LE BACK!

I do apologise that I had to put this story on hiatus. This year has just been a carnival ride and I could not fit in to updating at all, let alone promptly finish courseworks. Here's the stop to the hiatus, however!
Enjoy!

Opus IX
~Beginnings~

EXCLUSIVE:

"Seiso Academy's Ultimate Love Story: The Legend of the Fiddler Romance

Is a Legend No More!"

By Nami Amou

The photos may well speak for themselves. The ultimate romance of the school's century: the Iciest Prince gets together with his Fiery Rival.

A month after the celebrations of the beloved 2nd year Concours participant, Shouko Fuyuumi, Len Tsukimori and Hino Kahoko has finally revealed their status as the ultimate musical-couple of Seisou Academy. One word is all I can give you folks: L to the O.V.E. That's all there is to it.

Infatuation may be your goggly eyes and the "Babe, you're the reason that I live," scares the crap out of us all, but the dashing Mr. Tsukimori is all but goggly and cheesy with his violinist counterpart.

It's not an easy feat when you have a cute girlfriend like Hino Kahoko with her fiery red hair yet ever so kind personality and not so much as give her a peck on the cheek in your little downtime, but the Romeo of Romeos did not do the slightest bit. Oh no, boys, he did not and seriously, take note.

The ever-bright moon gave the two a spotlight behind the pineapple trees. Kahoko's eyes were luminous and filled with such love that every guy could have just swooped in there and gave the kiss of the gods. But Len, in his glory, looking down upon Kaho's pools of innocence gave her but a smile and leaned in and gently placed his lips on her forehead as the stars rejoiced in the romantic fruition of love...

Kahoko continued to read the article with flushed cheeks, not expecting Nami to be so dastardly detailed with her descriptions of her and Len's escapades during Fuyuumi's crazy weekend birthday bash. If you could even call it that.

Nami was frighteningly good with words even though the most intimate gestures - if one could be so bold to say - that they happened to have done was hold hands a few times and a couple of quick forehead kisses before lights out. The way it was worded, however, it felt like they were taken out from a very romantic movie usually played every Valentine's Day.

Kahoko placed the paper down with a sigh. She knew if it was bad idea to let Nami do coverage of them.

Unsurprisingly enough, the whole school was in utter chaos upon the paper's publication. Every girl happened to glare at her in differently wicked ways as she passed by innocently and almost half of the female populace found it amusing to accidentally bump her during her days where she had to juggle her heavy textbooks to get to her classes. Physics and Chemistry never really did well to her, anyhow.

Len was annoyed upon hearing and once observing how foul the girls played.

"I'm going to kill Amou," he said with venom even though his face only showed a Len frown. Kahoko shook her head.

"Don't worry about it, Len-kun," she said, offering him her best smile as she rubbed her recently acquired bruise on her arm because of one of her accidents. "It'll die down like last time."

Unfortunately for Kahoko, it didn't after a month and in fact, a couple of senior girls have made a group for themselves to specifically target Kahoko once in a while and make her life a misery.

"You're a slut, Kaho," the leader of the group said, her hands on her waist while two others stood next to her; her henchmen. "You don't deserve to be with someone as talented and as handsome as Tsukimori-kun. You're nothing but a try-hard musical wannabe."

The blonde took a step towards Kahoko and pointed her manicured fingers at her forehead.

"You leave Tsukimor-kun now, Kahoko, or else you'd wish you'd never have come to Seisou at all," she threatened, her glare ominous and frightening. Kahoko couldn't retaliate when her back hit the knob of the door she was pushed in hard.

Tsuchiura juggled the ball with his knees leisurely, loving the feel of the wind breeze past his heated face after a gruelling training match against his boys. They were getting better and faster and he was proud to know that they've been following his every strict regime.

He kicked a couple of goals towards the net, allowing his sweat to slide down his forehead when he noticed Kahoko emerging from the gym's double doors. She held her gym bag with her even though she didn't look like she used it. And even from far away, he could she had a slight limp as she walked. Curious, he ran to the fence that separated the soccer field from the gym area.

"What are you doing here, Kahoko?"

Kaho turned around and smiled at Tsuchiura. He could've sworn her lips quivered a bit when she turned.

"Just forgot my bag, Tsuchiura-kun," she said with a wave. "I'm okay. I'm just heading off now."

Tsuchiura looked from her bag to her half-hearted smile. Something was definitely amiss.

"You don't look too good to me," he said. "Wait a bit. I'll just grab my stuff. I'll walk you home."

Despite her protests that she was okay, Tsuchiura didn't pay her any heed and hurriedly gathered his stuff. When he got to her, he took her gym bag, despite another bout of protest.

"It's fine, Kaho," he said, ignoring her whine.

"But I can do it myself, Tsuchiura-kun," she said, looking at him with pleading eyes. The green-haired looked at her warily.

"I'll only give it if you tell me why you're limping," Kahoko's eyes widened briefly before letting out a small laugh to ease the tension. She's nervous, he thought as he glanced at her.

"Oh, this, this is nothing," she said with a smile. "I was using the bathroom when I sort of slipped and hit my back on the sink. It's nothing big."

"Mm-hm," Tsuchiura continued to eye her. He still wasn't convinced but he decided to just let her be. He'd find out soon enough.

They just passed through the courtyard when Kahoko's phone began to ring. Tsuchiura waited for her as she took the call.

"Ohayo, Len-kun," she said with a smile. "I'm fine. Yep, I'm okay. I'm still at school. I left my gym bag so I had to get it back. No, it's okay, I'm with Tsuchiura-kun. He's taking me home now. No! Don't worry about it! No, please, don't cancel your tutoring for me. Please Len-kun, I promise you I'm fine. I'll call you as soon as I get home. Okay, yes, I'm fine. I promise. I'll call you straight away. Okay, thank you, Len-kun. Bye."

Kahoko smiled at Tsuchiura and thanked him for waiting patiently for her.

"Your boyfriend leaving you all alone," he said. "Not very knightly of him."

"It's actually my fault that Len-kun's not here," Kahoko said with a small smile. "He had taken me home already early this afternoon when I remembered about my bag. If Mr. Hawazaki wasn't so tough with people leaving things behind, then I wouldn't have come anyway."

That was true enough, Tsuchiura thought. That Hawazaki sure did like his financial rewards when a poor student managed to leave their clothes behind. He wondered if that was even legal...

"So how have you been, Tsuchiura-kun?" Kahoko asked, looking up at him.

The green-haired shrugged his shoulders casually.

"Same old," he replied.

"Soccer seems to be treating you real good though, Tsuchiura-kun," he couldn't help but smile back at her.

"Yeah,"

Kahoko wondered why he was being so silent all of a sudden until he began to speak.

"I was thinking of joining the National team, actually," he said, his eyes focused on the road ahead.

"Really? That sounds great!"

Tsuchiura smirked.

"It's tough competition though. Kind of like the Concours," he continued. "Only the best get in."

"But you came in second place at the Concours, Tsuchiura-kun," she reminded him. "That means you were and still are one of the best."

Tsuchiura wanted to believe that it was that easy.

"Natural talent is different, Kahoko," he said, looking at her. "Even at the Concours, I'm still not good enough to beat Tsukimori."

Kahoko watched as his eyes looked on towards the distance. "And in this world, only the very best would be on the receiving end."

Kaho wanted to continue encouraging him about how great and talented he truly was, but she didn't notice that they had already arrived at her street. He stopped in front of her house and offered her bag to her.

"Thank you, Tsuchiura-kun," she said. Tsuchiura nodded at her.

"Don't mention it," he said with a wave. "I'll see you around then."

Before she could catch hold of what she wanted to say, he had already turned the bend and was out of her sight.

A/N:
Apologies also that this is mostly about Tsuchiura and Kaho and no Len whatsoever except for the slight mention. It provides a good background to what's about to happen next, that's why. Thank you all and review if you can!