𝘴𝘶𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘦

vacation for the sohmas!

"Pass your tests up now!" the teacher demands, trying to sound cool but the gesture is lost on the rest of us. I lazily pass forward the test as asked, slumping forward and banging my head on the desk in the same motion.

"I feel very good!" I hear Tohru exclaim behind me. "Because I got a lot of answers right! It's all because Yuki helped me understand everything at home, even though he had to study too..."

"You give me too much credit," Yuki says. I bet he's pulling the smile-with-your-eyes-closed-so-you-can-show-off-your-long-ass-eyelashes move, effectively swooning all the girls in the room, riling up his fan club, and just making Tohru smile back.

"So, what'd you get, bird-brain?" Yuki leans over my desk. I assume he does since there's a shadow.

"Hey, class rep, shouldn't you be on top of these things? Or did you forget how to read? Don't come at me now, you're going to be one sore lo--" I mock, while Nanami stifles any more insults that could come out of my mouth.

She smiles pleasantly, looking to Yuki who expects an answer for this hostile outburst. "She's the top ofouryear, remember?" She grips me harder, looking down with that sadistic smile of hers. "Why don't you give a blunt answer? Insults in this environment are even worse than bragging."

Her indication means the fan club, which I turn to look at with too much exasperation to fear for my life today. I'm not a rival, and on top of that, I'm a Sohma close to the prince who they aren't allowed to touch by regular means. More and more these days, Yuki and I's deal of staying away seems to be falling apart as our friends all get pushed together.

"Honda!" the teacher calls.

Tohru goes outside suddenly, talking to her for a couple moments before bowing her head in thanks, leaving us to question what just went on. She even looks a little dismayed, raising further questions. It's not like she did bad on her test? No, she just said she did well...

She comes back over in a trance and full of giggles. "I-- Uh, actually, I'm going to take a part-time job!" she says.

Kaito is visiting me at work, resisting the urge to comment on my stupid little work visor and pigtails at the coffee shop kiosk. I work till most of the time, because getting a small girl in a tinier skirt really works the allure on most people.

I bag up deliveries while there's no customers to serve. "Why did you come here? I thought you would have soccer practice, or some other extra-curricular.

"I do! I'm just more interested in seeing you. I hardly get to speak to you at school because we're in different classes, you've picked up managing for the track team during lunch hours too, and you work or train after school, so I decided it's better to catch you at work. Oh-- I hope I'm not distracting you," Kaito says. "At the top of our class, I for sure thought you would be doing more school but you're spread thin like this as is."

"Not really. I pick up these shifts to get out of the house. Track team is temporarily, their old manager is graduating and wanted my help finding girls in our year to take over," I say. "Do you have a job at all? Or are your parents filthy rich, with all the nice clothes you wear outside of school?"

His eyes drift. "You could say that... Not filthy, but I'm also good about spending my money! I'm really good with thrift finds. They work a lot, so usually it's just me and my brothers."

"How many?" It does intrigue me to know how deep the frying pan is.

"Three."

Yikes.

"They all big like you, "small guy"?"

"Yup."

By no means is Kaito small. Whenever he said that, I'm sure he was referring to something more lewd. Bigger Yikes.