed up a bit, catching them up faster than if she kept her normal pace. She slowed within a metre of them.
What should I say?
After quickly scrunching her headphones to the depths of her bag, she slowly put her arms through the arms of her bag as she did so, whispering an 'excuse me'. Since there wasn't a reply or a notion that they had heard, she built up her confidence, raising her voice.
"Excuse me!" This time was more powerful, making the girls turn. Now she had their attention, she had turned shy again.
"I think we live close", she said, back to a whisper again "did you want to walk home together?"
They grinned widely which Kotoko returned with a smaller version.
"Sure!" They almost said in sync.
This time Kotoko returned a beam that match their own.
Her presence seemed to do nothing to stop their rapid chat which she would briefly partake in every so often. Despite her absence in the conversation, she felt herself becoming more relaxed around them. They provided a much-appreciated company.
Since her dad was at work, and without anyone at the house it would be dull, Kotoko decided it would be alright if the Satomi and Jinko took shelter while the raging storm outside passed. She also took the chance, unfortunately for them, to prep them for the test they talked about so…passionately during the walk back. Putting the tv on as a background noise, they got started.
It had only been 10 or so minutes in before the complaining began.
"Kotokoooooo. Why do we have to know about one of the most BORING subjects EVER. I mean who cares about the Industrial Revolution?" whined Satomi.
"Can I help you?" asked Kotoko playing the authoritative parent.
"Can you write my revision notes?" she asked hopefully.
"No," she answered bluntly and, glad for the put down of the interruption, went back to reading her book. Satomi gave her a look before going back to scouring the Web for any more information on the test question.
That didn't last long.
The tv, due to being filmed in the storm meant that Kotoko's reading was, again, short-lived.
She grumbled before getting up to turn it down.
Once she saw the scene on the tv, she stopped and turned the nob the other way.
"Look at this" she said, the distress in her voice already visible. They crawled over to the tv from their place at the table.
Hands over mouths they whispered: "That's horrible, poor girl"
The scene in front of them was indeed horrible. It showed a father and daughter (being interviewed by a rather impassive reporter, Kotoko thought) standing on the pavement, behind them a house.
Or rather where the house must have been. Instead, all left was a pile of rubble.
Pardoning himself for interrupting the interviewer, the father picked up his phone. After a brief conversation that ended in many 'thank you' s and 'are you sure it isn't any trouble?' s, he put the phone down and announced with great delight towards the daughter, "Chino Sai, my darling, my friend offered for us to stay over at theirs for a while.We will be living with the Iries!"
"That lucky girl. She'll be staying with Naoki-kun I bet. I'm fairly sure I heard that their dads were close" Satomi said, the envy in her voice obvious. But Kotoko was confused.
"Why lucky?" she asked "Because she is going to live with a boy?"
They both stared at her with the same perplexed expression on both their faces. They put their arms through hers as if she were a child and guided her to the table. They led her to one side before moving to the other side. The earnest expressions that appeared on their face made Kotoko wriggle in her seat.
"I think it's time for a lesson, sweetheart."
"Naoki is popular. Sai is staying with Naoki." Satomi looked at her intently.
"Yes, yes, I got that." Kotoko replied, annoyed she was being treated like a child.
"So…?"
Kotoko struggled to see where they were going with this.
"God, for all your fancy pants you don't half act stupid sometimes," Jinko huffed leaning away from the table.
"Think of the cachet she'd get! She'd be the closest connection to the untouchable Naoki." Satomi explained excitedly.
"Oh ye, who's Naoki."
They stared at her for a while in disbelief.
"You'll figure it out eventually." They said finally, moving away to the table.
"I will?" Kotoko murmured to herself, going to join them.
The first thing that made things a whole lot more difficult was that Sai went to their school. Since the location of her new residence was public, the next day her popularity grew. She was crowded by people from all classes and years, asking how it felt to be living with the school's number 1 boy. The crowd around her seemed to be reporters, their newspaper the bulletin board. Kotoko sworn she even heard a "Please no press" from Sai.
Naoki Irie, (who Kotoko learned was the rude boy from the first day) all this while seemed unchanging since this recent development. Seeing as Sai was in Class F, Kotoko didn't get to see properly how Naoki interacted with Sai. But from her analysis of their communication, verbal and non-verbal, when passing each other it seemed to Kotoko that Naoki would be happy to have nothing to do with her while Sai made quite an embarrassing effort to get his attention and try to brag about their 'connection'.
Despite his attempts to keep the situation at a low, he was becoming more recognised than from before. If that was possible. It was becoming rather troublesome sitting next to him because the fact someone was studying next to him didn't seem to stop certain people. On one such occasion, she was getting ready for a test set next lesson. That didn't stop the girls in Class A.
Oh no.
If anything, it provided the perfect excuse to annoy the girl that had the misfortune of being placed next to the He-Devil the everyone liked.
They spent their hour of lunch on either side of Kotoko discussing density in icebergs, questions launched from the girl and answered in agonising detail from the boy. By the time 5th lesson started, she was fairly certain that she could draft a book on the matter. What made it worse was that the things the class did to disrupt her the He-Devil went along with. Which meant that even he was ok with annoying her at her. Which made the number of people who disliked her in this class the grand total of fucking-all-of-them.
Perfect.
The only people who seemed to like her were the people from Class F especially the ones who she walked home with and that boy that they introduced her to (Kin-chan she remembered him telling her to call him). To be honest, she was kinda scared that he liked her too much, but according to Jinko and Satomi, this was how he normally acted, but Kotoko seriously doubted that since neither one of them would look at her as they said that and agreed with it one to many times.
The rest of the class liked her 'cause she taught them. Her role had been fairly quickly assumed when Satomi and Jinko dragged her to help to class study over lunch. Now her lunches were filled with constant questions from the class.
Not that she minded. At least they respected her.
Since her only friends were in detention for incomplete homework that they swore to Kotoko they'd done, she trudged home alone for the first time since moving there. Normally, she would invite them in since her dad wouldn't be home (not that he knew of course - he didn't like people coming in the house) so she was glad that they weren't here when she opened the door and there stood her dad.
"Hey dad, why are you home early?" Kotoko asked, intrigued.
"Well daughter," he said teasingly, "I just found out that my best friend from childhood, lives round here too!"
Kotoko scrunched her head before her face cleared.
"Ah! Was it... Shigeki Plie?"
"Close. Irie."
"Ah yes I remember now." Kotoko suddenly gasped silently. No. It couldn't be. She dissed the idea, but just had to check.
"Dad?"
"Yes?"
"Do the Irie's have any kids?"
"Ah yes. He has two sons." Kotoko decided that she couldn't imagine Naoki showing any affection enough to have a sibling so decided that it must just be a coincidence.
After sorting themselves a mug on tea, they settled at their usual places on the table
"So, are we meeting up?" Kotoko asked, interested.
Also a bit hopeful.
Her father hadn't seemed his usual, positive self since they moved here and Kotoko worried about the bags that had appeared under his eyes. At this rate, the restaurant would become obsolete and Kotoko didn't know if she'd be able to fit a part time job into her already-busy schedule and even if she could, the money wouldn't nearly be enough.
The smile on his face was possible the only genuine one she'd seen since they'd moved. Kotoko was eager to keep that smile on as long as she could and therefore meeting the people that made him so happy was a requirement.
She got her answer immediately.
"Yes! Please don't hate me for going behind your back, but we are meeting them tonight. It is the only time Shigeki was free. Apparently it's pretty busy though." Shigeru said in a rush.
She laughed.
"Of course I won't hate you. I love you." she said hugging him from behind, over the shoulders. He hugged her back, giving her arms a squeeze, and one of his genuine smiles.
The busyness of the place was evident with three cars in the drive (one black Mercedes, a grey Volvo and a yellow mini), movement in every one of the windows that Kotoko looked through and a particular loudness that you only get at parties. Looking with interest through one of the ground-floor windows, Kotoko quickly changed her expression to alarm when she saw a bunch of people in there with her school's uniform. All of whom she recognised to be in her year and, more importantly, all in Class F. In the centre on a table, of what she assumed was the living room, stood Chino Sai.
Nervous, they both head up to the front door. Almost afraid of what would answer, they timidly knocked on the door. An angry looking woman appeared at the door, looking them up and down before barking at them: "Who are you."
"We're Shig-"
"Your friends of that horrendous girl no doubt." She stopped for a moment before looking Shigeru up and down. "You do look a bit too old for her though"
"Yes, that's because we're here to see Shigeki and for dinner."
Her eyes brightened up. "Oh it's you!"
She rushed them inside and Kotoko got a glimpse of the foyer; stairs to the left of them that came to, what she could see, a couple of rooms (both closed) and directly in front of her double glass doors that lead to a...living room maybe (?). After her quick analysis, they came to an abrupt stop and the woman yelled at the top of her voice: "STOP THE MUSIC!"
A few moments after the shout, the music obeyed the command and the cheering that continued, soon followed suit. Now people didn't have anything to occupy them, they turned their attention the source of the interruption. The women, so confident only moments before, turned self-conscious in the limelight.
"W-would you mind terrible...um...leaving?" she squeaked. A large man appeared behind the woman (Kotoko assumed he was Shigeki because of the humongous smile that appeared on her dad's face) put his hands of her shoulders, took a deep breath and bellowed: "We have guests!"
The woman looked delighted as kids started filtering out and promptly turned around a gave the man a nice big hug (AN: Aww isn't that sweet :D).
"Thank you honey!" From this, Kotoko concluded that she must be married to Shigeki, and therefore Ms Irie.
The last of the kids filtered out, but this peace and quiet didn't last long.
The small girl who looked so cute on tv, stormed up to the couple, with an alarming look on her face.
At that expression, Ms Irie went back to hiding behind her husband.
"Why did you tell all my friends to go?!" she thundered.
"Good question. Why would we tell 'friends' that we don't even know to go?"
"Exactly!"
(Kotoko couldn't tell if she was either really bad at sarcasm or honestly believed that he was questioning it too). At this statement, the young, vicious girl huffed and started walking upstairs, the conversation seemingly finished.
From Kotoko's position, she could see a man about the same age as Shigeki walk just before the entrance to the living room, just out of sight of him, fiddling with his hands as if unsure. He finally stepped forward and, after a few steps towards them, bowed so quickly that Kotoko was scared that, at the rate he was going, he would hit his head on his knee.
"I'm so sorry for causing you this mess up." he started. "I have found a small flat close to the school that my wage will just be able to keep. Again I am sorry, and we will leave tomorrow."
Kotoko recognised that man from the TV as Sai's dad and decided that he wasn't the one who passed the attitude gene to his daughter.
"Oh Kai, it not you that that needs to go." Shigeki said helping 'Kai' raise his head to look in the eye. "In the nicest way possible, your daughter is a brat." He said this with a hesitant chuckle.
"Also, she thinks she is the one for Naoki." Ms Irie said scampering up to her husband's side. "As his mother, I know exactly who he likes, and she ticks none of the boxes!"
Kotoko's brain didn't register that sentence. Well, not the last bit. Everything zoned out after Ms Irie said 'Naoki'.
She was going to have dinner with the He-Devil.
At the sound of his name from his obscenely loud mother downstairs, Naoki closed his eyes and prepared himself for the challenge ahead. He was determined to make this dinner a reminder that was Kotoko not welcome into his house.
And of course he knew it was Kotoko.
When his father mentioned the name Aihara, he quickly found a way into his father's phone, and looked through his recent text. He was horrified when he saw that Shigeo had mentioned that his daughter was in the same year as him at school and, to add salt to the wound, he also confirmed that she was in the same school. Seeing Kotoko's name also brought up another feeling, but being the ignorant idiot he was, he simply ignored it and put it down to being excited for the homework assignment which he had already read about and planned.
It was worse than she thought it would be. As soon as Kai left with his daughter (this took a while) to the shops he came down the stairs. He gave her the smirk that he always did before he was going to insult her.
"Ah", he said, keeping the grin. "You're that girl that had a crush on me, aren't you?"
Kotoko could have burst due the fury and embarrassment that was building up inside her. Her?! Having a crush on the Hellions definition of evil?! It was preposterous! Her mind quickly thought of a comeback.
"Pah! If we were the last people on earth than the human race would die out."
Despite this, his obnoxious grin stayed.
"Oh my gosh! Yes! It's perfect." Came the voice from the petite woman still wrapped around her husband from earlier.
She quickly unlatched herself stood in between them before clutching her hands together and looking and the ceiling as if it was the Ignatius Church Kojimachi in Tokyo. They stood in blissful silence before it was interrupted by a whispering:
"Think of the children."
Then the silence completely disappeared.
Because of the noise, Shigeki had started trying to usher them into the living room which Kotoko noted (still throwing insults at the idiot) was in a cosy arrangement.
"PLEASE SHUT UP!" From his tone, Kotoko would have guessed that that was a second or third attempt.
"Find a seat and sit down." The Irie family found their presumably normal places (Mr Irie in a small sofa at the head of the table and Ms Irie and The Idiot, with Ms Irie closer to her husband, on a longer sofa to the right side of the coffee table). Her father had already sat opposite Ms Irie, on the left side of the table, close to Mr Irie.
That left her sitting opposite to The Idiot.
Perfect.
Trying to ignore to resentful glares heading her way when he thought no one was looking, she attempted small talk.
"Dad mentioned that that you had two sons?"
"Ah yes I forgot about him!" Mr Irie gave a chuckle. "Where is that boy? YUKI!"
Soon after the shout, footsteps thundered down the stairs. Not long after this, a face appeared looked through the door of the living room.
And his eyes rolled.
"Oh this must be the Baka that Brother was talking about."
Kotoko's nails dug into her hand so hard she was sure she'd leave a mark.
"I think you should know that your brother gets the same marks as me on the and sometimes I get higher." She said this with her arms crossed over her lap trying to be as polite as possible. The next sentence, however, she aimed at The Idiot. "So what does that make him?"
He smirked. "I didn't realise you paid such close attention."
Trying to keep her hands from breaking his neck, she pushed them down into her lap.
"I sit next to you. What do you want me to do? Go blind?"
"That would be preferable, yes."
That earned a slap on the arm unfortunately not from her side.
After leaning back onto the sofa, she worked her way back into the conversation with Yuki "I study very well in fact."
"Ye right!"
"Yuki! Where are your manners?" (He ignored this).
"This is Chinese. What does this mean?" he said, indicating at a line in his book. Kotoko glanced at the line before answering: "That says 'Don't deal with the incompetent mortal'."
Yuki studies her for a few moments before turning to his brother.
"Brother, please don't embarrass me again."
With that, he took a seat next to Kotoko. She smiled while making room for him and then dipped her tea keeping her eyes down, extremely aware of the eyes drilling into her head.
With a smile, she decided to use his own lie against him.
"Look if even if you have a crush on me, I'd really rather you just said it than keep staring at me."
Finishing the sentence, she met his eyes. They held a glare before he said through gritted teeth, "Let's talk."
Without waiting for a reply, he pushed himself up and strode to her side, grabbing her arm, barely letting her get round the sofa in the process. The entire family watched as they stomped upstairs (in Mrs Irie's case, she watched, grinning in glee) He slammed open a door that Kotoko had previously seen from downstairs, pulled her in, and slammed it behind them.
"In your bedroom already? That was fast."
Without the need to stay composed in front her peers, she collapsed on the bed behind her, clutching her belly. Naoki stared down at her with disgust.
His mouth was already opening in a sneer to retaliate but before anything came out, a slam from downstairs interrupted his glare down at her and moved it to the door.
Coming to the only logical conclusion, he rolled his eyes.
"I'M HOME!" came a very destructively loud voice.
"Ye," muttered Naoki, "we figured." He looked at Kotoko. "Get up." he growled. She scrambled to her feet.
"Naoki?" the voice continued. "Naokiiiiii!"
Naoki was frozen with terror as the voice grew closer and closer coming up the stairs. Then he sprung into action.
"Quick," he said, pulling across the chair covering the entrance to the underneath of the desk, "get under here."
Kotoko, filled with adrenaline at this sudden disturbance of peace, dived into the space under the desk. Naoki rolled his eyes at this exaggerated action, before placing the chair back in its original place.
However, due to the lag time, this was all done too late. As Naoki was halfway through the ultimate action, he had not noticed the sudden stop of noise and opening of the door as a figure slipped into the room only to freeze halfway through.
"Naoki," she said shakily, make said person turn abruptly, "who is she?"
The silence that followed after this question was disrupted by a scamper of feet rushing up the stairs. The thing he saw, was not the face and body of the scampering feet, but rather the camera which did indeed belong to the body of the feet. (AN: Sorry this is a long sentence. If you haven't guessed already, it's Ms Irie.) After a flash of light, the photographer revealed herself by fully appearing in the now open doorway.
"Oh Chino," she said, over-exaggerating by pouting, "didn't you hear? This is his girlfriend, Kotoko."
"She's-and him-" Sai stuttered looking between them, "SHE'S WHAT?! Naoki, tell me that's not true."
"I-" Naoki started. However, just as he was about to object to what he had been accused of, a plan began to form.
A stiff arm reached out beside him, curved around a neck and, after completing this alien action, pulled a confused, slightly wriggling Kotoko as it came back.
He leaned close to her ear, knowing from various romances that he had been forced to watch that this would be taken as a gentle gesture. His words opposed this action though.
"Play along or I'll tell the school you jumped me, Baka." He whispered in her ear before turning to the others, who were, by now, watching the scene with wide eyes and open mouths. Kotoko was frozen for a couple of seconds, taking a few moments to properly understand what needed to be done. She slowly turned so her torso hugged Naoki's side. She wrapped her arms around him, feeling him stiffen then slightly relax under her arms. She pushed her head into his armpit, feeling him turn to look at her.
He better not be looking like he wants to hit me, she thought. Instead of voicing her speculation, she simply said, voice muffled by his top, "Sorry Sai."
As if he was trying to give her a bruise, his arm swept up and down her back in what probably looked to the others like a loving gesture.
"You are not sorry, you have no reason to be," he said looking down at her, using a sweet tone, but Kotoko could sense some gritting of teeth. Ignoring this, she concentrated on his action and what to do next. She quickly returned his action with her own, and looked up at him, knowing this would increase the lovey-doveyness of it. However, worst timing, she felt a snort coming at his words and quickly dug her head back into his body, arms wrapping tighter around his in hope that nobody would be able to see her face as it turned all the colours of the rainbow in its effort to not laugh. She just hoped that this would be taken as embarrassment at this sentence.
While the two teenagers in the room were trying their hardest, so was the one standing by the door. Except, while they were making effort to be sweet and lovely, she was desperately trying not to hit the girl who had her arms wrapped so lovingly around her man because, despite being overly loud and annoying, she didn't actually what to hurt people.
Instead, she bursts their eardrums.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" She screamed.
Everyone was in a rush, trying to block the awful sound. Kotoko, who's head was already pressed against Naoki's top, grabbed handfuls of it to cover her ears while the owner of the said t-shirt made a grab at a pillow from his simple bed against his ears. Ms Irie, being closest, suffered the most, as she used both hands not to protect herself, but to cover the loudspeaker of a person.
The situation was finally dealt with; people started to take a step back. Slightly. Kotoko slightly released some of Naoki's top. The owner of the top pulled the pillow slightly away from his ears. The hands wrapped around the loudspeaker's mouth loosened slightly.
A hand reached for the camera and stared wide-eyed as she replayed the footage.
"I got it!" she said, hands leaping off on mouth and wrapping around her own mouth. Ms Irie started showing her joy at this realisation by jumping clean of this floor in a way a high jumper would be proud of.
"Naoki's confession! I have it! At last!"
"Mum! What are you doing right now?" Naoki asked, head tilted as he watched her with his annoyed expression.
"Oh, you'll know soon enough." She replied, a knowing grin on her face. Just as Naoki moved to grab the camera, she took off down the hall. He moved to chase after her, but was stopped by the hindrance by the door, her palm on his chest.
"Naoki." she whispered, either from the strain the scream or because she was trying to figure something out and talking loud and thinking was too much.
"Naoki," she whispered again, "her?! Out of all the girls that flung themselves at you, including me, you choose her?" Her voice was slowly gathering in volume as she collected her thoughts.
"The only thing you have in common is that you and she are vaguely on the same intellectual level. Is that why she is dating you? Because you would be good together?! Intellectually? Look at her!" Indicating towards the figure behind Naoki, the figure with gradually balling fists at these words," She is nothing like you at all! She is way too short to fit you and her appearance - don't even let me start on the difference of appearance between you two! She - she's - so ugly!"
Kotoko had enough. She wasn't one to keep her composure, and even a few words like these would set her off. She began to advance towards the girl facing the idiot with wide-eyes, fist out, raising her arm -
"And." Naoki said, level-headedly staring at her. Kotoko froze. "What you may find ugly, I may find cute. What you find to different, I may find it the perfect change for me. Do not decide what I like."
With that, he moved her palm off his chest, stepped to the side and left the room.
Both girls were frozen. Kotoko was slowly retreating her outstretched fist both angered and surprised at the outcome of the conversation. Sai was going over what had just happened, slowly coming to the realisation that the person who was stopping her from completing her dreams was this person standing right in front of her.
"You - how dare you - what right do you have?" Sai said through a snarling mouth as her hand rose to point at her.
Kotoko move her gaze from the gap that Noaki had just escaped from and looked towards the girl who was now copying Kotoko's previous stance with her fist out in front of her.
"Not really very good at finishing sentences, are you?" she said simply, before slipping past the girl at the door, who was still digesting what was just said.
"Yoou -," she said turning ready to call back the retreating figure, but all she got was a face full of door as it closed on her face.
Further along the corridor, Kotoko was moving down the stairs so quickly in her effort to reach the man who had just created a rather significant lie in her life, that she lost her slippers halfway, deliberately, deciding that they only proved a hindrance to her current task at hand. Reaching the bottom, she skidded into the living room where everyone was sat as before, looking confused as they turned their gaze from Ms Irie's camera footage to her suddenly stopping being who was being careful as to not fall onto the table. When she rightened herself, she saw all stares directed at her. Apart from one who was quietly sipping his tea.
"Naoki, we need to talk." she said, through gritted teeth and, just like he had done previously, grabbed his shirt and pulled him towards the double doors of the living room. Spotting a room to the right of them, she dragged them in, pushed him further, hardly caring if he bumped into something, firmly locked the door and drew the curtains so they would have whatever version of privacy was possible in this household. In spite of her efforts to limit any knowledge of what was happening in the room, her heard a faint thud against the door and a quiet 'shh'. She sighed.
Turning to face him and the room, she could see that she had led them into the downstairs bathroom. It was a fairly cramped vicinity, with a toilet down on end and a bath and sink to the left of the right of the room. Naoki had settled himself to lean against the bathroom sink, so she leaned on the right wall.
"So, after that unnecessary display, what did you wish to share?" He started, facing the wall opposite him.
"The stupidity of your lie." He turned to look at her now, glaring of course, and indicated with a nod of his head towards the bathroom door.
"What? I'm only stating a fact. That you said -" she began, but, in one fluid movement, he had reached her and wrapped his hands, one around the back of her head and the other covering her mouth. Dropping his mouth to her ear he whispered:
"I need this, and this could help you in whatever way you want it to help you; your status, reputation, getting parents off your back about getting a partner. I am going to be saying that we are dating in school, and if you go around saying that we are not dating, I'll be telling them that I broke up with you, and this how they will react to the girl who got broken up with by 'the school's #1' Naoki Irie."
Moving away from the girl, who he could feel was gaping, he smirked. She was caught.
"Guess I'll be going, sweetie." He said, before stepping to the side to open the door to allow the three adults to tumble and stepping over them to join his brother who was watching this happening with a faint smirk.
Kotoko watched the back of them as they advanced up the stairs.
Ms Irie, seemingly unfazed that she had just been caught eavesdropping, scrambled up from the floor to stand in front of Kotoko.
"I couldn't hear anything. What were you doing behind closed doors?" Ms Irie asked, rather rudely in Kotoko's opinion. How was it her business?
"No, we were... discussing recent options that have allowed us to come up to this moment."
"What, Irie revealing that you are dating?" She guessed with a mischievous grin.
Kotoko sighed.
"No, we talked about - " Halfway through her sentence, she was interrupted by the stomping of shoes down the stairs. No award for who was making that much noise by just coming down the carpet-padded stairs. Kotoko had had enough of this crazy household.
"Dad, I'm feeling a little sick could we head?" She said stepping over the two men on the ground and help him up. Out of general courtesy, which she decided that certain occupants of this house most definitely needed, she pulled up Mr Irie as well. Moving briskly towards the door, she grabbed their coats, and tugged on her shoes. Her dad had joined her and was halfway through pulling on his second shoe as she finished. She decided to start her farewells now, as to not waste time. She shook hands with Ms Irie attempting a brisk manner, but said woman began to make it too personal by clasping both of her hands. She had taken a liking to Mr Irie, being her father's friend and not too into the mess that was created in that one night, and exchanged a wide smile to the seemingly relaxed man, but also shook his hand.
Farewells completed on both sides of the Aihara family, they headed out towards the gate, waving goodbyes behind their heads.
"Come again soon!" screamed Ms Irie. Before Kotoko could stop him, Shigeo had shouted back:
"We will!"
They were on the street adjacent to theirs when Shigeo finally made evident his curiosity.
"So Kotoko, you never told me that you already had got a boyfriend so quickly. Not that I doubt that you could."
"No dad, Naoki decided to use me to get somebody off his back." Shigeo gave an 'o' of realisation.
"Well, why have you not denied it then?"
"You believe me?" she asked incredulously.
"Of course! You're my daughter. Now, why didn't you deny it?" He asked. Kotoko looked at him surprised and appreciative of this amazing person she had for a father.
Kotoko debated what and how much to tell him. Obviously this debate was shown on her face as her dad was looking at her face, slightly worried look on his face.
"Kotoko?" He asked. Realising they had stopped moving, she shook her head in a pointless attempt to rid these thoughts from her head and proceeded along the street, leaving her dad to look after her with confusion.
Satomi, Jinko and Kotoko were walking slowly down the street about 5 minutes away from their school. Kotoko had learnt from the two that a website popular with the school had had a new post uploaded that night, Naoki's proclamation. Kotoko didn't have to think too hard about who uploaded that.
"I'd be careful Kotoko. Loads of people like Naoki, and you dating him is not going to help anyone." Satomi helpfully pointed out.
"Sorry, but how are you even dating?" Jinko asked. "You seem like you hated him and I'm sure he wasn't too fussed about you either."
"Jinko!" Satomi exclaimed, elbowing her. Kotoko had been asked questions about this since they had left the house and they seemed to come up with answer or possibilities of their own. In the end, Kotoko had given up, deciding that the less information she gave the better. She had already (reluctantly) concluded that she would need to talk to Naoki about the rules and regulation of this lie. Whenever she saw in dramas the main couple being forced together and writing up a contract, she thought it was silly. Why not just make them up as they go along and trust each other to keep them? However, she now saw that trusting each other would not be an option with this Devil. She had to make sure that any details were discussed; any conformation needed of the relationship was checked; and, most importantly, that they did not have to see each other any more than necessary.
Drawing herself out of the thought process, she realised that her friend's conversation had moved on to a new comic that they had both seen online. Glad for the change of topics, she travelled the rest of the journey in peace, content with just having people close. She was eternally grateful for the two's company. They were the first proper friends that she could ever remember having other than her dad. Her mind had been back to her life in Kyoto before them so hands of stopping her made her realise the time that had past and their sudden arrival at the gates.
"Kotoko? We have to go now," Satomi said smiling at her. "See you at lunch though."
As they walked off in the direction of their class, they waved behind their heads and Kotoko waved back.
Ugh. Now she had to return to her form.
Walking to her class had been like old times, people staring, pointing, judging. Her classroom had been even worse. There was dead silence as she walked in and she felt like she had just put a wrong answer on the board as she walked towards her desk - next to him. He ignored her as she sat down, reading his book. She stood there watching him for a moment, trying to figure out what he was doing. He was the one who insisted on this ridiculous arrangement. As she stood there, she felt a rush of déjà vu. Her standing in this exact spot bowing to someone who had just rolled his eyes at her - why had she done that again? How could she have thought of giving this rude person a second chance? Realising she was staring, he looked up. He held her gaze until she snapped out of it. She turned towards the front of the class to put down her bag and, as she sat down, she turned towards to still-reading boy.
"Yes?" he said, feeling her eyes on him.
"We need to talk." she said. As they stood up, she heard him whisper, "How many times more am I going to hear those words."
She rolled her eyes but quickly corrected herself, hoping nobody saw, but struggling to maintain herself when he pushed past her. They walked out of the room with her in his wake as he took great striding steps, completely disregarding the fact Kotoko's were like a cheetah in a hunt. She briefly wondered whether he was doing it just out of habit, but realised that even if he did notice, he wouldn't stop.
The disrespect of this guy was astonishing.
As they exited to room, she noticed that the little noise that had risen completely diminished. Again. Out of anger that she was walking out with the Naoki Irie, or curiosity about why she was walking out with the Naoki Irie.
They left the classroom and head straight to the back courtyard where they knew there would be little to no people.
They reached the back of the garden behind a hedge when they finally stopped. However, this stopping was more like crashed. He stopped so suddenly that Kotoko's fast walking keep up with him cause her to slam into his back. She stepped back, grimacing, and rubbing her head. He tilted his head up in annoyance. How long would he have to deal with this clumsy mess? Turning to look at her, he noticed in the moment how small she really was. His head was almost touching his chest to see this dwarf, who still rubbing her head. Feeling it was unnecessary to look at her, he lifted his head to direct his gaze at the hedge they were behind that Kotoko had turned her back to.
"What is it?" he demanded, adopting his couldn't-care-less voice.
Great start, she thought, briefly glancing at his non-communicative face in annoyance, before training her eyes at the school logo on his top, which was eye-level for her. Screw a contract, this just need to be over.
"We need to break up," she started, vaguely acknowledging him looking down at her face before looking back up again, "this is just a ridiculous-."
A hand covered her mouth.
"No." he said never looking down at her face. "We will not be breaking up until I find a suitable partner."
A suitable partner? Who talks like that?! Kotoko thought. Him apparently. Oh well, let's deal with this problem first.
She knew that he was probably stronger her, but not wanting him to be touching her, she decided that she may as well try to get his hand of his face. With both hands she grabbed his wrist, attempting to pull it off her mouth, but his other hand moved to the back of her head to keep it on. Despite this, she still tried. She kept pulling and her efforts were shaking them both. All at once, the hand covering her mouth disappeared and Kotoko was not sure it was because to her.
Then he replaced it with his mouth.
All Kotoko could concentrate on was his face, eyes closed, this close to her and his arms that came up to cradle the back of her head. She felt her face relax and her eyes began to close.
A movement, to the side of her, stopped her from closing them completely. Somebody was there. Eyes widening, she grabbed his arms which were hanging limply by her side before that to drag him away from her. He pulled away stared at her for a moment, before grabbing her arm and pulling her past the person whose eyes were wide open. Their phone was in front of them and Kotoko was already cringing at what might be said after it had spread. As she was being pulled away, she realised the reason behind this sudden act. Judging from his position and height, she reckoned that he had seen a person walk this way and figured she wouldn't be able to speak or move with this show.
It was the right thing to do, she told herself.
Then why did she feel so disappointed?
The doors of the vacant classroom burst open, revealing Naoki with his striding steps pulling along Kotoko who was scampering to keep up with him. They stopped, slowing instead of abruptly to avoid the same previous collision.
As he released his grip, Kotoko rubbed her wrist and just felt sorry for the actors who had to do this over and over for the typical drama scene.
"We are not splitting up," Naoki said straight to business. "It is equally beneficial for both of us."
"What could it possible bring for me?!"
"Well, you don't have any friends in Class A and how others treat you could be considered bullying." She stared at him incredulously. He was only to gain from this to get his mother off his back. What was he talking about 'equally beneficial'? Bullshit!
"You are having a relationship with me," he said, ignoring her completely, "stops that, bar a few glares."
"I'll put up with the others - "
"Either way I will win this." He interrupted, staring over her head. "It would be easier for both you and me to stop without wasting our time."
As he walked past her, she scoffed.
How selfish!
She turned to find a way out of his self-decided decision only to find a door still swinging. She scoffed again. Collecting herself by taking the disgusted look of her face to something more normal, she trudged out of the room. Out into a crowd of peers. She sighed internally. She rolled her eyes before pushing her way through them. Everyone was holding their breath before one girl tentatively asked a bold question: "What were you doing in there with Naoki, Kotoko?"
Kotoko raised her eyebrows. What were they thinking?!
"Nothing," she said, pushing her way through the crowd.
They could interpret that how they liked.
Finally turning into the classroom for registration (was it only that?), Kotoko first sight was the unobtrusive figure in the corner, who seemingly blocked out all the noise around him as he read his textbook. Of course, that was the first thing he pulled out after talking to her. She sighed for what seemed like the millionth time that day. Just walking across the room gave her glares from all directions. The girls because they were probably jealous and the boys perhaps wondering what she did to get through to him. Slumping her bag down on her desk, she noticed the teacher at the front of the room behind his desk talking to a student. She didn't recognise him. Perhaps he was a Class B or C asking advice about achieving Class A status. Oh well. Just another jerk to laugh at her. She was pulling out her books when the teacher finally started asking for people's names. The boy still stood there she noticed, glancing up after putting the necessary information in her notebook for a new day. Standing there looking at her? She looked up again. And her heart stopped.
It was Watanabe.