I'm so, so, so, so… sorry that this took so long. I had so many problems including losing my data and I had to rewrite this story, so this story will be different from what I had planned ages ago because I literally forgot everything I wrote in the chapter that was lost! Please forgive me!

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Love Anime: I'm so glad you liked it. Here's the update.

The girl tugged on Kei's shirt. "What's wrong, Kei-kun? Come with me," asked Maria. Kei was furious. First, he was being kissed by this unknown girl, and second, she was going to take her to a who knows where place. He was not gonna allow it! "Come on, Kei-kun!" Maria pulled his arm, but of course, a weak girl like her wasn't strong enough.

"I don't think Kei is in the mood of going with you. After all, you force kissed him," said Tadashi, looking pretty hungry.

"Shut up, idiot!" shouted Akira and threw a flower pot that suddenly was in her hands to Tadashi's head. It's unbelievable, but Tadashi wasn't hurt at all, he only got really dirty.

"What do you mean he doesn't feel like to come with me? He's supposed to love me in the first sight since I'm looking my best today just to impress Kei-kun. Aren't I beautiful, Kei-kun?" said Maria with a pretty and childish tone.

"…" Kei didn't say anything. It was only an awkward silence.

"Hmph, if I fail today, I will try no matter how many times and win Kei-kun's heart!" Maria said finally. "I will do anything to win his heart!"

'Gosh, this girl is persistent!' thought everyone in S.A plus Yahiro and Sakura minus Hikari.

Hikari's eyes brightened. She smiled brightly. Everyone in the conservatory watched her, confused. They were expecting her to be angry at Maria.

"I like you!" Hikari finally exclaimed with such shiny eyes. "You are strong willed! I also want to do anything to beat Takishima!" She then grabbed Maria's hands.

"You're supposed to hate me," said Maria. "I'm your rival and rivals aren't friendly towards each other."

"I can't see why I should hate a rival," said Hikari, still with her beautiful, bright eyes. "Takishima is a rival and I don't hate him. He's my absolute best friend."

'Best friend? Is she forgetting our relationship?' thought Kei, a little disappointed, or rather, VERY disappointed.

"Is that so? Well, I'm taking KEI-kun AWAY from YOU!" said Maria, letting the important words stand out. "And you don't mind?"

"Um… I do, a little bit, but it doesn't mean I can hate you. You can do whatever you want, right?" replied Hikari.

"Oh, fine, you win. So, friends?" asked Maria. Her eyes softened.

"Yep!" Hikari smiled more brightly. She had a new rival *slash* friend! How exciting!

Akira watched them, disbelieving. She hadn't expected Maria to become friends with Hikari. Yes, she told Maria not to hurt her beloved Hikari and Maria didn't plan to hurt her anyway, but being friends with Hikari was just unbelievable. Why would Maria be friends with Kei's girlfriend A.K.A her rival? Had Akira known Maria well enough? Well, they don't meet often, they just sent emails with each other since Maria lived far away in south, so Akira didn't really know her in person.

Maria had phoned Hikari to go to a café in the afternoon. She had her phone number since they were friends now.

"What should I wear?" Hikari said her thought out loud as she chucked some rice into her mouth with a chopstick.

"Are you going out on a date with Takishima's son again?" asked Hikari's father. "You sure go out a lot nowadays. You just went on one a few days ago."

Hikari blushed, thinking about her 'kissing' Kei on their last date.

'My stupid daughter is a maiden in love now,' her mother thought, smiling. She once was afraid that her daughter was never going to have a husband.

"I'm not going out with him this afternoon, I'm only meeting a friend," said Hikari.

"So why are you worrying about your looks?" asked her mother, pretty disappointed that her daughter wasn't going on a date.

"Well, never mind then," said Hikari then finished her lunch. She was only curious about what she should wear.

She decided to wear a T-shirt and shorts. She wasn't really worrying about the way she dressed, after all, it's not like her new friend is gonna judge her.

Hikari got to the café early, thirty minutes early. She waited for her friend while she sipped the iced tea she had ordered really slowly.

Finally, her friend showed up and sat down opposite of Hikari. "Hello," said Hikari, smiling.

"So, I invited you to talk to you," said Maria, with a normal tone, not a cutie tone she was using in front of Kei. "This is gonna be a girl talk, so no guys should know what we're talking about."

"Okay."

"So, Hikari, do you know what Kei's type is?" asked Maria with wide puppy eyes.

"Um… um…" she found it hard to say 'normal girls' (that's what Kei told her even though he was just lying) just like what happened when Sakura asked her that. "He said his type was a normal girl." She found it easier to say maybe because she had already become Kei's girlfriend.

"It's not true. I know you're the type who can't lie, so Kei-kun must be the one who's lying. I shouldn't have asked. You are his type, Hikari Hanazono," said Maria, pointing at Hikari as a maid brought a cup of coffee Maria had ordered. Maria took a sip. "You're an honest and simple person, I think you're worth to be friends with." Maria smiled. Her face was really pretty.

'Maria acts so differently now. She acted a bit weird when she went to the conservatory. Was she only trying to be cute and aggressive?' Hikari thought while she was smiling. 'If she wants Takishima to like her, then she shouldn't have changed. Takishima would like this side of her than the spoilt brat side of her.' Hikari wanted to tell Maria to be herself, without changing her act, but something was telling her not to. Her heart pained when she was trying to tell Maria. She didn't understand that feeling, but she just obeyed it.

"Umm… what's Kei-kun's favourite food?" asked Maria.

"Uh… I'm not sure," said Hikari.

"You're not sure or you don't know?"

"I don't know."

"What da heck!? Why don't you know your own boyfriend's favourite food!?" Maria was really surprised.

"Well, he ate whatever I cooked him and always tells me delicious even though the other S.A members were eating it with weird faces," said Hikari simply. "If you want to know, I'll ask him if you want. After all, we're friends."

"Well, never mind. You're not supposed to help your rival that much anyway," said Maria. "Hm… is Kei a good kisser?"

Hikari wasn't expecting this question. She turned really red and couldn't say anything. "Hmp…hmmmppp…"

"I guess it means yes," said Maria, smiling at how honest the girl in front of her is. She then took a bite on her steak that had just come. Then, awkward silence.

"Are you into hot food?" Hikari asked randomly after she'd recovered from her unstoppable blush.

"Yes, and people too," said Maria, smiling.

'Well, I didn't need to know that," said Hikari mentally. 'By the way is Takishima hot? He's more like a cool guy for me.'

"Hey, what do you like to do when you're bored," asked Maria.

"Um… studying. Or exercising, I guess. Because I'm still trying to beat Takishima."

"Why?"

"Well, because that's my biggest goal!" Hikari exclaimed with gleaming eyes. She had forgotten about the day when she told Kei that she wouldn't marry him before she has beaten him.

Then, they talked and talked for about two hours or so, but they didn't realise that there are two people watching them.

"Guess they're done now. Honestly, Maria was really nice to Hikari! I didn't know that side of her! I thought she would get jealous of Hikari and get as far away from her as possible." said Akira as she saw Hikari and Maria parting ways.

She had dragged Tadashi around to follow her cousin. It wasn't her fault for being curious about what her cousin was going to do with Hikari. Her cousin was living in her mansion since there are more than enough place for her and Maria's mansion was being built.

"Yeah, I was confused too," said Tadashi as he bit on a cake Akira made to lure Tadashi out of his mansion and come with her. "By the way, Akira, care to come and have a walk with me?" Akira turned red. Tadashi asking her out!

Akira nodded slightly. Tadashi smiled widely.

How was it? And thank you, RokugatsuSichi-san, you gave me such a good idea about Hikari and Maria being friends. You know Hikari better than me anyway. I'm thinking of changing this fanfiction title. It just doesn't sound right since it's not all about Hikari trying to beat Kei. Any suggestion for the new title? If not, I'll just leave it be 'till I've found a suitable one.