Chapter Six
I Don't Understand The Meaning of "Give Up"
"You know...compared to the others, you're a little weird." - Hatake Kakashi, Naruto
Since meeting him that day on the basketball courts, it had become Suoh Tamakis' personal mission to recruit the rather uninterested Eniwa Ichigo into the club he was starting. Come hell or high water, Tamaki was going to get Ichigo into his club as a participating member. However, since the first attempt to recruit Ichigo, Tamaki had tried at least a dozen time over the passed week now to sway him into joining, and each and every time he tried Ichigo shot him down. Much to the chagrin of Ichigo, Tamaki appeared to be one of those few people who possessed the inability to grasp the concept of "give up".
While the twins held a sense of mild discontent towards Ichigo for the mere fact that he was a "commoner", they were slowly starting to take a liking to the orange-haired boy with each denial to Tamaki's proposals. They enjoyed watching Tamaki hanging in the wind, the spaced out and or startled looks on his face were nearly priceless and Hikaru made sure that none of them were wasted. And thusly, he had a collection of pictures he snapped with his cellphone that had built up to nearly ten by Friday. Even Kyoya was now keeping a score of how many times Tamaki approached Ichigo, and how many times Ichigo turned him down.
It had literally become a routine of sorts, and it was starting to annoy Ichigo. A lot.
Hikaru snickered as he glanced down at the watch he had strapped to his wrist. It was just five after noon, lunch period had already commenced and the classroom was empty save for the twin brothers and Ichigo. Ever since Tamaki began his campaign to get Ichigo for the club, the twins had started staying behind with Ichigo during lunch since he didn't go to the cafeteria with everyone else anyways. Because of this, they were introduced to what an o-bento box was, and while they eyed it skeptically, they even tried some of the food that Ichigo brought for lunch (or rather they more or less sampled it without exactly asking Ichigo's consent).
"Oi, Ichigo-san, it's almost time for your stalker to show up." Hikaru grinned while looking towards the boy that had been permanently seated between him and his brother for the rest of the school year. The look on Ichigo's face was all he needed to start laughing.
Even Kaoru was grinning. "What are you planning to do today, Ichigo-san?"
"You guys are enjoying this way too much." Ichigo grumbled while sitting rather stiff in the chair, arms crossed over the chest as an irritated scowl twitched across his face.
As if on cue, the door to the classroom opened inward as Tamaki made his usual grand entrance, Kyoya appearing with him to merely watch in slight amusement. He held his arms in a manner that suggested he was ready to recite something off Shakespeare. "Good afternoon my dear friends
"He's really starting to bug the hell out of me." Ichigo muttered under his breath while staring at the blonde who was now currently waltzing up to the side of his desk at the back of the room. On either side of him, the strangled laughter of the twins was sounding as though it were ready to explode.
Sitting down on the front lip of Ichigo's desk, Tamaki cross his right leg over his left while folding his hands in his lap and turned on what was dubbed by the twins as "his prince charming mode". He smiled down at Ichigo, head tilting to the side a bit as if flirting with the orange-haired boy who gave him a rather flat glare in response.
"Oh, this gonna be good." Hikaru grinned while propping his elbows up on the top of his desk, chin coming to rest within the perch he had made with his hands.
"Ichigo-kun, how are you today?" Tamaki lifted a brow as he spoke to the younger student, looking to open up his proposal with the usual greeting.
"No." Ichigo shot out the rather blatant refusal to even hear what he had to say this time. The rather sudden response caught Tamaki off-guard, causing him to slip and fall from his place on the desk. Unfortunately for Ichigo, he shot back up as fast as he had fallen.
"But, but, Ichigo-kun, you didn't even hear what I had to say this time!" Tamaki whimpered, his amethyst gaze starting to glass over as he was more than ready to pull the puppy-dog pout in need be. "How can you say no like that?"
Ichigo's brow twitched as the annoyance level was starting to rise now. "It's pretty simple, I take the syllables and put them together to form the word." He retorted, knowing full well that Tamaki meant something else with his question, but befuddling the Second Year often at times proved to be enough to drive him away sometimes. Sadly, this wouldn't be the case this time.
"Ichigo-kun!" Tamaki's voice held a child-like whine to it as he was starting to beg now. "Please join our club!"
"You keep asking me that, I keep telling you no! Why doesn't that seem to get through to you?!" Ichigo snapped finally. "Besides that, you haven't even told me word one about what this club is like and what it does!"
Kyoya held the back of his hand over his mouth to hide the grin that was beginning to tug at the corners of his mouth while the twins were having a difficult time keeping themselves from rolling about with their own laughter.
Tamaki stared at Ichigo with a rather startled look on his face as he tried to rake through his memory. Hadn't he told Ichigo what their club was? He was almost certain he had, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to feel confident about that assumption. "I, uh, didn't I tell you already?" His own personal confusion didn't exactly help his case at that moment.
The strained look of annoyance started to bring a grin like grimace across Ichigo's face as he bowed his head for a moment. No, stay calm. Do not blow up at this guy no matter what! He's been nothing but nice to you since he literally threw himself at you on the court. Just get up and excuse yourself. Breathe. Swallowing down whatever angry retort that he had been ready to let loose with on Tamaki, Ichigo pushed his chair back and stood up making sure to keep his gaze down. "Just...I need some air, excuse me." With that said, Ichigo restrained himself from bolting for the door and nearly stalked out of the classroom.
The four boys stared after the departed teen and remained silent for a moment until Hikaru finally choked and burst into a rather heavy fit of laughter that pushed him out of his chair. The oldest of the twins held an arm over his abdomen as tears started to form at the corners of his hazel eyes from laughing so hard. Kaoru was slumped forward over his desk, hand covered over his eyes as he was laughing just as hard as his brother.
Tamaki looked between the two brothers and for a moment felt as though he didn't understand what was so funny until he heard an escaped chuckle come from Kyoya's direction as even the normally reserved and placid boy was trying desperately hard not to laugh. "What's so funny?!" Tamaki huffed while crossing his arms over his chest.
"Ichigo...Ichigo-san...he looked like he was ready to slap you!" Hikaru choked and wheezed through his laughter and then exploded into another full round after the end of his sentence.
"He did, didn't he?" Kaoru laughed while feeling a whole new wave over take him after seeing his brother down on the ground near rolling from side to side.
Kyoya attempted to cut his own would have been laughter off by clearing his throat. "Tamaki, I admire your persistence, you're an inspiration to us all." He lifted his gaze towards his blonde friend and tried to force the grin off his face. "But I think you need to realize that Ichigo-kun isn't going to join no matter how hard you try to recruit him. Let the kid be."
"Kyoya! How can you say that?!" Tamaki's jaw dropped as he stared at his friend. "Ichigo-kun is absolutely perfect for this club! You say him that day, he attracted a huge crowd, and those were just other boys! Think what would happen if there were girls!" He began gesturing madly as he tried to make a valid point to his want of Ichigo's membership to the club.
The speckled boy shrugged. "I'm just saying. Even though he does seem to have the qualities we've been looking for in an additional member, if he doesn't want to participate at the moment, then just back off." Kyoya pointed out the rather obvious approach he would have taken, but sighed mentally as he knew that was beyond anything Tamaki would have seen. "Besides, you don't to form any sort of tension between you and Ichigo-kun at the moment. After all, who says he wouldn't eventually become interested later on down the line?"
This sparked a new sort of hope that glittered about Tamaki's gaze as he struck a rather thoughtful pose. "I suppose you have a point there my friend."
"Yeah right." Hikaru's laughter had finally ceased as he sat up and shot Tamaki an unamused look. "If Ichigo-san is the kind of guy I think he is, then he sure as hell isn't going to be joining your club. The guy has more dignity than that."
"So what does that say about yourself then?" Kyoya mused while glancing down at the Hitachiin in boy with a growing smirk tugging at his mouth. He could have sworn he say Hikaru's eye twitch in response as he shot him a glare.
Ichigo gave a long exhale as he made his way outside the High School department building. The fresh air was nice, a cool breeze was wafting in across the campus and was scented with the perfume from blooming flowers that gave the otherwise plain looking landscape a pop of color. Running a hand through his hair, Ichigo shoved his other hand into the pocket of his black slacks.
His...? Her...? Which one was supposed to be used? At school, Ichigo was Ichigo as a boy. Outside of school, Ichigo was, well, Ichigo. It had only been around a week and a half since the start of the school year, and already Ichigo could feel the pressure of maintaining appearances rather difficult. It was hard to think of oneself as a boy for nearly eight hours a day and then forget all of that for the rest of the day afterwards. And now, to make matters even more complicated, there was some Second Year chasing Ichigo around in the never-ending quest to get him to join a club.
He wants "Ichigo" to join their club, not me. Ichigo glanced up at the pale blue sky overhead. A few clouds drifted by in a lazy manner, thin wisps that reminded the fifteen-year-old of the long hair she once possessed before chopping it off three days prior to the first day of school. Crap. I think I just made myself feel sad. Ichigo's face pulled into a rather sour look in response to her own thoughts.
"Ah! Ichigo-kun!"
The call caught Ichigo's attention as the voice itself was a bit familiar. In fact, it belonged to the same Third Year that had played Ichigo a round of basketball, Amano Shinnosuke. Ichigo lifted a brow and then grinned while lifting a hand up to wave at the approaching boy. "Yo, Amano-senpai!" Ichigo called out in friendly greeting.
"What are you doing outside during lunch? Not hungry?" Shinnosuke asked as he approached the First Year, a bit of a curious look on his face as he found it a bit odd for Ichigo to be out.
Ichigo shrugged. "Something like that." He replied while pocketing both hands. "And what's up with you Amano-senpai?" The question was now turned around on to the older boy who stood in a bit of a slanted posture with his own hands tucked away into the pockets of his slacks.
"Actually I was going to go meet up with Haru-san and a few of the other guys from the basketball team." Shinnosuke replied while his face alighted with a thoughtful look. "Hey, you wanna come along and meet them? I told Haru-san all about you after our little game and he's been wanting to meet you."
Well, I guess it would give me a chance to keep away from Tamaki-senpai a while longer since he's probably still in the classroom. Ichigo's mouth quirked with a brief smirk as he inclined his head a bit. "Eh, what the hell. Sure, I'll go with you."
Shinnosuke chuckled a bit as he gestured with a bit of a twisting nod of his head for Ichigo to follow him. The two walked for about five minutes, chatting along the way, until they veered off the path they had been walking and headed down towards the basketball court they had played at earlier in the week. As they neared the gated courts, Ichigo looked ahead and noticed that there were several other older boys sitting against the chain-link fencing. They all looked to be somewhere in their Third Year at Ouran from first glance, but Ichigo waited to meet them before fully making his final judgment.
"Oi, Shin! What took you so long?" One of the boys called out while grinning. His dark brown hair was a bit ruffled from possibly having ran his hands through it, and his matching eyes seemed to grin as well. He was definitely a looker, like a lot of the other boys attending the academy, but seemed to have that rather athletic quality to his overall appearance that had Ichigo turning a bit red. As his friend approached, his gaze drifted off to the younger student following after him, and for a moment a curious furrow formed across his brow.
A sheepish chuckle escaped Shinnosuke as her rubbed at the back of his head. "Yeah sorry about that, I ran into a new acquaintance of mine I've been telling you about." He grinned while patting Ichigo on the top of his orange-tinted head. "Ichigo-kun, this Fujisaki Haru, captain of the basketball team." He looked down at the shorter boy with sideways glance and nodded at the guy who had spoken up first.
Ichigo lifted a hand and meekly waved at him. "Nice to meet you Senpai."
"Ah, no way! This that new kid we've been hearing about?" Another boy with dark red hair shot up to his feet and was standing before Ichigo with a starstruck look on his face as he set his hands on the boy's shoulders. "You're Eniwa-san? Wow, I've been hearing about how you beat Shin-chan! You must be incredibly talented if you did that!" His excitement was pretty evident as he hurriedly set forth his compliments to the younger student.
Haru laughed along with a few of the other guys in response to the rather taken back look that Ichigo had on his face at the moment. "Ryu, give the kid some room to breathe." He chuckled while standing up to his feet as well. Taking the few steps that separated him from his friends and Ichigo, Haru grabbed the boy named Ryu by the back of his shirt collar and yanked him back a bit. "You'll have to forgive him, Eniwa-kun."
Ichigo chuckled nervously as he tried not to appear uneasy with the attention being showered upon him so suddenly. "I-It's fine."
"Eniwa-kun, it's nice to finally meet you. I've been hearing rumors about a new kid to Ouran with orange hair, but when I heard you actually beat Shin here, I've been wanting to meet you now for a while." Haru explained while letting go of his friend's collar.
"I'm nothing that great. Honest." Ichigo half-grinned while feeling a bit moved by the fact that there were people in this school who were genuinely nice to the "new kid". That, and girl-Ichigo was feeling a bit giddy at the fact that if she wasn't presenting herself as a boy, more than likely the 6'1" basketball captain would probably be flirting this her.
From out of what seemed like nowhere, the redhead named Ryu popped up from behind Ichigo and set his hands on his shoulders again while grinning like a fox. "Look at you, the little superstar is so modest!" He teased, as the others could have sworn they saw a bushy tail wagging back and forth behind Ryu.
Haru gave a rather harsh exhale as he pinched the space between his brows and closed his eyes for a moment. "Eniwa-kun, this is Aizawa Ryuichi. We call him Ryu for short. He's our point guard on the team." Haru introduced the still rather excited redhead to the somewhat sweating Ichigo who looked a tad uncomfortable with his presence right behind him.
Ichigo glanced over to Shinnosuke who was looking a bit embarrassed by Ryus' rather blatant affection for the younger student. "Amano-senpai, what position do you play?" He was curious now, although he had somewhat of a theory in mind already.
"Oh, me? I'm the power forward." Shinnosuke replied while looking a bit more on the proud side of things as he seemed to enjoy giving that little detail out to anyone who asked. Not that he was conceited or cocky, Shinnosuke just enjoyed being asked.
"Our starting power forward actually." Haru added in as he gave his friend a grin. "In fact, a few of these guys here are the team starters." He hooked a thumb over his shoulder at the other five boys who were now standing on their feet as well. "Eniwa-kun, I'd like you to meet – Kishimoto Masashi our starter shooting guard, Tsugumi Ohba our starter small forward, Watsuki Nobuhiro our second string point guard, Obata Takeshi our second string power forward, and Oda Eiichiro second string center."
Haru introduced the boys from left to right, and each one of them had that handsome athletic look that more than likely would have had girl-Ichigo's knees buckling had it not been for the fact that the boy persona was pulling a dominate string at the moment. Ichigo nodded at them with a friendly look holding to his overall expression.
"Shin has been telling us about the game we missed. Sounds like you got some natural talent, Eniwa-kun." Shiniji mused while lifting a brow at the orange-haired boy. "You thinking about trying out this year?"
Ichigo opened his mouth to reply, however, that sort of thing was immediately interrupted by a sudden shout that barged into the conversation and sent a chill thrumming up Ichigo's spine.
"Ah!" Out of nowhere Tamaki's arms wrapped about the shoulders of the First Year from behind and jerked him backwards quickly into a defensive hold that dared the other boys to try anything. Almost glaring at them, Tamaki tightened his hold on Ichigo as if he were utterly possessive over the boy. "I don't think so. Ichigo-kun is going to be apart of the club that I'm starting up, not the basketball team!"
The boys from the basketball team stared dumbly at the blonde who was currently shouting at them. Exchanging glances with one another they could only shrug as they had no idea what caused such a sudden reaction from him, or even pinpoint when it was exactly that he had shown up without them noticing.
Haru lifted a brow as he took note of the highly perturbed look that scrawled its way across Ichigo's face that looked to be burning red from either complete and utter embarrassment or annoyance. Either way, Ichigo looked, well, pissed off. "Right." Haru regarded the blonde Second Year with a rather cool look as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, I think it's up to Eniwa-kun as to what he wants to do." He pointed out while sending Tamaki a rather even glare now.
Ichigo's brow was twitching a bit by now, his patience for Tamaki now pushed to the breaking point now as he held him like some toy he didn't want to share. Somehow I feel like I should be flattered by all this attention, but right now, I am really pissed off. His right hand curled into a fist at his side, tightening as he bit his lip to keep quiet and not let fly a slew of curses and shouts that would probably send the devil running in piss terror from. Instead of allowing the normally quick to snap temper of his to take action, Ichigo inhaled a deep breath and then exhaled slowly before plucking Tamaki's off from about his shoulders and then gently pushed the blonde backwards a bit, putting space between them.
"Fujisaki-senpai is right." Ichigo murmured quietly before looking back over his shoulder at Tamaki. "It's my choice as to what club I do or don't join." That amber gaze seemed to nearly stab into Tamaki with an even glare that commanded him to stay quiet. Looking back to the boys from the basketball team, Ichigo offered them a brief smile before bowing his head. "It was nice to meet all of you, but I think I need to be heading back to class now before I'm late."
Shinnosuke and Haru nodded at this, both exchanging looks with one another from the corner of their eye. Haru looked to Ichigo with a friendly grin. "It was nice meeting you as well Eniwa-kun. Please feel free to stop by the gym anytime, we practice there after school everyday if you wanna join us."
Again, Ichigo thanked them politely while also conveying his genuine interest in the offer and then finally turned to walk off towards the high school department; but not without grabbing the right lapel of Tamaki's jacket to force him to follow instead getting into any further arguments with the basketball team. While the sudden pull at his jacket caught him off guard, Tamaki stumbled sideways and caught himself quickly to follow after the First Year and keep from possibly being dragged along by the First Year.
"Ah, Ichigo-kun not so fast!" Tamaki cried out as the fast steps of the orange-haired boy were making it difficult to follow after him, especially since the hold Ichigo had on his jacket lapel forced him to stoop a bit in his stance.
As soon as they were back up on the paved sidewalks that followed around the campus buildings and connected various paths to one another, Ichigo let go of Tamaki's jacket and continued on towards the high school building, hands now shoved into the pockets of his slacks. There was still a great deal of annoyance towards Tamaki's actions with then basketball team, but mainly towards his continuing want of Ichigo to join the club that he was starting with the twins and Kyoya.
Adjusting the front of his jacket while keeping pace with Ichigo, Tamaki remained quiet a moment as he carefully thought out what he was going to say to Ichigo. He both sense and see the annoyance that ate away at the First Year now, and honestly enough Tamaki couldn't blame him. However, he was absolutely dead set on getting Ichigo to join. "Ichigo-kun, about our conversation earlier in the classroom – " Cut off immediately by Ichigo who had stopped dead in his tracks, Tamaki hung back a few steps behind the younger boy with a raised look on his face.
Looking back over his shoulder, brows bunched at the middle and pursed lips, Ichigo stared at Tamaki for a moment. "You're not going to stop, are you?"
Tamaki's face brightened into a sparkling smile as he clasped his hands before him. "Ichigo-kun, are you accepting my invitation to join my club?"
"No." Ichigo's flat response caused Tamaki to nearly falter in his stance. "I'm not accepting anything, I just want to know."
Sliding up alongside the younger student, Tamaki set an arm around his shoulder, a rather dignified look on his face as he held his free hand up in a rather instructor-like manner. "Ichigo-kun, you would be an amazing addition to the club, and thusly, I shall never give up on you!"
At this Ichigo made a face as he was both slightly impressed by the blonde's absolute determination, but also put off by the fact that he was so dead set on making him a member of a club Ichigo knew nothing about. "And I thought door to door salesmen were pushy." He grumbled under his breath while feeling just a bit embarrassed by the fact that Tamaki was holding so friendly like. Dammit.