Transition and Restart, book two: The Billion Dollar Empress

Chapter six, 2016, summer's end, part two

What a pain! Admittedly a very good looking pain, but still. Noriko slid the door open to their room and entered. Normal club activities were partially suspended now when they had to come up with an idea for the impending cultural festival. Most of the members would be dragged into whatever their class decided to do as well, so they didn't plan anything more advanced than a food-stall or two, or would have but for the sheer size of the club.

Now there were two new ideas floating around, and one of them had a depressingly good chance of survival. Between her idiot bro, Kuri, Hitomi-chan and Nao-sempai they could probably pull the fashion show off. In a pinch even Urufu could be used depending on what kind of clothes they wanted to show off. Even the budget looked fine, as in not a single yen spent fine, because Kuri said she could get all clothes for free.

"Noriko, wait!"

And there he was again. The good looking pain. Calling her Noriko like they had know each other all their life, but with Urufu in the club no one noticed anyway as that guy didn't use honorifics with anyone.

"Yes, what is it? You don't need to shout," Noriko said.

"Just wanted to talk with you," Nao-sempai replied.

"No, you want to touch me, and there's no touching between us two."

Nervous laughter broke out from further inside the room. Takado Nao had arrived just days earlier and called her out for a confession almost the first thing. Now she was known all around school as the whirlwind rejection, and still he persisted.

"I can wait with the touching. Kissing comes before that anyway."

"There's no kissing between us either. Nao-sempai, there's nothing nothing between us."

"There's a conversation between us," he said and grinned.

"Gah! That's only because you called to me to... Why do I even bother explaining to you?"

Noriko threw up her arms in exasperation. She rolled her eyes, but inwardly she smiled. She didn't exactly like him or anything, but he always behaved like a perfect gentleman whenever he didn't exchange banter with her. And he was very, very good looking, and she did feel more than a little flattered.

"Look, the only thing between us is planning our participation in the cultural festival," she said.

"See, that's more than nothing," Nao-sempai said and laughed.

"Whatever." She wasn't angry with him, not really. She just made sure he kept a minimum of distance.

Less than a week, and Nao-sempai already made as much an impact on the club as the motor mouth. Noriko saw how the girls in the club made advances, and she knew that the second year floor in the left wing was ablaze as well.

"Kuri?" Noriko said to her tall friend.

"Uhum, you two finished with your lover's quarrel?"

"Yes," Nao-sempai answered.

"No, I mean there never was one... there can't be one... we're not..." Damn you Kuri! Despite the embarrassment Noriko smiled at herself again. I haven't let Urufu off the hook just yet. But somewhere deep inside Noriko admitted that she was slowly doing just that. She still loved him, but he was too far away for her to reach.

"Kuri, are we going with the show?"

Kuri shrugged, as did Nao-sempai. Almost magically both of them straightened up and became serious. "We can run with it. I'll handle the details. But I'd prefer we apply for the barbecue as well. Ulf can run that one," Kuri said, but her businesslike demeanour belied something deeper.