Without anyone noticing, the days for graduation got shorter and shorter . So many events have passed that Hikari lost count. Hyuga got a job at a club but quit once he learned that it was illegal, Hayato nearly burned the whole building down during a chemistry class, Takeda got jumped by a few guys but was luckily saved by Yankumi, Hayato finally moved on from Maya who mysteriously moved to another country, Conner tried getting back with Sayo and succeeded to Hikari's dismay, and Tsucchi finally beat Hayato at darts. Now today was just another day that will soon be filled with events. 

"It's finally the weekends!" Hikari cheered and threw her fist up in the air.

"No more school or troublesome teachers for a few days!" Hayato reminded.

"What are you talking about?!" The head teacher suddenly yells as he enters the room of cheering students.

"What do you mean about that?" Tsucchi demands, getting angry already for no reason.

"You troublesome students--" Sawatari pauses. "No you troublesome DELINQUENTS! I better not see anything about Kurogin students on the newspaper again this weekend!"

"Oh come on, it was only a small mishap," complains Hikari, leaning on Takeda, who only nods in agreement.

"Small mishap?!" screeches the head teacher monkey brain. "Omoori and Sakuraba were caught fighting with a bunch of students from Bakareya! Hiroki was found fighting with tourists in front of the shrine!"

"Those people were asking for it!" defends Hayato.

"Well it better not happen again this weekend!" Sawatari demands, storming out of the room.

"Whatever, school's ended, so it's time to celebrate the weekend!" cheers Hikari and is followed by the rest of the class.

"Let's go to the park!" Kosuke suggests.

"No let's go karaoke!" Tsucchi counters.

"I vote on park," the sweet Takeda votes.

"I kinda want to go to the park too," confesses Hikari. "Sorry, Tsucchi, maybe we can go next time." Tsucchi immediately cheers up from Hikari's comfort and follows the group out to the park.

"Let's race!" Hayato suddenly calls to them, sending everyone except Ryu and Hikari in a panic.

"No way!" cries Takeda. "You're too fast for us!"

"For Ryu, maybe," Tsucchi says, "but the rest of us are still out of shape." He winces when Hikari suddenly slaps his head.

"'For Ryu'? Please, I'm pretty sure I can beat Bunny Boy anytime, anywhere," challenges Hikari.

"Wanna bet on that Toda Toad?" dares Hayato. "If you lose, you have to wear whatever I choose for you to wear all day Saturday!"

"Fine!" the pumped-up girl agrees. "And if you lose, you have to be my servant for a whole week!"

"If I lose, I get to be in your house for a week?" he teases. "Deal!" The two angrily shook hands and got in position.

"To that tree right there," Hikari says, pointing to a tree straight in front of them. No turns, no curves, no obstacles.

"Guys, isn't this a little--"

"SHUT UP TAKEDA!" the two shout at the poor boy. "COUNT!"

"O- Okay, one, two," Hayato and Hikari got ready to run. "Three!" The two quickly dashed down, unaware of Ryu racing beside them.

"I WON!" The two shout in each others' faces when they reach the tree. "NO! I did! No you didn't!" Hikari throws her hands onto Hayato's neck, who in turn did the same as they pushed each other on the ground and began to wrestle again.

"Neither of you two won," Kosuke laughs.

"Ryu beat both of you," points out Tsucchi.

"WHAT?!" they yell and turn to Ryu, who stood there panting and smirking at them.

"He didn't even make a bet!" whines Hayato.

"You didn't say for who to win, so since you both lost, it means you both got punishments to do," Ryu smirks.

"I hate him sometimes," pouts Hikari.

"Yet you like him," Hayato whispers under his breath, only to earn a slap from everyone.

"That's forbidden territory!" Takeda growls lowly. "You'll upset her!" Just as he said, Hikari silently and slowly stands up with her head down.

"I'm gonna go for a walk," she says quietly and runs off before anyone could stop her.

"Nice going Hayato," Ryu states annoyed. They began to walk to the playground where Hayato sat on the duck he always sits on, with the rest of the gang glaring at him.

"Fine I'll go find her and apologize!" surrenders Hayato as he felt burns from their eyes.

"That's better," Kosuke says proudly.

"Go find Ri-chan and make her happy again!" Tsucchi demands as he pushes the fluffy-haired boy off the duck, who grumbled walking away.

"They look good together," Ryu suddenly states.

"EH?!" the guys exclaim together. "They'd kill each other!"

"Exactly," smirks Ryu as they went to a nearby food stand.

"WAIT!" Tsucchi suddenly yells, getting their attention.

"Hear what?" asks Takeda.

"Exactly!" Tsucchi exclaims, laughing. "We hear nothing! This is the first time Ri-chan didn't yell at us for calling her that!"

"Don't call me Ri-chan!" Takeda yells in a girlish voice from behind Tsucchi, causing him to jump on Kosuke. "Can't believe you fell for that!"

"I guess even Takeda can be an imp at times," tease Kosuke. "Let's go get food!"

 

~Hikari~

 

"Are you okay?" a voice asks Hikari as she sat up in a tree. She looks down to see a guy that was actually quite attractive. "Or do you just like hanging out on trees?" For the first time since Hayato brought up her crush, Hikari found herself chuckle.

"I don't know, this tree's actually pretty nice!" she yells back with a smile. "I mean, I just met a pretty cute guy just sitting up here!" Her hands flew to , did she just FLIRT? Hikari scolds herself for acting strange, she never flirts!

"Really? Well I think you're cute too!" the guy returns. "Why don't you come down so we can talk? I promise I won't bite." He sends her a quick wink. "Unless you want me to."

"No thanks, I'm not into things like that," Hikari yells down, and begins to descend from the tree. However on the way down, she slips on her footing and begins to fall. Luckily she found herself in the arms of the guy just before she hit the ground. "I'm sorry about that, I normally don't slip like that."

"It's okay, gave me a chance to be your knight in shining armor," says the guy.

"Ah, smooth guy, aren't you?" Hikari teases. "Well I'm Toda Hikari, third year." She lifts a hand for him to shake, which he took right away.

"Name's Tamaki Shoon," he introduces himself, and plans a light kiss on her hand. "It is very nice to make your acquantance."

"Well Tamaki Shoon," begins Hikari, "what are you doing in the park on such a nice day like today?"

"Like you said, it's a nice day," explains Shoon. "I happened to like the park so I came out here for a walk. What about you?"

"I'm actually here with some friends," answers Hikari, causing Shoon to scan the park.

"Where are they?" he asks, causing the smile on Hikari's face to falter.

"I actually got into a fight with one of them" she says. "Well he's not really a friend, but at the same time he is but--"

"Is he a crush?" interrupts Shoon, raising his eyebrow.

"NO!" Hikari denies quickly. "Not a crush! DEFINITELY not a crush!" However right at that moment the devil himself came.

"Ri-chan!" Hayato calls. "I need to talk to you!"

"Bunny boy!" exclaims Hikari as she nervously looks from Shoon to Hayato. "Shut up, I'm in the middle of something!" She subtlely nods toward Shoon, however Hayato seemed to have missed it.

"I wanted to apologize for what I brought up earlier," he says, panting as he leans over to catch his breath.

"No it's okay, Hayato," she says too quickly. "You can go back now!"

"Hatato?" he repeats. "Since when do you call me by my first name?" But she ignores his question and turns back to Shoon.

"Shoon! This is my...er... friend Hayato," Hikari introduces. "Hayato, this is Tamaki Shoon, I met him just a while back." The two guys seemed to be in a staring contest with Hikari standing between them, until Shoon broke the eye contact.

"Say, Ri-chan," Shoon calls to her. "If you don't mind, I'd love to take you out sometime."

"Really?" she squeals, then scolds herself mentally. "I mean yeah! Sure! Let's go out this weekend!"

"Great, why don't we exchange email addresses then?" he suggests and the two exchange numbers, with Shoon smirking at an annoyed Hayato the whole time. They finally said good bye and Hikari scolds herself aloud for her different character.

"That guy seemed weird," Hayato says in a grumpy tone. "You shouldn't go out with him."

"Jealous much?" scoffs Hikari. "Let's just go find the others."

"Duh I knew that!"

"Then why didn't you suggest it?"

"Because it's common sense to go find them after this!"

"Yeah I'm sure you thought of it."

"Shut up, Toda Toad."

"After you do, Bunny Boy."

"HMPH!" The two continued walking together with their noses in the air.

"What took you so long?" complains Kosuke. "Tsucchi kept forcing me to buy him food!"

"Nothing, just fighting with this tomboy again," scoffs Hayato. "Oy Ryu, what do you want us to do for you since you won the race?"

"Idiot," whispers Hikari. Ryu stared at the two of them, smirking.

"I want you two to go on a whole day without fighting.," Ryu proposes.

"WHAT?!" they all screamed.

"But that's impossibly!" Takeda points out.

"It means the end of the world!"

"Only when pigs fly!" However all Ryu does is smirk and go back to his food.

 

~On the Way Home~

 

"Of all the punishments he could've given, he gave us such a boring one?" whines Hayato. "And I can't believe you actually scored a date with a guy! A guy not as goodlooking as me, but still a guy!"

"Oh shut up, if you're so loud I might miss my phonecall from Shoon," grumbles Hikari as she walk and stare at her phone. "And why are you even following me anyways?!"

"I'm not following you, we just happen to live close to each other!" counters Hayato.

"Whatever, STALKER!" retorts Hikari.

"I'm not a stalker! What's so special about that guy anyways?" asks Hayato as he snatches her phone out of her hands and looked at Shoon's picture. "Doesn't look as hot as me..."

"Shut up and give me my phone back!" complains Hikari as she jumps at him, attempting to get her phone back. Suddenly Hikari kicked off the ground for a stronger jump, a move that Tetsu had taught her a while back, and ends up knocking Hayato into the wall.

"OW!" he groans and drops her phone, causing Hikari to dive straight for it.

"Ah, safe and sound," she smirks and inspects her phone. "That's what you get for messing with me."

"Why don't you watch what you're doing, you ugly tomboy?!" Hayato yells and pins her to the wall. As her head hit the wall, Hikari winces and slightly opens up her eyes, only to find herself staring into Hayato's eyes.  For some reason she was unable to counter his insult this time. Instead she found his face growing bigger and bigger until she realized it was because the space between them were closing. As they came closer, the two found themselves staring at each others' lips, where Hikari swore she saw Hayato whisper something, but she couldn't hear it. Their eyes closed, Hikari felt Hayato's breath on her lips, and just as they were 2 cm away, Hikari's phone rang. The two sprang apart as Hikari nervously picks up her phone, while Hayato leaned back against the wall.

"Hello?" answers Hikari.

"Hello? Ri-chan?" comes the voice. "It's Shoon. What do you think about having a date tomorrow at 2?"

"Oh sure!" Hikari replies with excitement. "Where do you wanna meet?"

"Same place we met today," Shoon plans out. "I'll see you tomorrow, sleep tight, pretty girl." Giggling, she returned his goodnight and hung up the phone. However her smile went away when she turned back to Hayato.

"So Shoon and I are going on a date tomorrow," she says awkwardly, which Hayato responded to with an awkward nod. The two walked silently together until they neared Hikari's house.

"I wasn't gonna kiss you, if that's what you thought," Hayato suddenly blurts out. "You just had something that I was gonna get for you. But I didn't want to let go of you in case you hit me. Besides you're just like another guy to me." Although his explanation sounded stupid and neither of them believed it, Hikari pretended it was true to avoid the awkwardness.

"That's right, right?" she agrees. "You were just going to get something for me. We'd never kiss."

"Yeah that's right!" he chuckles nervously. "So, good night Ri-chan." She walks over to punch him roughly on the shoulder. "OW!"

"Don't call me Ri-chan," she threatens, but ends up smiling. "Good night, Yabuki." Hayato quickly repeats it at the girl's retreating back as she walked through her door.

"What is wrong with me today?" Hayato asks and runs a hand through his hair.

"What's wrong with me today?" whimpers Hikari from behind the door as she watched Hayato walk away.

"Whatcha staring at, sis?" asks a voice.

"SAYO!" cries the older girl in surprise. "No one!"

"You like Yabuki don't you?" accuses Sayo, with a sly smile.

"NO!" She denies quickly. "I- It's nothing like that! It's just I-I OH! I don't have time to deal with you, I have a date tomorrow!" This statement caught her sister's attention, and somehow her sleeping mom's attention.

"Who's your date?!" questions Sayo in excitement. "Oh is he cute? You HAVE to let me choose your clothes for tomorrow!"

"Who's my darling future son-in-law?!" her mother sings as she rushes into the room. "Sayo! We must spend tonight beautifying Hikari for her date!"

"What?!" Throughout the whole night, despite the protests, Sayo and their mother were curling Hikari's hair and forced her to try on all the outfits they thought of.

 

~Date~

 

"Sorry I'm late!" apologizes Hikari. She sprinted the whole way to make sure she got to the park on time, but was still late by 15 minutes. Luckily she got her mom and sister to agree to her wearing jeans to the date.

"It's fine, I actually just got here myself," confesses Shoon. "I kinda got so excited last night and couldn't sleep. Shall we?" He held out his arm for her, and Hikari links her arm with his.

"So where are we going?" asks Hikari.

"I hope you don't mind, but I thought we should go to the game center for our first day," Shoon suggests. "So we can just relax and get to know each other." Hikari shakes her head, since she was dazzled completely by Shoon's eyes and smile. "In that case, let's go!"

Hikari completely enjoyed herself the whole day. She beat Shoon nearly in every sport-related game they played. In addition, she also learned that Shoon's parents were divorced so he felt really lonely at times, he was a pretty popular kid at school, he spent a lot of time watching movies, he's in class 3B at his school, and apparently he volunteers at animal shelters once a week. She inwardly sighed at how perfect he seemed.

"Haha, you were pretty awesome at that spinning game," laughs Hikari as they exited the arcade.

"Oh and you, you were--" Shoon's comment was cut off when a random guy walked into him. He turned back and glared at Shoon.

"You gonna apologize for that, shrimp?" the guy demands as he grabs Shoon by the collar.

"Hey you bumped into him!" defends Hikari as she grabs the guy's hand.

"This your girl?" the guy asks as he stares Hikari up and down. "Nice body, but not y at all!" His insult causes his five buddies in the back to laugh.

"It doesn't matter if I'm y or whatever," sneers Hikari. "What matters is that you bumped into HIM. NOT the other way around. So YOU apologize to him right now, or don't blame me for what happens." However her threat was met with laughter from the guy and his friends.

"You need your little girlfriend to protect you?" one of his friends said, laughing at Shoon, who remaind silent.

"I'm sorry," Shoon quietly apologizes, which received even more laughter from the guys and frustration from Hikari, who finally decided to take action. She tightened her grip on the guy's arm and pulls it off Shoon's collar.

"I said for you to apologize to him," she hissed. "DO IT!"

"Haha your boyfriend already apologized, little girl!" mocks the guy. "Just let it go."

"Fine," smirks Hikari. Without warning, she swirls the guy around, nearly breaking his wrist and kicks him into his friends. "Next time think before disrespecting someone." However just as she turns her back, the guy picks up a chair from a nearby stall and stalks toward Hikari.

"Hikari!" Shoon wheezes as he points to the guy behind her. However she was one second too late, she turned just in time to have the chair collide with her face. "Hikari!" He dove down to her side and hugged her. "What do you think you're doing?! Hitting a girl like that?"

"This girl needs to know her place!" shouts the rude guy.  One of his friends picked up Shoon and threw him to the side for one guy to rough up. However the other five surrounded Hikari. In a few moments, Shoon and Hikari found themselves thrown against the wall inside an alley. The group of thugs quickly separated the two of them again and slammed Hikari into the wall. With one final slap, they stopped. "Now I'll show you what happens when you cross a man." Hugging her tighter, Shoon tried to move them behind the trashcan as the thug pulled off his belt.

"Don't touch our precious friend!" a voice suddenly yells. Everyone turned their heads toward the light to see Ryu and Hayato emerge with Yankumi in front of them.

"You've hurt my student pretty badly. Can you give her back to us now?" asks Yankumi in a sweet voice, although her expression did not match at all.

"What?" laughs the group. "Your little girl just disrespected me. I was just teaching her a lesson."

"I saw what happened!" yells Hayato. "You bumped into him! She was just defending him!"

"If you want to lie, I will show you the consequence," Yankumi threatens and took off her glasses and pigtails. The group all watch as Yankumi beats up the thugs one by one, allowing Ryu and Hayato to help their friend and her date onto their feet.

"Thank you, Yankumi," Hikari says. "This is kinda lame though, having your teacher come with you on your date."

"We can't let the princess of 3D to get hurt," jokes Yankumi, ruffling her student's hair. "And who's this boy?"

"This is Tamaki Shoon," introduces Hikari. "He's in 3B of his class." With a worried expression, Shoon quietly introduces himself to Ryu and Yankumi, as he occasionally glares at Hayato.

"Well it was nice to meet you all, but it's time for me to go," Shoon says as he gets up. "Thank you for saving us, Yamaguchi-sensei. Good bye beautiful." He gives Hikari a light hug, careful not to hurt her. As he limps away, Hikari felt a vibration in her pocket and pulled out her phone.

'I know today was a bit awkward, but would you like to be my girlfriend?

~~Shoon'

"WHOO HOO!!!" Hikari whoops, jumping in the air.

"What?" asks Ryu, with an entertained smile.

"Shoon just ask me to be his girlfriend!" she cheers as she texts him back with her answer.

"WHAT?!" Hayato gasps and grabs her phone. "WHY? What could he possibly see in an ugly tomboy like you?! You got no appeal like Yankumi here!  And the guy couldn't fight either! Why would you even like him? I'm good looking AND I can fight!"

"UGLY?!" growls Hikari.

"NO APPEAL?!" hisses Yankumi. The next few moments of the night basically ended with the girls trying to kill Hayato while Ryu commanded them apart every time.