From last time…

"Syuusuke, I was searching for you," an old woman said.

"Obaa-sama, how may I help you?" Fuji asked.

"I want you to meet someone," the old woman said. She turned over to the girl who was standing next to girl raised her eyes up to meet Fuji's, and by the same time, she saw Ryoma.

'Ryoma-chan?' she thought.

'Miyabi-san!' Ryoma thought.

"Syuusuke," the old woman cut in again, "meet countess Lavinia Miyabi de Lavoiselle. Syuusuke, from now on, you will take care of her. She is your fiancée."

Crash!

Fuji snapped his eyes opened. He felt as his dream and universe just crumbled under his feet. And Ryoma, she felt her heart shattered into thousand of shards.

Class 3-A. Japanese classical studies class.

"Everyone, please take your seat," the teacher said in front of the class. "Today, we are receiving a new student. Please, come in."

The door slide and a girl about everybody age stepped in the class. She walked like a swan dancing on a lake, her long, shiny autumnal color hair gracefully swinging on her back. Once in front of everyone, she slowly turned to face everybody like a ballerina, revealing a small pretty peach complexion face adorned with huge deep blue eyes.

"This is Countess Lavinia Miyabi de Lavoiselle. She just transferred from France," the teacher introduced, then turned to the girl. "Lavoiselle-san, say something to everyone."

"Konnichiwa. My name is Lavinia Miyabi de Lavoiselle. It is a great pleasure for me to meet you," Lavinia said and slightly bowed her head.

Many students were mesmerized by the girl in front of them. Of course, her unusual hair color alone was enough to catch attention, but it was mostly the way she talked and the way she hold herself which impressed them the most.

'So this is how a real French noble lady looks like,' many people thought.

"She is Fuji Syuusuke's fiancée and she will be studying with us from now on," the teacher continued, "Everyone, be nice to her."

Immediately at lunch time, a group of girls from various classes gathered themselves and formed a court around Lavinia. Soon, Lavinia was raised as Seiyou Academy Queen. She had all the criteria to be a queen: she came from an old French noble family from her father side and also from the old Hongou-ken of Japan from her mother side, she was a perfect lady in every part through her being and her appearance, and, most of all, she was Seiyou Academy tensai Fuji Syuusuke's fiancée.

"Hakushaku-sama (1)," a senior girl named Erika said while giving her cup of tea to Lavinia, "please, enjoy this cup tea. It's a new kind of rose tea brood in India from one of our family tea plantation."

Lavinia nodded and delicately took the cup. She closed her eyes, inhaled the smell, then took a sip. After having thoroughly taste the warm liquid, she opened her eyes again and looked to the girl who gave her the tea, smiling.

"The fragrance of this Rosa Bracteatae is very delicate, even crossed-breed with another kind of rose. Tell me if I am wrong, but could it be the Tea Hybrid 'Souvenir du Dr Jamain' (2)?" Lavinia asked.

Erika opened wide her eyes, dumbstruck.

"That's exact," Erika said. "It was cross-breed with a Dr Jamain. It was my father who did it. How did you know which rose species were cross-breed together?" Erika said, totally agape.

Lavinia only smiled, but didn't answer the question.

"You're father is very talented for succeeding such an accomplishment. He could be François Lacharme's (2) successor. Rosa 'Dr Jamain' tend to be very capricious when forced into cross-breeding because itself is the result from a cross-breed. Your father must possess a gift."

Hearing her father being so sincerely praised, Erika felt an immense joy and her eyes shined of pride.

"He is!" Erika exclaimed. "And I want to be a great rose grower like him."

Lavinia smiled again.

"With him as your teacher, I have no doubt that you will become a wonderful rose grower," Lavinia said.

Erika beamed again at the compliment.

"Thank you very much, hakushaku-sama!"

"Please, there is no need to be so formal with me. Call me Lavinia," Lavinia gracefully said.

"Hai, Lavinia-sama!"

And that was how Lavinia won the school heart.

For the next two weeks, it was 'Lavinia-sama', 'Lavinia-sama' and 'Lavinia-sama' every time and everywhere. And with 'Lavinia-sama', 'Fuji-sama' was never put aside, especially 'Fuji-sama's fiancée'. For two weeks, it seemed like the whole world resolved solely around 'Lavinia-sama' and 'Fuji-sama's countess fiancée' at school.

In the tennis club, only the regulars weren't incensing 'Lavinia-sama' and kept their head cool. The regulars didn't worship Lavinia, byt they still acted polite in front of her like perfect gentlemen. Even Momoshiro managed to be like a fine gentleman when he met Lavinia, something that everybody thought it was an impossible thing to do for Momoshiro. However, it was like there was an invisible wall between the regulars and Lavinia. The boys didn't understand why, but they had difficulty to admit Lavinia in their circle. Some regulars were also quite cold toward Lavinia, especially Kikumaru and Kirihara.

Kikumaru was usually friendly to everyone with no exception. However, he couldn't bring himself to open his arms to Lavinia like he did to everyone. Kikumaru couldn't ignore the fact the Lavinia was the main cause of his best friend's change of mood. From the moment Lavinia was introduced to Fuji at his birthday party, Fuji was no longer the same person. Fuji wasn't a person who talk a lot, but from the arrival of Lavinia, he drastically changed, and not in the best way. Kikumaru knew Fuji from their childhood. When Fuji was being not well or sad at something, he always concealed his emotion inside him. Only Kikumaru could read him. However, from the past two weeks, Fuji was no longer hiding anything of his true emotions. Kikumaru was worried that his best friend was disturbed to the point he couldn't control himself. And Kikumaru he put all the blame on Lavinia. But still, the cat-boy also knew Lavinia wasn't a bad person. After all, she too was forced in her engagement with Fuji, which why Kikumaru couldn't blame her either. This situation was so complicated that it frustrated Kikumaru. And well, since he needed to vent his frustration somewhere, he choose to vent it on Lavinia and acted cold toward her. Ooishi wasn't happy that Kikumaru behaved like that toward Lavinia, but the Seigaku fukubuchou also knew that Kikumaru will eventually forget everything and be back to his old self again. It would just take him a certain amount of time.

As for Kirihara, he wasn't like Kikumaru. Sanada knew Kirihara wouldn't be able to forgive Lavinia for disturbing their peaceful life of before her arrival. Sanada had a harder time to calm down Kirihara than Ooishi with Kikumaru. Being a year younger than Kikumaru, Kirihara was less mature than the cat-boy. Kirihara didn't see Fuji like a friend, but like a model he deeply worshiped. Seing the person he respected so much getting caught in a situation he had no way to get out, Kirihara was even more frustrated - mad - for Fuji than Kikumaru was. Unlike his cat-senpai, Kirihara put all the blame on Lavinia and he made no effort to hide that he greatly disliked her.

Kirihara wasn't bullying nor say anything that could be hurtful to Lavinia, but his silence coldness spoke enough out what he truly thought about her. Being Fuji's fiancée, Lavinia often appeared on in the tennis court. Each time Kirihara saw her coming, he would immediately walked somewhere far away. Or when he couldn't go anywhere, he hide behind someone so Lavinia wasn't in his sight. Most of the time, it was behind Sanada or Ryoma that he hide.

But Kirihara blaming Lavinia had another reason behind. It was because of her that Ryoma also changed. From the day of Fuji's birthday party, Ryoma was no longer like herself. Even if she still acted like she always did, Kirihara felt like she was only a moving corpse with no real live spirit. And she always looked hurt, like something was broken inside her. This time, it was worse than the time Ryoga was hospitalized. It killed Kirihara to see her like that and he hated it. Yanagi, Yagyuu and Inui were astonished that Kirihara saw through Ryoma's true feeling. Usually, Kirihara was the most oblivious to everything and the last to saw anything ( and sometime, he would never see anything!), yet this time, he was among the very few number of people who noticed something. To Yanagi, Yagyuu and Inui, it seemed that Kirihara had mature a lot, and it was all thanks to Ryoma. Maybe it was for that reason that Kirihara cared so much for Ryoma and could see even through her mask. When he needed help, she was there for him. But now that she needed help, he couldn't do anything for her. And that greatly frustrated Kirihara.

Kirihara looked at Ryoma, who was standing alone in the corner of the court. Thinking no one was watching her, Ryoma let her mask down. Her eyes were blurry, her smile dead and her shoulders… bend like those of an old woman of over eighty. Kirihara clenched his fists.

'Everything is all of that French girl's fault!' Kirihara roared in his mind.

Yagyuu looked at Kirihara, then switched his eyes to Ryoma.

'It's too late now to change her heart… Ryoga, I warned you about Fuji and her… Why didn't you stop her when you could…?' Yagyuu wondered.

Lavinia wasn't blind at Kirihara's dislike toward her, but she didn't do anything about it nor she mind him too much. Lavinia was an intelligent girl. She knew very well about Kirihara's admiration for his tensai senpai. It was so obvious to everyone. But because she was Fuji's fiancée, Kirihara must be feeling like she was stealing Fuji from him. And somehow, it was true that she was stealing Fuji from everyone. Lavinia also thought that everyone's forced politeness toward her could also be explained with that same reason. And Fuji himself wasn't doing anything to change everyone's bad perception of her in the tennis club. Though it hurt her that Fuji was so cold toward her, Lavinia understood him. Normally, Fuji would immediately correct these kinds of misunderstanding because his kind and gentle nature would command him to do it. But this time, it was different. Fuji was still too shock by the new turn of event to see the consequence of his actions in at school and in the tennis club. Lavinia just met Fuji once, but she knew what kind of personality Fuji possessed. Just the first glance at him at his birthday party was enough for Lavinia. She was, after all, talented with a gift to judge people. Despite his soft appearance, Fuji Syuusuke was a proud young man, very proud and independent, who hated being forced to do anything against his will. And he was handcuffed in this arrange marriage with her by his own grandmother. She too was a very pride young woman like Fuji, but she knew how to turn bad situations in her advantage when she wanted to.

Usually, when Lavinia must confronted with people who dislike her, just like the tennis regulars right now, she would not come to near them too often and for a certain length of time. She knew she should just come to the tennis club only one or two time a week, until they were used to her. Then, she could consider coming more often. That would be a wiser way to do, but Lavinia needed to continue to act the way she was acting up to now. She needed the tennis club, she needed to see it as much as she could. More precisely, she needed to see someone in the tennis as much as it was possible for her. And that person wasn't her fiancé.

Lavinia looked around the tennis court, searching for the person she wanted to see. Then, Lavinia saw the person she was searching for coming out from the corner of the changing room. Lavinia grew a bright smile.

"Ryoma-chan!" Lavinia happily called.

Ryoma stopped and rose her head to see Lavinia in front of her.

"Miyabi-… senpai…" Ryoma said, tilting her head.

Hearing Ryoma calling her back, Lavinia's mood brightened and she felt happier than she was before seeing Ryoma.

1) hakushaku: earl, count.

2) François Lacharme (1817-1887): a very renowned French rose grower of the 19th century of Lyon. The rose named 'Souvenir du Dr Jamain' (Dr Jamain's rememberance) was one of his creation. It's a deep purple-red color rose with the petal like velvet. Actually, I don't know how its smell nor I don't know if you can brew tea with that rose. 19th century Britain loved him for his Noisettes, another kind of cross-breed roses. Lacharme's Noisettes roses are often near pink or white color.

By the way, I know absolutely nothing about rose horticulture. I'm just picking names for the use. Please forgive me if what I wrote about rose cross-breed is completely insane.