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 known 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 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 business like demeanour belied something deeper.

You've grown considerably considerate about his feelings. What happened last week? Kyoko and Yukio were tight-lipped about it, but something had definitely happened. Enough to take Kuri down a peg or two, well her shooting down the recent, idiotic attempt at bullying excepted of course.

“Fine. I'll draw up the plans and have the groups go through it,” Noriko said. She looked over her shoulder and faced Nao-sempai. “That means you and Kuri are responsible for our application for the show.”

He grinned, but he stayed serious. “We'll take care of it.” There was nothing of his playful flirting left now.

In that sense he was very different from her brother. Ryu simply couldn't resist flirting, and he was living proof that good looks alone wasn't enough to make a prince of Himekaizen. When it came to popularity he and Nao-sempai played in different leagues.

“Good,” she said. That left the barbecue, but if Urufu got himself involved in planning that request they'd end up with a written application far beyond anything anyone else in Himekaizen had the competence to produce. Especially if she helped him with writing it. His Japanese was still sub-par.

“Hitomi-chan, if we get the show, would you like to show off some clothes?” Now that wasn't really a question, but Noriko had to give the beauty from Urufu's class some kind of mental candy after the episode downstairs earlier.

Hitomi-chan popped out from nowhere, just as Noriko assumed she would. “Yes, I'd like that very much!”

You're just too easy to read. “Then start planning with Kuri and Nao-sempai. We wouldn't want the event to be declined, would we?” And, 3… 2… 1...

“Of course, I'll just get my bag.”

Sheesh! Well, she's taller than I am and she's got the looks. Guess all of us are born with different gifts. Noriko shook her head as she listened to the airhead rummaging around in the lounging part of their club room. Moments later she arrived with her bag, wildly looking for Kuri.

Nao-sempai had already followed Kuri to the office area and Noriko just pointed Hitomi-chan in the right direction.

That left handling her brother, but he shouldn't be a problem. Problems came in the form of their class representative. That girl had stood up by her bench when those roles were assigned rather than duck as much as possible like Noriko. Which worked for half of the spring term. By now the entire class knew who was the brightest, and Noriko had no interest in being dragged into student council business. She avoided it as much as possible, but it would be impossible to do so when the festival drew closer.

Each class had to do something, and a class with both Kuri and Ryu was expected to deliver something outstanding, even if they were only freshmen. Ryu's sister, especially a sister who scored solidly among the top three of all eight freshman classes put together, was bound to be dragged into something sooner or later.

But we have Principal Nakagawa. He's still our advisor. The worst of the heat should pass me by.

***

“And with that I leave the word to your class representative,” Kondo-sensei said.

Their popular home-room teacher was replaced by their not so popular class representative by the blackboard.

She wasn't mean or anything, and Ryu appreciated how she refused to have anything to do with him or Kuri. It felt refreshing if nothing else.

Outside the classroom windows small clouds played on a blue sky, and it was still hot enough to be called summer.

“Our votes have left us with a cos-play café, haunted house and mud wrestling. I hope you'll kill that last one quickly today,” the class rep said. A loud murmur of agreement told him half their class had absolutely nothing to do with the mud wrestling idea.

She placed a ballot box on the teachers desk and had empty slips of paper passed around in the classroom.

“Now, before you vote, we'll apply for two events. If none of them pass it's either food stalls or competition booths. Understood?”

Ryu grinned. Harsh but efficient. You just killed the wrestling all on your own. He stared at the perpetually sulking class rep as she oversaw the casting of the votes.

When they were all done she marked up three sections on the black board, and long before half of the votes were counted it was clear that the café would win by a wide margin with the haunted house in second place.

Ryu suspected it would be the stalls for them in the end anyway. From what he heard the second years had priority for the more popular events with the third years running any larger arrangements. Well, they'd fight for a slot in the gym for the fashion show, but that was the club and not 3:1.

The bell rang and their class rep went for the student council room. Beginning tomorrow the festival planning committee would get its own planning area in an empty classroom, and they'd see very little of the class reps and the club presidents for those clubs who managed to get an attractive event depending on other events for timeslots in temporary locations.

As he wasn't caught up in student council business he headed over to their club room. On his way there he glanced into 6:1 to see if Yukio or Ulf was there. They weren't, but a few girls gave him hopeful giggles. He smiled back at them, waved for some extra brownie points and walked another two classrooms.

When he entered he arrived into a minor commotion. From the voices it was clear 6:1 hadn't made a choice to the satisfaction of the entire class. At least not those who were members of the club.

Hiroyuki-kun and Hitomi-chan stood by a table in the office area. Another member from 6:1 sat in a chair beside Yukio and Urufu took down notes on a whiteboard.

Whiteboard? When did we get one? Ryu looked around. There were three of them mounted on the walls and another two on wheels. Damn, did Urufu open those deep pockets of his once again?

“What's up,” Ryu asked.

“Huh? Oh it's you.” Urufu finished jotting down whatever he was doing. When he turned Ryu saw he was nursing an aching back. “We've got a play on our hands, well that or a café of some kind.”

“And he just doesn't understand how important this is,” Hitomi-chan complained.

Ryu looked at Urufu, but Yukio got in first. “Hitomi-chan, Urufu has never seen a culture festival before. He doesn't know, but I think we can make him understand.”

Always prepared to defend your friend. Still weren't you in the same class last year? No, that's right. He got expelled, which makes it my problem as well. “Urufu, it's the biggest happening during the year, and Himekaizen runs it for two days,” Ryu said.

Urufu shrugged. “They told me. So it's an all-important annual event. I've seen those you know, in Sweden.”

Yeah, I bet you have. But we can't tell the others. “What's the problem?”

“If we don't get the café we're stuck with a play!” Hitomi-chan said, and Hiroyuki-kun nodded agreement with her.

“To be honest I'd give up on the café,” Ryu suggested. “Second years will get all of those.”

“You're just as bad as Urufu.”

So that was the problem. When Ryu looked closer at the whiteboard he could see that most of Urufu's notes concerned a play. You think you can land that one? “Urufu, you're planning for the play?”

“Yeah, as I told them, if we go for something modern, say West Side Story, we could integrate the play with the show the club applies for. Thematic cohesion should give both applications a greater chance of approval.”

'Thematic cohesion'? Yes, that's Urufu all right. Ryu decided against voicing his thoughts. “Sounds like an idea. Probably won't get shot down like our café and haunted house.”

“You applied for one as well?”

Ryu nodded at Hiroyuki-kun who had asked the question. “Fat chance though. We'll be doing food stalls this year.”

“Ah, on that topic. Try to get something foreign. We'll apply for the barbecue to be the centrepiece of some kind of international cuisine area.”

“Huh?” Ryu hadn't heard anything about that.

“If we can get enough of the food stalls to serve foreign food we can make a thing out of it and concentrate it to one area separate from the rest of the stalls.”

Ryu stared at Urufu. “Why would we want to?”

“Because it's more fun that way, and we could have a small stage and run mini events as well.”

Yeah, that definitely was Urufu. Always planning a little bit further than anyone else. “There's more to it as well I guess,” Ryu said.

Urufu nodded. “Yes. Everyone involved will feel like a part of something larger locally. We'll get an excuse to carry out a lot of tables, and in the end the freshmen will have their café anyway.”

Yes, definitely Urufu. Father said he would make a good CEO. Ryu suspected he had already been one.