Contrary to what unfolded the day before, Amu arrived to class early the next morning. In fact, she was the first to even take a seat and had already been studying by the time the room was filled with students. 

One thing that didn't change, however, was the rude mumbles made by her classmates but Amu learned to pay less attention to it. Even the students were frustrated when she didn't bat an eye at any of the comments they made. They were simply unsatisfied.

Unluckily for them, their dissatisfaction grew even more when Amu learned that she was no longer part of their class. 

"Kitagawa, you're actually not supposed to be here." The teacher told her in front of the rest of the students. "Have you not heard?"

Amu furrowed her eyebrows and suspended her thoughts for a moment. Was the teacher pranking her as well?

"You're transferred to East wing, to class 1A." The teacher announced, waving Amu's new East badge in the air. 

"1A!?!" Students around her started gasping. "... But that's the class everyone wants to get into." 

At this moment in time, every pair of eyes in the class were nested on the girl. Not wanting to disrupt the peace of the class more than she already had, Amu quickly gathered her belongings and proceeded towards the teacher; And as soon as she received the badge, she bolted out of the classroom without stopping to take a look at her new pass.

The morning bell had already rung before Amu had made it to the East wing. As soon as she arrived at the East Corridor, she scanned her badge at the security desk and nearly jumped in disbelief when it turned green. "There's no way..." She whispered to herself, rushing on to find her new classroom.  

As soon as she arrived at the classroom door under the sign, '1A', Amu took a deep breath and slid it open expecting another wave of accusations. Instead, she was met promptly with a warm greeting from the teacher.

"So glad you can join us today!" The teacher smiled, nudging her to enter. "Class, this is our new transfer student. Kitagawa-san, would you like to introduce yourself?" 

A self-introduction wasn't something Amu was expecting today. However, being in front of large crowds was something she was already used to, given that her father used to bring her along with all of his business trips and meetings. "Hi, I'm Kitagawa Amu, but Amu is fine! I arrived from New York last week so I'm still relatively new to Tokyo. I'm really excited to meet everyone."

A round of applause quickly followed her introduction and Amu was taken back by the genuine sincerity of this class. 'How can two wings be this different?' She pondered to herself.

"Kitagawa, your seat is next to Chinen's. Chinen, could you help her catch up with some of our lessons this quarter?" The teacher requested.

"Of course," The boy replied. Amu's gaze trailed his voice before landing it on Chinen himself. He waved his hand and Amu hurried over to take the empty seat next to him at the back of the class. 

"Nice to see you again, Amu-chan." Chinen greeted her. 

"Again?" The boy in front of Chinen questioned, turning around in his seat to investigate what the relationship was between the two. "You two met before? When?"

"Mou, she just transferred to our class today and you're already bombarding her with questions?" The girl next to Ryosuke jokingly lectured. "I'm Rio, by the way, Rio Yamada. It's nice to finally have a girl in this group." 

"Nice to meet you, Rio-chan!" Amu replied cheerfully, excited that she had just made a new friend. ".. and uhm, I don't think I caught your name." She said to the boy sitting diagonally from her.

The brown-haired boy swiftly exchanged glances with Chinen. Then he remembered from her introduction that she hasn't been in Japan for long- and probably hasn't heard of Hey! Say! JUMP yet, let alone the entire Johnny's Entertainment. 

"I'm Ryosuke Yamada."

"Eh? Are you two related by any chance?" Amu asked in curiosity. The two immediately widened their eyes and denied her assumption.

"No! of course not!" Ryosuke and Rio panicked, not realizing how loud their voices suddenly amplified. 

"Hey you two, I know you're super excited to meet each other, but let's keep our voices down because the class is starting soon." The teacher lectured.

"Sorry!" The two apologized in sync once more. 

"They're just really close friends..." Chinen whispered to Amu. "Maybe closer than we think."

Compared to the day before, the rest of this morning passed by quickly, and before everyone realized it, it was already time for their afternoon break.

"Amu-chan, want to join us for lunch?" Rio asked. 

"Eh? Is that okay?" 

"Of course! Grab your stuff, we'll take you to our usual lunch spot."

Amu followed Rio, Ryosuke, and Chinen down the halls and into an old storage room. Large brown boxes were stacked nearly to the ceiling and she couldn't imagine where they could possibly sit and eat. That was until Ryosuke led the group to another door at the corner which revealed a much cleaner room with an actual tv, chairs, and a long table. 

"Mou, took you guys long enough." A guy said, standing up from his seat at the table. "You must be Amu! I heard a lot about you through this guy," he said, nudging Chinen with his elbow. "I'm Nakajima Yuto but Yuto is fine." 

"It's nice to meet you, Yuto." Amu greeted him. 

"You four are so lucky to be in the same class. If only my grades were high enough." Yuto droned.

"Then study harder," Ryosuke responded, teasing his younger friend. 

"Dude, you barely made the cut into the class either!" Yuto retorted, whacking Ryosuke on the arm. "And without Rio's help, I doubt you would've passed the midterms!" 

"You're not wrong." Ryosuke smiled at Rio. "And I'm really grateful for that." 

Rio felt her cheeks quickly heat up and quickly averted her gaze away from the brown-haired boy next to her. Meanwhile, Yuto glanced back and forth between the two, a confused expression evidently plastered on his face. "Wait, is there something going on with you both?" 

"What? No..." Rio protested. "There's nothing going on between us, right Ryosuke?" She added, nudging the guy next to her for help. 

"Yeah... Uh, we're just friends...."

Before anyone else in the room could utter a single word, Ryosuke's phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it to quickly read the text he just received and at the moment after, he was already throwing on his jacket.

"I'll be back before class starts. I just have to take care of something really fast." Ryosuke said to the group. He gave Rio a reassuring smile before rushing out of their break room.

"I wonder how long he's been like this..." Yuto mumbled softly.

Chinen and Yuto knew that Rio and Ryosuke had the biggest crushes on each other- but neither of them knew that the two had actually started dating a week ago when Ryosuke finally accepted Rio's confession. 

There was a reason why Ryosuke waited that long but he hasn't told Rio about any of it. As a matter of fact, he hasn't told anyone except his best friend- who wasn't in school today because of a last-minute drama shoot.

Coincidentally, Chinen's and Yuto's phone also vibrated at the same time. After seeing who the message was from, they rolled their eyes in sync. "It's our manager. He's at the school with our scripts for the next episode." Chinen explained, throwing his jacket on.

'Episode?' Amu thought to herself, not seeming to understand what she had just heard. 

"We'll be back," Yuto announced and the two girls nodded at him.

After all the guys had left the room, Rio leaned back in her seat and sighed. “This might be a far-fetched question but... Amu-chan, have you ever dated a celebrity before?” 

“Not that I recall..." Amu laughed softly, taken back by the strange question. "... But is everything okay?"

“First, promise me you won't tell anyone." The older girl began. The two had only met today but she knew that there was something different about the latter- Rio knew she could trust her. After all, Chinen is the most paranoid out of all of them, yet he did invite Amu to join them on just her second day. 

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