After getting Kuno off his back, Ranma caught up with Akane inside the hallway. He raised an eyebrow. Akane was holding her head down towards the ground, with her fingers tightly gripping the strap of her bookbag. It was as if she was trying to shrink into the background.

"Yo, Akane," he greeted. "What's up with you all of a sudden?"

Akane stiffened up at his voice, and gave him a quick glance behind her shoulder. "Ranma– I'm going to head to class first," she whispered. She turned her head back around and picked up her pace.

"Hey, wait up!" Ranma called, trailing after her. "What's the big rush?"

She shot him a look. "Because, people are staring at us!"

Ranma glanced around, catching sight of students staring in their direction while whispering to their friends. He could pick up bits and pieces of their conversations.

" That's Akane's fiancé, right?"

"Ranma was it?"

"He declared their engagement to the whole school yesterday!"

He felt his cheeks get warm, suddenly aware of the increased attention he was receiving.

"This is all thanks to the stunt you pulled yesterday," she muttered, still keeping her head low.

"So what? It's thanks to me that you didn't get attacked this mornin'!"

"So what ? Now we need to deal with everyone gossiping about us!" Akane shot back, glaring.

Ranma frowned, feeling himself get irked. It was just like Akane to be upset over nothing when he was really doing her a favor in the end. "Man, whatever, let 'em talk for all I care! Don't let it bother you, Akane."

Akane crossed her arms. "How are you being so nonchalant about this?"

Ranma blinked. It was a good question–how was he being so nonchalant? He recalled how humiliating of an experience it was in the past to deal with their engagement news spreading through school. Surprisingly, he didn't feel the same way this time. Strangely enough, he even felt more at ease by it. After all, It would have been weirder to have been known as anyone other than Akane's fiancé.

But he wasn't going to ever admit that out loud.

He shrugged. "I dunno. Guess I'm used to having attention on me," he said, half-jokingly. He did have a habit of attracting attention on him.

Akane, on the other hand, was clearly not as accustomed to everything yet. "Ugh, you're so ridiculous," she replied, rolling her eyes.

"Aw, c'mon Akane," Ranma said, patting her on the shoulder. "You'll get over it soon."

"What?" She scoffed. "You're the one who put us in this situation–what do you mean I'll get over it?"

Ranma raised his hands in the air, defensively. "Hey! I was just tryin' to–"

The sound of footsteps running rumbled throughout the hall as they got closer. "Saotome!"

Ranma let out a groan as he twisted his head around. It was Kuno again, poised to attack him. "Seriously, idiot? I just dealt with you!"

Kuno gripped his fist. "Nonsense! You fled from the fight, coward!"

"What? When did I flee, you blockhead?!"

"Ha! Hurl all the insults you want heathen, but you won't be able to handle this! Take this, Saotome–my surprise attack!" Kuno yelled, his arms a whirlwind of a flurry as he drew something out from the side–a water bottle. With a malicious chuckle, he thrusted it forward.

Ranma jumped into the air, easily avoiding the spray of water. Landing back on his feet, he made a scornful face at Kuno. "You moron , it can't be a surprise attack if ya announce it beforehand!"

"Ranma…" a low growl came from beside him. Ranma stiffened, slowly looking next to him. He'd been wrong. The water had, in fact, had gotten someone.

Akane.

"A-Akane! Are–are you okay?" he asked nervously. Droplets dripping from her bangs, Akane took in deep breath as a response as she wiped the water off her face. He gulped. Oh man, did she look peeved. He turned to Kuno, frowning. "Look what ya did, stupid! "

Kuno looked equally scared, and took a step back. "I-I? It is your fault, Saotome, for avoiding my water attack!"

"What?! Do ya hear yourself? How is this my fault? You're the one who splashed her!"

"If you just got hit like a man, then my fair Akane would have not been a scapegoat in your act of cowardice!"

"What?! What nonsense are you blabberin' about, idiot?!"

"You heard my words, fool!"

"Who's callin' who a fool ?! You–"

"Ugh, whatever! Class is about to start!" Akane shouted, pushing past both of them angrily.

"Hey, wait Akane–!" Ranma reached out his hand, but was cut off by Kuno shoving his bokken in his direction.

"Saotome, I will end you today!"

Scowling, Ranma threw a well-aimed kick in Kuno's face and sent him flying. "Didn't you hear her? Class is about to start!" he yelled.

Antsy, Ranma's leg bobbed up and down as he sat through the teacher's lesson. Although he was hearing words, he was not processing any of it. Instead, his mind was lingering on one question: was Akane actually mad at him for the water incident?

Ranma wasn't certain, but something had definitely felt off by the way Akane was acting. She'd avoid looking in his direction, and during their breaks she would immediately go off with her friends.

It was almost as if she was trying to avoid him.

Pissing off Akane was Ranma's forte (whether intentional or not), but he had told himself that he would try to do it less this time around. And if she was mad at him for Kuno's stupid behavior, then it was going to bother him.

Ranma stood up as soon as they were dismissed for lunch, determined to talk to Akane. However, before he got the chance to move an inch from his desk, he was quickly swarmed by the guys in the class.

"Saotome!" one of them exclaimed. "Be honest!"

Ranma flinched, confused. "Honest? Honest about what?"

"Tell us Saotome! How's your engagement with Akane?"

"Yeah! What's that been like?"

"How far have you two gotten?"

Eventually all their voices merged, and Ranma staggered backwards, overwhelmed by the cacophony of questions from his male peers. "Look, it's not like that and it's none of your business!" he shouted, breaking away from them. He ran out before anyone could catch up with him, and ended up in the one place he knew he could get some sense of peace-the rooftop.

"Jeez, why does everyone gotta be nosy and perverted in this school?" he mumbled to himself, sitting down. "Finally, some peace and quiet." He closed his eyes, feeling the breeze blow on his face.

"Now, Akane, spill the beans!"

"Wh-what?!" exclaimed a familiar voice.

Ranma perked up, and peeped around the corner. Sure enough, it was Akane and her two friends (Yuka and Sayuri, he remembered) also sitting out here for lunch. He turned back around, looking down at his lap. It was wrong of him to eavesdrop. He'd have to move somewhere else.

"You didn't tell us your cute family friend from China was your fiancé !" Yuka exclaimed.

Sayuri nodded. "We can't believe you didn't tell us!"

Oh, they were talking about him. He craned his neck, curiosity getting the best of him.

"Ranma?!" Akane repeated, sounding flustered. She waved her hand in the air in denial."O-oh well– I mean, it's not like that! Our stupid parents are the ones that decided it for us. There's nothing else going on between us!"

"Are you sure? Akane, this is the most peaceful morning we've seen you have in forever. It's all thanks to Ranma!"

Ranma nodded to himself. That's what he was saying!

"Exactly! You had the new hot guy in school declare you were his in front of everyone! Of course no one would want to mess with you now."

"I'm not his! You guys are giving him too much credit," Akane retorted, frowning.

Her two friends gave an exasperated sigh. "Still, Akane, he declared to everyone that he was your fiancé! Don't you think that was at least romantic of him?"

Ranma felt his face get hot. Romantic? Was that how it came off as? It wasn't like he had been trying to be or anything, he had no intentions of wooing Akane! The thought of it almost made him laugh. An uncute tomboy like Akane would be the last person to woo. He'd merely done that to get all the boys to stop fighting her, and that was it!

"R-Romantic? Him? " Akane repeated, eyes widening. He could hear her scoff. "Ranma's the last person that I would consider romantic! All he does is call me names and boast about himself. Plus, it's his fault that I got wet earlier!"

Ranma frowned upon hearing his own thoughts be practically repeated out loud by Akane. Her words pricked him like little needles. "Tch, why do I care what she thinks of me? She's always been an uncute tomboy," he muttered under his breath.

"Oh please, Akane," Yuka said, and nodded towards the baggie of cookies Akane had left beside them. "You even brought cookies for him! You can't deny that something's there. "

"Wh-what?! No, it's not like that! These are for…" There was a long pause, as her face grew red.

"They're for who? Someone other than Ranma?"

Akane cleared her throat."Yeah. Um…someone else."

"Someone else?"

"Like another guy ?!"

Akane slowly nodded, earning shocked outcries from her friends.

Having seen enough, Ranma turned back around. He glanced down, noticing that he unconsciously had his fists clenched. He shook his head. What was he doing, getting upset by all this? Akane liked another guy anyway. If anything, she probably saw the whole engagement announcement he pulled as a burden to her feelings. He could understand. Of course it wouldn't feel good having a bunch of people think you like the wrong person when the person you actually like is someone else. Ranma could relate to that happening more often than he would have liked. It had been the cause of so many of their spats after all.

He sighed, slowly rising up on his feet when he heard the door to the rooftop swing wide open.

"Ranma Saotome! Where are you hiding!"

Was that Kuno again? Ranma couldn't even be surprised at this point, well accustomed to how relentless the fool was.

Akane's friends let out a screech as Akane stepped in front of them. "Upperclassman Kuno! Ranma's not here!"

"Oh, Akane Tendo! My sweet angel! Fate has brought us together again, I fear!" Kuno exclaimed. "Are those for me?!"

"These? No!" The sound of footsteps shuffling rang out, and Akane let out a scream.

Ranma had heard enough.

"Get off of her Kuno!" He jumped out of his hiding spot, landing a drop kick square on Kuno's back. As a result of the impact, Kuno was sent flying over the rail and straight down below.

Ranma let out a breath of relief.

"Akane, you okay?" he asked, turning back to her and her friends. They stared at his sudden appearance with shocked expressions.

"Is Kuno going to be okay?" one of her friends whispered.

"Trust me, that idiot can survive a lot of things," he replied. "What about you all?"

Akane blinked, nodding. "Ye-yeah. Thanks Ranma." She looked down at her hands, and gasped. "Oh gosh, Kuno he–"

Ranma frowned. "What? What did he do to you?"

Akane looked up at him blankly. "He took the cookies."

Ranma took a breath of relief. "Oh that's it? Whew, that's a–" he trailed off, noticing the crestfallen look flash across Akane's face. She'd been happy and giddy the whole morning about giving the stupid cookies to the doc–of course she would be disappointed about losing them. He sighed.

"I mean–what?! That conniving thief!" Ranma shouted, changing his tune. He hopped onto the rail and looked down, spotting the pool that Kuno had somehow fallen into. He swallowed.

Life had a cruel way of playing tricks on him, didn't it?

Akane grabbed his sleeve, looking panicked. "Ranma, what are you thinking of doing?! It's fine! It's just cookies!"

"C'mon Akane, you worked hard to make those!" he exclaimed. He wasn't going to let a stupid idiot ruin this for her.

"What?" Akane blinked in surprise. "Wait, Ranma–!"

Before she could say anything else, he made the leap.