despair | h. rindo

X

October 15, 2004

8:15 a.m.

Meguro Nihon Highschool

"Y/n!" Kaede called, making you flinch. You shook your head as you turned your head to the left where she was. "You okay? You've been spacing out a lot." She frowned. "Yeah. Sorry, what was that?" You turned to the president.

Akihiro only shook his head before recalling your duty. "You're in charge of the front page and formatting." He repeated. You nodded as you fiddled with your notepad's spring. Most of the members had exited, but you decided to stay and look around the club room.

"Shouldn't you be at class?" Akihiro crossed his arms. "Not until 20 minutes from now." You shrugged. "I should leave." You said, turning to the exit. "Seriously?" He asked. "Yeah. I'll be late for class...?" You raised your eyebrows before leaving the club room.

You walked towards your first class, meeting Nahoya on the way for the first subject.

Although in a corner of a classroom in one of Roppongi's elite schools, Rindou sat down boredly staring at the notes written in the board as his teacher continued to explain their lesson. Ran always teased him about highschool being shitty, he didn't think it'd be this boring though. School was always boring.

The class ended after what seemed like a lifetime. And as Rindou made his way to his locker, it was the daily routing of opening it to an avalanche of love letters from his admirers. "Look at that, you almost beat my record!" Ran smiled as he took a heart shaped letter from his brother's hair.

Rindou ignored him, not for the usual antics, but because he was a snooping bastard. "Come on, are you still mad at me?" Ran cooed. "Yes!" Rindou yelled. "That was my hard work! Do you know how hard it is to do mom's job?" He groaned, kicking some of the letters on the ground.

"No. I don't plan on being a businessman." Ran shrugged. "Why are you so concerned about their restaurant? It's just an eatery." He asked. "Because-" Ran smiled smugly. "Because you like that Komori kid don't you?" He teased.

"I- No!" Rindou denied. "Then forget about the shop." Ran suggested. "No." Rindou glared as he closed his locker. "You sure you don't like them that way?" Ran insinuated. "The fuck do you mean, that way?" Rindou looked at him confusedly. "That's for me to know and for you to find out."

The older Haitani smiled one last time before making his way outside of the campus. Rindou sighed as watched his brother leave.

It had almost been a month since Rindou had fixed the investment problem. He worked on it almost immediately and has been waiting for the chance to send you the letter of approval. Thing was, he was too prideful to come near you until you apologized to him.

But how would you, in desperate times, know you needed to apologize?

~ ~ ~

It was the end of the day which meant it was finally time to go home. "Y/n-san!" Oops. You forgot about the newspaper club.

You sat beside Kaede as Akihiro reviewed the latest topic for the week. "Psst! Y/n!" Kaede whispered. You turned to her as she held a face of astonishment. "You're really good with your formatting!" She smiled.

"Aki told me there was a member once who left who was really good at formatting too!" She informed. "I checked some of our old newspapers, you had the same format as our old member." She thought.

You listened to her attentively. She was a freshman so you figured she didn't really know about the club's history.

She silently rambled about the person she had only heard about. Hearing her talk as if it's someone else made you want to chuckle. But you looked at her as she continued to talk in amazement.

"That's all for today." Akihro concluded. "Make sure to submit your formats by Monday." He added. Everyone finally took their leave and as you were about to do the same, Kaede called you once again.

She walked towards you pulling Akihiro as he hesitantly followed. "You wanna walk home with us?" She asked excitedly. You thought for a while. You would be hitching a ride with the twins but they already left, and it looked uncomfortable to walk with the president of your club. At least to you.

Kaede looked at you expectantly. You agreed nonetheless, making the girl celebrate, pulling the older male as she jumped around.

You walked towards the exit, texting Souya that you would be walking home. Kaede continued to ramble about the club saying she always dreamed of joining anything that includes journalism. She's always liked writing and researching. She admitted it was mostly for gossip.

As you were about to exit school premises you saw a familiar motorcycle just a few feet away. With a familiar four eyed idiot, screwed to his phone. You backed up a bit, letting Akihiro, who was a good human shield, cover you. Without him knowing.

Kaede continued to talk only to realize you weren't paying attention too much. "Sorry, Y/n. Am I boring you?" She turned to you.

Even in the slightest tone, Rindou was able to pick up the name. He turned to the direction where he heard the voice seeing you with a taller boy and a girl. "No, no, not at all!" You denied, shaking your hands.

"There you are." A voice said from behind. You turned around slowly to Rindou with a dark expression. But it wasn't to you. It was directed to Akihiro. It was the battle of the Specs.

Kaede leaned closer to you, whispering, "Is he your boyfriend?" You mouthed a "No" with a disgusted face.

Rindou and Akihiro continued to stare at each other with dark expressions. Rindou turned to you, still holding his expression which made you and Kaede flinch. "What the hell took you so long?!" He yelled. "Why would you want to know?!" You yelled back.

"Do you know how long I stood here, my legs are already cramping!" He complained. "Why do I need to know that? It's not my fault you decided to stand there!" You reasoned. "If you got out earlier like your cousins, I wouldn't be standing here for 3 hours!" He argued. "Why were you even waiting for 3 hours, then?"

Rindou groaned before pulling you towards his motorcycle. "Wha- Hey! Stop! Stop it!" You wailed, pulling away from him only to be pulled more. You kept pulling away waving one of your arms around.

Kaede watched the scene unfold with Akihiro, but the male sighed before walking towards you.

The pulling seemed to stop as Akihiro caught your other arm. Rindou looked behind him to see Akihiro stopping you.

Kaede watched in shock, but still in astonishment. She was going to make a story out of this and she's going to enjoy writing it.

The story of sparks between three people with unknown intentions. How exciting.