A/N: Hi all! For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Japanese language, I'll just briefly explain what the title of the chapter means.
腐れ縁(くされえん) [kusare en] – 縁(en) is a kind of "destined to be" or "fated" relationship to someone. 腐れ(kusare) means rotten. So if you have a kusare en with someone then,you're talking about those people whom youkeep running into. You just can't seem to get away from them, even if you know you should.
Disclaimer: I don't own RikkaiDai. I mean, I don't own PoT.
Chapter Three: Kusare-en.
The bell rang to signal the end of the sixth and final period of class. Most of the students in class 3B remained quietly in their seats as their teacher gave some final instructions regarding their homework with the exception of Marui and Niou. Marui rummaged through his schoolbag looking for the new pack of chewing gum he had just purchased that morning and Niou made no effort to keep the rustling of paper to a bear minimum as he tidied up the handouts, notebooks and textbooks and roughly stuffed them into his bag.
"Finally, I shall repeat again, this piece of homework is due next Friday. Early submissions are welcome, as always. Enjoy club activities, you are all dismissed." said the teacher.
As the other students started shuffling in their seats and putting away their belongings, all Marui and Niou had to do was swing their bags over their shoulder and they were the first to walk out the classroom.
"I do believe Principal Yoshizawa has a soft spot for me," Niou told Marui as they walked down the corridor toward the shoe lockers. "It can't be mere coincidence that I got allocated the gymnasium for janitorial duty. Seeings as the basketball and volleyball clubs occupy the gym, I can only clean it after club activities are over which means it doesn't affect tennis practise at all. Puri."
"Just because he said he was a trickster himself back in the day and he can empathise with your urge to pull pranks doesn't give you any excuse to pull another large scale stunt like that again." Marui said with a hint of warning in his tone as he blew a bubble.
"Since when did you become such a chicken. Besides you've never gotten in trouble because of my master plans, ever." Niou replied.
"Oh yeah, what about the undies on the flagpole 'master plan' back in the day?" Marui rebutted, as he opened his shoe locker, "What about that time？"
Niou chuckled as he reached for his outdoor shoes, "Really? Are you really going to hold that up against me? Besides—"
He stopped mid sentence, just as he was going to slip his right shoe on, he saw that a note was lying inside it. Niou fished it out and opened the flowery piece of paper.
"I can't say this is new." Marui said with a cheeky smile. "But I must say, its rather short for a love letter."
"Because it's not a love letter. This girl wants to confess in person by the looks of it. 'Meet me at the large tree before club activities. I'll be waiting.'" Niou read.
"Ah!" Marui exclaimed in a dramatic manner, slipping on his own shoes. "The large tree where good things happen if you confess there. Is it going to be a positive answer from you?"
"Not if I don't know who it is." Niou said putting his indoor shoes inside his shoe locker then closing it. "C'mon, lets go."
"I'm not gonna go to the tree with you, that's just weird!" Marui said walking towards the exit of the building.
"I meant to tennis practice, you idiot." Niou replied, walking after Marui. "No name, no game."
"Alright, it's your call." Marui said. "You do get enough of them anyway."
"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were jealous Marui." said a bespectacled young man. Yagyuu had caught up with the two tennis regulars.
"Why would I be jealous. If you don't recall, I did get two more chocolates than Niou last Valentine's." Marui replied matter-of-factly.
"That's why I said, 'If I didn't know any better'. And I think we ought to change the topic before Sanada hears you two talking about girls." Yagyuu told them with a solemn expression. "Niou's yet to get back into his good books."
"He's too uptight about everything." Niou said rolling his eyes. "Someone needs to teach him how to live a little."
"Ahem."
The three regulars continued walking, but gave each other nervous glances at the familiar sound.
Damn, it's Sanada. The three thought to themselves.
Sure enough, Sanada walked past them.
"You three better pick up the pace. Practice starts in five." Sanada said to them without looking back.
Tennis practice for the regulars that day was tougher than usual.
"I don't get it! Yukimura-buchou is the captain but why is it always Sanada-senpai who gets to boss us around all the time!" Kirihara said begrudgingly as he just finished his last and thousandth squat jump.
"If you want the same authority," Sanada said walking toward Kirihara. "Then work hard and become the next captain."
Kirihara gave a dismantled grunt as he tried to steady his breathing.
"All right everybody. Once you've finished with the warm up exercises, you may then proceed on playing matches," Sanada announced.
"I don't even think there's enough club time left to get a proper match in." Marui complained in a whisper to his doubles partner, Jackal. "We spent more than half the time on warm up exercises already. Not to mention the fact that I've been half drained of energy."
"Shhh," Jackal glared at his pink-haired friend. "Don't let Sanada hear you complaining."
Marui rolled his eyes, Just because you're the stamina king, 'Man with Four Lungs'.
"Marui, Jackal! Doubles match with Yagyuu and I?" Niou shouted from the opposite end of the court.
Marui and Jackal both raised arms to signal a 'yes'.
"Let us grab our racquets!" Jackal shouted back.
"Well, I'd better go and report for janitorial duty." Niou said in a mock excited tone.
Kirihara cracked up laughing. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot you had that!"
"Cork it, brat." Niou ordered. "Later guys."
Niou waved goodbye as he exited the club locker room.
"Right. I think I'm supposed to meet the janitor outside the gym." Niou mumbled himself as he headed in the direction of Rikkai's school gymnasium.
He arrived shortly and greeted the janitor who was waiting for him at the main entrance.
"You must be Niou-kun, the student I've been told will be helping me with the gymnasium." a man with greying hair said to Niou. "I'm Iwai, nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you, Iwai-san." Niou greeted with a bow. "That's correct, I'm Niou Masaharu."
"Alrighty! Let me explain to you what you are to do. You are to mop the gymnasium floor. Spectator stands, you are to mop the floors up there too and pick up any rubbish there might be. Sometimes the seats require some wiping too but usually we do that twice a week so up to you. Toilets are to be cleaned too. This is the only time you'll be allowed into the female toilets without being called a pervert," Iwai chuckled at his own joke.
Niou, however did not find it amusing in the slightest.
"Let me show you to the broom cupboard." Iwai carried on, leading Niou into the gym. "This is the where the rubbish bags are kept, any rubbish you clear up from the spectator stands, rubbish bins in the gym, bins in the toilet go in this big bag. You are to take the bag to the skip behind the gym. Floor cleaners, toilet cleaners, are on this shelf. The mop, the broom, the bucket it's all in here." Iwai gestured to the equipment.
"Right, gotcha." Niou said nodding his head.
"You can get water from the toilets either male or female. There's a tap specifically for this purpose. I suppose this is all. Windows will need to be cleaned but that's at a later date. I'll pop in and let you know when the time comes." Iwai patted Niou on the shoulder. "Good luck, kid. I'm off!"
"Uh, thanks. Bye Iwai-san." Niou said walking Iwai to the door of the broom cupboard then turning around and studied the broom cupboard.
Niou was surprised at the size of the broom cupboard. If anything, it was more like room for storing cleaning products and tools.
He sighed, overwhelmed at the amount of stuff that was in the room. Buckets in various sizes, brooms in various shapes and sizes, sponge mops, cloth mops, yarn mops.
"Hmm, where to start." Niou wondered aloud, scratching his head.
"I'd suggest starting off by collecting the rubbish."
Niou turned around to see who was talking to him. He faced an expressionless face he had become too familiar for his comfort with in the past few days.
"Are you stalking me now?" Niou said, not even giving a proper greeting.
Himitsu's lips parted in a smile, breaking her expressionless face.
"You think too highly of yourself. The astronomy club's storeroom is in the gym." Himitsu told Niou. "I was returning some equipment."
"Right, and you are telling me because…?" Niou said raising an eyebrow.
"I'm just explaining myself so as to clear up the misunderstanding that you seem to think I'm stalking you." Himitsu said, her green eyes locking Niou's blue orbs.
"If you think," Niou said inching toward Himitsu, his lips curled into a smirk, "That not breaking eye contact with me, or not backing away from me will send me the message that you're not intimidated by me. You're mistaken."
His face was only inches away from Himitsu's now. He studied her eyes. They were piercingly green…and fierce.
"Well, if you think I'm someone who is easily intimidated and can be stared down. You are the one mistaken." She told Niou. Himitsu had no intention of backing down. "By the way, just letting you know. It's half past five." She added before she turned around and left.
Damn it, is that the time already? Niou grabbed a rubbish bag and headed toward the spectator stands. There was a meeting in the drama studio that night at 7pm. He had conveniently forgot to mention the meeting to anyone incase it stirred up anymore fits of laughter from Kirihara and Marui. Apparently the meeting is to be only a short one to announce the casting for the school play since auditions were over. Just as well for Niou, the only role he wanted in the school play was something backstage.
Having an athletic build and good stamina worked to Niou's advantage when it came to cleaning. He rested with one elbow on the end of the mop, taking out his cellphone from his back trouser pocket to check the time. 6:43PM it read.
Gives me around fifteen minutes to grab dinner before the meeting. Niou stuffed his phone back into his pocket and finished off the last few feet of floor he had to cover. Annnd, I'm outta here.
People were gradually filling up the seats in the drama studio. Niou took a bite of the savoury bread he had purchased for dinner as he stood in the doorway of the studio. The interior of the drama studio looked like an amphitheatre that had been cut in half. Seats circled the stage at the front of the room in a crescent shape. There were two projection screens, one to the left of the stage and one on the right. He then surveyed the forty-odd students inside.
Hey, there's that dude from my math class. I didn't know he was into drama. He was surprised to see familiar faces. Very surprised.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me." Niou exclaimed in disbelief.
Sitting in the front row to the left of the stage was Souki Himitsu. Niou's exclamation was just loud enough for everyone to turn and look at him, including Himitsu.
Niou cleared his throat and when everyone's attention was no longer on him he began to make his way inside. However, before he could take another step, Himitsu appeared in front of him.
"Are you sure you're not stalking me? Because I think I've seen more of you in the last few days than I have in the last six years we've been attending the same school." Niou said, unimpressed.
"I could say the same to you, Niou-kun. Welcome to the drama studio. But please finish your food before entering." Himitsu replied cooly.
"Some rules aren't really that important and are okay if broken. No eating in the drama studio is one of them." Niou told Himitsu taking a bite of his bread. "Life's too short."
Himitsu sighed as she let Niou past.
"Everyone please take a seat." a slightly chubby woman in her mid-thirties ordered as she swooped into the room. "I see we have a new face here tonight. I am the head of department for Theatre, you may refer to me as Nagano-sensei." She said looking at Niou who had taken a seat at the very top of the half amphitheatre.
Niou raised a hand acknowledging the introduction.
"As all of you should know, this year we are going to attempt to reproduce "Titanic"!" The theatre teacher, Nagano said excitedly.
"I must admit, it is going to be a challenge. But Okamoto-san and Souki-san have done an excellent job of re-writing the script to make it more manageable. Of course we have our ever-so-artistic Murakami-san as our artistic director, please follow his instructions during prop making. The very stressful job of directing goes to the co-writer of the script, Okamoto-san, please obey his stage directions. Souki-san will be in charge of costumes, please co-operate when she takes measurements of you. Yamada-san will be in charge of make-up for dress rehearsals and show night. Finally, I will be the overseer of all activities." Nagano adjusted her glasses as she finished her sentence. "Any questions?"
She scanned the room for any raised hands, but no one had any questions.
"Alright. I will now hand out copies of the script." The theatre teacher gave stacks of scripts to those sitting in the front row. "Grab one and pass it backward and upwards. Now, I will assign roles. The narrator and old Rose, Taguchi Aya. Playing the female lead, Rose, will be Souki Himitsu. The male lead, Jack, goes to Niou Masaharu. Rose's fiancé, Cal will be played by Nakanishi Ryosuke—"
By now Niou had stopped listening and had gone into shock. His hand shot up in the air.
"Yes? Question?" Nagano raised her eyebrows, looking at Niou. Everyone else had also turned their attention to him.
"Yeah, um, I'm Niou Masaharu." Niou started, he caught a glimpse of Himitsu sitting in the front row. She had turned her whole upper torso to look at him.
Niou cleared his throat and carried on, "I'm concerned that you night have made a mistake with the casting. Casting me as the male lead, that's a bit sudden. I didn't even audition for a part!"
"It was indeed a request I was rather unwilling to grant to Principal Yoshizawa but he insisted on casting you as the male lead. Principal's orders, better obey them." Nagano replied, then carried on reading out the castings, not giving Niou another chance to speak.
Great, just great. Niou thought to himself sarcastically, slapping a hand to his face. And Souki Himitsu just happens to be the female lead. Perfect. Damned kusare-en.
A/N: I know it's been a reallllly long time since I've updated.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter :)
Please review!
~Yuu.