Red Roses: Selamat sejahtera, my readers/friends. This a new year and a new beginning.
LightSpeed Athlete24: Yep, as much I hate those type of people they have to come out sooner or later. Don't worry, you can glare at her as much as you want. I pretty much hate her too.
Light27: It's so great to talk to a fellow FNN author from the same country! I'm so touched by your words. I hope you would continue to enjoy reading my fanfiction as I continue to enjoy writing them.
MystiqueSilver: I hope you got my message. I really wish I could show you something but I guess I'm kinda shy when it comes to my drawings.
YamadaHikari: Haha, don't stress yourself. Katou is way better off as a delinquent. I can't help but giggle a bit in my head whenever I imagine gentleman Katou :)
Thank you all for your encouragement. I appreciate it dearly.
Now, the disclaimer...
Roman: Red Roses does not own Sket Dance. If she did, I'm sure she'll make me a formidable love rival for the fight for my sweet prince.
Red Roses: yeah...sure I'd do that. *looks away*
WARNING: Mention of blood in this chapter. Not a lot but, just for a warning.
Also, just for a precaution, I do not own Twilight. I'm only using that as a joke.
On her way to school, Shinako faced with complicated feelings in her head. She remembered Kimiko's request the other day. Shinako isn't the type to refuse a request from a friend (if you could call her that) but the idea being near Katou more than necessary gives her uncomfortable churns in her stomach.
As she got closer to her destination, she was a group of giggling schoolgirls, much like the last time and she assumed it was for the same reason.
"Kikuchi, good morning." She heard someone greet her and she saw Tsubaki smiling at her while Katou stood beside him.
"Good morning, Tsubaki-sama," She greeted back with a smile. As per usual, she handed him a homemade bento and shot Katou a glare in which he replied with his own.
Tsubaki sighed and was about to chastised the two immature rivals when a sweet voice called out to Shinako.
"Shinako-chan!~"
Said girl turned around to see her blue-eyed senior, Kimiko, waving to her while gracefully walking to the three confused students.
Kimiko let out a 'surprised' gasped as she noticed Tsubaki and Katou standing beside Shinako. "Oh, I didn't know you were talking with someone."
Shinako felt a sweat drop down her temple. "You obviously knew that!"
Nonetheless, Kimiko smiled at her tall junior. "Why don't you introduce me?"
Shinako was confused for a moment until she figured out what was the wavy-haired senior was doing. "Oh! Well, this is Kimiko-san. She is my senior who is in the Health Committee."
"Ah, Hajime Kimiko. 3rd Year, Class B as I recalled." Tsubaki said, to Shinako's surprise.
"Tsubaki-sama, have you two met before?"
"No, but it is a president's job to know every student in this school." Tsubaki said proudly as Shinako felt admiration bubbling within her.
"Wow! Tsubaki-sama's dedication towards his fellow schoolmates is simply amazing!" Shinako's eyes sparkled as she praised her master.
Tsubaki blushed. "N-No, it's not such a big deal..."
Kimiko, however, paid no attention to Tsubaki as she was too busy eying a certain albino student.
"So, what's your name?~" The way Kimiko said that so sweetly it made Katou cringed a bit and made Shinako feel a little uncomfortable.
But what Katou did next surprised both Tsubaki and Shinako dearly.
He greeted her...politely.
"My name is Katou Kiri. Nice to meet you," Katou bowed politely at Kimiko who smiled gleefully.
"K-Kiri..."
"K-Katou..."
Tsubaki and Shinako stared in disbelief as Kimiko let out a cute giggle. Katou was actually acting like a gentleman without Tsubaki or Shinako's forcing him.
"My, my, what a gentleman~"
"Please, let me wake up from this nightmare!" Shinako thought in her head as she saw her senior flirt with her hated rival.
Hours passed and soon it was lunch, Shinako walked over to Katou to question him of his peculiar behaviour this morning. When she reached there, she sighed as the female samurai noticed he was only eating a protein bar.
"You're going to get sick if that's your only lunch."
"Get off my back, woman."
Shinako started to feel a little relieved that not all of Katou was gone. But then, Shinpei walked towards them.
"Oi, Katou there's some girl who wants to see you," The brunette samurai pointed to the door where Kimiko was waving cutely at Katou. The frowning ninja stared for a moment before getting up to walk over to Kimiko, leaving Shinpei and Shinako immensely shocked.
"Katou is definitely not himself."
Shinako immediately agreed with her childhood friend. "I feel like he's a completely different person."
"Well, isn't that what you being trying to do all this time? Change Katou into a completely different guy," Shinpei said, reminding Shinako how she kept shouting at the grumpy albino to be more gentlemanly.
Shinako bit her lip, feeling conflicted. It was her idea to change Katou's persona and because of that, more girls have been swarming around him like he was a Twilight vampire.
"For some strange reason, I don't feel right doing this..." Shinako uttered, holding onto her aching chest.
"I don't get it, this is for the better, right? If Katou was a gentleman, I'd be helping him with his social life. Yet, why do I feel so sad?"
"Oi, Earth to Shinako,"
Shinako quickly snapped out of it when she heard Shinpei calling out to her, waving his hand over her face.
"Ah, sorry Shinpei-kun." Shinako apologized, blushing in embarrassment that she zoned out in front of her old friend.
"Anyway, are you ready for Chemistry after lunch?" Shinpei asked, changing to a more casual topic.
Shinako smiled nodded. "Yes, I'm excited for today. We get to do an experiment today."
Shinpei let out a short, amused chuckle. "You haven't changed a bit, Shinako. You're still so easy to please."
"What is that supposed to mean?" The chocolate-eyed girl pouted as she childishly glared at her taller friend.
"Relax, it was a compliment." Shinpei assured her as he playfully patted Shinako on the head.
Shinako pouted a little more but then broke into a smile. The two laughed happily. Unbeknownst to them, someone was watching them from afar, annoyed.
"Ok class, put on your safety gloves and carefully add the chemicals according to the instructions in the book."
The class nodded as they individually did their own project. The girls were ignoring their test tubes instead watching Katou in lovestruck.
Shinako sighed as she carefully place the test tube over the bunsen burner. As she watched the bubbles formed in the tube, she could hear the airy sighs and giggles which were quite distracting.
"Shouldn't they be paying attention to their projects? What's so great about that-"
Shinako stopped in mid-thought as she realized something. She can't call the charcoal-eyed Student Council member 'delinquent ninja' like she usual does anymore. Since the change, she has no right to call him that anymore.
As Shinako was distracted by her thoughts, she didn't pay attention to her own experiment until...
C-CRACK
FWASH!
"W-what was-"
"Did something explode!?"
"AHHH! Kikuchi!"
Shinako's test tube exploded from overheating, causing the shattered glass to cut through the safety gloves and cut her fingers as well. Shinako cringed in pain as she held her hand in an effort to ease the pain. Blood was leaking down her fingers and staining the hem of her turtleneck sleeve.
The teacher immediately called off the experiment and quickly examined Shinako's injured hand.
"Quick, we need to get her to the infirmary."
While everyone was panicking, Katou quickly but calmly rushed to Shinako's side and carried her in his arms. Shinako blushed deeply as she tried to asset the situation.
"K-K-Katou!?"
"I'll take her to the infirmary."
The teacher nodded and Katou took off in a fast pace, Shinako firmly in his arms. Shinako was getting incredible uncomfortable and she struggled under his grip. She couldn't handle such a close interaction with a man.
"P-Put me down! This is highly inappropriate!" Shinako yelled at him while continuing to struggle. Embarrassment overcame the pain from her bleeding fingers.
"Quiet, you idiot." Katou told her in a serious tone, stopping Shinako in mid-struggle.
Katou has always seem mean and aggressive whenever he said something like that to her or to anyone he hated (mainly Hibiki) but this time, Shinako thought she heard a tint of concern in his tone.
"Was I hallucinating?"
Soon, they reached the infirmary where they saw Takeshida-sensei napping on one of the infirmary beds. Katou, annoyed, kicked him off the bed successfully waking the lazy school doctor.
"What the hell!?" Takeshida yelled out angrily at his attacker when he saw Shinako holding her bloody hand. "Shinako, what happened!?"
The brunette doctor quickly ushered Katou to lay Shinako the bed as Takeshida began to tend to her fingers.
"There, you going to have to rest your hand. Be careful from now on." Takeshida advised seriously as Shinako nodded understandingly.
He sighed as he ran his fingers through his black hair. "Honestly, you're a handful."
Shinako hung her head. "I'm sorry."
"I'm getting out of this place. It's getting noisy in here," Takeshida sighed as he walked out of the infirmary, leaving Katou and Shinako alone in the infirmary.
"You're an idiot." Katou said as he let out a sigh.
"You told me that before we got here," Shinako rolled her eyes.
"You truly are a troublesome samurai."
"Well, you're..." Before Shinako could finish her sentence, she stopped herself. That's right, she can't call Katou a delinquent ninja anymore. Shinako sat there quietly, unable to complete her retort.
There was an awkward silence between the two students before the white-haired male broke the silence.
"What's wrong with you?"
Shinako suddenly glared at the boy angrily. She can't help it, she just snapped. "Me?! What about you?!"
"What are you talking about?"
"You! Being polite and talking with Kimiko-san. It's like someone replaced you with a completely different clone!"
Katou glared back at the female samurai with as much intensity as hers. "I'm doing it because of you."
"Wait, what?!" Shinako was stunned by his words. What does he mean by because of her?
The albino ninja saw the confused look on the brown-eyed girl's face and sighed.
"You and the president have been constantly telling me to be nicer to people. So, I decided to follow what you said to shut you up."
"Oh, that explains it. He was just acting nice to Kimiko-san because me and Tsubaki-sama told him so." Shinako couldn't understand why but suddenly she felt a weight lifted off her chest.
"Man, you're annoying," Katou muttered under his breath but Shinako heard it perfectly clear. The feeling was mutual as Shinako and Katou started another glare-off before the Japanese samurai let out a sigh.
"Go back to how you were."
Katou was taken back a bit. "What?"
"Go back to your delinquent ways. You don't have to pretend to be a gentleman anymore," Shinako clarified her words as she turned away from him. "You're better off as a delinquent. What was I thinking you could actually pull off being a gentleman."
"..." Katou was speechless for a while before he found his voice. "Don't boss me around, woman."
She glared at him as she huffed. "Do whatever you want. I couldn't care less."
"Hpmh, troublesome samurai," Katou smirked when he saw Shinako glared at him venomously.
"You will always be a delinquent ninja! That will never change!"
"Tsubaki-sama, good morning!"
Shinako cheerfully greeted as she handed him her bento to him as per usual. Tsubaki smiled and greeted her back as he graciously took the bento from Shinako's hands. Katou stood beside Tsubaki, dressed in his old baggy pants and black sweater. The girls went back watching him from afar but still had an eye on him.
"Hey, ninja." Shinako called out to him and, though annoyed, Katou looked towards her.
Then, Shinako hesitatingly brought out another bento and shoved it into Katou's hands, surprising everyone.
"Huh?"
"I'm getting sick of watching you destroy your health so I was able to make something extra while making Tsubaki-sama's lunch." Shinako said, looking the other way. The girls nearby glared enviously at Shinako as they wished they could do the same.
Katou stared at the bento for a while before staring at Shinako, annoyed.
"What am I, your kid? You worry for nothing."
"Nothing?! I'm actually trying to save your life here. The least you can do is say thank you."
"You're so annoying."
"Why you ungrateful-"
Tsubaki sighed as he watched his followers bicker over trivial things but he smiled in the end. A wave of relief washed over him as he watched the two interact. Shinako seems to be feeling better in the past few days and Katou can behave however he likes again.
In the end, changing them wouldn't seem right anymore.
Red Roses: Finally, I could put this behind me. Since I started school, I barely have time on the computer. I miss the holidays :(
Oh well, thank you my readers for your patience and I like show my appreciation by acknowledging my readers by their country.
My thanks to my readers from USA, Philippines, Malaysia, Greece, Dominican Revar, Sweden, Singapore, UK, Brunei, Mexico, Austria, Indonesia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Jamaica, France, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Sweden, Egypt, Italy, India, Iceland, Russia and Poland.
Wow, so many countries~
Bye bye (I don't know if there's a Malay word for bye) and see you soon.
