Isuke walked along the pavement, her heels clacking loudly against the hard surface. People that walked by steered away from her upon seeing the expression on her face.

Sure, she was a very beautiful girl, but she could also look rather scary sometimes. Like now, when she was frowning deeply.

Last night, for the first time in a long time, she hadn't dreaded the day that was to come. Haruki was annoying and snarky and totally not her type, but there was something intriguing about her. Isuke had even found herself looking forward to getting to know her better during their set meeting.

Then Nio had called. To no avail, she'd attempted to lie to her, but eventually, Nio found out about their meeting today and invited herself to join them. Realizing there wasn't much she could do about it, she had unwillingly given up.

She checked the time on her phone. She was late by about fifteen minutes, but in her mind, that was a good thing. She called it arriving suitably late. It didn't make her seem overly eager and she would also avoid waiting.

When she got to the café they had agreed to meet at, she spotted a blonde through the window. She was sitting by herself, holding up her phone as she made all sorts of weird poses and faces.

Personally, Isuke had never been fond of the concept of taking selfies. Despite her being very conscious about her appearance, she found taking pictures of herself totally pointless.

She rolled her eyes as she stepped away from the window and into the café. She sat down without greeting the other girl.

"Where's Sagae?" she asked. It annoyed her more than just a little that the other girl was also running late. She'd hoped to avoid waiting, or more specifically, waiting with Nio.

"She's late," Nio simply stated, putting her phone back in her pocket.

"I can see that," she snapped, "I asked where she was."

Nio inched away when Isuke gave her an evil look. She smiled apologetically and waved her arms.

"Dunno. She probably had an errand to run or something."

The taller girl snorted. Since she was paying Haruki to do this, being late to their meeting was like being late for work. Maybe she would threaten to cut her wages if she was late in the future? That might just be a good idea.

Not long after, Nio could let out a relieved sigh upon seeing Haruki walk into the café. She was wearing her usual, kind of tomboyish clothes and had a chocolate pocky sticking out of her mouth. Her long hair was messy from being outside in the wind, but somehow she managed to make even that look good. She tossed her bag onto the floor and flung down on the seat opposite to Isuke and Nio. She crossed her legs and leaned back in the red seat, making herself comfortable.

Looking at her, Isuke felt the corners of her mouth starting to tilt upwards. When she realized this, she pulled herself together quickly, but not before Haruki noticed her small smile.

"Yo," she greeted the two, a smirk playing on her thin lips.

"You're late," the pink haired girl pointed out grumpily, hoping to wipe that smug expression of her face, but the comment didn't seem to faze her in the slightest.

"Sorry Isuke, I had something to take care of."

"It's Isuke-sama," she corrected, putting pressure on "-sama" to state her point. Haruki smiled and scratched the back of her head.

"Ah, I forgot," she apologized.

Much to her and Nio's relief, a waiter came over to take their orders. They all each got a cup of green tea, but in addition to that, Haruki got a strawberry parfait and Nio got some melon pan.

"So, about this new arrangement of yours…" Nio began as she took a bite of her melon bread and chewed on it. Isuke wished she'd just get to the point already, but she probably wouldn't. Normally, she took her sweet time with things like these.

"The goal is to make everyone believe you two are dating, right?" she asked and glanced quickly at both of them. Haruki raised her hand as though they were at school.

It sort of felt like Nio was giving them a lesson, Isuke thought to herself.

"Weren't we just going to convince her parents?" she wondered out loud. Nio pointed a finger at her.

"It's easier to make them believe it if everybody believes it," she lectured. It was hard to tell whether she was fooling around or being dead serious. Neither Haruki nor Isuke could always tell when it came to their oddball of a friend.

"Besides, there are some other people you'd rather get of your back, isn't there?" she asked, referring to Isuke, who just shrugged and yawned sleepily. It was way too early in the morning to listen to Nio's rants.

"I think you should try to go out in public every now and then. Hold hands and chat lightly, stuff like that. And Isuke, try to look like you don't want to kill yourself."

She had a point there. Isuke often looked pretty grumpy, whether she was around people or not. No matter, if she kept looking bored and irritated, people wouldn't get the impression that she was in love with Haruki.

"Oh, it's not myself I want to kill," she smirked wickedly, giving the blonde a pointed look. She shuddered anxiously, but kept handing out instructions, pretending she hadn't heard the remark.

"You should get to know each other a little too, maybe exchange phone numbers so you can plan when to go out and stuff."

Haruki chuckled in amusement, placing her elbow on the table and resting her head in her hand.

"Wow, when did you become such a love expert, Nio?" she questioned, still laughing. Obviously, she found Nio's lesson fairly entertaining.

Well, at least one of them was enjoying it, Isuke thought bitterly.

Nio winked playfully and made a peace sign with her fingers.

"Don't question my knowledge, Haruki," she said secretively, making Haruki chuckle. The two of them got along quite well most of the time, but every now and then they would find something to argue about. It also happened that Haruki got a little sick of listening to her for a long time, but she'd either endure it in silence or simply tell her to shut up, which sometimes worked and other times didn't.

Nio stood up abruptly, making both the girls look at her curiously.

"I'm just going to the bathroom for a bit," she explained, "Don't miss me too much."

She waved as she walked away from them. Haruki lifted her hand and waved it lazily in reply.

"We'll try," she grinned. After Nio was out of sight, she leaned further back, stretching her arms above her head, to then rest them on the back of the seat. She gazed up at the ceiling for a while.

"You know, we could just run away while she's in the bathroom," she said. Her voice was serious, but she assumed it was meant as a joke.

Isuke didn't bother to answer. She just kept looking at her nails, which she wanted to paint once she got home. Looking at Haruki's strawberry parfait, she felt like perhaps she should paint them red today.

"Wonder where she gets all of it…" the redhead mumbled to herself as she took a bite of her pocky.

"Huh?" Isuke asked, not quite following her line of thought.

"Nio knows a lot. I'm just kinda wondering how she does," she explained shortly.

"I, for one, don't think she knows what she's talking about in this case," she commented drily. She knew Nio had never dated anyone. She didn't have any first-hand experience to go on, so she was probably just telling them loads of random stuff she came up with in the spur of the moment.

The other girl laughed heartily at her remark.

"That might be," she agreed, "But she does say some intelligent stuff on a rare occasion."

She would have to agree to that. The bubbly girl could come up with some good ideas when she really put her mind to it. Like this fake girlfriend idea of hers, for one. While it was kind of crazy, it might be a good idea, in a way.

"How do you know her anyway?" Haruki asked her, trying to keep the conversation going. That, or maybe she was genuinely curious. Isuke couldn't tell which one it was.

She was just about to answer when Nio returned from the bathroom and came over to sit with them.

"What have you two lovebirds been talking about while I was gone?" she teased playfully, poking Isuke's side.

"Oh nothing," she answered in a sing-song voice, "Just planning your funeral."

Laughing nervously, Nio decided to give up on teasing her for now. She only got everything back with twice the force.

"Well, if you have everything under control here, I think I'll be heading home."

"Leaving so soon?" Isuke asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Yeah, but I'll be back to do some more third wheeling later," she giggled as she got up, taking the rest of her melon pan with her.

"Looking forward to it," said Haruki with a wave.

With that, Nio exited the café, leaving the two of them alone.

Haruki picked up her spoon and dug around in the glass until she caught a strawberry and some whipped cream.

"Man, this entire setup is so weird," she admitted, seemingly in deep thought.

"I don't think I've ever done something this crazy before."

Isuke played with a lock of her hair, twirling it around her finger. Isuke kept her eyes on her hair, while Haruki's yellow orbs were glued to her parfait. Both of them purposely avoided to look at the other, feeling like it'd be too awkward.

"Don't complain; at least you get paid."

Haruki finally straightened up and looked at her interlocutor.

"You're making it sound like you don't benefit from this at all. Not that I really get it, though," she shrugged. She didn't think she'd ever fully understand Inukai Isuke and her view on life. They were just too different in so many aspects.

"Understand what, exactly?" Their eyes met for a moment before Haruki glanced down on her food again.

"Why it's such a big deal. I don't see why your parents trying to find you a girlfriend would be so bad. It only means that they care, right?"

In her mind, that's just how it looked. She would wish the best for her family, too. She wanted her mother and her siblings to be happy. She couldn't imagine Isuke's parents wanting anything but that for her.

"Ah, whatever." She decided to drop it.

"I guess it is a luxury problem, not like I'd understand."

Isuke stopped fiddling with her hair and glared angrily at Haruki.

"You know you aren't the only one with problems, right?"

The redhead's eyebrows furrowed deeply. She hadn't even realized she'd said something to piss the other girl off.

"Everyone has their problems, Haruki, but you make it sound like you're some sort of saint just for helping out your family," she spat.

"I never said-" Haruki began to protest, but she didn't get to finish the sentence.

"How about we both get down from our high horses or whatever? From now on, we're on equal footing and we help each other with our problems through this agreement."

They wordlessly agreed, but the tension had no intention on fading. They sat there in silence for several minutes, neither of them sure how to break the ice after their little argument.

Both of them were grateful when Haruki's phone called. She got up and walked a bit away from the table before answering.

"Hi Fuyuka, great timing," she smiled at her sister. Fuyuka couldn't have had better timing.

"Is something wrong, sis?" asked Fuyuka, a little worried. Haruki could hear noise in the background, most likely from some of her other siblings. There was never a quiet moment in their house, that was for sure.

"No, no, don't worry," she said, trying to reassure her sister by adding a small laugh at the end of the sentence.

"Did you need something?"

"Eh, the tap in the kitchen sink is broken, so the place is kind of flooded, and on top of that the twins are arguing again. It's pretty chaotic, so I was hoping you could hurry back," Fuyuka informed her. She sounded tired, even more so than usual.

"I'll be right there," she promised before hanging up on her little sister. She went back to Isuke, who was waiting at their table.

"Should we call it a day?" she asked as Haruki approached her.

"Yeah, we might as well do that." She was glad that Isuke didn't have anything else planned for today that she'd have to cancel. She'd already been late just this morning.

"I guess you could walk me home, then," said Isuke as she got up.

"What?"

She glanced at her, unable to understand why that came as such a shock.

"It'd be like one of those cliché love stories, plus people would see us hanging out," she pointed out cleverly.

"Um, I'm sorry, but I have to hurry back home." Isuke pouted a little upon hearing this.

"My, you're mean. Don't you want to spend time with your girlfriend?" she whined jokingly. She was aware that she was fooling around, but that she also was frustrated with her.

"You know, you're not a very good girlfriend, Haruki." She put up a hurt façade, which made Haruki have to force herself not to laugh.

"We could walk together for a while, if you want to," she offered.

"Hey, Isuke-sama, I was wondering…" she trailed off, thinking maybe it would be a little rude to ask.

"Mhm?" When she turned her head, she saw Isuke looking expectantly at her.

They were walking right next to each other, their faces mere inches apart. Haruki blushed as she noticed this, and turned away rapidly so that Isuke wouldn't see her flustered cheeks.

"About the money you said you'd pay me…"

They stopped walking. After she was sure her face was back to its normal color, she looked into Isuke's eyes.

She didn't feel comfortable having her this close. Haruki was normally cool headed and confident, but right now she felt so very vulnerable.

"What? Do you think Isuke won't keep her promise?" she asked playfully. She grabbed a lock of Haruki's hair and played around with it, which made Haruki blush yet again, only this time she didn't manage to hide it.

"Say, do you trust me, Haruki?"

Her teasing tone had disappeared from her voice and the smug expression was wiped off her face, but she kept playing with Haruki's hair, now looking at it instead of at her face. Haruki was surprised at her sudden change of attitude. Isuke was seriously like a rollercoaster, and Haruki wasn't really sure how to deal with her.

Could she trust her? She had a lot of unanswered questions about her, that was for certain. She also didn't always understand her way of thinking or the reasons behind her actions. Isuke was strange and mysterious, but Haruki didn't get the feeling that she was being dishonest with her.

"I… I do," she answered after thinking through it.

Isuke pushed a few strands of hair behind Haruki's ear before letting her hand fall.

"Wrong answer," she whispered, her voice soft and tender. Haruki didn't know her voice could sound so angelic, or that her face could look so innocent. Isuke seemed so serene in that moment that it made it difficult to believe her words, as they were implying the very opposite.

Isuke turned around slowly and walked a few meters away from her. When she turned around again, she was more or less back to her usual self.

"I'll pay you at the end of the week."

"Bye, Isuke-sama," she managed to reply as the girl left.

No, she would definitely never understand Isuke, she figured.

Here's the third chapter. I've had so much to do lately, I'm not sure where I even found the time to write this (although it was probably when I was supposed to study…)

I don't know when the next chapter will be up, but it might be a while as I have exams coming up. I'll try my best to publish it sometime during the week, though.

Thanks for reading and I hope you decide to leave a review, 'cause that'd totally make my day.

Until next time!