Hey guys! This was originally posted as a one-shot. But I realized that it's quite long. So I thought I'd break it down into bite-sized, easier-to-digest chapters. I hope you enjoy! Concrits and Reviews would be very much appreciated!

"So that's settled then?" Atobe had no problems making himself heard above the lunch crowd din. "Today is Friday, the last day of school before summer break starts. There will be no club meeting this afternoon, but I will be expecting you guys on Monday next week. I'll meet all of you in front of the school gate at 7:00AM where a shuttle bus will take us to my family's beach resort. Remember, this is for training."

Murmurs of acceptance and understanding went around the table.

"What's that you're reading there, Hiyoshi?"

At the sudden question I directed at him, Hiyoshi looked up at me in mild alarm. I was amused to note that his eyes held equal parts of animosity and suspicion when he looked at me, and that in the long lunch table that we occupied, he was sitting in the seat that was as far away from Taki as possible.

In answer to my question though, he held up the book he was reading and let me read the title: Basic English Grammar Rules – Standard Reviewer Edition.

"Oh, is that for your exam today, Hiyoshi-kun?" Ohtori asked.

"Hn," Hiyoshi grunted in the affirmative. "My last exam is on English and I'm not doing very well in it."

"Gakuto's excellent in English," Yuushi piped in from across the table, "maybe you could ask him to help you out with some of the things you don't understand."

Hiyoshi didn't say anything, but his face clearly said that he'd rather immerse himself in a tub full of poisonous snakes than ask for my help in anything.

Shishido laughed at Hiyoshi's expression and attempted to impress us with his English skills when he said, "I DON'T THINK GAKUTO ISN'T GOOD WITH ENGLISH."

While the English words flew over most of the others' heads, Atobe and Yuushi started snickering. "Baka!" I said mockingly. "Was that supposed to be an insult? Haven't you ever heard of the rule on double negatives?"

Shishido's brow furrowed in thought as he went over his sentence in his head, even as Hiyoshi's fingers were flying through his book trying to find the explanation to Shishido's error.

I tried to tamp down the smug smile that was fighting to find itself on my face. Far too often, people take me for an airhead incapable of retaining anything academic. I've just been given the chance to show them, Shishido especially, that I was not an idiot.

Smugly, I recited, "In English, a double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, like Russian, a double negative is still negative. But there is no language in the world where two positives can form a negative."

There was dead silence.

And then, from under his breath, Yuushi muttered, "YEAH, RIGHT."

The four-hour trip to Atobe's beach resort had been fairly boring, but that changed as soon as we arrived at our destination. From the beginning, Atobe made sure to pack in as many activities as he could cram into a single day without outright killing us.

And after the sheer torture that the day had been for us, it was wonderful to just sit down and watch the setting sun and enjoy the soothing sound of the rolling waves. The private beach that was part of the Atobe family's property was nothing short of spectacular! Of course, you wouldn't expect anything less from Atobe. The beach house itself had no less than fifteen rooms.

I've been looking forward to the bonfire at the beach since that morning. And after a full day of hiking and swimming and biking (all under the guise of training), relaxing by a fire was a godsend. I sat down beside Yuushi on an old beached log.

It wasn't long before they started in on us again…Shishido smirking at us in such a smug, knowing way, and suggesting some "couple activities" that Yuushi and I might wanna do while we were at the beach. Atobe threw in a comment here and there, either adding to some of Shishido's suggestions or vetoing them with a disdainful sniff. Ohtori wisely didn't say anything but the slight blush staining his cheeks (that had nothing to do with the warmth of the fire) and the twinkle in his eyes gave away his thoughts. Jirou managed to turn a situation from bad to worse when he sleepily asked Atobe, "Are Gakuto and Oshitari getting married after high school?" in a whisper loud enough to be heard clear across the beach.

I so wanted to say a lot of things but the boneless lethargy that was over me made the effort of snapping back at them seem too much. Yuushi was right; no matter what I said to deny it, they'd still say whatever the hell they wanted to say anyway.

Coming to the conclusion that not saying anything at all would be best for my sanity, I tried hard to shut out the annoying buzzing that their conversation made and limply leaned against Yuushi's side, my head resting on his shoulder. One of his arms went around my shoulders to share his blanket with me, and at the warmth and comfort, my eyes drifted shut of their own volition and a small, contented sigh escaped my lips.

… And then I noticed the unnatural silence.

I cracked an eye open to see what had happened; Ohtori was looking everywhere but at me and Yuushi; Hiyoshi was engaged in the serious study of a twig in his hands, a light blush on his cheeks; Taki was doodling random stuff on the sand before him; Kabaji was as deadpan as ever while he supported Jirou's weight as the latter was starting to doze; Shishido looked like a beached fish, his mouth opening and closing without saying anything; and Atobe, for once, seemed blessedly at a loss for words.

I looked up at Yuushi in question, but he just shrugged and shook his head at me. I looked back at our tormentors in time to see Ohtori pulling on Shishido's arm. The former quietly cleared his throat and announced to the group that he and Shishido were retiring for the night. Hiyoshi lost no time in following suit and making himself scarce. In a matter of seconds, everyone had found one reason or another to leave Yuushi and me alone.

Once again, I looked up at Yuushi, this time in astonishment. But it didn't take long before I felt the beatific smile blooming on my face. I had just found a way to get people off my back about Yuushi.

"You want me to do what?" Yuushi asked once again.

"I want you to pretend to like me."

He arched a brow at me, "But I do like you."

He was completely missing the point, the idiot! I shook my head at him in exasperation. "Whatever! Listen, Yuushi, tomorrow, I want you to just play along with me, alright? Since it seems that all it takes to shut those guys up is to prove to them that they're right about us, then I'll let them believe that they're right about us all they want!"

The look on Yuushi's face was skeptical at best. "So we're going to pretend to be a couple…?" it sounded more like an open-ended statement than an actual question.

I nodded enthusiastically in confirmation. I can imagine that the grin on my face might have looked maniacal.

Finally, Yuushi's face took up its customary smirk-smile, and my own grin lost a little of its own brilliance. Having that particular smile of Yuushi's directed at you can never be a good thing. He confirmed it yet again when he asked, "Does that mean you're going to be all over me and I get to take advantage of the situation?"

The satisfying thunk of my hand connecting to the back of Yuushi's skull upped the wattage of my grin once again.

For the next two days, I enjoyed the wide array of reactions I kept getting from the rest of the regulars (plus Taki, who only seems to have been 'kicked out' of the regulars in theory but not in practice). The very next morning, after the bonfire, we all sat down to eat breakfast together in the sunny morning room. Yuushi and I were the last ones to arrive because he had to drag my sorry, reluctant-riser ass outta bed.

When Yuushi and I walked into the room, the conversations that were going on seemed to have died instant deaths. They took one look at my pouty, disheveled appearance and Yuushi's self-satisfied smirk and drew their own conclusions. The conversations picked up again, louder than before, in an effort to make everything seem normal. My irritation at being woken up instantly got blown away.

Cackling like a loon on the inside, I grabbed Yuushi's hand and pulled him towards the two remaining seats on the other side of the breakfast table. At the sight of our connected hands, the conversations stuttered for a bit and then gained even more volume. The smile on Ohtori's face as he tried to engage both Shishido and Hiyoshi in conversation was looking strained and he was talking at an unnatural speed. I saw Shishido sneaking suspicious glances at me and Yuushi all through breakfast, but he didn't say anything. Perfect! That was when I knew I'd hit on the perfect plan.

The following day, I saw Atobe raising an elegantly imperious eyebrow at Ohtori, as if silently asking the sophomore an expectant "Well…?", and Shishido was making small shooing gestures with his hands at his boyfriend. From where I was standing, unseen and unnoticed by the others, I watched Ohtori hesitantly make his way towards Yuushi.

"Anou… Oshitari-senpai, we…" Ohtori looked back uncertainly at the small cluster that Atobe and Shishido and Taki made at the other end of the room, "… er, we were wondering about you and—"

"Good morning, Ohtori!" I cut in smoothly, coming in seemingly out of nowhere, effectively heading off the question that would surely ask Yuushi for confirmation if he and I were really together.

Yuushi had been playing along with me and accommodating my whims with an indulgent smile, but he hadn't said anything one way or the other on how he felt about this charade. I was afraid that if asked directly, he would admit that this was just another one of my crazy stunts to mess with their minds. I had to keep Yuushi from spilling the beans as this plan was accomplishing what all other previous schemes had failed to do: shutting up the regulars about my supposed passionate affair with my best friend.

Once I was standing next to him, Yuushi lightly put a hand to the small of my back and he smiled down at me with a look that clearly said, 'I know why you did that but I'm not telling you how I would have answered Ohtori if you hadn't cut him off.' But Yuushi being Yuushi, of course, wasn't able to resist teasing me… or Ohtori, for that matter. "You were about to ask, Ohtori-kun…?"

Ohtori blushed deeply and started fidgeting with his jacket zipper. "Oh… er, I was just wondering about Oshitari-senpai and… uh, anou… um, about Oshitari-senpai and… and the movie he's chosen for tomorrow night's film viewing."

Barely muted expletives and curses burst out from Atobe and Shishido and Taki.

Yuushi chuckled and answered breezily that, of course, he had chosen a romantic comedy.

I furrowed my brow in disapproval, both of Yuushi's taste in movies and of his teasing. "You suck!" I declared as I barely pulled the punch I aimed at his shoulder. "Sometimes even I wonder why you're my best friend!"

At my words, Ohtori's flustered expression was replaced by a frustrated and confused one. Friend? Once again, he looked back at the Atobe cluster at the other end of the room for clarification, but they all seemed just as frustrated and confused as Ohtori was.