Author's Note : Thank you all for your support! I'll keep this note short and dive quickly into the story, but I always love reading your reviews! Keep up the lovely reviews and hope you enjoy the story! – helpwhatiswrong

"If you oppose me, I will kill you no matter who you are." –Akashi Seijurou

[10]

The school festival was at full swing with the hallways crowded with students from various schools checking out booths manned by Teiko students. The atmosphere was lively as students happily chatted with one another as they pushed through the crowded hallways.

"Hey! Can I get four red roses?" Shoko snapped out of her daze and focused her attention on the frazzled upperclassman that had pushed his way to the front of the line. He placed the money on the counter as Shoko wordlessly handed over the flowers.

Shoko watched as he dashed down the hallways and shook her head. She had no doubt that he would give the flowers to four different girls. He was a notorious playboy, yet girls seem to keep flocking after him.

Kise joined her at the table and picked up the money he had left on the counter. "Looks like the event is a big hit, Shoko-chan!" He said happily as he slipped in the money in the class jar. "If we keep this up, we'll win first place for sure!"

Every year, Teiko had an event in which for whatever class raised the most money during the festival, they would be rewarded with a three-day trip to Yokohama. Shoko wasn't particularly excited about the prize, but her class had been amped up about it since the beginning of the semester.

"Kise-kun~! We need more help cutting the flowers!" A couple of girls called out to the energetic blonde. Kise signaled that he would be over in a moment and turned his attention back to Shoko.

"Sooo, I heard that you were getting friendly with Midorimacchi the other day~" Kise ended his comment with a suggestive raise of his brows. "Since when did you get so close with him?" Kise wondered.

Shoko frowned. It had been nearly a week since she had broken down in front of Midorima. Ever since their encounter, it wasn't as if their 'friendship' progressed to more than a passing nod in the hallways. 'Well, of course he would make a mountain out of a hill. . (1)' Shoko thought as Kise smiled brightly.

"We're not close friends." Shoko replied bluntly, much to Kise's dismay. Shoko turned towards Kise and narrowed her eyes. "If you have so much time to gossip, go over and help them cut the flowers."

Kise blinked, a bit taken back by her sudden change in demeanor. However, a grin soon stretched across his lips. "Don't be so mean, Shoko-chan~!" Kise pouted, sticking out his tongue playfully.

Shoko glared at him. "Okay, okay! I'll go!" Kise raised his hands in surrender. Before he left, he quickly flicked her forehead-taking her by surprise. "Don't frown so much, Shoko-chan~! You'll scare away the customers and get wrinkles!"

Kise bounced off before Shoko could say another word. Shoko's lips twitched as she turned back towards the flower stand. Momoi was busy trying to promote their class flower stand by walking down the hallways with a huge sign, so Shoko was left to man the front of the shop by herself.

The rest of the class was busy in the classroom trying to cut and organize the flowers to meet the fierce demand. "Good job, Haisaki. Looks like your idea is a success after all." Shoko snapped out of her daze when Goutou – the male representative – placed a whole bucket of fresh red roses beside her.

"Ah. .Thank you." Shoko replied plainly. This was the first time he had complimented her, which was strange since Shoko was so used to his snide comments.

Goutou placed a rough hand on her shoulder. "Since you're the one in charge of sales, I expect to see you selling these roses left and right!" He exclaimed with a fire of determination in his eyes. "If our class loses to 2-A, I'll put you on cleaning duty for a whole month." Goutou said grimly, shooting daggers towards the said class down the hall.

Shoko didn't know why, but for some reason, Goutou harbored resentment towards Class 2-A. A trail of sweat ran down her forehead; everyone was so worked up over the prize. "Thanks for the encouraging words, Goutou-san." Shoko said sarcastically as she handed a student a rose.

"Since you have time for small talk, why don't you make yourself useful and help Satsuki-san with advertising?" Shoko suggested with an icy smile. Goutou glanced down the hallway where Momoi was currently stationed.

He grimaced at the sight of all the males surrounded the pink haired beauty, but turned red once he saw her outfit.

"I'll go help out in back!" He said hastily as he rushed back to the classroom.

'Idiot.' Shoko thought, shaking her head. Momoi was wearing a simple white dress with lace embellishments, but with her ample chest, she looked far from the innocent theme her classmates were going for.

No mattered how much the male representative tried to deny it, Shoko knew that he had lingering feelings towards Momoi. She heard that he confessed to Momoi their first year, but was threatened by Aomine to never approach her again.

"Hey, Haisaki-san! Goutou-kun said that you can take a break right now." A female classmate said as she came out of the classroom. "I'll watch over the stall, so you can go look around if you want." She offered kindly, taking the apron Shoko was wearing previously.

As Shoko loosened her hair from her ponytail and straightened her uniform, her classmate continued. "I heard that the third years were having a cosplay café, so you should check it out!"

"Thanks, I'll be back in an hour." Shoko said, ignoring the last statement her classmate had said. As Shoko left her class stand, she stretched her sore muscles as she began wandering down the hallways.

Harumi had left a voucher for his class' cosplay café, but Shoko didn't have any interest in seeing the upperclassman again, so she gave the voucher to a girl in her class.

Shoko knew that Harumi was trying to repair the damage he caused, but she didn't want to associate herself with him. Shougo was still lurking around trying to find any excuse to cause trouble with the basketball team, so it seemed like unnecessary to stir any trouble.

"Haisaki." Shoko paused in her strides as she heard a soft, yet commanding voice call out her name. She turned her head towards the source and greeted the person with a curt nod.

"Slow business?" Shoko asked, gesturing to the empty lines in front of 2-A with her head.

"Something like that." Akashi replied as he leaned back into the chair he was sitting in. "It seems as our class is having some sort of competition with Class 3-C."

Shoko frowned. 3-C was Harumi's class – it seemed as if the world revolved around the energetic third year; she kept hearing about him or his class today. "Of course, we aren't going down with a fight." Akashi affirmed with a nod of his head. "We are currently in the process of bringing out reinforcements."

Shoko shook her head. Akashi was as competitive as usual, bringing his "Never lose" mentality to the school festival as well. "While you're here, why don't you support our class and buy something?" Akashi suggested, although the tone of his voice practically demanded her to buy something.

Shoko ended up ordering a fruit parfait and found herself sitting in the seat next to Akashi while she waited for her food. Akashi looked unaffected by her presence, but Shoko felt a little perturbed by the basketball team's captain.

Although she had met him the beginning of their freshman year, Shoko never had much interaction with him. He was always busy with his captain duties and during the few times she tagged along on their 'team bonding' excursions, he regarded her presence as excess luggage.

Shoko wondered if the festivities were making people change their personality. First, Goutou had complimented her earlier and now Akashi was attempting small talk with her.

How strange. Shoko thought as she stared into space. A few students from other schools were lined up, so Akashi was busy taking their orders. After the line had died down, Akashi sat back down.

A student from his class finally delivered her fruit parfait and silence engulfed the two as Shoko began eating. "Do you play shogi?" Akashi suddenly asked.

Shoko blinked. "No, I'm not particularly fond of that game." She replied honestly. She didn't have fond memories concerning the game. Her mother had tried to teach her shogi because her grandmother favored it, but Shoko didn't want to please her grandmother.

"It's such a shame, you can learn so much about a person by playing a game with them."

Shoko had heard that Akashi often played games with Midorima in the clubroom after basketball practice and knew that Akashi was quite skilled at the game as he was with other things.

"Oh, is that so?"

"Yes, we should play a game sometime." Akashi replied, completely disregarding her distaste towards the game. "I'm interested to see what your motive is."

Shoko poked a strawberry with the end of her fork. She was wondering why Akashi had suddenly called out her name and she finally figured out why.

Akashi was equally – if not more – perceptive of others than herself, so he knew that she had gotten his subliminal message.

"How's the basketball team?" Shoko asked, bringing the strawberry she had been playing with earlier to her lips.

Akashi looked a bit taken back by her sudden question, but quickly masked it with his usual confident expression. "We are well on our way to our second consecutive win this year."

"Hm." Shoko hummed, but she said nothing more. While they weren't exactly playing shogi, Akashi felt as if he was engaging in a mental game with the girl beside him. He had laid down the first move when he suggested playing the game in the future, but he couldn't read her responses as well as he would have liked.

Before Akashi could say something else, someone interrupted him. "Ore-sama finally found you. I was looking all over this place for you!" A boy with gray hair said as he approached the duo.

Akashi noticed a small grimace appear on the girl's lips as she greeted the boy. "Oh, hello, Keigo-kun." She greeted blandly. "I didn't think you were actually coming."

The boy – now identified as Keigo – lifted his head up high arrogantly. "Ore-sama thought that it would be a good idea to see what kind of school you transferred to." Keigo redirected his attention momentarily to Akashi and they began sizing each other.

Keigo had such an undeniable air of arrogance around him that it was kind of nauseating. He looked to be a little younger than Akashi, but he was rather tall for his age. Akashi recognized his uniform to be from Hyotei – a rather wealthy elevator school in the city.

Their basketball team wasn't anything worth mentioning, but he had heard high regards for their tennis team. Neither party looked too impressed by the other person.

Once they had finished sizing each other up, Keigo and Akashi spoke at the same time. "Your boyfriend?"

Shoko didn't look too amused and scoffed. "Hardly." Turning towards Akashi, she gestured towards the other boy. "This is my cousin, Atobe Keigo."

"Keigo-kun, this is Akashi Seijuro." Akashi noticed that she had no bothered to attach any familiarity towards him.

Keigo dismissed his introduction with a flick of his hand. He didn't care. "Whatever, let's go. You promised you would show me around if I came to your school festival."

"Where's Oshitari-kun?"

"Ore-sama left him." Keigo replied bluntly. "He was attracting too many girls' attention and it got too troublesome."

"You shouldn't leave your friends in strange places by themselves." Shoko said as she got up from her seat. "That's uncivilized."

"Is it?" Keigo drawled out, helping his cousin to her feet. They met eyes for a moment and Keigo gave him a small snide smile – his whole demeanor had a 'holier than thou' aura.

Akashi narrowed his eyes slightly, but remained seated, observing the cousins' interaction with each other. She was more unreserved as she interacted with her cousin Akashi noticed.

"Well then, I'll be heading off now." Shoko said, sending a curt nod towards Akashi's direction. "Good luck at the Nationals."

Akashi watched as the duo blended with the crowd. 'They are so different, but so alike at the same time. 'Akashi thought, thinking about his former violent teammate. He still didn't like her; she had left their mental mind games unfinished.

Akashi prided himself on being able to read into people's motives – so much so that he could even begin to predict a person's next move if he concentrated hard enough. But, he didn't know what she was thinking.

Akashi knew that one of his players on the second string had hit her last week, but she didn't report the situation to him or the school. He had heard the rumors surrounding her and noticed that she simply brushed them off with a dismissal wave.

Midorima was beginning to get closer to the girl as well – whether he wanted to admit it or not – but luckily, his performance hasn't been affected by her presence yet.

He didn't have anything against Haisaki Shoko personally; it was just that her brother was troublesome to deal with. Out of all the members on the team, Shougo was always the most difficult to control.

If Shougo decided to return to basketball, it would disrupt the momentum they had. He couldn't risk making any moves that would lessen his certain win at Nationals.

He redirected his gaze on Shoko's back and watched as she turned the corner.

He would wait to see how things played out before he made his move.

"Where do you want to go?" Shoko asked her cousin as she pushed herself through the crowds that were beginning to thicken. It was a little past noon and Teiko's hallways were filled with students from various schools.

"Outside." Atobe answered, walking through the crowd with much more ease than Shoko. Shoko frowned as she noticed that the crowd naturally parted for him and Atobe strolled through the hallway with his head held high. "Ore-sama left Oshitari at the fortune telling booth."

It wasn't long that they finally reached the courtyard and joined Oshitari at the fortune telling booth. "Ah, you finally came back Atobe." Oshitari said once he noticed his presence. "I was beginning to think that you left me here."

Atobe scoffed, "What kind of friend do you think Ore-sama is?" He replied sounding a little insulted.

Oshitari shrugged his shoulder and yawned. Cracking an eye open, his visage brightened when he noticed Shoko standing behind Atobe. "Shoko-chan! It's been a while."

Shoko greeted him with a brief wave. "Nice to see you again, Oshitari-kun. Everything okay with the tennis team?"

"Of course, under Atobe's brilliant guidance, we've been recognized by the upperclassmen." Similar to Akashi, Atobe seized the tennis team and completely overthrew the hierarchy system replacing it with a merit system. "We have interesting characters on the team – you should come visit us sometime."

Shoko gave a small smile. She and her brother had attended Hyotei up until their first year of middle school. Shougo had become increasingly violent and was expelled from Hyotei after hitting an upperclassman – which just so happened to have a lot of connections with the school.

Her father had requested her to attend Teiko with her brother in order to watch over him – which she had not been pleased about, but never less agreed to transfer. "I'll keep that in mind."

She showed them around the school for thirty minutes before her break was over. Since there was only two more hours till the festival was over, Oshitari told her that they would wait till she finished so they could catch up with dinner.

After they parted ways, Shoko went back to her class booth and was jumped by Momoi. "I haven't seen you all day, Shoko-chan!" The gray haired girl noticed that Momoi had changed into her regular school uniform.

Momoi noticed her looking at her change in clothing. "Dai-chan came over earlier and told me to change back." She explained with a pout. "It was such a cute dress too. ."

Shoko pursed her lips. She wondered if Momoi would ever acknowledge her childhood friend's crush on her. Although Aomine would refuse to admit it, Shoko had a feeling that he cared more for Momoi than he let on.

"Oh by the way, your brother came here earlier." Momoi said. There was a crease in between her eyebrows as she bit her lip; she was worried.

"What did he do this time?"

"He didn't do anything." Momoi replied. "He just came to buy a bunch of red roses and left." Apparently Momoi was the one who helped him with the flowers and although they had a shady history together, Shougo barely acknowledged her presence.

"I didn't know that he dyed his hair back to gray though." Momoi commented. "He looks more like you now."

Shoko grimaced. Her brother came home two nights ago with his hair back to its original color. It was such a big change that when her father came home, he had to do a double take between the siblings.

"Anyways," Momoi's complexion brightened up significantly as she changed the subject. "Tetsu-kun came by earlier and I gave him a rose!"

"Oh? Congratulations. What did he say?" Although Kuroko was skilled at being the unknown phantom player on courts, he was quite oblivious in real world situations.

"He thanked me and gave me this!" Momoi gushed, showing Shoko a Popsicle stick that read 'One free ice cream' on it. Shoko deadpanned while Momoi continued to melt on how sweet Kuroko was.

The last two hours of the festival ended uneventfully. Midorima had came by to visit their booth once and they had a brief conversation concerning horoscopes. Shoko wasn't interested in the topic, but Midorima forced her to carry a small rabbit plush for the rest of the day – claiming that it was her 'lucky item' of the day.

Shoko thought it was stupid, but kept the item nonetheless because rabbits happened to be her favorite animal. Midorima left shortly after Kise had attempted to join the conversation and curtly told his teammate to die after Kise whispered something in Midorima's ear.

When Shoko asked what they had spoken about, Kise gave her a mysterious smile. "It's a secret!"

Meanwhile, in Class 3-C, Harumi leaned on a broom as he stared out the window. The cosplay café was a success and his classmates were buzzing about their certain win in the school wide competition, but Harumi couldn't bring himself to join in on their excitement.

He had left Shoko a free voucher to the café in her locker and he was looking forward to seeing her again after their last sour encounter, but unfortunately, Shoko didn't show up the whole day.

He had messed up.

Why was he such a fool?

Harumi sighed loudly as he became to half-ass his chore of sweeping the floors. After serving people with a smile all day, he was exhausted and wanted nothing more but to curl up in bed.

The classroom door opened again and Harumi's head turned towards the door. His expression fell when he noticed that it was just one of his classmates entering the room again.

They made eye contact and his classmate's expression paled. "U-U-Uh. .There's someone asking for you Harumi-kun."

Harumi sighed tiredly. After the cosplay café, he and his classmates became more popular with the female populations after spouting corny host lines for the whole day. After the festival was over, a lot of girls from surrounding schools had stayed back to ask if they wanted to hang out.

His friends had been thrilled with the extra attention and immediately agreed, but Harumi didn't feel like he was up for talking to another female anytime soon. "Who is it this time?"

There was a lengthy pause before his classmate replied quietly. "It's Haisaki."

Harumi's eyes widened and he dropped the broom in his hands. The class quieted as they looked at him curiously, but Harumi ignored their stares and ran out the classroom. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear his classmate warning him to be careful.

Harumi didn't have to travel far before he saw the familiar head of gray hair standing in front of his classroom. A bouquet of red roses covered the person's face, but Harumi felt butterflies in his stomach when he saw the roses.

Red symbolized love.

Did that mean she forgave him?

Harumi smiled in relief and opened his mouth to speak. However, before he could get a word in, the person lowered the flowers from his face and the butterflies in Harumi's stomach suddenly turned into daggers.

A cruel smile fitted over the person's lips. "Hello, Harumi-senpai." Haisaki Shougo greeted snidely. "Were you expecting someone else?" He asked, dropping the flowers at his feet.

"Someone like my sister?" His eyes darkened a shade.

Harumi's throat tightened.

Red was the color of love, passion, and warmth.

But red was also the color of blood.

Shougo's smile widened when he saw the fear in his eyes. "Can we go somewhere else to talk, senpai?"

(1) – to make a big deal out of nothing/something small