Ragna dreads the performance more than he has dreaded anything in his life.

That morning, he had arrived at school to hear everyone bustling about tonight's talent show. Tao had leaned over her desk and said, "Nyaa, I can't wait~ Are you coming, Ragna? I hear there's going to be a whole free buffet there. Aaah!" She was already drooling.

Ragna snorted, if anything he hoped the anticipation would make her want to not eat anything (that is, his lunch) before the event. She liked to fast before a big free meal. Ragna didn't blame her, and liked being able to eat his own lunch-- although, by now he was already making double to account for Tao's habits.

"Nahh, I don't think I'm going to go," he said, as he overheard a number of girls giggling about some of the line-up. Behind him, he heard his classmate Carl (Ragna wasn't sure how old he was, but he seemed to be a genius as he was definitely middle school age) talking to his sister.

"Nee-san, is true that he's going to take part in the talent show? I thought I heard someone in his class mention it," he was talking to the girl in the next desk, a solemn looking blonde who never said a word and barely changed her facial expression. She didn't even move before Carl made a noise of wonder and said, "What? He's in the love ballad section? I didn't think Jin was a romantic person at all."

J-jin? Was in the talent show!? Singing a... Guh. He swallowed and shook his head.

The bell rang. Thank God. Ragna sighed, putting all thoughts about Jin to the back of his head and reaching into his desk to get his materials out.

Eh?

Now Ragna wasn't a neat freak by any means, but it just made things far easier to keep everything in a notebook, or folder... So having a stray paper in his desk was just weird.

He pulled it out and blanched. It was a flyer for the talent show, but more importantly it had a very familiar handwriting scribbled down the side.

"Nii-san," it read, "I know you best, so I'm sure that you aren't planning to come to the show tonight. This makes me feel very displeased, and you know firsthand how... unpleasant I can be when I feel that way," then underneath, "Please come to watch, I can't do it without you~ Yours Truly , Jin."

Ugh.

Jin could spot him in a crowd no problem, so Ragna would never be able to pretend like he had gone to the damn thing if he actually hadn't. Furthermore, Jin was indeed very right about him being a pain in the ass when he wanted to be.

"Shit."

"What's wrong, Ragyna?!" Tao asked him, looking entirely too curious for her own good.

He sighed and crumpled up the paper in his hand, "Looks like I'm gonna go to the talent show after all." Tao cheered, and spent the rest of class talking about the sorts of food that would be there-- but she assured Ragna that it would be nowhere near as good as his.

The second he entered the auditorium, he dreaded the moment that Jin would get on the stage. Tao distracted him pleasingly with meaningless chatter and discussion on the food (she was right, his cooking definitely tasted better).

The P.E. teacher was before Jin, and dedicated his song to the school nurse, Ms. Litchi. Unfortunately there had been an injury before the performance so she hadn't even been present for his epic love confession.

"And now, what you ladies have been waiting for!" The MC declared, and introduced their vice president, Jin Kisaragi.

Jin scanned the crowd the moment he walked on stage, and smiled once he spotted Ragna. At once, he started his spiel, "This is dedicated to someone very special to me... You know who you are." Jin locked his eyes with his brother and winked, sending several of the girls around Ragna into a frenzy as they disputed which one of them Jin could possibly fancy.

You girls can have him, he thought with a scowl, and the music started up. Some people cheered once they recognized the tune. Ragna didn't, at least not until Jin started to sing.

"I... was born tooo love you~ with every single beat.. of my heart!"

Girls screamed and possibly fainted, and Ragna was pretty sure that he could feel the bile climbing his throat. If anything, he could say that Jin sung rather well. In fact, he was actually surprised that he didn't know.

Jin kept making bedrooms eyes in his direction whenever he sang something particularly.. awkward. It was giving him the creeps. At about two minutes in, Ragna was finished. Jin couldn't hold anything against him, right? He did come to watch after all, he just didn't stay the whole time. Jin usually didn't get to last this long when spouting uncomfortable nonsense in his direction.

"I wanna love yoou... I love every little thing about you." Yeah. He was gone, Ragna decided, turning around and starting to walk out of the auditorium. "I wanna love you, love you, l-- NII-SAAN!! WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!" Jin was nearly shouting into the microphone. Ragna froze in the crowd, at which Jin seemed to be pleased, saying chidingly, "Nii-san, you can't leave in the middle of the song like that! If you don't listen, then," Ragna looked over his shoulder, and he swore his brother sparkled, "it doesn't mean anything at all."

Literally everyone in the crowd turned in his direction, the girls in front of him immediately realized who Jin had been winking to before, and the crowd erupted into a new frenzy about Jin's illicit and forbidden love affair.

Ragna was going to freaking kill his brother after this was over.