The Day Class cheered to their favourite Night Class students as they passed.
"Idol! Idol! Wild! It's Kaname!" they chorused, while Akane continued her efforts to ignore the sounds of the hormone-induced frenzy, enjoying her solitude for the time being. She concentrated instead on the sound of the birds twittering in the branches and the trees swaying in tune with the wind.
This tranquillity lasted a time until a nagging feeling of being watched began creeping up on Akane's consciousness. Initially, she ignored the feeling, but when a hush settled over the nearby Day Class students, quieting then much quicker than she thought they were capable, so opening her dark green eyes. Akane found herself in the company of two tall silhouettes, stood before her.
"Hello there," said a particularly cheery voice, though Akane couldn't decide from which silhouette it had come. "Who might you be?" the voice spoke again, but this time the shorter of the two shadows bent down, revealing tussle blonde hair, azure blue eyes, and an angelic face that would have left almost everyone on the planet gazing in awe.
Akane was surprised by their sudden interest, but her surprise was quickly replaced with an expression of slight irritation on her oval-shaped face.
"You're in my light," she snipped, closing her eyes and causing the perfect smile on the boy's face to falter. Aido straightened, turning to Kain with a tilted head, conveying his annoyance through a cold, dead-eyed stare at the gall of the Human.
Kain shrugged at his cousin's indignation and stepped aside, returning the sunlight to Akane's body. Aido took note of her long and slender legs, continuing from an hourglass figure of pale skin with an almost spectral tone. It was a sharp contrast to her piercing green eyes, framed with thick black lashes. He decided her overall appearance complimented her intriguing scent nicely, but her hair was what caught and held his attention once her eyes closed.
Her hair was an inky black, as black as the darkest of nights and looked just as fine. It would certainly have every Day Class boy in the academy wanting to bury their faces in it. Petulantly, Aido realised he felt a little jealous the Day Class got to see something so striking every day but quickly got over such an absurd emotion. A Human was just a Human, after all.
The smile reappeared on the blonde's lips as he prepared to dazzle another Human with his charms.
"I'd remember seeing you before. Are you new?" he chirped. Akane's reply, however, was nothing close to satisfactory.
"Relatively…" she answered cryptically, annoying both Vampires with her vague, disinterested answer.
"What's your name?" Kain asked, speaking for the first time since meeting the Human.
"Not interested," she answered, opening a lazy eye before settling back down to enjoy the sun.
Akane was far from immune to these boys and their stunning appearance. It was nerve-racking that they seemed adamant to talk to her, no matter how unwelcoming she made herself out to be. Also, the attention she knew they were drawing was making her feel rather uncomfortable. Akane didn't much like the idea of being trampled or murdered in her sleep by an obsessive fan of these two.
There was an audible gasp of shock from the Day Class at Akane's rudeness. They'd been watching the exchange and were scandalised to hear the boy's politeness and interest being rejected.
"Akane!" Great, thanks, Miu! Akane thought as she sat up to greet her friend.
"So, it's Akane, is it?" Aido said with a hint of satisfaction and a look of triumph, as Miu rushed to her friend's side.
"To you, it's Nakamura," Akane corrected, standing with Miu, who looked about ready to faint at being so close to her 'Idol'.
"A-Akane! Don't be so rude, Idol and Kain are only introducing themselves. You should at least tell them your name in return. I'm Miu Hayashi by the way, Akane's my roommate," Miu explained with a grin plastered across her face as she nudged Akane encouragingly. Honestly, Miu! Want to tell them out room number next? Akane thought with a bored expression while her heart raced a mile a minute at the amount of attention this little scene was going to put back on her. And here I was, thinking all the whispering would die down soon. Fat chance of that now!
Now that she was on her feet, the Vampires could see the girl was a little taller than her more talkative friend, who stood around 5'1. Akane appeared to be closer to 5'5, thus, making her a good number of inches shorter than the two Night Class students.
"Aido, Kain?" a silken voice called from behind the two aristocratic Vampires, causing them to stiffen in apprehension. "Is something wrong?" Kaname Kuran asked as he placed a hand on Aido's shoulder. The Day Class students surrounding them began to twitter excitedly at the Moon Dorm President's appearance, Akane and Miu being the only exception (Miu was still in her Idol daze).
"No, Dorm President," Aido answered as he faced the Pureblood.
"Then you should hurry. I wouldn't want you to be late," Kaname said, in a tone more fitting of an order than a suggestion.
They nodded, quickly heading for the school building. The Pureblood's attention then turned to the raven-haired girl, nodding in acknowledgement.
"I'm sorry if they bothered you, Miss Nakamura," he apologised with a calm and pleasantly deep tone-of-voice, that Akane had to suppress a sigh at.
"No, they didn't bother me," Akane assured with a nonchalant wave of her hand. Only gave me a mild heart attack! she added to herself as she stood with no notable reaction to her voice or face at the awe-inspiring vision of Kaname Kuran. Not that her heart still wasn't making valiant efforts to escape her chest, while fighting a blush that seemed determined to wipe out her pale complexion. Though, she did wonder how the Night Class Dorm President knew her name. Kaname bid them all farewell before he turned to catch up with Seiren, a Night Class girl who was waiting for him further up the pathway.
"I cannot believe you!" Miu exclaimed once Kaname and Seiren were out of earshot, rounding on her friend with a glare along with the group of girls who had envious eyes set on Akane.
"What?" Akane argued as her shorter friend began to slowly turn a worrying shade of red. Akane's trepidation rose at the dangerous looks on all the girl's faces, but needn't have worried, as a moment later, Miu saved Akane from any repercussions her first Night Class encounter could have wrought by placing her hands on her cheeks with a far off, goofy expression and said,
"Idol is so handsome up close, isn't he?"
Her breathless (and rhetorical) question caused everyone else to nod dreamily in agreement as they too began to recall the encounter with 'Idol', 'Wild' and Kaname. Akane stood amongst the dazed crowd, thanking her lucky stars how easy it was for them to fall into their little fantasies.
"Nakamura! Nakamura!" All too soon a voice broke through the sighs of contentment.
"Oh, no," Akane complained, dropping her head and shoulders.
"You only have yourself to blame. You should have gone to class," Miu chastised in an, 'I told you so' tone-of-voice, wiggling her finger at Akane as Yuki Cross parted the group enclosing them. Akane was, at least thankful that Miu tended to recover from her Idol stupors quickly, so she wasn't a goofball for long.
"Nakamura, the Headmaster wants to see you," Yuki said breathlessly with an apologetic smile at Akane's sigh.
"Yeah, I know Cross. Let's get this over with," she said as she fell into step with the Prefect and began the well-known trek to Kaien Cross's office.
"The rest of you, back to your dorms! It's past curfew!" Yuki called to the rest of the Day Class still milling about, who begrudgingly complied.
The two girls walked in silence through the quiet corridors of the school building, until Yuki was unable to contain herself any longer.
"If you just went to class, Nakamura, we wouldn't have to do this," Yuki tried, confused by Akane's character, as she had been from their first-ever interaction.
Ever since Akane came to Cross Academy, she'd been called to Kaien's office for truancy more than any other student. Yuki had always had to collect the girl for these meetings and had first thought her to be a troublemaker, but she quickly understood, Akane found her classes much less challenging than she would've liked and skipped them purely out of boredom. However, despite Akane missing so many of her classes, Yuki knew she excelled in her schooling, after being privy to many of her meetings with the Headmaster.
She envied Akane for her test scores regardless of her truancy habit, but how Akane managed to do so well was beyond Yuki. Though, Akane continued to skip despite how uncomfortable she was with Kaien's enthusiastic personality. Yuki would've thought the constant summons to the academy head would've given Akane the incentive to go to class, but so far, no such luck.
"The guy's just so… happy all the time, it's weird," Akane complained as they entered the corridor housing the Headmaster's office.
"He can be too much sometimes, but he does mean well."
"I know Cross," Akane groaned defeated as they stopped at the door and knocked.
"Come in!" came the familiar voice of the Headmaster of Cross Academy. Yuki opened the door and stepped aside to user Akane inside but both girls stopped abruptly once they saw the room housed a second occupant. Kaname stood in front of Kian's desk with his usual calm and pleasant smile in place.
"I won't take up any more of your time, Headmaster. Thank you," he said, nodding to Kaien and turning to the door. "Good evening Yuki, Miss Nakamura," he added as he walked by, closing the door silently as he left.
"Nakamura, please take a seat," Kaien insisted, gesturing to the empty seat in front of his desk while Yuki stood off to the side, trying not to be seen while Akane got a good-humoured scolding. Akane sat as instructed and waited for the usual whining to begin about why she wasn't having fun in her classes, why she wasn't smiling, happy to see her headmaster. But the man who sat in the chair opposite her looked far from cheerful. On the contrary, he looked quite drained and worn.
"Nakamura, I'm afraid the Academy Directors have been reconsidering your scholarship due to your continuous absences from class."
"You're sending me home!" Akane exclaimed in disbelief, shooting to her feet. Kaien held up a hand for silence. Akane lowered herself gingerly back into the chair, taking a deep breath to calm her terrified heart while Yuki watched with worry from the sidelines.
Once Akane had sat back down Kaien continued.
"No, Nakamura, but they are serious about it. I've been able to get them to reconsider for now, but if your truancy continues, there's little I can do to change their minds." Kaien's words washed over Akane like a flood, chilling her blood and dropping a block of ice to the pit of her stomach.
"I'm sorry, Headmaster," she began, her head bowed to her Headmaster and her fingers twiddling in her lap. "I don't want to be sent home. I know I'm lucky to be here and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to study at your school. I promise to attend all my classes from now on, and I'm sorry again, that I caused you so much trouble."
"This is the only chance I can give you Nakamura, please don't waste it. From now on, if you're absent from class, it should be because you're ill enough to be in the infirmary. Is that clear?" he cautioned in a friendly and sympathetic tone and an easier smile on his face. Akane nodded, understanding that Kaien was telling her this because he was willing to give her another chance, a chance he didn't have to give.
She decided she wouldn't ignore his warning and would suffer the boredom of all her classes if it meant staying at the academy. She realised she'd been too arrogant up until now. She thought that her intelligence would be enough to achieve her goal here, but perhaps, she would need to humble herself. Her teachers could surprise her, or they may not, regardless, she couldn't afford to be expelled.
Resolute, she stood, her face set in a determination.
"I understand Sir," she declared, "I won't disappoint you!" At the sight of the fire in Akane's eyes, Kaien returned to his usual cheeriness, taking the unprepared girl into a bone-crushing hug, his eyes streaming with joy.
"Oh, Akane, I'm so happy! I know you'll do your very best!" He eventually released her when her desperate gasps for air called Yuki to her aid. The Prefect helped her out the door while their headmaster danced around his office, humming happily, back in his own, dizzy world.