The next day was no better, but Yoh found it very strange that Horohoro purposely did not go after Ren before school like he usually would.

In Science class, sides began clashing.

"Alright, class," the teacher announced. "Today you will be completing a partner assignment. Your assignment will be to observe your partner's eyes and write down signifigant traights, such as hue, shape, size, emotion, and etcetra. I will be assigning you your partners."

There was a loud groan of protest as the teacher began reading off names from a list.

"Pair 1 - Asakura Yoh and Asakura Hao."

"Pair 2 - Lyserg Diethel and Chocolove McDaniel."

"Pair 3 - Tamamura Tamao and Usui Pirika."

"Pair 5 - Kyouyama Anna and Miss Jeanne."

After a few more pairs, Horohoro yawned. He was pretty irritated that he'd end up with some stupid random unpopular person.

"Pair 10 - Usui Horohoro...and Tao Ren."

"EHHH!?" Horohoro blurted. "ME!? You want me to work with that scrawny little geek?"

Ren looked up at the sound of his name, and his eyes widened fearfully when it dawned upon him that his partner was the very boy he feared the most. There was no way to reverse it. He was done for.

"You may now get with your partners to begin," announced the teacher.

Ren looked away as Horohoro swaggered towards him, carrying his binder. "So..." he said. "I'm going to have a lot of fun doing this project with you." Deliberately, he brought the binder slamming down onto Ren's hands.

Ren gasped and withdrew his hands and nursed them under his desk, bowing his head in shame.

"Look at me when I speak to you, Tao. It's common respect," Horohoro commented icily, the tone complimenting his shamanic element fairly well.

Trembling, Ren slowly began to lift his gaze. "I...I'm sorry..." he stuttered. Horohoro wasn't a very patient guy, and Ren's slow, timid movements were beginning to get on his nerves.

"I said, look at me," Horohoro growled, viciously grabbing Ren's face in his hands and jerking it upwards, forcing the boy to look at him eye-to-eye. "That's better," he hissed. "You will do as I say. Do you understand?"

Ren did not reply. He tried to look away, despite the fact that Horohoro had his face in a death grip.

"I asked you if you understood," the Ainu repeated in a menacing voice. "And you'll answer me." He grabbed Ren's wrist tightly, with enough force to bruise the delicate flesh. Ren cried out, and Horohoro noticed this as he was about to twist it behind his victim's back. He stopped, however, when by Ren's tone, he could tell that it hurt more than it should have.

"Don't you dare move," he commanded as he lifted Ren's arm higher. Slowly, dreading what he might see, he began rolling up Ren's long sleeves.

"No..." Ren whispered, trying to pull his hand free. "Please...please don't do that..."

"I said, don't move" Horohoro snapped, kicking him in the shins. Ren stopped struggling and looked away as his tormenter continued to roll the sleeves upwards, revealing the long vertical scars, some of which were not completely healed yet.

Horohoro inhaled sharply, shocked. He felt awful. It was probably all his fault the boy cut himself. He refused to admit his pity, again. Instead he slammed Ren's arm hard back onto the desk. "Turning emo, are we?" he sneered. "You'd better not kill yourself before this assignment is over. Once it is, I'll be more than happy to put you out of your misery."

Ren looked wide-eyed at him.

Horohoro glared back, and when he saw Ren's fearful eyes, he suddenly remembered.

"Well," he grunted, taking out a piece of paper and a ratty pencil. "Let's get started, shall we?" There was an akward silence as they stared at each other's eyes, trying to figure out color, emotions, and whatnot.

With his usual messy handwriting, Horohoro began scrawling away. He wrote:

Yellow color.

He crossed out yellow, with a second thought and rewrote it.

Golden color.

He then proceeded to continue his observation list.

Golden color.
Emotions: Pain, fear, shyness
Sort of slanty-shaped
Eyes are kind of pretty. Very attractive. I could look at them all day.

He reviewed his list, horrified at the last segment. He fiercely scribbled the last line out, shaking his head and mentally whacking himself. "Usui Horohoro, you're an idiot. I repeat, Usui Horohoro, you're an idiot. I hate nerds, I hate midgets, I hate Tao Ren..." he screamed in his mind.

He looked over to Ren's paper to see what he was writing. In small, neat, immaculate handwriting, he had carefully written such:

His eyes are a very deep shade of cerulean.
They're roundly shaped and rather large.
I can see so much emotion in them. I see aggression, cruelty, and arrogance, but deep behind, if I concentrate hard enough, I think I can see some kindness, too. But above all, what I can see most is confusion.

"Clever bastard," Horohoro responded. "What makes you think you can make assumptions about me just by looking at my eyes?"

Blushing, Ren quickly moved his arm to cover his paper, even though he knew it was too late and Horohoro had already read the whole thing.

He shoved Ren hard, knocking him out of his chair and onto the floor. "I'm not confused," he snapped. "I know exactly what I hate and what I like. And it's you I hate the most."