... hi guys... long time no see... lol...

"Hey, Tsukasa-kun," said the first seat as he passed by Akechi's office. "I'd like a word." Auden turned to Seijuro and asked, "Would you mind grabbing the report files from the copy room? I'll catch up with you in a bit."

Sei gave a curt nod, not a little disgruntled at having been waved off in a similar manner over and over again the second Five returned from Helsinki — or was it Seoul? — after tagging along with Yukihira Kaede for the last three months. Auden went out of his way to talk to him with every available opportunity and provide literally whatever the first year wanted. After berating the shit out of the ninth seat for forgetting to complete one of his required assignments, Auden had turned right around and conveniently overlooked the reality that Tsukasa Akechi now spent fourteen hours a day neglecting classes and paperwork and sitting in his swivel chair at Legislation waiting for Kaede to call.

Considering she was almost always on a plane and far too financially conscious to pay for on-board wifi, he spent a lot of time waiting.

His suspicions had been growing for a while, but Sei had decided to repress them; he trusted Auden with his life. The first seat was a little eccentric but he'd never betray him… right?

Some part of him urged him to stay that morning, however, and despite all of his morality scolding the shit out of him for eavesdropping on his best friend's conversation with another party, he slipped behind the open door to Five's office and started listening.

"How have you been doing, Tsukasa?" Auden asked.

"Great," replied the scarlet-haired chef. "My girlfriend—"

"—doesn't ever check her phone, so consider yourself lucky you even have her number," Auden interrupted. "I want to ask you something."

"Kurokiba-senpai, you ask me a lot of things."

"Is your dad hiring at his restaurant in Paris?"

Sei frowned.

"Should be," Akechi replied. "Why? Does this have to do with all the other times you've asked about my father since I joined the high school division?"

The second he heard the words fall from Akechi's lips, Ibusaki Seijuro's heart plummeted.

"Well, sort of. Listen, Tsukasa, is there any way I can get hired to work in your dad's kitchen after graduation? I've been looking through all my job requests and there aren't any I'm particularly fond of."

What happened to the trattoria?

"Say, Kurokiba-senpai, didn't Ibusaki-senpai mention that you two were planning to work in Tuscany with the Aldinis? I've heard you guys talk about it before, and you always use a mezzaluna for duo shokugekis when you get challenged."

Please, Auden.

There was a pregnant pause. Then—

"Seijuro doesn't need to know yet. I'll tell him in my own time. I'm sure he'll understand; he's my bro."

The bro in question was absolutely seething behind the door.

"Um, if Ibusaki-senpai is really okay with it, then you can just go to Paris after grad night. I'll tell my father you're showing up," Akechi said. "I was planning to find a new sous for him anyway. The current guy is going to give him a fucking heart attack if I don't."

Seijuro left before he could hear anything else. He passed by the copy room without a second thought, and walked from the top of the mountain down past the front gates of Totsuki's campus. There was a small drugstore at the corner of the street a couple blocks down.

He spent the next four hours chainsmoking cigarettes on the roof of Polar Star and proceeded to ignore all of Auden's calls for the rest of the day.

"Let's call this convention to order," said Kurokiba Auden, clapping his hands together and bringing the ten members of the Council together around the round table. "The topic of the convention is deciding next year's first seat."

"Didn't Arato-senpai just say congrats and give you her office keys last year?" Tetsuko asked with a smirk. "This seems unnecessary."

"Hikari is a special case," Auden replied. "Objection dismissed. We have two nominees for One this year," he continued. "I'll take all of your opinions into consideration and choose based on my discretion."

They all frowned at this.

Rising senior and current third seat Marui "the Professor" Sena was logically the only option to claim the throne. As Totsuki's reigning queen, she had written the curriculum for four seminars and lectured them to boot, not to mention all her successful endeavors as president of two research societies.

The second seat spoke then. "We already reached a consensus, Auden. There is only one nominee."

"Circumstances have changed, Seijuro. The nominees are Marui Sena and Tsukasa Akechi."

The copy room erupted into chaos but Sena just stared at the wide-shouldered first seat sitting across from her in the circle.

Betrayal was acidic.

Before she could get a word out, Akechi kicked Auden's chair out from under him so hard that the wooden leg snapped off. The third year landed on his ass with a surprised umph.

"Don't fuck with me!" Akechi bellowed. "Shut the fuck up! What the fuck is wrong with you!?"

Seijuro stared down at Auden. "Marui Sena will be the first seat of Totsuki's 120th generation. Any objections?"

"Of course not," said Tetsuko. "That's how it should be."

"I'm taking third seat next year," Akechi growled, his low bass resonating through the room. "Any fucking objections?"

Tetsuko raised a hand. "Hey, Tsukasa-kun, are you sure you don't wanna be second? I'd much rather just deal with the scouting gala…"

"I'm sure," he replied, his voice gentle. "Don't worry, Isshiki-senpai, I'll take care of alumni relations for you if you promise to help out with the gala when the time comes."

Sena stood impassively and walked out of the room, ignoring Auden's call for her to wait. The tears had just started to fall from her eyes when she felt a large hand on her shoulder. She turned straight into the boy's arms and buried her face in his chest.

Ibusaki Seijuro put his chin on top of her head and hugged her tightly. "It's okay, Sena. It'll be okay."

"No, it won't," she said through her tears, and they both knew she was right.

Although she hadn't witnessed the private spectacle that was Auden's permanent move-in to Nakiri Mansion, because Polar Star had always been more Sei's kingdom than his, Sena knew that neither had said farewell to each other. She also knew that before long, Ibusaki Seijuro would challenge Auden to a shokugeki and lose, and that was what scared her the most. Sei would never admit it — for pride, maybe for other reasons — but his mind was brittle, and Sena knew that better than anyone. Losing a shokugeki to Kurokiba Auden, after losing Sena and Auden himself, would utterly shatter him.

She found Auden swimming a frenzied fly at the Nakiri pool, his profoundly long arms slicing metallically through the otherwise languid water at a pace that sent her reeling. It took a few more splits until he felt her presence and stopped; then he pulled off his goggles and got out of the pool. They sat in silence for a long moment. She could sense him struggling to contrive the right set of words to tell her how sorry he was, and at that moment she realized she didn't want to hear it.

"It's okay," she told him abruptly, before he could get a word out.

Auden shook his head. "It's really not." There was a quality in his voice that made her turn to really look at him, not just through her peripheral. Her gaze passed over the contours of his back, the sharp lines of his face, until it came to rest on his brooding eyes. "I got into a fight with Ibusaki yesterday."

Well, shit.

"What happened?"

"I left behind one of my knives at Polar Star and he was in the kitchen when I got there. I didn't want to talk to him but he kept egging me on. Dunno, I told him to shut the fuck up and then he came straight for my head."

"You fought him?"

Auden shook his head. "No. I just shoved him out of my way and left before it got worse."

"So you didn't actually fight him."

"I didn't want to break him."

And although he didn't explain, Sena knew exactly what he meant.

"Sena, I think we both know I don't deserve you. You shouldn't be here. You should be with Seijuro. He… he needs you."

Ah, so this was what he'd wanted to say.

"Ibusaki would make you happier than I ever could. I'm not a good person, Sena."

She briefly closed her eyes. "Maybe that's true."

Auden was watching her with his eyes, those sad, pretty eyes that knew too much about the world. His hair was still dripping but he didn't seem to notice. It was just her.

"Maybe that's true," she repeated, "but nothing changes the fact that I love you and not him. It was never him."

He only heard three words. "Even after all this. You love me?"

"I do love you."

"You know I love you, right?"

"Yes, Auden. I know."