Days became weeks. Weeks became months. Months became years.

Seventh grade began and Ruki stayed in Kouyou's class. The latter didn't seem very pleased by it, but Ruki was glad he had his victim close. Nowadays Ruki knew what he felt when he hurt Kouyou was wrong, but he couldn't help it - he still loved it and could never quite get enough of it. Last year he'd gotten Kouyou beaten up a couple of times and on the second time he saw blood. It made everything just better.

It wasn't just Kouyou's pain that made it good, but Akira. Every time Kouyou got bullied Akira would come help and Ruki absolutely loved his face at those times. Soft, worrying... loving. It took him a long time to realize that the reason he loved that expression so much was that he wanted Akira to look at Ruki himself like that. It took him even longer to realize that it was because he was in love, but as seventh grade had been going on for half a year he found himself staring at Akira helping Kouyou, heart beating hard against his chest, cheeks turned pink.

His love towards Akira grew fast. He started calling him 'Reita' like Kouyou did, just to see if he would care about him more then. Reita didn't mind, but Kouyou stayed as his number one.

The more Ruki loved Reita, the more he hurt Kouyou. Sometimes, when he had gotten an overdose of Reita, he beat Uruha up himself and got just more pleasure from it. He realized the reason he wanted to hurt Uruha was that he wanted to get rid of him, wanted Reita all to himself.

On ninth grade it was official - Ruki hated Kouyou. He hated how Kouyou looked at his Reita, he hated how he got more attention from his Reita, he simply hated it when Kouyou was in his Reita's presence. And so he started spreading rumors about Kouyou so that maybe Reita would leave him. He told people Kouyou was a , that old dirty men paid to touch him and that in reality after school he had a lot of 'jobs' to attend. He often scattered 'evidence' around Kouyou. Once it was a maid-dress, once it was a leash and a whip, once Kouyou found leather cuffs from his bag.

Reita seemed to be the only person to believe Kouyou wasn't a .

Ruki didn't give up on hope though - since he couldn't get rid of Kouyou, he could just make Reita like him more, right? And so, every time he saw Reita out in the town, they went out for coffee and Ruki felt like he was doing very well. Reita liked his company, maybe at some point he would like him more than Kouyou...

One snowy day of January Ruki saw Kouyou as he was on his way to the town. Kouyou was sitting on the ground next to an apartment building, and cried. He didn't even notice Ruki sneaking closer to him, which allowed the younger boy to get a closer look. Kouyou had bruises on him - many more than Ruki remembered, and many of them were fresh. There was a deep cut on his cheek, maybe caused by a sharp piece of glass.

No matter how much Ruki loved hurting Kouyou, the sight made him feel bad. Maybe it was because Kouyou looked so helpless, so pitiful. His dyed blonde hair was falling on his face, streaks of tears on his cheeks. Or maybe it was because Ruki knew those bruises weren't caused by him or his 'friends'.

Ruki hesitated a little before kneeling next to Kouyou. The latter finally realized he was there and startled as he saw who it was next to him. "Go away", he whispered, his voice trembling. Ruki frowned. It wasn't Kouyou's job to tell him what to do, especially when he stopped by to help for once! He was mad, but more curious so he asked what had happened.

"It's none of your business. Leave." Kouyou tried to sound threatening, but failed - he sounded weak and scared. "No", Ruki said, hard-headed and clearly not giving up until he got an answer. He didn't know why exactly he wanted to help Kouyou, but he did know that once he wanted something, he would get it no matter what.

Kouyou decided to ignore Ruki and just buried his face in his hands, pulling his knees closer to his body. Ruki got mad because no one, no one, was allowed to ignore him like that.

"Uruha." He had no idea why he called Kouyou that. He had just heard Reita calling him 'Uruha', so he figured it'd catch the honey-blonde's attention. And indeed, Kouyou looked up with teary eyes as if it was a natural reaction from him.

"Go away! You're just making it worse, I hate you!" Kouyou suddenly screamed, startling Ruki greatly. The latter frowned. He had an urge to slap Kouyou, have him three times as bruised as now...  But he decided against it. "I was just trying to help", he spat and left Kouyou cry alone.

The next day Ruki didn't give a glance at Kouyou. He didn't even tell anyone to beat him or humiliate him - he wasn't on the mood for that. After school he saw Kouyou meeting up with Reita at the school gates, and he seemed much happier than yesterday. Of course, it's not like Ruki liked seeing his classmate happy, but it made Reita happy - and Ruki loved seeing a smile on the man's lips.

In fact, Ruki loved everything about Reita. His stubborn yet gentle nature, the dyed, spiky blond hair, his dark eyes, even the odd white cloth he always wore across his nose. Reita had changed over years, but in Ruki's opinion none of those changes were bad. At least he wore his pants properly now, not like a gangster.

~~~

"Today you'll be doing a projects in groups of two. Pick a subject from the blackboard and make sure your presentation is ready in two weeks..."

The voice of Ruki's English teacher was boring and he was almost falling asleep listening to it, even though he was usually a straight A student. The subjects on the board were boring too... He didn't get the whole point of the thing. He understood giving a presentation was educational and so on, but in English? It was one of his worst subjects!

As the teacher finished talking about the project-thingy, the class already started forming pairs but before half of the class had even moved to their partner, the teacher raised her hand with a glint in her eye. The students looked at her impatiently.

"I'm sorry to say this, but we'll be sorting the pairs by pulling the names out of a hat." She looked a bit disappointed as the students growled, complaining since the all wanted to be with their friends. She laughed a little and said: "Now, now! Who knows, maybe you'll get a good friend thanks to the project? It's always good to work with other people, not only your bbf!"

"It's bff", muttered a girl from the back, but the teacher didn't pay attention. Instead she pulled out a hat, quickly wrote everyone's names on notes and then started pulling names out of the hat.

Ruki wasn't exactly interested in knowing who was with who so he just sketched little characters on his notebook until he heard his name. "Takanori and... Kouyou!"

He looked up from his notebook in confusion. That couldn't be true... That couldn't be true! He couldn't be with Kouyou, out of all people! He glanced at the said boy to see him shaking visibly. His skin was pale and he looked like he'd just seen a ghost.

"Please, teacher! Can't we switch? I don't want to be with him! What if he'll molest me? You don't know where his hands have been!" Ruki complained but the teacher either had a very bad hearing or she just ignored him and called out more names. Ruki groaned and sat back in his chair, tapping a pencil against the desk in front of him.

"Okay then, you have about 20 minutes to start planning!" the teacher said overly cheerfully after she finished calling out names. Some lucky students went happily to their friends, some disappointed ones walked to their partners slowly and upset. Ruki wasn't moving anywhere. He was just staring out of a window, his legs crossed on his desk. Kouyou would clearly have to come to him.

"Um..." Ruki looked to his left when he heard the blonde's nervous voice. He gazed at Kouyou for a while, trying to find unfamiliar bruises on him, but couldn't find any so he said: "What should our subject be?"

"You can decide", Kouyou muttered shyly as he sat on a free chair next to Ruki. The latter looked at the blackboard, at the subjects they should pick from. A few had a line drawn over them, meaning someone had already taken the subject. They were all about some cities in English-speaking countries.

"London is still free", Ruki pointed out. He'd always wanted to visit New York, but it was already taken. London seemed pretty interesting too, so he walked to the board and drew a line over the city.

"Have... Have you ever visited London?" Ruki was surprised to hear Kouyou willingly ask a question like that. He blinked, then replied: "Nope. You?" Kouyou shook his head.

"Well, then, since neither of us has real-life experience we better search from the internet. Does your phone have any battery left? Mine is about to die..." Ruki paused his babble (he was shocked by the fact that he managed to talk so much) and realized Kouyou didn't seem very happy. Well, it's not like he usually seemed happy at school, but it looked like something was wrong. Ruki frowned and asked: "You okay?"

"I... I don't have a phone..." the blonde muttered. His cheeks were light pink and he looked ashamed of himself. "Why?" Ruki questioned in a voice that told the other he would have to either answer or die.

"My dad..." Kouyou started quietly, then shook his head and continued: "I accidentally dropped it and it broke. I can't afford a new one." Ruki knew it wasn't the truth, but decided to let it go this time since they were in class and had to work on a project. "Fine. We'll just do a little planning now and research some other time."

The 20 minutes passed slowly. They weren't very comfortable around each other and their bits of conversation were short and an awkward silence always followed them. After the class they got as far away from each other as they could and left the room without saying good-bye.

On lunchtime Ruki decided he needed to relief his stress somehow so he watched a few guys beat Kouyou up. He was sure the blonde saw him looking, but it was just better that way because he could see Kouyou's teary eyes begging him for help.

When the guys had finished, Ruki stayed for a while. He kneeled next to the crying Kouyou and said softly: "Let's work hard on that project, shall we?" Then he smiled and walked away like nothing had happened.

Later that day Ruki hung out with Reita. They went out to the town and decided to visit a new store that sold musical instruments. Ruki knew the nosebanded blonde played the bass so he had decided to start playing a guitar or something, just to have something in common with Reita.

"Do you play anything?" Reita asked, as if he had read Ruki's thoughts. The latter smiled sweetly and answered: "No, but I'd like to try something out. Any suggestions?"

"Well, what're you interested in?" Reita asked, gazing at some cool-looking (but very expensive) basses on the wall. Ruki stepped a little closer, so close that he could smell Reita, and thought for a moment. "I don't know. Drums, I guess. I'm not sure though, I'd rather be in front when I'm on stage... But I don't think I'd be good at playing a guitar."

"How about vocals?" Reita chuckled. The thought had never crossed Ruki's mind before but now he imagined himself on stage, singing, headbanging, making fans crazy... He liked the thought. A lot. "That actually sounds nice."

"Have you sung in front of people before?" Reita asked as they started walking around the store. "No... I'm too shy. I do sing along when I listen to music though", Ruki answered with a cute hint of smile on his lips.

"You could sing for me sometime. I'm curious of how you sound", Reita suggested, flashing a gentle smile at the younger boy. Ruki was happier than in a long time. Reita had just suggested a private meeting, right? That was all he could've wished for! He had never even been to Reita's home! "Sure, that sounds nice!" he replied.

"Great! I'm free on Friday, wanna come to my place then? You can sing for me, we can play some games and rent a movie or something too", Reita said. Ruki was a bit disappointed when he heard the word 'games' - he had never liked playing video games. But if it was with Reita, it would be fine. Everything was fine with Reita.

"My friend might be coming overnight then though, I hope you don't mind", Reita said, a bit of an apologetic shade in his voice. Ruki shook his head, saying he didn't mind, but still asked who Reita's friend was - maybe he knew the friend.

"His name is Kouyou. Takashima Kouyou."

Ruki felt a bit of nausea in the pit of his stomach. 'Kouyou. Takashima Kouyou.' Oh well... Ruki faked a bright smile and told: "He's in my class! We're actually working on a project together so it'd be great to hang out together since we don't know each other very well yet."

Reita seemed pleased with the thought and they continued looking at the instruments. Ruki didn't know what Friday would be like, but he was sure he could manage through it.

A NEW CHAPTER!!!

That was faster than I thought, I should write my other fics too :'D Well, not much to say about this... I'm pretty sure their English teacher is gonna be in more chapters because I think she'll be a funny character to write about :3