"Good morning!" greets Hikari brightly. She jogs to Hayato's side. "Can we talk about last night?"

"What about it?" he grumbles, barely looking at her. His attitude immediately irked her. After flirting with those girls last night, who does he think he is? Giving her so much attitude? She decided to take Ryu's advice and praise him more, and this is how he acts?

"What happened last night? You didn't get one of those girls pregnant did you?" she growls.

"Of course not," hisses Hayato, running a hand through his hair. Damn that Ryu... Wait...

"Hey, where's Ryu?" asks Hikari, glancing around the classroom. The guys are unsually quiet today. After a group date, you'd think they'd be more hyped up than usual, so why are they so silent? Not only that, but no one except Hayato could look at her in the eye. "Oy! Takamoto!" Hikari grabs him by the collar and yanks him up. "I asked you a questoin!"

"I don't know!" he cries fearfully.

"Put him down!" shouts Hayato, causing Hikari to flinch slightly and obey him. "We'll wait for Yankumi first." Despite being annoyed about being kept in the dark, Hikari nodded and took her seat next to Hayato. From their seriousness, something must've happened last night after she left.

It felt like ages before Yankumi entered the room. Immediately the boys flew up from their places and threw an infinite amount of questions.

"Due to yesterday, Odagiri will no longer be going to school," Yankumi sighs. Once again silence falls upon the class.

"What do you mean he's not going to school?" demands Tsucchi, attempting to keep his anger down.

"Is it because of last night?" Takeda asks.

"Can someone explain to me what happened last night?" growls Hikari.

"After you left, Tsucchi ran into Sarudori in the bathrooms," Hyuga answers slowly. "He ran back in to warn us and we all left right away."

"We left so fast, we forgot to pay," continues Tsucchi. "Then..."

"Then?" Hikari urges, wanting them to hurry up.

"We were surrounded by the police," Takeda adds. "When we were figuring out what to do, we were told someone bailed us out."

"And that someone was Ryu's dad," Hayato finishes. Immediately, Hikari knew what's the result of disappointing someone like him.

"He's locked up now isn't he?" asks Hikari, and everyone right there knew what happened to their friend.

"What are we going to do?" sighs Hayato. "We were all supposed to graduate together right? We're not going to leave him alone right?"

"Of course not!" Yankumi answers angrily. "I just don't know what to do right now."

"Hayato, what do we do?" Takeda asks. Everyone turns to their leader for the answer.

Instead of paying attention in class, both Hayato and Hikari thought of ways to save Ryu. Considering it's Hayato, Hikari assumed his idea would be completely fool-ful, so she knew Ryu's fate rested on her. She's met his father before, so maybe she can appeal to his fatherly side and convince him to return Ryu. That's it! That's what she is going to do!

That night after training at the Oedo place, she walks to Ryu's house. It has to be tonight. Otherwise, who knows what stupid ideas Hayato would have?

"It's the same as I remembered it," she states as memories fill her mind. "Yosh, let's go talk to Papa Odagiri!" Hikari moves to press the button at the gates, but a figure suddenly jumps over the gate and into her. "Ow! Ryu?!"

"Hikari?" gasps Ryu in return.

"How'd you get out?" Hikari asks, surprised. With his dad, there's no way Ryu can escape that easily. He glances quickly over the wall again before grabbing Hikari's hand and pulling her away.

"No time to explain, run now!" he yells. Instead of asking questions, she simply follows him. Soon enough her impatience gets the best of her and she violently retracts her hand, shocking him slightly.

"Will you explain to me what's going on, Ryu?" she demands angrily. "And why are we running away? How'd you even escape your father?" Ryu looks down sadly and a few seconds later, Hikari's eyes widening, understanding what must've happened. "Hayato and them snuck you out, didn't they?" Her accusation is met with a confirming silence. Worry for Hayato runs through her as she implulsively grabs Ryu by the collar and slams him against a nearby tree. "How could you leave them like that?! They saved you and you left them?!" Without thinking, Hikari's fist flies at Ryu's face, knocking him over. Immediately she feels guilt, but at the same time, she couldn't forgive him for abandoning Hayato.

"Don't you think I know that?" Ryu hisses lowly. He turns to face her with a frustrated expression and grabs her by her collar this time. "Don't you think I know that?! You think I don't care about them?! I can't go back! Not when I know they risked their futures trying to save me! What good would it be if I went back?!" Without giving her a chance to respond, he runs off while Hikari stays there frozen, stunned by her own actions.

"If he won't go back for them, I will," she mumbles, and begins heading toward the direction of the school. It didn't take long for her to find a familiar group heading toward her. Somewhere they always found their way to each other. "Hayato!" Her anger from last night fades when she sees him, throwing herself into his arms and nearly knocking him over.

"Ri-chan! What's wrong?" he gasps, trying to stand up.

"I-it's nothing, I'm s-sorry for everything," cries Hikari, hugging him tightly. Of course the airheaded leader of 3D only looks at her with confusion. "It's nothing now. Just promise me you won't look at another girl okay?" Hayato finally understands what's going on and pats her head comfortingly.

"There's no other girls in the world except you," Hayato says sweetly, hugging her.

"It's good you two are patching things up, but we have other problems," Tsucchi reminds them, breaking them apart.

"Yeah, we need to find Ryu!" Takeda chimes worriedly. "Have you seen him, Ri-chan?"

"Why? He abandoned you guys," retorts Hikari, still annoyed.

"No he didn't, we told him to go," Hyuga defends. "If he stayed then he would've gotten caught with us."

"Ri-chan, if you know where he is, lead us to him," states Hayato firmly. "We need to find him before his dad does."

"Toda-san, please," Yankumi begs. Hikari looks at them with anger for Ryu in her eyes, but soften when she finally accepts why Ryu did what he did.

"This way," sighs Hikari, running to where she and Ryu split. They go a bit further and arrive at a group of men beating up their friend.

"This is what you get for being a smart ," one of them says, holding up a fist. The yakuza training kicks in and in less than a second Hikari is over there with them, inhibiting the man from punching Ryu.

"This is what you get for hurting my friend," replies Hikari. She adds pressure to his fist, causing him to cry out in pain. Finally she throws him at three of his lackeys, sending them to the ground. The remaining ones stare at her in fear. "Now get the hell out of here before I start to kill." She gives them a bloodthirsty glare, causing them to flee in terror as the guys help Ryu up. "Ryu, are you okay? I'm so sorry for earlier."

"What are you doing?" Yankumi asks Ryu. He looks up at her with shame. They pick him up and bring him to the cafe they usually go to.

"Guys, I have to go, my mom will be worried," Hikari says. "Sorry, but I can't accompany you guys anymore for tonight."

"That's fine, thank you, Toda-san," Yankumi thanks.

"You guys go ahead," Hayato suddenly says. "I want to say good bye to Ri-chan."

"We can say good bye together!" Hyuga says, not noticing the glare from Hayato.

"You idiot," Takeda says, rolling his eyes. Tsucchi hits him on the head with a fan and drags him away. "Have fun you two." Hayato waits for everyone to leave before speaking.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know me being with those girls yesterday made you feel uncomfortable," he apologizes, rubbing the back of his head. "Kosuke told me about it earlier and I felt really bad."

"It's fine, Ryu helped show me why you did it," she mumbles in return. "Hayato?" Hearing his name, Hayato looks at her with his adorable look of confusion. "I like you." Using the last ounce of her confidence, Hikari stands on her tip toes and pecks his cheek. "Bye!" She quickly turns, but Hayato snatches her wrist and pulls her back into him with a bear hug.

"I don't want you to ever kiss me like that again," Hayato mumbles into her hair.

"Eh?" Hayato finally releases her from the bear hug and holds her where he can look at her in the eye.

"It's the man's job to kiss his lady first right?" he asks, causing Hikari to blush. "Besides, you missed." Without wasting another second, Hayato crashes his lips in Hikari's. Hikari can feel herself shying away as Hayato loses his shyness. She leaves her hands on his chest, gripping on his blazer to keep her up. Meanwhile, Hayato's arms wrap around her waist and hold her up, something Hikari really appreaciated because otherwise she would probably fall. Her knees grew weaker with each passing second, feeling her heart connect with his. Something about Hayato seriously irked her, but at the same time made her feel like she's floating. After what feels like a wonderful eternity, Hayato finally breaks off the kiss. "See? That's how a kiss is supposed to be like. Good night, Hikari." Hearing him call her by her name sent butterflies through her stomach. He pecks her lips once more and turns to enter the cafe.

"Good night, Hayato," Hikari sighs dreamily, slowly returning to her home. She's finally ended her problems with Hayato, so hopefully Ryu's problems will end soon too. They're a family, they have to stay together and graduate together no matter what. Ryu can't be pulled out of school again. "Yankumi, please save Ryu."

Man I'm so sorry for taking so long to update. I've recently lost interest in Gokusen, but I don't want to leave this story unfinished, so I will try to finish this story by the end of this month since there is probably only one or two chapters left. Those who are still reading this, I truly apologize and I'm thankful you waited so long for this. I hope that sweet moment at the end makes up for the long hiatus.