Chapter 40:

Corporate Prince

Thud! Seto looked up from his work and found Ana's forehead flat against his coffee table. He glanced over at the clock. I guess ninety minutes is about her limit.

"Amin-chan, I want ice-cream." Ana grumbled from the table.

"Ok, ok. Let's go get some." He conceded.

Ana jumped up looking alive again and headed for his apartment door. He rolled his eyes, grabbed his wallet, and followed her out. It had been about two weeks since they'd started dating. Telling her family had gone over a lot different than he'd thought. In fact, hardly anything happened to where he'd been annoyed at it having been too easy. Dai came out from his dojo and when Seto declared they were dating the old man just said, "Alright then, don't hurt her or I'll kill you." After that the old man promptly went back to his dojo, leaving a slightly annoyed Seto and very confused Ana alone with her parents. Her parents said nothing in particular either other than congrats and be kind to our daughter. He'd been disappointed by their reaction since he'd prepared an entire speech in his head. He quickly got over it and instead focused on building Ana a lesson plan for school. It's been a couple weeks, and no one has mentioned us getting engaged. Did her grandpa just assume that he wouldn't win, or is he playing a different hand?

"Amin-chan…" Ana drew him from his thoughts as they walked outside. Immediately, he took her hand, and they started walking to the nearest convenience store. I guess I've gotten used to this. He glanced down at her hand. It would be nice to do more... When they got to the convenience store, they went in and bought a couple popsicles that they ate outside the store while holding hands.

"Amin-chan, did Minami-san approach you again yesterday?" Ana asked out of the blue.

Seto looked down, confused. "Who?"

"The pink-haired girl… You're current stalker."

"Oh, her. I think. I don't know. I wasn't paying much attention." Seto vaguely remembered someone trying to talk to him in the hall, but he'd been in thought about a project at the time and hadn't even noticed her.

Ana let out a long sigh and looked irritated. "I thought she might back down some after we told everyone we were dating again. I guess not."

Seto remembered the first day of class after they'd started dating. He'd gone to pick her up that morning and walked to school with her. Arata noticed right away and jokingly asked if they were dating again, even though he knew it was going to cause a headache, Seto blandly replied yes. The entire class approached them all day asking questions. Thankfully, their interest died down after a week.

"You don't seem that upset about her stalking you." Ana eyed him as she sucked on her popsicle. Seto looked down at her and noticed her mouth was turning blue. If we kissed, would she taste like blueberry?

"She's the type of stalker that if I pay attention to, she'll become emboldened. If I keep ignoring her, she'll keep pestering me, but it won't go anywhere. As much as I would like to chuck any annoying people off the school roof, it's less of a pain to just ignore her." Seto sighed as he finished his explanation. "I could do what I do with other crazy stalkers if you really want me to?"

"What's that?" Ana raised an eyebrow.

"Burn their house down. They tend to stop after they're homeless."

Ana paused and watched him for a moment before groaning. "Don't do that. That sounds like it would be a colossal pain to deal with."

"It's really not that much of a pain—"

"I meant for me, Amin-chan." Ana interrupted him, then looked thoughtful. "I could beat her up, but then all the lower classmen would see me as some sort of violent girl."

"You're not?"

She let go of his hand and pinched him in the arm which made him laugh.

Ana didn't seem happy. "There's something wrong with us if we're casually talking about burning people's houses down and beating on them."

"I don't know what's wrong with you, but I'm perfectly normal." Seto smirked at her and received another pinch.

"Amin-chan, you're the furthest person I know from normal." Ana rolled her eyes.

Seto tilted his head and put his hand on his chin, looking thoughtful. "You're right. I'm pretty extraordinary."

"You're extraordinarily full of yourself." Ana finished her popsicle and put the trash into the grocery bag she was carrying before heading back to his apartment.

He followed along and chuckled. "Yet, you're the one who said you liked me."

"I know. I wonder if my concussion messed up my brain." Ana flashed him an evil grin.

His eyes slid over her lips. "Your mouth is blue."

She blushed and hurried on. He laughed before his thoughts turned to the pink-haired girl. I was just going to ignore her, but she seems to upset Ana. How can I get her to stop short of burning her house down?

The next day Seto went to pick up Ana and walked her to school. Hikari as usual was waiting at the door with Ana scowling. It had become their daily routine. Seto ignored him and they headed to school. Ana was quiet this morning. Seto looked down at her. She was holding the strap of her bag with both hands, so he couldn't take it. He watched her mouth twitch a little as she seemed lost in thought. Is she worrying about something?

When they got to school much to his annoyance, the pink-haired girl skipped up to him. Not again. He glanced over at Ana and felt a shiver run down his spine at her cold look. She seems pissed. Seto glanced around and noticed a few of the freshmen that hung out with the pink-haired girl. They usually seemed to be off to the side whenever she approached him. He quickly glanced around at the incoming students. She always brings an audience lately. I guess she really cares about appearances. Oh, well then this should work.

"Kaiba-sempai! It's good to see you—"

"Stop stalking me," he said it loud enough that the surrounding students turned their way. Ana looked up at him, a little surprised.

The pink-haired girl glanced over at her friends, who seemed rather shocked by his reaction. Oh? What did she tell them? Probably that I like her and that Ana seduced me or some sort of shit like that.

"Kaiba-sempai, what do you mean stalking—"

"I don't think I could be anymore direct. Stop stalking me. Stop approaching me. Back off. You're creepy." Seto glared at her and she took a step back. Three, two, one. The pink-haired girl burst into tears.

"How could you say—"

"Nope. I'm the wrong person to try fake water works on because I really don't give a shit how you feel. The next time you approach me, I'll press charges. You should really think twice before you mess with me again." Seto walked past her and Ana followed him inside. He only got a quick glance, but he noticed the students whispering among themselves.

"Amin-chan, was that really the best way to handle it? She could easily twist that out burst and give you trouble." Ana frowned, concerned.

"Trouble?" He grinned, but then frowned. "I don't really care if the people hate me, but it might give you trouble. I suppose I could go ahead and take out a restraining order. She's been following me around for a while now."

Ana seemed surprised, then laughed. "I'll be fine. And, yeah, I guess you really don't care if the school hates you, but why did you choose that method?"

"She seemed to care what others thought. Someone who cares so much about reputation is easy to damage…" Seto stopped walking when a group of guys stepped in front of him. He didn't recognize them. "What do you want?"

"Why did you make Minami-sama cry?" A guy with long purple hair stepped forward and glared up at him.

"Who?" Seto tilted his head, confused. "Oh, the pink-haired girl."

The group of guys looked taken aback. The purple-haired boy spoke up again, "Her name's—"

"I don't care to learn the names of my stalkers." Seto crossed his arms and glared at him menacingly.

"Y-you," the purple-haired boy swallowed hard. "She was trying to get her honest feelings a crossed."

Seto didn't need to look over to Ana to feel the rage rolling off her. Someone clapped, drawing their attention. Arata walked up behind Seto and Ana. He was smiling as usual, but for once it didn't seem to reach his eyes.

"Tanako Niro, Janami Kinro, Hino Hiniata, and Yamamoto Aoi. Minami-san's fan club, right?" Each one of the guy's flinched in turn. Arata didn't look at Seto as he passed by him. "Honest feelings? Is it honest to follow someone around when they don't want you too? How about following them and waiting outside the bathroom? Or better yet, following them home when they weren't invited?"

"What are you talking about?" Niro who seemed to be the purple-haired boy took a step back.

Arata held up his phone almost threateningly. "It seems that Minami-san told you something like "Sakurai Ana seduced my boyfriend. He has to pretend he doesn't like me when Sakurai-san's around, etc, etc. Right?"

The group looked shocked. Niro seemed to panic and pointed at Ana. "Well, it's true, she—"

Arata smacked the guy's hand down. "Don't point at your sempai or insult my friend. Sakurai-san is honest and hardworking. Minami-san is a pathological liar."

"How dare—"

Arata held up his phone and started playing a video. The pink hair girl's voice came out shouting Seto's name. The group seemed to watch the video in shock. When it finished playing, Arata grinned evilly.

"I have at least ten more videos of her stalking him and following him around. If he really was supposed to pretend when Sakura-san's around, then how come he's still ignores her even when she catches him alone? Oh, by the way, when I showed this video to Minami-san a few minutes ago, the look on her face was priceless… Should I show it to the dean? Or better yet, should I post it online? I can't use real names but with a tag line, hmm, "Small Time Idol Stalks Corporate Prince?" I bet it will get a lot of views. What do you think?"

The group stared at him open-mouthed before looking at one another and finally walking away. Arata turned back to them and beamed. What. The. Frick'.

"Arata-kun, what did you just do? Did you just blackmail someone?" Ana looked at him, baffled.

Arata shrugged. "I guess."

Ana turned to Seto and scowled. "She followed you to the bathroom and your house? Why didn't you tell me that?"

"I noticed her following me home, but since she couldn't get into my building without a card, she left. If I called the cops on every person who followed me, I'd have to make calls all day long and I don't have time for that. Unless their important or hostile I tend to leave them be." Seto tried to explain, but Ana seemed even more pissed. "I'm more curious about how you got a video of her following me."

Arata just smiled. "Just coincidence."

This guy stalked my stalker. I guess I can't really call him Yugi anymore. Yugi wouldn't have the guts to follow a stalker or the mentality to blackmail them.

"If you told me she'd followed you home, then we could have taken it to the dean and reported her." Ana grumbled. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Seto paused and noticed how pissed she really seemed. "You want me to tell you about all the stalkers that follow me from now on?"

"Yes!"

"Ok, there's a short chubby kid that's currently around that corner watching us and someone always trails me if I go to the convenience store around sixish." Seto listed off the most recent encounters he could think of.

Ana spun around toward the corner right as a small guy ducked behind the wall. She rushed over to the wall, but the guy disappeared. Annoyed, she walked back over to him and scowled.

Arata spoke up. "That's Manada-san. He's a sophomore, and he's obsessed with duel monsters. He's a big fan of Kaiba-san's. You don't really need to worry about him. He doesn't follow Kaiba-san anywhere odd. He just watches him in the morning."

"That's still not ok." Ana's eyes narrowed at Arata, who flinched.

"I'll… try to talk to him. We have the same lunch period. He really is just a fan." Arata tried to reassure her.

"Since it seems you were stalking Kaiba-san's stalker, do you know who was following him to the convenience store?" Ana asked bluntly, and Arata flinched.

Seto held back a laugh as Arata shrunk under Ana's gaze.

"That… was me, but I wasn't stalking him." Arata admitted.

"Huh?" Both Ana and Seto said in unison.

Arata scratched his head, looking concerned. "I always go to that convenience store around that time as a study break. I've seen you a few times, but I never try to walk with you because I got the feeling you'd tell me to piss off and walk away. Since you said we're not friends…"

"Ugh." Seto looked at Ana, who was smiling but almost in an exasperated manner. "Yeah, I probably would have."

The last bell suddenly rang. Arata jumped and ran off to class. Ana stared up at Seto before saying, "Tell me from now on if someone's following you. I don't like being in the dark about those types of things."

He sighed. "Fine."

"Also, you should be a little nicer to Arata-kun." She pressed.

"What? Why?" Seto frowned at her.

Ana smirked. "Oh, come on. I know you were slightly impressed with his blackmailing skills."

He grumbled. "Doesn't mean I have to be nice to him. Especially since the title he picked for me for that tag line is dumb."

"Title? Oh, Corporate Prince? What's wrong with it?"

"It should have been Corporate King. Who's higher than me?"

Ana snorted before skipping slightly in front of him and spinning around. "Nah. Corporate prince sounds much hotter."

Seto's face grew warm, but Ana skipped away before he could retaliate to her embarrassing comment. Damn it. I really want to kiss her.