A/N: Warning for copious amounts of swearing.
"This is bullshit." Junko moaned. She was slumped dramatically over the top of a standard school desk, immune to the concerned and occasionally hatred-filled stares of class 77.
"Does anyone actually know wha' she's moaning about?" Kazuichi asked aloud Most of the class returned looks of confusion or exasperation, a resounding negative.
"I'm a genius! The Queen of Despair! The Ultimate Model! I can ruin people's entire lives in minutes for shits and giggles, and I can't figure out something this FUCKING stupid!" She thumped her fist on the desk, wailing into the wood. Her dramatic sobs echoed throughout the classroom.
"That's great an' all. But why the fuck are you complaining about it here, of all places? Go back to your own bloody classroom!" Placing down a stack of textbooks, Fuyuhiko snarled at her from the back of the classroom. Junko lifted her head and pouted in his direction, tears nowhere to be seen. Fuyuhiko never did like her. He could probably sense how dangerous she was, with his special mafia-sense.
"Because if I go back to my classroom, they'll probably kill me, duh!" she rolled her eyes, as if it was obvious. She paused. "Actually, they're all secretly too nice for that, so I'll probably face some sort of hair-brained plot of unreasonable complexity in attempt to threaten and cow me into apologising. And possibly burn my career to cinders." She paused. "Except Celestia. I could see her killing someone." She grinned. "Filing that away for later."
"They wish for you to apologise? To whom, may I ask?" Sonia enquired, stepping up to the desk. "You seem unusually...upset about whatever is happening."
"Hmph. I may have kinda half-cheated on and broken the heart of the class sweetheart." Junko waved her hand casually, sounding rather non-plussed about the whole thing. She frowned. "And now the whole damn class has turned into a bunch mother-henning guard dogs. It's such a pain!"
"And this is a problem, I assume?" Sonia raised an eyebrow.
"Duh!" Junko snarled. "Even if I managed to find the idiot and apologise 'normally', which is, a) BORING, and b) pretty goddamn difficult because he's guarded like the fucking Pentagon, there's no way the rest of those morons would let him forgive me. And while it's tempting to get them out the way – I don't know, maybe play around, get couple of them expelled – he gets so easily attached to people; there's no way he'd forgive me if he found out." She sighed.
"Sorry, I'm still caught up on the fact you want to apologise, of all things. I thought you were a psychopath?" Fuyuhiko said incredulously.
"If I don't apologise, he won't forgive me, and go back to being my boyfriend-slash rival." Junko explained, exasperated.
"Wait, you had a boyfriend?" Kazuichi yelped.
"So all this wailing and complaining...is cause of relationship troubles? Fuck me." Fuyuhiko sighed.
"This is a disaster! A travesty? Don't you understand that the fate of the world hangs in the balance? I'm so bored!" Junko moaned.
"So to summarise...you got caught cheating and your boyfriend and broke up with you, yes? This boy is quite popular, and thus the rest of your class is making it difficult for you to both approach him and preventing him from accepting any future apologies. However, you cannot get rid of them , because that would upset this person, making future apologises useless. Am I correct thus far?" Sonia asked.
"Yeah, pretty much." Junko muttered, letting her head drop to the desk with a painful-sounding thud.
"What if you were, I don't know, actually sincere?" Mahiru said sarcastically. "Unless that's impossible for you."
"She's right, ya know. If he's that important, ya gotta quit with that kinda stuff." Kazuichi frowned. "I feel bad for him."
"It wasn't really cheating! It was for the sake of...heh...Despair!"
"Cheating is cheating." Mahiru stated.
"So, what? You've got to somehow get the entirety of class 78 on your side?"
"Whatever the fuck you did to Mikan seemed to work pretty well." Fuyuhiko pointed out.
"Yeah, but that kind of thing takes time." Junko grumbled. "I can't wait that long."
"Then I've got nothing." He grumbled.
"You could try gaslighting them." A girlish voice cackled. Junko twisted her head to see a Hiyoko balancing precariously on her chair, fighting a delicate fight against gravity. "Just convince them they were misunderstanding everything and pounce. They sound like idiots anyway."
"Hiyoko!" Mahiru exclaimed.
"What? She's gonna bother us until she gets what she wants. She's probably gonna end up at the same conclusion anyway!"
"Mmmh. They are idiots." Junko said absentmindedly. She leaned back in her chair and twirled her hair round her finger, lost in thought. In reality, her plans were already in motion. It wouldn't take long for the rumours to flow from this room, like a leak in a pipe. They would go something like this: Junko is looking for a way to reconcile with her boyfriend. Junko regrets breaking up. Junko is struggling. Junko is sorry.
And she was. Perhaps she wasn't exactly heartbroken. But, well. Junko doesn't do heartbreak. Hell, normally, she doesn't do regret, period. Live and let live. Fuck shit up and move on. Hasta la vista, baby, and all that nonsense. So, yeah, she was sorry. But like hell her class would believe her if she told them. And honestly? Fair. She wouldn't trust her either. But if they heard about it from someone else...schoolmates, friends, anonymous gossip...well. She smiled absently to herself. The worst part was waiting. Waiting for her dumb classmates to make the first move. Until then, she just needed to plant the seeds and let the grapevine grow.
"Hey, have you guys seen Junko?" Asahina's voice filtered through the chatter, making Leon twitch subtly. "She hasn't turned up for any of the after school practice scenes, and the costume department is getting antsy cause she hasn't had a proper fitting yet."
"No, I haven't seen her for ages! But I think she'll be alright. Being a model is pretty similar to acting, after all. Plus, she's Junko."
"If you say so. I suppose you know best, Sayaka. I mean, you probably do modelling all the time as an idol, right?"
"Huh? Oh, I mean, a little. Nothing as grand as Junko though! Just a couple shoots here and there. It's probably best that she's not here, I think. Not because I don't like her! Just, you know...with Makoto and her..."
"Oh right!" Asahina's voice lowered to a poorly-spoken whisper. "They broke up, right? I still don't know what happened though? I mean, some people say that Makoto caught her cheating, and some say she just got bored of him. I mean, either way, poor Makoto."
Leon clenched his script just a little bit tighter, the paper crinkling beneath his whitened knuckles. Junko. That bitch. Makoto was too good for her. Always had been. Even now the idiot blamed himself for the whole thing. For a self-declared genius she sure was an idiot if she didn't even realise what she'd lost. Serves her right.
"Hey, you guys talking 'bout Junko and little Mac?" Hagakure interrupted, steamrolling his way into the conversation. Completely ignoring the unimpressed stares, he blustered ahead, immune to the atmosphere. "I heard that she's been spending all her time in Class 77, crying her eyes out! Serves her right, hey?!"
"Junko? Crying?" Sayaka asked. She sounded about as incredulous as Leon felt. The two words were essentially an oxymoron!
"Yeah! Apparently she was really broken up about the break up!" Hagakure continued, oblivious. "Apparently Big Mac's been ignoring all her text messages. She's been venting all her frustration out on our seniors, and it's driving them pretty crazy. Plus, she's been running 'round starting all these petty fights, and then, like, dropping them out of nowhere and walking off. I mean, normally, she's hella weird, but people are saying she's acting strange, even for her."
"Seriously?" Asahina asks. She sounded intrigued. Leon strained his ears, eyes no longer taking in the text in front of him. Junko? Acting weird? Trying to text Makoto? Crying? It sounded fishy as all hell.
Plus, Makoto ignoring texts? Leon rolled his eyes. The poor guy had lost his days ago, and was still working on getting the number transferred over. Something about a system glitch not letting him cancel his old sim without changing mobile plans.
He flicked his eyes over to the person in question. Makoto stood up the front, cowering beneath Byakyua's harsh gaze over some verbal stumble or other. He laughed somewhat bashfully, fumbling apologies as they restarted the scene. Leon had been sticking to Makoto like glue for a few days now, as had more than a couple of others. Byakyua had kept Makoto firmly situated in the classroom, where he was surrounded by watchful eyes, and Sayaka had kept his attention focused on the school festival and away from any Junko-themed nonsense.
Whether it had actually done anything was the real question now, honestly. No one in the class had seen hide nor hair of Junko, with nothing but vague rumours of her whereabouts trickling down the grapevine. It was enough to make him uneasy, and even their homeroom teacher was beginning to show concern.
"Do ya think...you know?" Asahina began hesitantly. "Should we like, go check on her, do ya think? I mean, it does sound like she's acting pretty weird. And I mean..." she trailed off. "I'm kinda getting...ya know...worried. She hasn't turned up to class in ages!"
"Sounds like that's exactly what she wants." Leon spoke without thinking. Asahina jumped, previously unaware that he'd been eavesdropping. "I don't trust her as far as I could throw Sakura. Which, even with my hella awesome physique, is like, seriously, not at all. No offense Sakura."
Sakura didn't turn from where she was seated. "None taken," she replied.
"It is true that this isn't exactly Junko's usual tactics, though." Sayaka pointed out. She pursed her lips in thought. "It's not weird for her to play the long game, but usually it has more, I don't know, fireworks? Along the way? If you understand what I mean. I'm concerned what she's scheming now that Makoto isn't around to keep her in line."
"I'm tellin' ya!" Hagkure exclaimed. "She's been acting hella weird, man! It's freaking people out."
"So what, you're planning on tracking her down?" Leon frowned. "Then what?"
Sayaka hummed. "Talk to her maybe. Mostly, I'm thinking of asking around. Keep an eye on her and all that!" she winked.
"Heck yeah! Exactly!" Asahina shouted. Several students glanced her way before heaving a sigh and turning back to their respective activities.
Leon chewed his lip. He didn't like the smell of this. Not a bit. But...he glanced at Sayaka. She smiled back at him innocently. Once Sayaka made up her mind, she was as stubborn as a bull. Just as dangerous too. There's no way he can stop her now. And well, he can't just let her run into some weird trap or whatever alone. And Makoto is his mate too!
Yeah. Makoto wouldn't want Junko suffering, the damn bleeding heart. I'm not doing this hang out with Sayaka at all.
"I suppose I better come along then," he forced a sigh. "Three heads are better than two an' all that. Plus, ya know, Junko can be pretty crazy. I'll make sure to keep you guys out of trouble and stuff."
Sayaka giggled. "My hero," she said sarcastically. Leon chuckled sheepishly.
"All right!" Ashina declared. "Operation: Track Down Junko is a go!"
Leon launched himself forward, smothering Asahina's mouth.
"Shhh!" he hissed. "We're doing this without Makoto knowing, okay?"
Asahina, wide-eyed, nodded. Leon released her slowly.
"Okay. Operation: Track Down Junko is a go!" she whispered instead.
Sayaka giggled a little at the scene.
"Yeah, whatever." Leon sighed.
"Junko. There seems to be three students from class 78 approaching this classroom. From my observations, they appear to be searching for you." Mukuro reported monotonously.
"Who?"
Mukuro didn't even blink. "Leon Kuwata, Sayaka Maizono and Asahina Aoi."
Junko flashed a predatory smiled. "Perfect." She purred.