Disclaimer: SM and KwMS aren't mine.

Michiru finished getting dressed in her maid uniform, and put on all the extra accessories.

She put on a mask on her face that hid all her emotions and only showed a pleasing smile as she had been taught to. Taking a small breath, she stepped out of the room and into the cafe looking every part the demure maid.

Maid Latte had just opened and right now, and all the employees had to do was wait by the door for customers.

The soft sound of a bell could be heard by the door, marking the arrival of a customer. All the maids immediately bowed down while chorusing," Welcome home, Master," Michiru included. She stood back up after bowing to show the customer to his table when she noticed his, or rather, her face.

Tenoh Haruka was there, in the flesh, at Michiru's workplace.

-0-0-0-0-

After showing the blonde to her table with her eyes downcast the whole time, she ran into the maid's room. All her friends were already there, talking about the new handsome customer.

Michiru collapsed into a chair, her mind confused beyond.

'What is she playing at? Doesn't she feel embarrassed coming alone like this! What the hell is she thinking! Is she here to challenge me? To challenge ME?' She mentally scoffed. 'Then Tenoh Haruka, you'd better prepare yourself!'

-0-0-0-0-

Michiru sunk down onto the bench in the school courtyard exhausted both mentally and physically. Once again, she let her mind hop back to the event of the day before.

-Enter Flashback-

After her mental conflict, Michiru had gone back to the café to do her job, serving and greeting had promised herself a few minutes before that Haruka would not getin the way of her job.

There was another ding! of the bell, signaling more customers. Michiru and some other maids went to the door, bowing and saying,"Welcome home, Master."

"Pfffft"

Michiru whipped her head around to look for the person who had committed the offending sound, although she subconsciously knew who it was.

The tall blonde who was sitting in the table closest to the employee's room was staring with an amused expression at the aqua haired maid.

The said maid blushed a dark red before turning back around and escorting the customers to their table.

-0-0-0-0-

The rest of the hour was total humiliation for her. Every time she greeted another customer, she could feel familiar eyes boring into her back, making her stumble over her words.

Even worse was the fact that after work, all her fellow maids had teased her about Haruka.

"So, that blonde really seemed to like you. Do you know him? You're so lucky! I would kill to have that guy look at me like that!"

Michiru was pretty sure that her friends would never let it go.

-End Flashback-

'Who sits around for one hour after ordering only one cup of coffee?'

Michiru leaned her head back, taking some time to rest, when she noticed out of the corner of her eye, some boys throwing garbage in the bushes. She sighed and walked over to them.

"What was that?" the three boys stopped snickering over a joke, caught red handed.

"N-Nothing," the blonde boy said, trying to seem cool. Now that she was closer, she could clearly see that it was the same boys who had taunted her blonde friend.

"Really? You didn't just throw garbage into the bushes?" responded Michiru with her eyes glaring at the blonde.

"So what if we did?" this time, the silver haired boy spoke up, his eyes silently challenging her. Only Taiki remained quiet, choosing instead to observe the inevitable 'battle.'

"So, it's not good for the school or world. Ara, what are these?" Michiru quickly changed the subject, and leaned closer to Motoki, putting her face dangerously close to him, right above his broad shoulders.

"I thought I told you that you couldn't wear earrings," while she spoke, she trained her eyes on the two other boys who had stepped forward at her first words, leaving them stuck in place. She looked back at the earrings, examining them closely. Sniffing them, a motion that didn't go unnoticed by Motoki who got stiffer if possible, her eyes narrowed.

"I-I'll fix it, at, at the classroom," Motoki muttered, stuttering as he struggled to stay put. However, that was not the answer she wanted. In a fluid and quick motion, she yanked the earrings off his unsuspecting ears, immediately straightening her back and pulling her face back afterwards. He instantaneously dropped to the ground with a hoarse yelp of pain, invoking indignant yells from Yaten, and a sputter of surprise from the normally stoic Taiki.

"No need, I did it for you," and with the matters resolved, she walked away.

"Ahh, his ears! She ripped them! She's so unreasonable!" Yaten wailed, his concern for his friend overwhelming his common sense. He took a step ahead rapidly, his arms already outstretched. The silver haired boy cradled the blonde's body with his slender arms, seeing as Motoki had fainted immediately from the sharp pain.

Taiki also rushed ahead, his apathetic eyes filled with worry for once, at the sight of the bloody ear holes, but only after he was sure that the president was gone, gotten over his initial surprise. He quickly picked up the unconscious boy easily, from the rather weak arms of his brother.

"We've got to get to the nurse before he loses too much blood," his voice was steady, and by the way he said it, he might as well have asked what lunch was that day. Without waiting for an answer, he raced off, quite quickly, despite the burden he carried.

Yaten allowed himself to stare after his brother in shock for just a second, before he started running after them desperately.

-0-0-0-0-

Unknown to the tired aqua haired girl in the courtyard, Haruka was watching her in a room on the second floor, while drinking a juice box. She saw everything, from how Michiru leant back on the bench, to her ripping off the earrings.

A sweat drop appeared on Haruka's face, and a slurping sound indicated that the juice box was empty.

'Impressive'

"Hey, Umino," the blonde said to a rather nerdy looking guy. He had such thick glasses, it was a wonder he could see through them, nevertheless wear them every single day.

"You went to the same junior high as Prez, right?"

Umino, surprised that the ever so popular blonde was talking to him, replied in a higher voice than usual, in an attempt to sound nonchalant, "So?"

"Was the president always like this?"

"What do you mean by 'this'?" His voice was still weird, but the blonde seemed to take no notice of it.

"Hating guys, ripping off earrings….." Haruka trailed off, looking out the window again.

Umino's eyes bugged out at the last one, surprised not at the violence, but rather at the fact that he had not known about it. After all, he prided himself on knowing everything about all the students of Seika. That same side of him took over, as he began rattling off things he knew, raising his finger to emphasize some points, trying to salvage his pride.

"Kaioh Michiru, when she reached middle school, was already the beauty she is today. She had an older sister, Kaioh Setsuna, who was every bit as charismatic and appealing as her, if not more. When Setsuna-sama graduated, she left behind a so called legacy, that Michiru-sama automatically took over," At this point, Umino began spreading out pictures on his desk, all of them being of a tall garnet haired girl. Allowing some time for Haruka's eyes to glance over them, he swept them into a deck and stashed it into his school jacket once again, picking up where he had left off.

"Michiru-sama was extremely popular with the male students as soon as she came, and in her first day, was approached by over ten upperclassmen. The rest of her middle school years was very much like that, and her record that I have kept track of, is rejecting over thirty students in a day, some who didn't even go to her school. Due to this, she was immensely hated by the girls and she did not have a friend, that I know of, until her last year, when a transfer student from America came. Her name was Grey Elsa, and she somehow managed to become inseparable friends with Michiru-sama. But, at the end of middle school, she went to Mugen for her track abilities." Again, he paused to spread out pictures of a smiling red haired girl in running uniforms.

As Haruka looked at them disinterestedly, she couldn't help but wonder, just where had the boy gotten them from and why did he have it on him? But before she was allowed to think about it more, Umino began speaking again.

"Of course, Michiru-sama, in those years was very involved in her classes and club. She was the best swimmer in swimming club," pictures of the said girl swimming in what seemed to be the school pool were now laid out, replacing the red haired girl. "the star pupil of her art class and the concertmaster of our music club*," with each sweep of his hand, more pictures came out, of the aqua haired girl. Haruka almost spat out her juice; the girl in the pictures looked so different, she looked so complete. There was no obvious discrepancy between the girl in the pictures and the girl Haruka had come to known, but something was different. Her eyes lingered on the particular picture of her playing the violin, lost in her own world. Something had been ripped away from Michiru to make her lose that warmth, that wholeness, for lack of a better word. She wondered if Michiru continued her activities at home since she was already in Student Council, which meant she couldn't join any other clubs*. Not to mention, Haruka hadn't seen her in her crappy music class (Unfortunately, the class was full of slackers who could care less about music and a teacher who didn't want to be there. Thankfully, Haruka was talented and charming enough to be able to practice piano in an individual room during the weekly class).

"There was a widely spread rumor that she got into Mugen, and I can assure you that she was going to go to Mugen." Finally, Umino stopped speaking, his monologue over.

"Mugen, huh? Why's she here now then?" the blonde was reluctant to give Umino more chances to speak after his long speech, but for the sake of getting answers, she would listen. Besides, this was a bit interesting. Mugen was the most prestigious and most exclusive high school in all of Japan; a Mugen uniform was essentially akin to the Centurion Card. It didn't matter if students got perfect scores on their entrance exams, which were already impossibly hard. If Mugen didn't sense that there was something special about a student, they were out. But once students got in, they were provided with world-class and revolutionary facilities and faculty.

"Now this, you must keep absolutely secret," Umino's voice began to lower and his eyes if possible, shone through his opaque glasses, "I have the utmost confidence in what I am about to say."

Haruka leaned closer to the nerdy boy, her teal eyes sud denly intense.

"Michiru-sama was going to go to Mugen, when in the last year of middle school, her dad left her family, leaving behind a huge debt. Michiru-sama did not want to financially burden her family any more so she secretly withdrew her acceptance."

She leaned back in her chair, now deep in thought. So that was why the Prez had such a hatred of guys. But her withdrawal showed her fealty to her family. No doubt her mother and sister would have told her to go to Mugen anyways, but she had placed the welfare of her family above her own ambitions and dreams. Yet, Mugen was famous for its patron program*. Since Mugen only wanted the most special and talented students, but not all special and talented students were well off, many students had rich individuals as their patrons who paid for all of their costs and needs. Surely someone would have wanted to patron Michiru?

Then, the Umino realized something, "Wait, why are you so interested in her? It's not like you to be asking about a girl, nonetheless the President."

Haruka ignored him, choosing to instead focus on the juice box she was still clutching and the conundrum of Michiru's refusal.

-0-0-0-0-

Sometime later that day

The blond bolted up with his eyes wild, only to fall back onto the soft covers of the futon he was currently occupying roughly. Two boys, who looked nothing like each other except for their hairstyles, were sitting on chairs adjacent to the futon. They both sighed at the same time, as though they had timed it.

Motoki, who now knew better than to get up in the state he was in, growled menacingly at the wall, having remembered what had happened before his black out.

"Kaichou's going down. Just watch, " he threatened, glaring at the ceiling. His hands instinctively went to his bandage covered ears, feeling the rough texture of the bandages. He winced, not because of pain, but because he had just realized that his ears would probably need some time to heal before carrying the weight of earrings around again.

His face made a horrible grimace, and now he was, if possible, even more enraged at the aqua haired girl.

"She's gonna go down so bad, she's gonna regret the day she ever came here, she-" Motoki's ramblings were cut off by the sound of someone clearing their throat. He whipped his head around to see the face of the person who had interrupted him, though he regretted the action as soon as he did it, since his ears flared up in pain at their rough meeting with the sheets.

The other two boys looked towards the boy nonchalantly, as they had been expecting the nurse to show up once again to check on their injured friend.

"Now, Furuhata-kun. You can plan your destruction of Kaioh-san later. Right now, I've got to take your temperature."

Sakurada Haruna, the still young [and sadly single] nurse, stood at the doorway, tapping her foot against the floor while she clutched a clipboard and thermometer in her hand. She briskly walked over to her patient, and stuck the thermometer in his mouth, without warning. Motoki sat there for a while sucking on the plastic stick, before spitting it out as something clicked in his brain.

"Wait, you KNOW who did this to me?" Spittle came flying out of his mouth and onto his own school trousers. He took no mind of it as he stared disbelievingly at the nurse, "You're a teacher, punish her!"

"I'd rather not," the nurse shrugged, "Michiru-chan visits me from time to time. Besides, your ears weren't hurt because of her. You already had the beginnings of an ear infection because of the earrings' cheap quality, and she took them out carefully, mind you, before it could get worse. She actually did you a favor. You only bled because of the infection. As for the pain you fainted from, your ears were just sensitive from the infection."

Motoki's jaw dropped, and if he was in an anime, his jaw would most certainly be touching the ground. But, sadly this wasn't an anime, and he had to settle for a shocked expression instead. His eye twitched, in one last act of movement, and he lay still. For the rest of the day he spent in there, he didn't talk or move, instead staring at the ceiling intently, as if the answers to everything he seeked lay there.

A/N: I've always found it creepy how Umino seemed to know everything and have pictures of it. i.e. the picture of their teacher Haruna in the second episode.

*Although Japan frowns upon doing more than one club as will be explained in the next footnote, I've put Michiru into both swimming club and music club in middle school because in act 50 of Sailor Stars, Michiru is said to be a member of those clubs in Juuban High School.

*The schooling system in Japan is different from that of the U.S. in that students usually only join one club because one club takes up a lot of time and being in more than one is considered rude since you supposedly wouldn't be able to dedicate your time to any of your clubs. Although Michiru doesn't follow this unofficial rule in middle school, I'm writing Michiru as only being in Student Council in high school since Student Council probably takes up a lot of time. There are also reasons that will be mentioned further along the story. Additionally, all high school students have to take an art, music, or calligraphy class that usually meets once or twice a week, which is why Haruka is taking a music class with so many slackers/people who don't enjoy music.

* The patron system in Mugen is in the manga. After a battle in Haruka's apartment, she bemoans how she's going to pay for all of the damages since her apartment is very expensive, with rent costing $100,000 a month. When the Inner Senshi question her on how she pays the rent, she boasts (to Michiru's embarrassment) that Michiru and she both have a patron so cost isn't a concern for them.