What is going on with me?!

Aya glanced over at Hikaru next to her, her heart still beating fast. Hikaru was staring down at her notes, strands of airy black hair falling past the side of her face. Despite the fact that they were second-years in senior high, Hikaru's face still carried baby fat from her pre-adolescence that made her look as though she skipped a few grades. Her short figure and underdeveloped chest didn't help much either. 

Doki doki.

Aya's eyes stared at Hikaru's small pink lips that seemed as soft as hay to touch. If only Aya could just reach out with her hand and...

What the heck am I thinkingggg--!! Aya quickly turned her gaze back at the front of the classroom. Despite the mental breakdown she was experiencing, Aya's face appeared calm and tranquil from the outside. Controlling her facial expression had long since become an unconscious habit of Aya's akin to breathing. This rapid heart beating. This constant blushing. This unnatural fixation. Could this be what they call...

No! Aya unintentionally bit her lower lip slightly, showing a small sign of fluster from the outside. No way… this can’t be… I’m Aya Kuramoto… the sole heiress of the Kuramoto name and empire... The list of marriage candidates I have is endless, and so too is the number of guys that have confessed to me... Surely, this is all just a big mistake...

Yes, that's it. This is all just a mistake. Aya reassured herself, staring with incredible intensity down at the typeset-like-neat handwriting in her notebook. It's not abnormal to think that other girls are cute. There is nothing wrong with me...

“…Aya?”

Abe-sensei had been calling for Aya for a few seconds now, but Aya had responded with a single word at all nor did she lift her eyes off of her notebook.

“Uhm...” Abe-sensei coughed, there was no way that his best student in class could possibly be ignoring him. "Aya...?"

Still, Aya stared intently down at her notebook, not moving at all.

Now, the whole classroom was beginning to turn their heads to glance at Aya, including Hikaru.

This prompted Aya to instantly unfreeze, raising her eyes up to glance at Abe-sensei. 

“Ah, Aya…” Abe-sensei said, seeing that Aya was now looking at him. He was getting worried for a moment there. “I was just asking you to come up and show the class how to solve the maths question I wrote up on the board, it's quite complicated.”

“Of course.” Aya smiled politely, regaining her usual demeanour of elegance.

Standing up from her desk, Aya walked over to the front of the classroom. All the guys were staring dreamily at her. Whenever Aya was called to solve a problem, it was usually just an opportunity for the guys to gawk at her. No one really cared about the problem she was solving except for the girls.

Reaching the whiteboard where a long maths equation was written out, Aya took one glance at it then wrote down the steps to solve the problem neatly on the board.

“…and then you do this.” She finished, placing the marker at the bottom of the whiteboard, then turned around to face the classroom with a smile.

Whispers of awe and praise for Aya's intellect quietly went amidst the students around the classroom. Aya had almost instantaneously solved the problem to a maths question that even Sana, who was the second smartest in the class, would have trouble solving. 

“Thank you, Aya. That was wonderful.” Abe-sensei nodded. Thank the lords that I have Aya in my class. I’ve been receiving countless teaching awards because she’s been dragging the whole class’ average straight up. “You can return to your seat now.”

"Yes, Abe-sensei."

Aya bowed courteously, then strolled back to her seat. She had to force herself to not look at Hikaru. 

Sitting back at her seat where she could safely look at Hikaru all she wanted without the unwanted attention of the rest of the classroom, Aya saw that Hikaru was writing in her notebook, trying to following the steps to solve the problem that Aya had just written down on the board, but with difficulty. 

“That’s not how you do it…” Aya said to Hikaru, almost causing Hikaru to jump out of her seat.

Aya leaned over to Hikaru's desk, writing down the correct way to solve the problem on Hikaru’s notebook, fixing the mistakes that she made.

“This is how you solve it…” Aya said, her face calm and refined.

“I-I see…” Hikaru stared down at what Aya had written down, still startled that Aya was helping her out. She thought that Aya didn’t like her. “Thank you… um... Aya…” She quickly added, remembering Aya’s name from when the teacher called her out to solve the problem.

“No problem.” Aya returned back to her perfect sitting posture at her seat, then stared straight ahead as she pretended to listen to the teacher's lecture. H-Hikaru knows my name! I don't know why, but that makes me really happy...! Would it be weird for me call her by her name as well? I mean, the teacher did announce it to the entire classroom, but I don't want her to think that I specifically remembered her name or anythin--aahh! Why am I thinking like this?! This is so wrong! I... I need to forget about this girl!!  

~x~

School eventually ended with the bell’s signal, and all the students in the classroom started packing up their things.

“Remember today’s lesson, class! It’s going to be vital for the exam at the end of this week!” Abe-Sensei said.

But no one was really paying attention.

“U-um, hey Aya…” Hikaru tried to call for Aya, glancing next to her desk as she watched Aya pack up her belongings. "I-I just want to thank you again fo--"

Aya quickly took off, having packed up all her belongings and avoided eye contact with Hikaru. 

She’s ignoring me again… Hikaru felt sad. She had thought that Aya helping her with the maths problem meant that she actually wanted to be friends. I guess she actually doesn’t like me…

Seeing Aya take off in a hurry, Fumiko and Sana hurriedly packed up their stuff and chased after her out of the classroom. 

“Aya, wait for us!” Sana called out, joining Aya's side in the corridor outside the classroom.

“You’re going so fast.” Fumiko commented, still in the middle of zipping her bag as she joined the other side of Aya. “Did you plan a date today or somethin--”

“No!” Aya snapped in a slightly raised voice, startling Fumiko and Sana. The two of them had known Aya since elementary school and it was very rare for them to see Aya get upset.    

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Fumiko gathered herself and tried her best to laugh it off, "I-I was just joking...! Chill, Aya! Ahah!" 

Fumiko glanced at Sana for help.

“Are you feeling okay, Aya?” Sana asked Aya, trying to help out Fumiko. They were now walking past the school hallway, leaving the school with a crowd of students.

“I’m fine…” Aya sighed, raising her fingers to her forehead, then she glanced at her two friends by her side. “…It's just that transfer student…”

“Huh?" Fumiko blinked, not knowing what Aya was talking about for a second before she remembered the transfer student. That girl had been so plain and quiet that Fumiko had completely forgotten about her. "Oh! You mean that transfer student sitting by your side? What about her?”

"I..." Aya didn't know how she felt about the transfer student. The only thing Aya knew was that she wasn't acting like herself around the transfer student. So, with another frustrated sigh, Aya said, "...I don't like her..."

“Really?” Fumiko laughed. “What? Since when do you not like someone?”

“Did she do something to you?” Sana asked in a worried tone.

"No..." Aya shook her head, "It's not that."

Aya was still trying to sort out her feelings. "It's just..." Aya continued, then stopped. There's no way she could translate her feelings into words. "Forget it..." 

Fumiko flashed Aya a concerned glance, seeing the troubled expression on Aya's face. 

"I just feel annoyed," Aya sighed. 

“That tends to happen sometimes.” Fumiko said, trying to cheer up her friend. “You can’t get along with everyone in the world. Sometimes two people just hate each other for no reason.”

“U-uhm," Sana said, "I've never experienced something like that.” 

“That’s because all you do is stay home and study!” Fumiko replied, then tried to change to a happier topic. “Anyways, just forget about the transfer student, Aya. I want to hear about all the cute guys that have asked you out!”

“Fumiko!” Sana said.

“Whaat?” Fumiko replied teasingly. “Don’t you want to hear about it too?”

“M-maybe a little bit…” Sana coughed with a shade of pink, then shook her head. “But that’s none of our business! You shouldn’t ask about Aya’s love life like that...”

“But that's what friends are for!” Fumiko said, then clasped her hands together. "To support each other in times of turmoil, and gossip about cute boys!" 

“I’m not dating anyone.” Aya sighed, knowing that she had to give Fumiko something or she would pester her on the topic forever.

“What about any guys that have managed to catch your eye?” Fumiko asked. 

They were now walking out of the school, heading to the front gates where there was a drive-in for cars picking up students. This was a very rich school after all.  

“Not really.” Aya said. “I haven’t found anyone yet…”

“That’s okay, Aya.” Sana said, noticing the tone in Aya’s voice when she said that. “I don't have anyone special too.”

"Eh? But you have that senior that you like, right, Sana?" Fumiko said to Sana, then clicked her tongue, trying to recollect. "Ah, what was his name again... uhm... oh! Saito, right...?"

"H-Haruto actually..." Sana said. 

"W-what..." Aya blinked. This was the first time he was hearing this. "Sana, you have somebody that you like?"

"What? You didn't know?" Fumiko said.

"Ahaha...!" Sana laughed anxiously, "You never really talk about love stuff, Aya, so I never got the chance to tell you...!"

"So, what happened to Haruki?" Fumiko asked Sana.

"It's Haruto...!" Sana corrected her, blushing madly now that they had changed to the topic of her love life, "And, um, it's..."

"Don't tell me..." Fumiko gasped, "You still haven't told him yet...?"

"..."

Hearing Sana's no response was basically a confirmation. 

"Aahh!" Fumiko rummaged her hair in frustration, "And here you are, trying to give Aya love advice! Hasn't it already been a year now since you told me about that bookworm?!"

"H-he's not a bookworm...!" Sana stammered with a bright blush. "U, um, I... I'm just waiting for the right time to tell him...!"  

"I'm... I'm not even going to get into that right now..." Fumiko said, "Anyways, Aya's not like you and me, Sana. Aya's so beautiful she could basically choose any guy on this planet to be her boyfriend. Celebrities, rockstars, actors, I bet Aya has a long list to go through. "

"T-that's..." Aya felt like someone had threw a rock down at her head. When you put it that way, I don't really have any excuse to not even have a single crush on anyone... 

"Also, I have good news to announce!" Fumiko sung, "I got a new boyfriend!"

"..."

Aya and Sana exchanged glances for a second. They couldn't tell if that was supposed to be good news or bad news. Only just last week Fumiko had announced to them of a similar news. It wasn't a secret to them that Fumiko swapped boyfriends like they were trading cards, but sometimes Fumiko would get extremely emotional and sensitive after a breakup whilst other times she would forget the name of her ex the very next day. It really depended on how much she liked the guy.

"Who's the lucky guy...?" Aya asked.  

“Oh, he’s not from our school.” Fumiko said with a dreamy look. “He’s from Kokusai High.”

Judging from her reaction, it looked like this time was the latter. 

“Kokusai High?” Aya said. Seriously? You're kind of settling low, Fumiko...

Kokusai High School was second to Hibiya High School. Hibiya High was the school that they went to, which was the top in Tokyo.

“How did you meet him?” Sana asked.

“A karaoke party.” Fumiko replied. “It was a group of guys and girls. He was one of the guys that were invited by my friend, and we sang a duet together. Oh my god, it was so romantic! Next time we should go!”

“Ahaha..." Sana laughed weakly. She could think of nothing more embarrassing than to sing in front of all her friends. "I-I will go if Aya goes..." Sana hedged her bets on that Aya would decline as Aya normally declined these sort of invites.

Aya thought about it. That sounds really beneath me. Why would I go to some dodgy karaoke party with a group of strangers? Only Fumiko likes these types of events. As if I would find someone special at a place like that... 

Then, Aya heard another voice in her head, one that contrasted the first and sneered at her. So what then? You're just going to get with that transfer student and become a...

"No!!" Aya suddenly said, surprising both Fumiko and Sana. Aya glanced at them slowly, realising her mistake, then laughed weakly. "I-I mean, okay. I wouldn't mind trying it out if you organise it, Fumiko."

“R-really?” Fumiko said, after recovering from her shock. She had also thought that Aya would politely decline her invite as she normally did. “That’s awesome! No problem, Aya, you can leave it to me to handle everything! I will be sure to only invite the cutest guys for you!”

Ugh… Aya forced a smile. This just sounds horrible. I should have said no.

When Aya's limousine arrived to pick her up from school, Aya waved her friends goodbye and got inside her ride to go home.

~x~

The next day, Aya arrived at school in her limousine as usual. Stepping out of the luxurious black limousine, onlookers stared at her, mesmerised by her beauty, as she held a hand to her face, keeping her hair from blowing in the wind. On her other hand, she carried her school bag, held in front of her.

Yesterday was just a coincidence… Aya thought. I’m sure if I see Hikaru again, I won’t feel the same way… Maybe I’ve been doing too much Aikido lately and that's been affecting my mood…

With that thought in mind, Aya walked confidently to her classroom, ignoring the gaze of onlookers as she always did.

The school was quite big, as expected from the top ranked high school in Tokyo, having their own swimming pool, gym, basketball courts, tennis courts, anything you name, and it was probably at the school.

Students greeted Aya as she walked past, shy ‘good morning’s which Aya responded to with a pleasant return-smile. Almost everyone in the school knew Aya, that was how popular she was.

Entering her classroom with a smile, Aya stopped at the door as she came across an unusual sight. A group of students had gathered near where Aya's desk was and were snickering and jeering to themselves at something. Other students elsewhere in the classroom was acting normal as though nothing was going on. 

"A-ah, good morning, Aya...!" 

"Good morning, Aya!"

Voices of greetings quickly went around the classroom as students noticed Aya standing by the door, and the group that was standing near Aya's desk glanced over at Aya with looks of alarm before briskly dispersing. That was when Aya saw Fumiko's face amongst the students in the group. Aya also then realised they had been crowding around Hikaru's desk which was next to Aya's and that Hikaru was sitting at her desk with a very downcast face.  

"Morning, Aya!" Fumiko bounced over to Aya with her usual cheery playfulness as though nothing had occurred. "How is my favourite girl doing?"

“What… what were you guys doing just then?” Aya said, ignoring Fumiko's question.

"Um..." Fumiko said, glancing backwards at Hikaru with a guilty look for a second. "Not much, really."

“…”

Aya stared into Fumiko's face. Were they bullying Hikaru just then? That would explain the look on Hikaru's face... But, why would Fumiko bully Hikaru? I know that Fumiko is a bit of a bully from the rumours about her at school, but she normally wouldn't pick on a nobody like Hikaru...

Hang on a second, why am I getting so serious about this? Aya thought. It's not like this is even my problem...! And besides... I didn't actually even see anything happen...

"Sure..." Aya forced a smile at Fumiko, and a weird tension around the classroom suddenly lifted as students saw Aya smiling at Fumiko. It was as though the classroom had been uneasy about whether Aya would be upset with Fumiko or not. 

Walking over to her desk, Aya sat herself down quietly and then snuck a glance next to her at Hikaru.

Doki doki.

Aya's heart still fluttered at the sight of Hikaru, making her realise that yesterday wasn't a coincidence or a one-day thing. However, today she also felt a different feeling that she hadn't felt yesterday. It was an aching feeling like someone had stabbed something in her heart.

"Hey Aya..." 

A worried voice came from behind Aya's desk and Aya turned around to face Sana.

"There's something I want to tell..." Sana started, but then trailed off as her eyes caught onto Fumiko who had suddenly appeared in front of Aya's desk.

"Eh? Are you saying something, Sana?" Fumiko asked in a friendly tone.

"N-nevermind..." Sana said, returning her eyes back down to her notes.

Aya had a faint idea about what Sana had wanted to tell her, but the problem was that she didn't know whether she wanted to know. 

~x~

Lunchtime started, and students started leaving the classroom, some choosing to stay. Aya took out her lunchbox from her bag. Her chef had prepared it for her, a bento with an exquisite selection of food, all of which were Aya’s favourites. It looked like something that should had been served at a fine dining restaurant. 

“You always have such a great lunch, Aya!” Fumiko exclaimed, looking at Aya’s bento with teary eyes and a yearning look. "I'm so jealous!"

“Y-you can have some if you want…” Aya laughed weakly, seeing the look on Fumiko’s face. Her chef always cooked too much food anyways.  

“There's no way I could do that!” Fumiko laughed, then took out her own lunchbox. It was pretty similar to Aya's, although a notch below in quality.   

Fumiko’s family was rich as well after all. Hibiya High was a private school known for its prestige and many wealthy families sent their children to study here. Fumiko’s family was in the telecommunications industry, though Aya didn’t know what they did exactly.

Likewise, Sana pulled out a delicate lunchbox that was also well designed. Her family were known to be wealthy academics that played a vital role in the field of science. They weren’t as wealthy as Fumiko’s family though.

Curious, Aya glanced subtly to her side to see what lunch Hikaru was eating. She watched as Hikaru pulled out from her bag…

A plain sandwich and a juice popper.

It was basically the lunch of an elementary school kid.

What?! Is that really her lunch?! Aya had to blink a few times to make sure she wasn't seeing things. 

“Hikaru, what on earth is that…?”

A haughty voice came from in front of Hikaru's desk and Aya glanced over to see a boy with slicked back blond hair approaching Hikaru's desk. Aya recognised him as Kenzou, a boy that he had often seen hanging within Fumiko's circle of friends, although Aya didn't really speak to him or know him well. There were two other boys hanging behind Kenzou whom also had similar smug smiles and were presumably Kenzou's friends.

“Huh, this...?” Hikaru was confused at first, then followed Kenzou’s stare to her lunch. “This is my lunch…”

Silent chuckles were already making its way around the classroom, especially from the two boys behind Kenzou.

"'Lunch'?" Kenzou repeated with a smirk. "Really? You call that 'lunch'...?"

Suddenly, Kenzou reached a hand towards Hikaru and snatched the sandwich away from her hands. 

“H-hey…” Hikaru got up from her desk.

“Everyone, look what Hikaru brought for 'lunch' today!" Kenzou laughed, waving the sandwich in the air. Everyone in the classroom was now glancing over and laughter began to resound. "Isn't it pitiful!"

"G-give that back...!" Hikaru's face turned red and her voice had gone as quiet as a whisper, feeling the mocking stares around her.  

"Jeez, Hikaru," Kenzou lowered the sandwich, holding it by the edge between his fingertips as though it was something dirty. "Are you sure you didn't steal this from the homeless shelter in Shibuya?"

More laughter went around the classroom. The only ones that weren't laughing was Aya and Sana. 

“C-come on, Kenzou..." Fumiko tried to stifle her giggles with a hand to her mouth. "That’s not nice, give it back.” Although Fumiko was trying to sound serious, it was clear she wasn't trying very hard. 

“Apologies, madam Fumiko. You are right indeed, how very un-'nice' of me.” Kenzou bowed dramatically, putting on a show for the class. With a pedigree lined up with famous actors, acting was simply second-nature to Kenzou. “In all honesty though, this sandwich is disgusting.”

Kenzou tossed Hikaru’s sandwich to the side of the room, flinging it at a group of girls that screamed in laughter as they moved away from the sandwich.

“Woops, dearie me.” Kenzou slapped his forehead lightly. “Sorry for my slippery fingers, Hikaru.”

The classroom rang with laughter, waiting for Hikaru to respond, but Hikaru had already gone completely quiet, too embarrassed and too humiliated to even utter a single sound. She stood at her desk with a bright red face, trembling at her feet.

At that moment, the noise of a chair shuffling against the floor sounded as someone got up from their seat and instantly the entire classroom went silent. Even Kenzou who had been heartily laughing before and was enjoying all the attention he was getting from the classroom had completely shut up.

The only noise was the quiet footsteps of the person walking over to where Kenzou had thrown the sandwich. The person picked the sandwich up, inspected it to make sure it was still clean inside the plastic sandwich bag that it was kept in, then walked over to where Hikaru's desk was. 

Aya handed the sandwich back to a stunned looking Hikaru.

"Here, it should still be okay, I checked..." Aya said to Hikaru.

Then, Aya went back to her desk and sat back down. 

All that was left behind was an awkward atmosphere that hung over the classroom as students glanced at each other accusingly in silence, blaming the ones that had laughed or played along with Kenzou's antics. The one that received the brunt of these accusatory stares, however, was Kenzou. Even the two lackeys that had been besides him had now distanced themselves away from him. 

“Uh…” Kenzou glanced around the classroom, looking for support but found none. Finally, he glanced over at Fumiko, the one that had been responsible for stirring him up to ridicule Hikaru in the first place. 

Fumiko met Kenzou's glance for a second, then quickly averted her gaze the other way. It was pretty obvious that she was ignoring him. 

"F-Fumiko..." Kenzou said. He had no other choice but to plead for her to help him. Fumiko was the one that was second on the totem pole behind Aya in here.  

"What?" Fumiko turned back around at him with a disdainful glare. "You want to keep throwing people's lunch around?"

God damn Fumiko. Kenzou thought, gritting his teeth. Now she's setting me up to be the fall guy...!

Feeling the stare of hateful eyes, Kenzou quietly left the classroom. 

“Um… so about that new shopping mall in Shinjuku…” Fumiko said to Aya, as the classroom gradually resumed activity again with Kenzou's exit.

Hikaru took her sandwich out of the plastic wrapper, chewing on it, as she glanced to her side at Aya. I thought Aya didn't like me… But, she helped me out…

Watching the fun conversation going on between Aya, Fumiko and Sana, Hikaru sighed to herself, eating her sandwich alone, and taking sips out of her juice popper on occasions. I wish I had friends…

Hikaru glanced around the classroom, but noticed that people were still avoiding her glance. A girl brushed past Hikaru's desk as she walked past and Hikaru tried greeting the girl.

“H-Hi…” Hikaru forced a bright smile.

The girl completely ignored Hikaru's greeting as though she didn't exist and continued walking past Hikaru's desk to meet up with a group of girls at the back of the classroom. After all, the girl didn't want to get in trouble with Fumiko by interacting with Hikaru.  

Everyone’s just ignoring me… Hikaru thought, staring down at her desk.

~x~

“Yo Fumiko, what the hell was that?!” Kenzou managed to corner Fumiko after school was over.

They were at the foyer of the girl's volleyball club building, where Kenzou knew Fumiko would be since she was in the school's volleyball club. Most of the other students had already gone home or were already heading home so the two of them were alone. 

"What do you want?" Fumiko crossed her arms, giving him an annoyed glance. 

“Don't give me that!” Kenzou snapped. “You were the one that nudged me to bully that girl! Why the hell am I the bad guy now?!”

"Look," Fumiko sighed, "I don't know what happened today either."

"You told me that Aya wanted that girl gone, right?"

"Yeah, that's what Aya told me. She said that the new transfer student in our class annoyed her." 

"Then, explain today!"

 Fumiko shrugged, further irritating Kenzou.

"Do you even realise how bad my reputation took a hit after today?" Kenzou said. 

"Look, alright, I'm sorry," Fumiko clasped her hands together insincerely, "There, do you feel better now?"

"..."

There wasn't really much else Kenzou could ask for. In terms of wealth, popularity and power, Fumiko trumped Kenzou in all three. Pushing Fumiko too far and making an enemy of her would be plain suicide. He didn't like it, but he had to settle for this half-ass apology.    

"Anyways," Fumiko gave him her usual playful smile, "Let’s carry on with the plan. I'm pretty sure Aya just doesn't want to bully the girl herself, since Aya's always so polite and sweet..”

"Fine..." Kenzou muttered. “Just don’t make me look like the bad guy again…”

“I get it, I get it.” Fumiko laughed. “We just gotta keep the bullying out of Aya’s sights, comprehendo?”

“Right…”

“If we do this properly," Fumiko said, playing with a strand of her purple hair that was tied in ribbons today, "Hikaru will be the one begging us herself to leave this school forever.”