Chapter Seven

Katsumi’s classroom was filled with its usual loud buzz. It didn’t help much that almost everyone in her class liked talking above average voice volume level. Her three friends sat in the available desks in front of her. And the person sitting in the desk right next to hers was none other than Kuro. He was happily chatting away about something, and Katsumi only sat in her seat admiring his features. She was absolutely lost about what he was talking about, but didn’t care. And as long as Kuro didn’t notice she wasn’t really paying attention, then everything was fine. Katsumi was completely unaware of the death glare Hikari was piercing into the back of her head from the very back of the classroom. Renji sat next to the blonde Takahashi sister, also babbling away about something she was less than interested in.

“What do you think, Katsumi?” Kuro asked, finally snapping the tangerine-haired girl out of her self-induced trance. “We should definitely go to the arts festival together.”

The arts festival that Kuro was referring to was something their high school held annually every year. The festival was just a bunch of art projects and performances thrown together by the many classrooms in the school. The festival would differentiate every year, but it still had the same foundation with a lot of hard work thrown into the picture. The tangerine-haired girl had actually been hoping her classroom wasn’t going to do anything that year, but it turned out that her class was in fact participating in the arts festival.

Katsumi nodded her head excitedly with a dainty smile on her face. “That sounds like fun. It would make a fun date!”

Kuro’s grin grew in size, his sapphire eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. Katsumi had to control herself so as to not sigh dreamily in front of him. If there was one thing Kuro was excellent at doing, it was taking her breath away. The students continued chatting away even when their teacher, Takawa-sensei, rushed into the room with loads of materials in his hands.

“All right, kids, settle down,” Takawa-sensei ordered in a calm tone with his back turned to the classroom. The young man dumped his load onto the top of his desk, sighing out of relief as he did so.

The students quickly returned to their seats and silenced themselves. Takawa-sensei turned to face his classroom with a wide and tranquil smile on his face. Katsumi stared up at her young teacher, scanning him like she did everyday. As usual, his short, slightly curly, dark brown hair was tousled and left slightly messy with his bangs hanging over his forest green eyes. The young teacher quickly flicked his head so that his hair was swept over to the side out of his face. Takawa-sensei peered at his students from behind a pair of wire-frame glasses. The teacher was a tall man, though skinny so that he ended up looking like a young twenty year old rather than a teacher. His skin was sun kissed with a light tone, and his pretty boy features only made it more difficult to tell he was a teacher in reality.

“So.” He leaned back casually against his desk and crossed his long, slender arms over his chest. “Any ideas what we’re going to do?”

“Do you mean for the arts festival, Takawa-sensei?” Minori piped up without so much as raising her hand.

“Exactly,” Takawa-sensei answered, his smile growing warmer. Katsumi blinked in confusion when the girls surrounding her suddenly sighed dreamily. She noticed Kuro casting her a worried glance before quickly returning his attention to the front of the classroom. The orange-haired girl smiled discreetly to herself, actually flattered by her boyfriend’s anxious jealousy. “We still need an idea to submit for the festival. So, any suggestions?”

“Let’s just make a collage or something,” Akiko sighed tiredly, leaned back in her seat with her feet propped up on top of her desk. “The festival is much more work than it’s actually worth. Besides, all the ‘art’ just comes out as crap.”

“I have to agree with her,” Hikari said from the back of the classroom. She was currently inspecting her manicured nails intently, keeping her gaze away from everyone that had turned to face her. “The festival is so stupid. Why do we have to do it?”

“Because, Takahashi-san,” Takawa-sensei chuckled with a pained smile. He, too, was reluctant to participate in the festival. But nevertheless, his class was going to do it whether they liked it or not. “The arts festival is an important part of the school. So we might as well just get it over with.” He returned his gaze to Akiko, his smile reverting back to its usual warm self. “Nakamura-san, we should come up with a more creative idea instead of just doing collages.”

Akiko shrugged before averting her gaze to whatever was going on outside the window she was sitting next to. “Whatever. You already know I’m not taking part in this thing anyway.”

Takawa-sensei could only sigh and roll his eyes. Well, it was true. It didn’t matter how much force he used, there was just no way he was getting Akiko to participate. “All right, class, do we have any ideas?”

“We could always just set up a booth,” Renji suggested from his seat next to Hikari. The blonde was still keeping her eyes glued to her nails, an intense pout set on her face. “That way we have to do little to no work at all.”

“You bunch of lazy…” Takawa-sensei forced his voice to trail off before rubbing his forehead tiredly with his fingers.

“How about a play?” Minori giggled excitedly, earning herself the attention of the entire class. “That counts as art, right?”

“A play, huh?” Takawa-sensei repeated as he lightly tapped his finger against his lips. “That sounds like something we could do. What kind of play, Yamamoto-san?”

“Something romantic!” Minori sighed dreamily, clasping her hands together as her eyes sparkled. No doubt her mind was drifting off to Lala Land. A majority of the boys in the classroom gagged at the idea. The girls, on the other hand, squealed excitedly in agreement. “Something like… Romeo and Juliet!”

“Yeah! We could do our own version, sort of like a modernized version,” Nami agreed with her own elated smile on her porcelain pale face.

“A modern version of Romeo and Juliet.” Takawa-sensei said the idea out loud just to get the feel of it. The intrigued smile on his face clearly stated that he was all for the idea, much to the chagrin of the boys. “I like it! It’s definitely something we could do.”

“But does it have to be Romeo and Juliet?” Hikari whined, her eyes now glimpsing up at her teacher rather than her nails.

“I think Romeo and Juliet is perfect, Takawa-sensei,” Nami sang innocently, though she was secretly trying to purposely get on Hikari’s nerves. “Considering we have the perfect Romeo and the perfect Juliet in our class.”

Upon saying this, everyone directed their gazes to where Katsumi and Kuro were sitting. While Kuro only blinked casually back at everyone staring at them, Katsumi tried to control the heat rushing to her face. It was quite obvious what Nami was trying to do. However, this was only going to end up getting Katsumi in trouble with Hikari. But then again, even she had to admit she liked the idea of acting out such a romantic play with Kuro.

“Come to think of it, Yoshida and Takahashi would make the perfect Romeo and Juliet,” Akiko snickered playfully, glancing back and forth between her teacher and her friend and her boyfriend.

“Okay, so we have the play and the two main roles,” Takawa-sensei said as he turned to the chalkboard and began writing all the information down. Katsumi straightened up in her chair, her face now burning bright pink.

“W-Wait! I can’t be Juliet!” she squeaked, unable to control the pitch of her voice.

“What’s wrong, Katsumi?” Kuro asked innocently from his seat. “You don’t want to be in the play with me?”

She couldn’t help but wonder why Kuro had no problem being forced into the play. If anything, she would have figured he was supposed to despise things such as theater. Instead of thinking more about it, she shoved the useless thought aside and looked back at her copper-haired boyfriend.

“Sure I do!” she stammered, unable to ignore the fact that everyone in the classroom (including the teacher) was staring at her curiously. “It’s just… I can’t act!”

“That’s perfectly fine,” Takawa-sensei laughed goodheartedly with a wave of his hand. He ignored the quick glare Katsumi sent him. “It’s only for the festival. I don’t expect anyone to be perfect.”

“I object to this!” Hikari suddenly shouted from the back of the classroom. The blonde Takahashi sister jumped out of her chair and slammed her fists against her desktop in the process. She was hunched over her desk while glowering up at the teacher with her darkest and most objective look yet. Takawa-sensei even recoiled back a bit out of surprise of Hikari’s sudden outburst. “That skank—I mean, Yoshida-san cannot be Juliet!”

With an annoyed look, Takawa-sensei crossed his arms and tilted his head to one side. Doing so caused his glasses to slide down the bridge of his nose slightly. “Would you rather play the role of Juliet, Takahashi-san?”

Akiko coughed loudly, inserting an obvious, “Brother complex!” in the middle of her coughing fit. Nami and Minori sitting close by both giggled, stifling their giggles as best they could with their hands.

“No, of course not,” Hikari scoffed, her eyebrows furrowed. “This whole festival is a waste of my precious time. It’s just—”

“Is there something wrong with Katsumi being Juliet, onee-chan?” Kuro questioned from his seat, his tone of voice curiously innocent.

Hikari hesitated before answering, “No… no there isn’t. Just… never mind!”

With that said, she plopped back down into her chair, huffing and crossing her arms. Evident on her face was Hikari’s famous pout, darker than usual however. Everyone who had been staring at her quickly looked away when violent malevolence started radiating from the blonde Takahashi sister.

“It’s settled then,” Takawa-sensei said firmly. The teacher turned back to the chalkboard and continued scribbling on it without so much as asking Katsumi for her opinion about the whole thing. “Both Yoshida-san and Takahashi-kun will play Romeo and Juliet.”

“How are we going to modernize this, Takawa?” Akiko questioned through a yawn, disregarding the fact that she should have referred to her teacher with an honorific. She simply ignored the disapproving frown he flashed her.

“I was hoping a few of the students would volunteer to go through the original script of Romeo and Juliet and translate it so that everyone would be able to understand it,” Takawa-sensei answered with a forced smirk as he turned away from the chalkboard to face Akiko. “Would you like to translate the script, Nakamura-san?”

Akiko instantly scoffed with an amused and crooked smirk on her face. “Nice try, Takawa.” This only caused the teacher to frown.

Minori slowly raised her hand into the air. “I would like to translate some of the script, Takawa-sensei,” she offered in a meek voice.

“Very well then, Yamamoto-san,” Takawa-sensei said with a polite nod, flashing a warm smile directly at Minori.

“I want a part in the play, Sensei!” Nami requested excitedly.

“And what part would you like, Sasaki-san?” the teacher asked, his smile now growing enthusiastic.

With a sudden eruption of excitement, everyone began shouting out the roles they wanted and who wanted to help Minori with translating the script. Hikari sat at the back of the classroom glowering while Renji jumped up and down excitedly, demanding to get a part in the play as well. The class was suddenly filled to the brim with squeals and shouts, also a few groans here and there courtesy of the boys. Katsumi sat at her chair in total silence, completely stiff from shock. She hadn’t even agreed to be Juliet for the play. Apparently, she had no choice in the matter. The girl only pulled away from her trance when she noticed Kuro looking back at her from out of the peripheral of her vision.

“Isn’t this cool, Katsumi?” he laughed over the noise of everyone else yelling. Takawa-sensei was desperately trying to calm his students down, but to no avail. “We get the main roles in the play.”

Katsumi forced a tiny smile for her boyfriend, both excitedly happy and worried. Her reason was currently unknown, but nonetheless she was worried. “Yeah… cool…”

-- x -- x --

The hallways were crowded with students as the school day finally ended and all the teens were set free to go home. They had stampeded from their classrooms, all good and ready to get home so as to relax and procrastinate on their homework. Katsumi was currently left walking alone to her locker with Kuro. It seemed Nami, Minori, and Akiko purposely ditched her so that she would end up alone with her boyfriend. But at least they approved of Kuro instead of trying anything and everything to break the two of them up like a certain blonde Katsumi knew. As the two continued down the overcrowded hallway, Katsumi was lost in her own muddled thoughts as Kuro talked away.

“I know you wanted to go on a date to the school festival,” Kuro said with a kind smile as he looked down at the tangerine-haired girl while she glanced up at him, “but being in the play together should be fun, too.”

Katsumi smiled warmly back at Kuro and gave him a quick nod of her head. “It should be. At least you’re going to be Romeo so I won’t end up kissing some random boy,” she laughed lightly just as she remembered the kissing seen that was apparent in the Romeo and Juliet play.

The two suddenly halted in their tracks, conveniently stopping at Katsumi’s locker. They fell into an awkward silence, despite the loud noise taking place around them. Neither of them took into consideration the fact that Romeo and Juliet was a romantic tragedy that actually had a kissing scene in it. Katsumi’s face suddenly tinged red at the thought of kissing Kuro in front of an actual crowd, her stomach churning suddenly. The farthest the two had ever gone in their relationship was hand holding. Kuro had never made an attempt at planting a kiss on Katsumi, and she never tried herself as well. Whenever she tried, she felt awkward and completely out of place. So, instead, she decided not to kiss Kuro until she was good and ready. Something told her by the time the play rolled around, she still wouldn’t be ready.

Finding the situation they were in suddenly awkward, Kuro let out a strained laugh and ran his hand through his tousled hair. “Yeah, I don’t think I would have enjoyed kissing a random girl as well,” he joked. When Katsumi gawked up at him in surprise, Kuro forced a calm grin on his face and winked playfully down at her. He ignored the blush on his girlfriend’s face while Katsumi missed the patch of red that spread across her boyfriend’s own face.

Before she had a chance to speak up and say something that would most likely end up as moronic, a girl appeared suddenly from out of the sea of students. After a quick glance around the hallway, the girl’s eyes landed on Kuro and her face instantly lit up. Katsumi noticed the strange girl and blinked curiously from around Kuro to get a full view of the girl. The girl bounced her way through the throng and approached Kuro where he stood by Katsumi’s locker. As she smiled up at Kuro he looked away from his tangerine-haired girlfriend so as to glance down at the mysterious girl.

“Hey there, Takahashi-kun!” the girl chirped in a sweet voice.

Katsumi quickly scanned the girl up and down, feeling suddenly intimidated by her appearance. The girl standing before her and Kuro was a natural beauty, one that easily put Katsumi to shame. Her long dark brown hair flowed down her back in sleek and straight tresses. Her hair was stringy and flowed elegantly through the air with her movement. She had accessorized her hair by wearing a hairclip that resembled two beautiful white flowers that went nicely with her dark chocolate hair. The girl’s face was round, her rosy red cheeks contrasting nicely against her porcelain skin. Her plush pink lips were curved up into a smile as she kept her gaze steady on Kuro, not even casting Katsumi a curious glance. The mysterious girl’s eyes were a beautiful hazel color, green flecks evident in the sea of brown that dominated the girl’s eye color. Her long eyelashes alone were enough to give her an even more feminine touch to her already cute face. She was nicely slender and topped Katsumi off by a few inches. But even then, the girl didn’t reach Kuro’s exact height. Her school uniform hugged tightly at her curves, making it instantly obvious to Katsumi that the girl’s chest was much more impressive than her own. Gulping nervously, the orange-haired girl looked away from the hazel-eyed brunette and glanced down at her feet.

“What’s up, Akahana-san,” Kuro greeted politely with a charming smile of his own.

“I just wanted to thank you for the tutoring yesterday,” the girl that Kuro had called Akahana said in a singsong tone, her voice pleasing to anyone’s ears. Katsumi glanced away from her feet so as to gaze back up at the girl, hoping that she would finally notice her presence. “It helped me out a lot on the test I had today!”

“Tutoring?” Katsumi echoed without really thinking about it. Kuro quickly looked away from Akahana and returned his stare to his girlfriend. Akahana peered around the boy and blinked back at Katsumi, her face going blank for a brief moment.

“Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t even see you there,” Akahana laughed lightly. She held out her hand for Katsumi, to which the tangerine-haired girl recoiled back some at the sudden action. “I’m Akahana!”

“Katsumi Yoshida,” she replied gruffly, though desperately trying to keep her tone of voice polite, as she took the dark brunette’s hand. “Kuro’s girlfriend,” she added with strong emphasis.

“It’s nice to meet you, Katsumi-chan!” Akahana chirped after pulling her hand away from Katsumi. She returned her attention to Kuro. “Will I get any more tutoring from you?”

“Sure, if you need some more help,” Kuro agreed, still smiling down at the girl. Katsumi’s stomach continued churning, as if telling her to step in and protect Kuro from Akahana’s oozing pheromones. Instead of listening to her gut, she just stood back and watched with a glare as the two continued chatting away.

“Great!” Akahana chimed with a radiant smile. “I’ll see you later then, Takahashi-kun. Bye, Katsumi-chan!” She hurried down the hall, waving at both Kuro and Katsumi.

Kuro waved back innocently with a tiny grin on his face. Katsumi stood defensively next to him, her arms crossed and a deadpanned look on her face. She quickly shot Kuro a suspicious look, which earned her his full and undivided attention.

“Who was she?” Katsumi inquired when she was unable to wipe the worried look off her face. Her tone of voice was quiet and just as anxious as her expression.

“That was Akahana Yabusu from class E3,” he explained, looking down at his girlfriend with a smile. “She’s been struggling a bit in mathematics, so I tutored her for a little while yesterday.”

“Well, she seemed awfully grateful,” Katsumi muttered to herself when she averted her eyes away from Kuro and glanced sulkily down at her feet.

“Akahana-san is a nice girl,” Kuro commented innocently.

“I bet she is,” Katsumi grumbled as she turned to face her locker. The orange-haired girl began fiddling with the dial, trying to make sure her boyfriend didn’t notice the pout on her face. She ultimately failed when she heard him chuckle from behind her.

“Katsumi, are you jealous?” Kuro laughed while leaning against the row of lockers to stare down at Katsumi. His arms were crossed and he leaned back on one leg while he placed his other foot against the locker behind him. He had picked up on the tiny hint of jealousy in her voice, and became suddenly amused.

“No!” Katsumi squeaked, almost dropping a book in the process. Truth be told, she felt threatened and completely intimidated by Akahana’s superior beauty. So in other words, yes she was slightly jealous that Akahana had grown friendly with Kuro. “It’s just… um…”

“Katsumi,” Kuro said slowly, his tone of voice chiding and almost sharp.

Katsumi couldn’t help but wince, unable to lie her way out of this one. Sighing heavily, she turned away from her locker to face the copper-haired boy. “I might be… a little bit… jealous,” she admitted, quickly finishing up her sentence in hopes that Kuro wouldn’t be able to hear her if she slurred it all together so that it came out as one word rather than one sentence.

“How cute!” Kuro laughed with an amused grin as he ruffled her orange hair for a moment. “It was just math lessons, Katsumi.”

“Just math lessons?” Katsumi questioned in a suspicious tone, one eyebrow raised in skepticism. While she didn’t like playing the part of a jealous girlfriend, it was unavoidable. Especially when Kuro, of all people, was her boyfriend. It was a known fact that Kuro Takahashi was a heartthrob among their school, so it was only natural that she was on her guard for any challenging girls.

Kuro placed his hand over his heart while keeping the lopsided grin on his face. He held up his other hand in the air like he was making a sacred vow. “I swear.”

Katsumi smiled, relieved. “All right then.” She turned back to her locker and resumed rummaging around in it.

“You have bigger things to worry about,” Kuro chuckled, a snicker laced into his sentence. “Like the Romeo and Juliet play we have to do for the festival.”

Katsumi caught herself gulping suddenly. She grew stiff, but quickly forced herself to revert back to normal movements. A forced smile suddenly appeared on her face and she flashed it up at Kuro to show she was less than worried about the play. In all reality, just thinking about the play almost caused her a heart attack.

“The play will go great!” she chirped, though her voice cracked unattractively. “Yup! Just great! Don’t you think the play will be great? I think it’ll be great!”

When she realized she was rambling, Katsumi quickly looked away from her boyfriend while giggling nervously. Keeping the smile on her face, she began absentmindedly digging around in her locker for nothing in particular. Kuro, disregarding Katsumi’s odd rantings, glanced away from his tangerine-haired girlfriend and looked out at the students in the hallway. His face fell intimidatingly blank as he kept his steady gaze on the void in front of him. The boy leaned back on the lockers with his arms crossed over each other, lost in deep and concerned thought.

“Katsumi? Have you ever been kissed before?” Kuro finally mustered up the courage to ask when he was done thinking about the kissing scene that was in the Romeo and Juliet play.

Though her cheeks began tingeing red, Katsumi answered calmly for him, “Yeah, I’ve been kissed by my ex before. I had a boyfriend before I started dating you, after all.” She stopped there, not wanting to think any more about her dreadful ex boyfriend. Though he wasn’t as awful as most men could be, the boy was still an unpleasant jerk that Katsumi wasn’t about to forgive any time soon. Luckily for her, Kuro was nothing like her ex boyfriend.

Kuro looked away from his girlfriend with a quick snap of his head, a worried frown settling on his face. Great. She has somebody to compare me to, then, he groaned inwardly, shamefully admitting to himself that he had never actually kissed anyone before. Actually, if he got lucky, Katsumi was going to be the one he shared his first kiss with. Kuro gulped and began rubbing the back of his neck anxiously, thankful that Katsumi didn’t notice his sudden nervous behavior. For some odd reason, Kuro felt his masculinity was at threat. Now there was just the matter of whether or not he was a better kisser than Katsumi’s ex boyfriend.

Further down the hall, hiding around the corner, Hikari was plastered up against the wall while spying on her beloved brother and his retched girlfriend. She peeked her head around the corner every so often, watching their every move intently. Currently, the skanky tangerine was rummaging through her locker while Hikari’s brother leaned back on the lockers with a sudden expression of worry flashing across his face. However, just moments beforehand, Hikari watched as the two were approached by a brunette named Akahana Yabusu that was well-known throughout the high school because of her natural beauty. Moments earlier, Akahana bounced cheerily up to Kuro and thanked him for the tutoring he gave her while keeping a charming smile on her ivory toned face. Hikari watched the girl intently, her eyes narrowed down to slits. It was incredibly obvious that Akahana was shamelessly flirting with Kuro, even with his girlfriend standing right next to him! But Kuro, bless his heart, was completely oblivious to this for most likely two reasons. The first one being that though he was a young man he was still sexually naïve, and the second one being (much to Hikari’s chagrin) that he really loved Katsumi and only Katsumi.

Even though Hikari despised any girl who had the nerve to become infatuated with her brother, she couldn’t help but notice the sudden intimidation Katsumi was washed over with when Akahana approached Kuro and began talking with him like they had known each other for years. She hitched up a blonde eyebrow, her scowl being instantly replaced by a cunning and cat-like smile. It didn’t take Hikari very long for her to realize that Katsumi was less than appreciative of Akahana’s acquaintance with Kuro. Actually, the orange-haired was absolutely jealous about the idea of those two being alone together. And while Hikari knew for sure that Kuro wasn’t the type to play around with other girls behind his girlfriend’s back, she couldn’t say the same thing for Akahana. In fact, she was certain that Akahana could care less if Kuro had a girlfriend and that she was willing to do anything to get Kuro to go out with her.

Hikari’s devious smirk grew in maliciousness when she eavesdropped on the conversation Katsumi and Kuro were having about kissing, after Akahana left the two alone. She heard the skank of a tangerine admit that she had been kissed before and noticed the worried look that appeared suddenly on Kuro’s face. The blonde Takahashi sister knew for a fact that Kuro had never been kissed before, even if he had a girlfriend before Katsumi (a girlfriend that Hikari quickly took care of). He, too, was obviously intimidated by this. Hikari pulled her head back behind the wall and smirked evilly to herself while tapping the tips of her fingers together repeatedly. The girl hadn’t given up on her attempts to break her brother and his trampy girlfriend up, so it was no surprise that she was currently scheming yet another plan. Hikari saw the perfect opportunity to use Akahana’s help in her wicked attempts to get Kuro and Katsumi to break up. Even though she detested the idea of another girl getting fresh with her brother, she didn’t mind entirely as long as it meant breaking up her brother and the orange-haired skank. The only downside was framing Kuro, but then again, Hikari hardly cared as long as her own selfish intentions were fulfilled.

A jealous girlfriend, plus a supposedly cheating boyfriend equaled the end of a relationship and Hikari’s victory.

-- x -- x --

Hikari stood waiting out in the empty hallway, tapping her foot impatiently. The noise of it echoed throughout the entire hall, bouncing off the walls. Everyone had gone home by now, and Hikari herself was desperate to get home and prepare some food for herself and her brother. No doubt Kuro wasn’t home, though. If anything, he was most likely out with the horrible tangerine-haired girl. Nonetheless, Hikari remained where she was in the hall as she waited. And waited. And waited. She finally perked up when she heard another pair of footsteps. Finally, after what had to have been an eternity, another girl walked leisurely around the corner into Hikari’s sight. Akahana glanced around curiously while holding on tightly to the strap of her messenger bag.

“You wanted to see me?” Akahana said once she approached Hikari at the other end of the hallway.

Flashing the girl a quick and mischievous smile, Hikari swished her hair back over her shoulder and scanned the girl momentarily. “I know you like my brother,” the blonde Takahashi girl bluntly replied, managing to keep the smile on her ivory toned face.

“Am I that obvious?” Akahana giggled while trying to muffle it with her hand. The brunette’s light voice flitted around the hall as it bounced back and forth in the empty space surrounding the two girls.

“He has a girlfriend, you know,” Hikari mentioned. She had placed one hand on her curvy hip, now changing her smile into an emotionless frown. While she didn’t usually take any liking to any girl that liked her brother, Hikari reluctantly admitted to herself that she preferred Katsumi to Akahana.

“So?” the brunette girl rhetorically asked with a raised eyebrow and an impish smile of her own. “That doesn’t mean anything to me.”

“Then I guess that means you won’t mind helping me out?” Hikari scoffed, now putting on an intimidating demeanor.

Akahana fought back with a menacing aura of her own. However, while Hikari scowled darkly at Akahana, the brunette girl only returned the scowl with her own alluring smirk. Raising her chin jauntily into the air, Akahana placed her hand on her hip as well.

“What are you getting at?” she asked cautiously, though the intrigued hint in her voice was hard to miss.

“I want to break him and Yoshida up,” Hikari told her roughly, not appreciative of the girl’s careless tone. “I think I could use your help in doing so.”

Akahana giggled, momentarily looking away from the blonde girl. “So it is true what they say about you.”

Hikari narrowed her eyes. She definitely preferred Katsumi to this girl. “What do they say about me that’s true?” she demanded slowly as she tried to keep the volume of her voice calm.

“That you have a brother complex,” Akahana snickered while smirking darkly at the blonde Takahashi sister.

“Do you want to help me or not?” Hikari snapped lightly. The blonde crossed her arms irritatingly as the other girl continued giggling.

“What exactly is it you want me to do?” Akahana asked innocently.

“As it turns out, Katsumi Yoshida is jealous of you,” Hikari informed the brunette. “She doesn’t like the idea of you spending time with onii-chan. So I need you to interfere.”

“Interfere how?” Akahana questioned, her tone of voice skeptical.

“The arts festival is coming up, and my class is supposed to play Romeo and Juliet for the stupid festival,” Hikari began explaining, now pacing around the brunette while using a harsh tone. “Onii-chan got the role of Romeo and his girlfriend got the role of Juliet.” She stopped in the middle of her pacing so as to flash Akahana a disapproving frown. “That skanky tangerine has been kissed before. However, onii-chan has never been kissed before, and obviously there’s a kissing scene in Romeo and Juliet. The last thing I want is for onii-chan to kiss that tramp. And that’s where you come in.”

“You want me to stop them from kissing?” Akahana deducted with one raised eyebrow as she tilted her head to the side, causing her brown tresses to tumble over her shoulder.

“I want you to stop the play from happening at all!” Hikari corrected, now smirking devilishly. “You see, onii-chan has never been kissed. And you intimidate Yoshida because she can tell you have a crush on her boyfriend. So…”

“You want me to kiss your brother?” Akahana finally caught on. On her ivory toned face was a smirk of her own, liking Hikari’s plan. The leer on the blonde Takahashi sister’s face told the brunette that she had deduced correctly.

“I don’t want you to just kiss onii-chan,” Hikari continued, though her voice grew soft and her sapphire eyes grew solemn, “but I want you to make it look like onii-chan was… cheating on Yoshida.”

Despite the fact that Hikari had a black hole for a heart and she lacked any morals at all, she still didn’t one hundred percent completely enjoy the idea of framing her brother and making him look like a jerk. The girl tried to brush aside her conscious as she focused in on the smirk that grew on Akahana’s face.

“So say I do decide to help you,” said Akahana in a smooth yet troublesome voice. “What do I get out of it?”

“You get a free kiss from onii-chan,” Hikari huffed as she crossed her arms. “That’s what you get.”

Still, the smirk on Akahana’s face grew in size. “Okay. So if they do break up, does that mean I get dibs on Kuro?”

Hikari narrowed her sapphire blue eyes and frowned intensely, her lip curling up into a hateful sneer. “No!”

“Aww, whatever!” Akahana laughed loudly, the sound of her laugh almost coming off as a cackle. She gave Hikari a side-glance that was accompanied with a malicious smile. “All right, Hikari. You’ve got yourself a deal! I’ll help you out and try to break up your brother and his girlfriend.” The sneer on Hikari’s face grew in hatred when Akahana’s smile grew lustful. “At least I get to kiss Kuro, huh?”

Hikari scoffed and quickly looked away from the brunette. She detested the idea of Akahana kissing her brother; absolutely hated it. But if Katsumi and Kuro broke up, then it would all be worth it in the end.

“Hmm. I think I have an idea on how to make this work, too,” Akahana chuckled, her hazel eyes rolled up to the ceiling in thought, as she tapped her finger lightly against her plush lips. Hikari glanced back at the brunette and locked eyes with the girl. Akahana flashed a sudden wicked smile at the blonde Takahashi sister, causing Hikari to think twice about her decision. “You remember those tutoring lessons I was getting from your brother?”