“We’ll settle this with an election,” Fumie suggests. “You and I will both be entering.”

                “The one who wins will be the leader, as well as the student body president?” Saya asks.

                “Of course,” answers the Catteleya princess. Rin sighs silently. All this is over an argument of bringing the boys’ desks back into the classroom. Why can’t the girls allow the boys to keep some of their traditions?

                “As expected of Fumie, good idea,” Sayuri praises. The girls smile at Fumie before turning their gaze toward Rin.

                “And you?” inquires Konna from the back row. “Are you with us or are you going to become a traitor?”

                “I…” Rin starts, but trails off, not knowing what to say. She didn’t want to betray anyone. Tatsuya’s finally accepted her even though the other guys haven’t, but he’s her friend now. He loves Bakada with all his heart and wants to make it into the physically strongest school. On the other hand, she looked up to Fumie and knows for sure she can lead their school to prosperity. Like Tatsuya, Fumie also wants to make her school into the best, but in manner and academic-wise.  Both leaders cared about their school in a different way, how can Rin choose?

                “Everyone, please leave Rin-san alone,” Fumie defends, standing next to her. “I trust that she’ll choose who she believes is best for the school.” Rin looks at Fumie with gratitude and smiles.

                “Good morning, Tetsuya-kun,” Rin greets, walking past the girls showing support for Fumie.

                “Good morning, Rin,” replies Tetsuya.

                “So that’s why she doesn’t need friends over at Catteleya,” one of the girls states loudly. “She already has boy toys from Bakada.” Rin looks down in embarrassment, not knowing how to respond. Of course it angered her that they would say such things and bully her just because she’s a scholarship student and not high-class like them, but there’s no way she can stand up for herself when they have so much power. Luckily with a glare from Tetsuya, the girls immediately shut up and go back to handing out fliers.

                “You should fight back,” Tetsuya urges, causing her to look at him with embarrassment. “They pick on you because you’re such an easy target. Fight back.”

                “But—“ Rin starts but is cut off by him.

                “Never mind,” he says, interrupting her. “You need to learn how to stand up for you at some point though. I can’t always be there for you. Keep that in mind.” Rin watches him sadly as he walks over to the guys and Tatsuya, giving him a fist bump. What does he mean he can’t always be there? Seeing Rin, Tatsuya softly punches her on the shoulder as a greeting, ignoring the confused looks from the guys.

                “Sup!” Tatsuya greets with a smile.

                “How do you do?” Rin returns with a smile, curtsying.

                “Ah, she’s so cute, she melted my heart!” one of the guys grins, pretending to fall backward into his friend’s arms. What’s his name again? The senior who got held back? Nonetheless, his compliment causes Rin to blush shyly and look at the ground.

                “You think every girl is cute, Shohei-san,” points out a boy with a pretty face. Rin begins hoping they would mention each other’s names so she can memorize them quickly. As if he can read her mind, Tetsuya leans down to her ear to introduce each of them quietly.

                “The one who called him Shohei is Maya,” whispers Tetsuya, pointing to the pretty one. “Don’t ever say anything about him looking like a girl though. He’ll go berserk.” Rin nods slightly in fear, taking in his warning. “The one fanning Shohei there is Satoshi, not the smartest one, but he’s a good friend.” Rin lets out a small giggle since Satoshi is fanning Shohei with the wrong end. “The one with the headphones is Yuuki, he has a tendency to randomly shout things out in English, so don’t feel worried if you don’t understand him. The one next to him is Makoto, his ideas get crazy and unbelievable at times. And you already know Shohei, Tatsuya, and me.”

                “Oy, Tetsuya!” Satoshi calls out. “You’re pretty close to that girl, is she a secret girlfriend?” The guys begin whooping in a teasing manner, causing Rin to blush and deny it while Tetsuya keeps his usual calm façade.

                “No, we’re just friends,” answers Tetsuya and Rin nods.

                “He’s the first friend I made since I transferred to Catteleya,” she adds. “That’s why I consider him a close friend. There’s nothing going between us.”

                “In that case,” Shohei starts with a huge grin. He begins tapping Yuuki and whispering to him. The guys watch curiously as the two whispers back and forth. Finally they part and Shohei runs to stand in front of Rin.

                “Can I ha vu yah baby, phone nun bah?” Shohei asks in broken English. The guys stare with confusion, Tetsuya will an “are you serious” face, Yuuki face palming, and Rin standing there confused on how to respond.

                “No you idiot!” Yuuki groans loudly, hitting him on the back of the head. “It’s ‘Can I have your phone number, baby?’ You called her a phone number and asked for her baby!”

                “She has a baby?!” Satoshi gasps, clinging onto Maya. “When did she become a mother?! Who’s the dad?! Tetsuya! Did you know?!” Snarling, Maya pushes him off. The scene is apparently amusing to Makoto, who begins laughing. After a while, Yuuki joins in, hanging onto Makoto and laughing as well. Shohei remains on the ground, looking embarrassed as ever.

                “No, Tanaka isn’t a mother,” answers the pretty-faced boy. “There’s no baby.”

                “She aborted the baby!?” Satoshi gasps again. He grabs Rin by the shoulders and shakes her violently. “How can you do that?!” By now Makoto and Yuuki are in tears, hugging each other and nearly dying on the ground. Rin looks at Satoshi with horror as he shakes her around.

                “Stop it, you’re scaring her,” warns Tetsuya, pulling his friend off Rin. “Shohei messed up the words.”

                “Who cares about that?” Satoshi wails, hugging Shohei. “She aborted a baby! Why would you do that with a guy and not take responsibility for it?! Who’s the guy that you slept with?!” He begins asking that same question in different forms, ignoring strange looks from by passers and ‘shut up’s from his friends. Finally having enough of the embarrassment, Rin shouts at him.

                “I’m still a , Satoshi-san!” she shouts angrily. Suddenly everything became quiet as all attention turned towards their group. The only sounds are from cars honking and Makoto and Yuuki’s laughter. At least one good thing came out of this, Satoshi finally understands what happened.

                “Hey! What are you all looking at?!” Satoshi bellows at the spectators. “As if you’ve never seen a before!” While Rin felt glad he is standing up for her, the way he does it only embarrasses her more, causing her to hide her face in her hands. Chuckling, Tetsuya pats her on the head in a comforting manner. “I’m a too! Are you going to stare?! Get back to what you were doing!” When they continue to stare, Satoshi snaps again and they finally turn away. Rin can’t tell if she should face palm or giggle. Tetsuya was definitely right, Satoshi might not be the smartest, but his heart is innocent and sweet. It was nice of him to try to help her out, even if it probably made it worse.

                “Alright enough of that, what are they doing anyways?” Tatsuya asks, gesturing to the girls who are handing out fliers.

                “You know, smiling, handing out fliers, waving hands,” answers Satoshi in a simple minded manner. In a way, Satoshi had a cute childlike manner, making Rin feel slightly more comfortable with him.

                “There’s no way we’re doing something lame like that!” Tatsuya replies, grinning.

                “So what are you going to do?” Rin asks. She looks at him with uncertainty, knowing fully well that Tatsuya and these guys probably don’t even know how elections work.

                “I don’t know,” sighs Tatsuya.

                “Well to win votes for elections, you need to show that you’re better than the other candidate,” the quiet girl explains. Tatsuya’s eye widens at her words. “And the most important thing is—“

                “Got it! Thanks Rin!” shouts Tatsuya, grabbing a few of the guys and running eagerly to class. Rin turns to Tetsuya in confusion.

                “This should be interesting,” he smirks in amusement, following them.

~Later that Day~

                “What were you thinking?!” Rin scolds the cheering boys in their special room. “This not how you win elections!”  She can nearly pull out her hair at the thought of this reckless boy challenging the Catteleya princess to an eating competition.  And don’t even mention the display he pulled at racing to class, so many skirts flew due to his inhumane speed.

                “You said to show that I’m better than her, and I did!” retorts the Bakada leader, earning another round of cheers from his boys.

                “As expected of Tatsuya!” adds Makoto, grinning.

                “If we keep this up, won’t the election be a piece of cake?” Satoshi chirps happily.

                “But you guys aren’t promoting Tatsuya correctly,” groans Rin, earning confused looks from the guys and a smirk from Tetsuya.

                “What do you mean? He beat her at everything so far,” Shohei says, causing her to shake her head. Tetsuya pats her head in a comforting manner.

                “Don’t bother, they won’t get it even if you broke it down for them,” he chuckles.

                “And if we win, we can go back to this,” Maya reminds them sadly, glancing at the old desks.

                “Not just the desks,” Tatsuya says. “The name too, because this here is our Bakada.”  The emotion in his voice touches Rin’s heart, and for the first time, she wishes with all her might that Tatsuya will win the election.

                “Then do your best, Tatsuya-kun,” smiles Rin.

                “Come on, it’s getting late so we should be getting home,” Tetsuya tells her. “I’ll walk you home.”

                “Ooh!” whoop Makoto and Yuuki.

                “Wait! I wanna walk her home too!” Shohei yells, running after them.

                “No way, you ert, you’re staying with us,” Maya stops, grabbing Shohei by the back of his collar.

                “Stay safe!” Tatsuya says while Satoshi waves cutely. Rin waves back to them before Tetsuya shuts the door. The two walk together in a comfortable silence, smiling at the other occasionally.

                “Your friends seem very…” Rin struggles to find the correct word to describe them.

                “Stupid? Dumb? Hopeless?” jokes Tetsuya, chuckling. Rin giggles in response to his view of them.

                “In a cute way,” Rin corrects him. “I see that they have good hearts though. They’re rough around the edges, but they’re actually very comfortable to be around.”

                “You know you tend to be different around them?” asks Tetsuya, turning to look at her.

                “What do you mean by different?” she questions, not understanding.

                “When the girls bullied you this morning, you couldn’t defend yourself,” he points out. “But when Makoto kept calling you Toilet Girl earlier, you told him your name.”

                “But isn’t that a natural thing to do?” Rin asks.

                “Well yes, but in a way it counts as standing up for yourself too,” explains Tetsuya. “You seem more comfortable around us than you do with the girls from your school.” Rin nods, getting his point. “Why did those girls start bullying you anyways?”

                “They do it because I’m a scholarship student and not as wealthy as the rest of the Catteleya girls are,” Rin answers sadly. Then her eyes light up, remembering Haru, Sayuri, Saya, and Fumie. “But, some of them are nice to me. For example Fumie, she really is Catteleya’s pride.” At the mention of her name, Rin notices a look in Tetsuya’s eyes, but figures it must be the light so she continues. “Fumie is so nice; she always defends me whenever the other girls bully me. Even though she’s our top student, she still treats every one with respect and kindness. I really hope I can strive to be like her one day.”

                “She is the one running against Tatsuya, right?” he asks.

                “Un, that’s her,” mumbles Rin, and Tetsuya nods.

                “I see, she sounds like an amazing person,” smiles Tetsuya. Rin nods in agreement. “Let’s go, the bus will be here soon.” Rin lets out a giggle and a yelp when Tetsuya suddenly grabs her hand and runs toward the bu stop, chuckling as he pulls her along.