Ironically Equivalent

Chapter 3: Hot Boyfriend

Sena hadn't called anyone with honorifics. It was either surname or first name basis, but sometimes she would use the –san or –kun or –dono or whatever just to be polite. Why did she become informal? Well, being confined in her room for so long she actually had forgotten how to interact with people, and surprisingly she sort of lost her timidity.

But she's still an introvert. Or one of the socially reluctant, take your pick.

This hadn't really surprised anyone, to be honest. It was as if that shy little girl who gradually became what is now doesn't seem to be that erratic, unlike Sena's 'decision' in dating Taki or when Marco's fall caused his pants to slip. I mean, seriously, how did anyone not react to that? He mooned! He mooned! He mooned in front of an entire stadium of people and no one did or said anything! I would have screamed saying, "Holy crap! A bare butt!" But whatever.

Well, everyone was okay with Sena's change except for Yamato Takeru. Now, he was stunned, believe me. One day, he decided to make a surprise visit; he waltzed right into Deimon (not knowing that he was capturing attention from the females) and asked for Kobayakawa Sena. It took ten minutes dragging Sena out of the library (in which Yukimistu, Monta, and Komusubi were in as well) just to meet the ex-Eyeshield.

Lo and behold in her messy glory stood Sena right before Yamato's eyes.

"Well then," was what Houjo Taka said. Oh yeah, Taka was there too.

"S-Sena-kun?" Yamato uttered.

"Hi," was what the girl said. Short but friendly: Sena style.

The guys were talking to Taka, yada yada yada. Yamato was busying himself by staring blatantly at Sena, and Sena was fidgeting under his stare while wondering why he's staring blatantly at her.

And then Taki came in.

No, he pranced in.

"Ahaha! Who do I see? Yo miro Senor Yamato ahora!" Taki exclaimed, twirling.

Yamato promptly snapped out of his stupor to look at the freak—uh, I mean, the enthralling person. But he might as well be considered as a freak, especially since he was dating Yomi at that time. Why not? He's a manic maniac when it comes to his girlfriend. (Ever heard of a Japanese doing Spanish? No? Try hearing one.)

"Sena-kun," Taki said, skipping towards the girl, "Chuubou-kun would like to talk to you one-hundred percent!"

"Uh, okay. Thanks, Taki," Sena said, nodding at her soon-to-be-boyfriend-though-she-does-not-know-that-yet.

When the freak went away, Yamato said again, "Sena-kun."

"Yes," she replied.

"…Sena-kun."

"Yes…"

"…"

Taka elbowed Yamato in the ribs.

"Ow!" The ex-Eyeshield tearfully glared at his friend. "Why'd you do that?"

"So that you could get on with it," he answered simply.

"Get on with what?" Sena asked.

"N-nothing!" Yamato said quickly.

Taka rolled his eyes.

Should it be unfair for the rest of the guys to be left standing, I would agree with all my heart; however, they were currently not important at the time. The important ones: Sena, Yamato. There was also a tidbit of Taka.

So we have Yamato acting strangely awkward, avoiding eye contact. Very unlike him, I know, but that's what happened. Sena, on the other hand, was rather confused and wanted to go back into the library. Taka decided that this was becoming ridiculous and so ushered the two to take a nice walk outside before the bell would ring.

So they did that.

Here's the conversation they were having:

"I didn't think that you'd be coming here."

"Huh? Oh, yeah."

End of conversation.

It was as if Yamato Takeru had some sort of personality swap with Sakuraba Haruto on a Tuesday afternoon! Seriously, it's, like, that bad. It even baffled Sena of how unapproachable he was being, seeing how he's always the Mr. Smiley-Man guy. She wondered if he had bad constipation.

Hey, don't look at me; the document says it right here.

Anyway, when she left him, she later caught him talking to her friends. It shocked her of how sociable he was being to them and not to her. "Did I do something to make him not like me?" she thought as she watched Mr. Smiley-Man guy being himself and not the uncomfortable, hushed boy she was with minutes ago.

Sena frowned. Perhaps she did something wrong! Well, she should apologize.

"Yamato."

Hmm, it appears that he did not hear her.

"Yamato-san."

Nothing.

"Yamato-san."

Still nothing.

"Yamato-kun."

Oh wait! She got a twitch!

"Yamato-sama."

Another twitch.

"Yamato-chan."

How interesting, he shuddered.

Sena tapped her chin. "Takeru."

"E-eh?" Yamato turned around, red-faced. "Y-yes, Sena-kun?"

Stunned, Sena forgot what she wanted to say. "Uh…"

There aren't any documents that tell me what happens next, but lookie here! There's one that reads about Sena and Yamato meeting up again.

Hmmmm…It also says that Sena calls Yamato Yamato, but she discovered that whenever she calls him by his given name he would blush lightly. Makes you wonder, huh?

So onwards with the real story:

"Sena-sempai is going to get a makeover?" gasped Kurosaki Hideki.

"What are you surprised about?" said Honda Gaito, eyeing the receiver second to Ikimari Kyo. "You're just a first-year; you haven't been here long enough to know how outstandingly shocking this is."

"It's been half a year!"

"Your point?"

"I think it's widely known that our beloved Sena-sempai is a total wallflower," snorted Hayasakawa Yuusuke. Though a first-year himself, Hayasakawa could speak for behalf of the student body.

"Ah, so it is," Honda agreed, nodding.

"But it's not she who's getting the makeover."

"What?" Kurosaki said. "Honda-sempai, you lied to me!"

"It wasn't a lie, it was a misunderstanding, young one," Honda said with a monotone, giving Kurosaki a pat on the head.

"Uh, okay. Then how's it a misunderstanding?" Kurosaki asked, raising a brow.

"Dunno."

"…"

"Taki-sempai is the one getting the makeover," Hayasakawa piped.

"…"

"…"

"What?" the two boys said in unison.

Indeed, Taki was getting a makeover—a manly makeover. It was because Suzuna felt that her brother's shoulder-length hair and stubble should be gone, gone, gone! And I personally agree. So the girl dragged her brother to a salon, and then to a clothing store (yeah, he needed a wardrobe change), and then finally back home so that Suzuna could give Taki a bit of a pep talk.

The football team did hear that Taki was going to get a transformation, but Honda was right at the first time—Sena was going to get a makeover as well. However, it wasn't going to be as…dandy as Taki's since a girl's makeover would take much, much longer. Suzuna sent Mamori over to Sena's to get her prepared (like the change of clothes, putting on makeup, popping pimples, doing the hair, plucking bushy eyebrows, etc); and to Mamori's luck, Sena's mother, giddy at the idea of dressing up her obstinate daughter, was going to help.

"Aww!" cooed Mamori and Sena's mother. "You look adorable!"

Sena had light makeup applied on her face. Her hair (much longer than it was two years ago) was curled and tamed, and it was rather cute how her new brown ringlets would bounce against her shoulders with every step she took. It was hard finding something for her to wear that wouldn't reveal her armpit hair and leg hair (yeah, they were going to fix that later), but they managed to get her wear black knee-length socks, ruffled black skirt, and a wool sweater. Though it was a simplistic choice of wear, it was an enormous transformation in comparison of the Sena before.

If only Yamato had a chance to see this…Aw well.

"I'm not going out looking like this," Sena groused. "What if somebody I know sees me?"

"By the way, you never told me why you needed Sena to get dressy for," her mother said.

"Mom!"

"She's getting dressy to meet her boyfriend," Mamori giggled.

"Mamo-nee!"

"Oh my," gasped her mother. "Sena, you never told me you had a boyfriend!"

"He's not my boyfriend!" Sena whined.

"Of course he is," Mamori said. "You agreed, remember?"

"Yeah, but—"

"Don't make the young man wait!" The woman ushered the two girls outside. "And bring him home next time, Sena."

"Mooom!"

"Tell me the whole story when you come back, Mamori-chan."

"Don't worry! I will!"

"Won't anyone ever listen to me?" Sena grumbled.

On their way to their destination, Sena was looking all around to see if anyone in relation to football was there. If so, she was ready to scurry to the nearest hiding place. Mamori found it to be silly that the smaller girl would panic over such thing and asked her why she was so embarrassed on letting anyone see her.

"It'll be awkward!" Sena cried.

And that's that.

Normally, any girl would be happy enough to flaunt her prettiness to the world. Any girl would especially be happy to grab attention from men, getting them to drool after her. But Sena is such a complicated girl—she took that complication after her dad. You see, Sena is growing up to be so much like her dad that it's not even funny (and I mean mentally-wise, not physically—gyaah, did you see that man's hair? Crazy).

Anyway, Sena was not fond of grabbing attention from unknown men, and definitely not liking the idea of drool trailing after her. In fact, she had become to appreciate the wonders of being a wallflower. But you guys already knew that since she doesn't bother brushing her hair—giggles. Hey, remember that huge wad of hair that looked like a rats' nest? Sigh, good times.

"Please, don't do this to me," Sena begged, but was pulled into the restaurant anyway by a suddenly and ridiculously strong Mamori.

"Oh come on, Sena, lighten up," the university student sighed.

"Lighten up? Somebody could—"

"Yes, yes, I know. But you know, being pretty isn't going to kill you even if you are spotted." Mamori then smiled. "Look, Suzuna-chan and Taki-kun are here!"

"Great, just great."

Suzuna was sitting across a dashing-looking fellow, animatedly talking with him until she noticed the two other girls. It took Sena a while, but she realized that the guy Suzuna was having a conversation with was no other than her brother himself. Gasp. She was shocked to see how she was slow to recognize the former tight end. He changed a lot!

His hair was short, but was trendily spiked up. It was kind of like Sakuraba Haruto's hairstyle except it wasn't as cropped; the bangs were swept upwards, in which complimented the decent set of spikes. His beard was removed, giving him a more youthful image but it made him less identifiable. In each ear, there was an earring (Suzuna had gone too far) that was in the shape of spades (Earrings? Really, Suzuna?). His black V-neck was rather fitting (heh heh), and because of that it revealed his nicely toned body that he had earned over their days of football. He wore gray jeans, worn-out sneakers (donated by the neighbor's son), a silver watch, and a wristband.

Sena gulped.

Never, never, never had she thought that Taki could look this good! Neither did I, by the way. He looked entirely different from the usual silly Taki who would act stupid and do stupid things. Now, this Taki radiated maturity and coolness, something that the original Taki could never posses, excluding that time when he had a serious moment in the Devil Bats vs. Bando Spiders game.

That until he opened his mouth.

"Ahaha! How does Senorita Mamori and Senorita-ita Sena like my new look?"

"What's with the extra ita after Senorita, Taki-kun?" Mamori asked curiously, perfectly enunciating the Spanish words.

"Why, every time you add ita, it means to make it into a smaller or younger version for it! As for Senorita-ita Sena—"

"What did I say about Spanish?" Suzuna snapped.

Sena ducked her head, ashamed for her shortness. Well, oh come on, she's not that short. She's 5'1 for crying out loud!

Taki also ducked his head, ashamed for his mistake. "No Spanish allowed…"

"That's right."

"B-but how am I supposed to get my beloved Yomi without it?"

"She's supposed to love you for the way you already are, you dork. How do you except her to like you when all you're trying to do is trying to impress her?"

"Uh, Suzuna, if I may speak," Sena said, recovered.

"Yes, Sena?" the other girl chirped.

"If you're really trying to get the whole 'be yourself image', then why go through the trouble of giving Taki a makeover?" Sena asked.

Suzuna laughed. "Because this new outlook would help lessen his stupidity."

"Hey!" Taki cried, offended.

"Oh. Makes sense."

"Sena-kun!"

"Hey," Suzuna snapped again. "What did I say about the honorific?"

"Don't call her that…"

"So what're you supposed to call your girlfriend?"

"Sena-chan," Taki said with conviction.

"Ehh?" Sena sputtered. She blushed at the ending of her name.

"Ah hah! See? It made her turn red."

"Ahaha! You are right, Suzuna!"

"Sh-shut up!" Sena cried, trying to hide her face.

"Your turn, Sena!" Suzuna chirped.

Eyeshield blinked. "W-what?"

"Call my brother Natsuhiko-kun. That's his given name."

"Um, I don't think that—"

"Just do it!"

Sena sighed. Sure, it was just a name. Why not? She looked down at Taki, meeting his eyes. Then she froze. Had his eyes always been this blue? It was like a deep, dark blue that rivaled Suzuna's—although they were siblings so of course they would have the same eye color. However, unlike his sister's wide-eyed child-like blue orbs, his eyes made him appear…breath-taking.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to say it. Normally it wouldn't be that hard. Hey, all she had to do to was say it. But in this case, it was like pushing a monstrous truck like how the linemen did in the Death March. Yeah, just forming words was like labor—how extravagant. But not really. I mean, she was being stared at by this cute guy! And it was Taki no less! And it was making her really nervous!

"N-Nastuhiko…k-kun."

Sena is never going to be good with honorifics ever again. And that was why I brought it up in the beginning.

Mamori and Suzuna traded grins. "We're going to leave you two lovebirds alone, now."

"What?" Sena was suddenly shoved down the seat where Suzuna had sat as the two girls hurried away. "No! Come back!"

"Don't worry Sena-chan!" Taki—I mean, Natsuhiko was quick to say. "Suzuna had already ordered us lunch so we won't have to wait long!"

"…" Sena slumped in her seat unladylike, pouting to herself how rotten this turned out to be. Her sister figure and best friend had abandoned her with Nastuhiko who magically turned into this and was going to have an awkward meal with him as well. Just what were they going to talk about anyway? And how long was this—this—this date (might as well let it out, eh, Sena?) going to last?

Well, it was to Sena's luck that Natsuhiko was a chatterbox so the naturally un-talkative girl could sit back and relax without having to struggle about starting a conversation. It was actually comforting to have Natsuhiko be able to replace any sort of tension with his own mix of humor; the guy could literally talk all day long, and it was funny to see how lively he is in what he had to say. No wonder he and Suzuna were siblings.

"Sena-chan."

"Y-yes?"

"You look cute."

She blushed. "Hiii!"

Though she knew that it was likely that Suzuna had him memorize those lines before the date (could they even call it that?), Sena couldn't help feel oddly flattered and bashful all at once. It was…strange, however, and nice. For a fake comment, that is; but nice nonetheless.

Just what was wrong with her? She never felt like this with any other guy!

Just as Sena was pondering, the doorbell rang and the partially empty restaurant was filled with loud voices.

"I shall sit next to Kakei-sensei for I am his number one student!"

"No! I will be the one!"

"Haha! You guys crack me up."

"Mizumachi, quiet."

"Aww! C'mon, Kakei! What about them?"

"They're always like this."

"Kakei-sempai is right, Mizumachi-sempai."

Holy cow! It was the Poseidons! Sena inwardly panicked, thinking of a way to be discreet in escaping with Natsuhiko. He's not the stealthiest of all, you know.

"Psst! Tak—err, N-N-Natsuhiko…kun." Yeah, she'll never get used to it. "We have to get outside. Now."

He blinked. "What?"

"Not so loud!" she whispered.

"What?"

"Shh!"

Sena slipped under the table and dragged Natsuhiko with her. Accidentally bumping heads, they caressed their sore spots and looked up. Sena let out a light gasp as Natsuhiko's eyes went unnaturally wide; their faces were so close that their noses nearly brushed against each other. Then the girl jerked away to give them some room.

"S-sorry about that Tak—N-Natsuhiko-kun," she muttered, looking away.

"Sena-chan, what's the matter?"

"The Kyoshin Poseidons are out there. We have to go."

His eyebrows furrowed. "Why?"

She sheepishly fingered the hem of her sleeves. "Eh, b-because…I don't want anyone else to see me like this," she confessed.

"Why? You look muy linda."

"Nastsuhiko-kun, I don't understand Spanish." She frowned slightly. "And didn't Suzuna tell you not to use it? You know, in order to get your ex-girlfriend?"

"Oh. You're right Sena-kun—I mean, Sena-chan," he corrected himself. "I said that you look very pretty."

"I, uh, s-see." Sena cleared her throat. "Well, I just don't want to be spotted anyway. So can we please go?"

Natsuhiko knew, even without the help of his sister, that it was a gentlemanly thing to do to do what girlfriend's requested boyfriends to do whether it made sense or not. Though the guy could hardly see Sena as a girl, he knew what he had to do. He gave her an affirmative answer, with the addition of a thumbs-up and a wink like usual, and crawled out under the table before her.

They were on the move. They were so close to the door—well, not really, but it felt like it to Sena. They stuck together close and inched nearer to the exit.

Then something shiny caught his eye.

"Ahaha! A penny!" Natsuhiko stopped to pick the coin up. "Mine one-hundred and twenty percent!"

"Uwaaah!" Sena didn't have time to stop so she tripped over his feet and face-planted on the floor. "Ouch," she whimpered, rubbing her nose. Looking up, she froze. Then she felt something breezy brush by her upper thighs.

As I had mentioned before, it was too bad that Yamato wasn't there to see Sena in her outfit, but someone (other than Natsuhiko) had!

It was Kakei Shun. Captain of the Kyoshin Poseidons. One of the top linebackers. One of the top star athletes. One of the top star hotties. Tall, dark, and handsome. Have these awesome aquamarine eyes. Nice abs. Great hair. Amazingly tall and broad-shouldered. Have I mentioned that he is hott? And ooh, those eyes of his—hott.

Ahem. But anyways.

Yes, that Kakei Shun, and that Kakei Shun was standing right before her, seeing her underpants. Her, um, granny underpants.

Too bad Yamato didn't get to see them.

Sena's face exploded into red. Quickly picking herself up, she didn't dare look up and dashed right out of the door. Humiliated, frustrated, and down-right upset, tears cascaded as she loudly sobbed. Yeah, as if noisily weeping wasn't as humiliating as flashing in front of people. I mean, Marco mooned (in front of a whole stadium full of people, if I might add) and though he was rather pissed, he was fine a minute later.

But I guess he's a man of hardcore. Sena is a sensitive girl, so…I can relate. No, really, I can.

Anyway, the poor girl ran all the way home. She didn't even notice the way Shin looked with a puzzled and concern expression when she passed her. And it was a real shame that she didn't get to see the look on Kakei's and Natsuhiko's faces before she bolted for it.

Mizumachi came behind his captain to ask him what drink he wanted since the restaurant didn't have green tea, then blinked at the dazed expressions on the two red-faced boys.

"What happened?" Mizumachi asked.

THE SECOND-YEARS AND THEIR EXPRESSIONS

T_T

Honda Gaito (I think he's gonna be a popular one)

7_7

Ishimaru Sinobu (the manga gave a list of Ishimaru Tetsuo's siblings, so I give you the second oldest Ishimaru kid!)

0u0

Chuubou (awww)

^w^

Ikimari Kyo (he's like Yamato except he's not)

=U=

Sawada Tamaki (hyperactive, that's all I can say)