CREDITS TO : UTA NO PRINCE SAMA (and Free!)

CHAPTER 7

"This is the list of your name and your partner. Kindly refer to here and I hope you enjoy creating a beautiful music for your second assignment," Hyuga Ryuya, the homeroom teacher for S Class pointed towards the list that he already attached on the notice board.

"Em... Jinguji san..." Ren could hear a familiar voice, calling him shyly. "I am looking to working with you."

It was Maaya, his wife.

Ah, come to think of it.. she was my partner for the second assignment.

Maaya was just like Haruka. A goody-two-shoes with a shy and polite attitude. She put on minimal make-up, which for some reasons, made her natural beauty shone. Her dark purple hair looked soft on her shoulders. And also for some reasons, unlike with other girls, the ex-womanizer did not feel like flirting with her.

Well, perhaps, it was because he felt bad for not being a good husband for her. he even loved another woman instead of her.

Maybe this was a good chance for him to learn more about Maaya. Maybe this time around, he could start over with her.

"Me too," he gave her a serene smile, enough to make other girls squealed out of jealousy and admiration while Maaya...

She just blushed and nodded timidly before turning to her front and to be honest, unlike after their marriage when he felt ignorant about everything related to Maaya, but now...

"Look at the bitch! She makes me sick already."

"Yeah, me too. A plain girl like her does not suit Jinguji-sama at all."

Wait! Just what Maaya did to make those skanks feeling sick already? She just greeted him for the God sake!

Their insult to Maaya quickly got into his last nerve as he eavesdropped on their conversation.

"Yeah. Does she think Jinguji-sama will fall in love with her if they are partners for this petty assignment? How pathetic!"

How come those bitches called Maaya a bitch when it was clear that she did not ask to be his partner in the first place?

Call him eccentric but out of the blue, he felt the instinct to protect Maaya grew stronger.

"Well, Lady-tachi, don't be sad. You still have the graduation audition to choose me as your partner. Please behave and I will pick anyone of you," his interruption made those girls silent immediately while the other fans squealed again out of excitement.

Well, this time around, I will let it slide.

"Good for you, dude. You got your own wife as your partner," Syo, who sat in front of him just smirked to the scion but Ren knew, the small guy was just being sarcastic, considering how volatile their marriage was.

"Maybe this is a good chance for me to... love her.." Ren smiled bitterly, much to Syo's surprise. It was rare to see the high school version of Ren said something so sincere and dramatic like that.

"Wait! You mean, all this time, you never love her?" Syo was obviously in shock but he was still being rational by keeping his voice down. "I mean.. you don't have any slight interest in her? You know what? All this time, I thought that you love her, considering how you treasured her..."

"I guess.. Hijirikawa does not spill the beans, huh?"

"I think he is the most reliable friend when it comes to keep a secret especially yours and you should know that better than anyone, Ren," Syo rolled his eyes out of irritation, gaining himself a chuckle from Ren.

"It's hard you know... when you already had your eye on somebody for quite some time, you are so devoted to her but it ended up you getting married out of family arrangement while the girl.. she ended up marrying someone else which happens to be your own friend . It's like... can't the fate get any crueler?"

"What do you.."

"Come on, Ochibi-chan... don't play dumb with me. I know all this time, you never found a girlfriend because you cannot forget our Little Lamb. Well, it's surprising when you are always being the one who acts tough but at the end, you are the one who still cannot move on from her," the smirk from Ren made Syo blushed. The small boy was about to yell at the ex-playboy before ..

"Okay, guys! Settle down. We are going to start our class now. You can discuss with your partner after this."

"Okay!"

Ren was about to take his book out of his bag (it sounded out of character when he, Jinguji Ren actually bothered to learn seriously in class instead of twirling a rose but his mind is the adult Ren afterall. He no longer likes to slack off) when he saw Tokiya, who was always in his own little world, staring at a paper in his hand.

"What are you doing, Icchi? Reading love letters from your fans?" Ren's question made Syo turned to the blue head.

"It's none of your business," the perfectionist remarked coldly as he kept the letter into his book but Syo managed to take a glance at the handwriting.

'It's from Nanami,' Syo mouthed, gaining himself a chuckle from Ren.

Meanwhile, for the first time in his life as a student, Tokiya could not pay attention to whatever Hyuga was blabbering on as his mind was distracted by the letter. Yes, he received a pile of letters from his fans lately but there was a few letters which he believed, from the same person, that caught his attention...

In an atrocious way.

Good luck for your part- time job today! You should smile more and enjoy yourself. Hey, being happy-good-lucky like Ittoki-kun is not bad, you know!

I know you miss singing so much. Don't worry. Sooner or later, you will able to sing without being overshadowed by your 'brother' anymore. Ganbatte, Ichinose-san!

Please take care of your health, Ichinose-san! You look pale and I believe you don't eat your breakfast today. That's not good, Ichinose-san. You can't just skip your breakfast too often.You have a packed shedule every single day so your body needs more energy

How did this nameless letter sender knew he had a 'part-time job' when even Otoya, his roommate did not know about that? How did this person know that he missed singing so much?

Speaking of singing...

Sooner or later, you will able to sing without being overshadowed by your 'brother' anymore.

'Brother'.

There were apostrophes there. Why, though?

Somebody in this school knew about he being Hayato all this time. He was positive with that.

In the afternoon, STARISH members, Haruka and Tomochika were discussing again.

"To make Cecil talk normally, we need to..." Otoya gave a look to Haruka before receiving a nod from her.

"We need to break the curse," Haruka looked at each of her friends."You guys need to sing 1000% Maji Love so that Cecil-san can transform into a human again."

"This is so absurd but I guess we don't have choices, right?" Syo gave an instant glare to Cecil the Cat who also gave an instant response alias sticking his tongue cheekily. It seemed like aggravating hot tempered guys like Syo and Masato were one of his hobbies.

"Shall we sing, then? Our lunch break will finish soon," Masato reminded them before receiving strong nods from everyone.

"Okay, guys. One.. two.. three.." Tomochika gave a cue before the sky was mesmerized by the said song.

The song that meant to be their debut song. The song that united all of them. The song that gave them a hope to achieve their dream.

Even each of them could not help but thinking that their harmony did not sound as good as it should be.

At the end of the day, their dedication to sing the song was to no avail since Cecil the Cat was still in his cat mode. No transformation at all.

It took a while for them to finally register the truth before..

"Ehhhh!!!???"

Blending their voices together in such a cliched and dramatic way (the tone that you always find in anime).

"Why!!?" Otoya rubbed his eyes with the hope that his eyes went crazy for a few seconds yet the image of Cecil the Cat was still the same.

"Is it just me or Cecil-kun is still a cat? Is there something wrong with my glasses, Syo-chan? Should I clean it?" Natsuki was about to take off his glasses when the traumatized Syo shoved it back onto his nose.

"Don't you ever do that, you crazy monster!" Syo was desperately in need for oxygen as the thought of Satsuki appeared right in front of them crossed his mind. Even though Satsuki never showed up since Natsuki's duet project with Nagi from Heavens, Syo tended to give spontaneous and alarmed reactionss everytime Natsuki wanted to take off his glasses.

"Cecil-san, why.." Haruka's golden eyes grew wide but like the others, she could not understand what Cecil the Cat tried to answer her.

"Maybe we messed up somewhere.." Otoya gave an awkward smile but he was positive that they should try singing the song again.

"Yeah.. maybe Ochibi-chan was so excited to sing until he accidentally bit his tongue and ruined the song."

"What the hell is your problem, you bastard!?" Ren seemed like he would never be affected by Syo's earth-shaking scold, unlike the others.

"Cut it out, you guys!" the angry shout from Masato managed to calm those two S class students from starting an unnecessary fight. "Aijima wants to say something."

It seemed like the black cat pointed his small leg towards someone.

Even though it was faraway from them, they still could see a tall figure with a dark blue hair, walking passed the field. Being the typical Tokiya, the polar opposite figure of Hayato, he always emitted the cool, perfect yet 'dont't disturb me' aura whenever he goes.

"We need him to sing this song, right? No wonder the harmony doesn't sound as pleasant as before," Ren commented, sending the others agreed with him.

A few seconds passed and out of nowhere, a typical shoujo drama was 'aired' in front of them as the obsessed fan of Tokiya or the leader of A Class trio; Nakamura Yuna, approached Tokiya with a sheepish expression written over her fair-skinned face. The other two, Ashu Mizuki and Tanaka Naomi hid behind a nearby tree, sorts of being supportive to the girl.

"Is Nakamura going to confess to Tokiya?" Otoya was worried as he could see how jealous Haruka looked right now.

"Most probably. Yuna-chan always talked about how Tokiya-kun is dreamy and have an amazing singing voice," Natsuki responded.

They could see that Yuna's face turned redder as she told something to poker-faced Tokiya. The blue head just stared at her blankly before slowly shaking his head, much to his fan's shock.

"But.. but why? I am sincerely in love with you, Ichinose-san," Yuna's voice started to get louder,which sounded more connvenient for other STARISH members, Haruka and Tomochika to eavesdrop on her confession. Yuna even tugged Tokiya's sleeves, sending Haruka to clench her fists.

"Oi, Nanami.. are you okay?" Syo shivered as this was the first time for him to see Haruka acted like she was going to transform into an anime villain who would destroy the earth as she saw a girl hitting on her husband.

"Sure she not," Ren remarked as he was amazed with the composer too. Nobody ever thought that Nanami Haruka would be this scary if her jealousy got the best of her since she always had this kind of innocent and gentle image.

It seemed like since she was married to Ichinose Tokiya who everybody knows how intimidating and strong-willed he could be, Haruka has somehow become like him.

"She touched my husband. I will not allow that," as Haruka was about to interrupt them, Cecil suddenly nuzzled her legs.

"What's wrong, Cecil-san?"

"I think he wants to say 'Haruka, I think it's better if you stand aside. If you want to scold her, you don't have enough reasons to do so since Tokiya still treats you like a stranger. He will take you as a nuisance instead and the Yuna girl sure will spread the word that you are an obssesive fan of Tokiya to the point of you start imagining that Tokiya is yours'," Masato suddenly made his voice higher so that it matched Cecil's human-version voice but in fact, his voice reminded them with a certain moronic orange head from a sport anime.

"Wow, Hijirikawa. I never thought that you can make Spongebob voice like that," Ren teased before receiving death glare from Masato.

Cecil abruptly left them, approaching Tokiya confidently (as you could expect from a cat who naturally walked like it was on a catwalk).

"What's he trying to do?" Otoya expressed his wonder, receiving shrugs from the others as they continued watching.

Cecil suddenly stood in the middle of Yuna and Tokiya before groaning fiercely at Yuna who was coincidentally afraid with the species.

"What's wrong with this cat?" Yuna shivered as Tokiya scooped Cecil into his arms.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Tokiya asked softly but it only made Cecil turned scarier, much to the girl's fright.

"Why do you suddenly sound like you want to fight?" Tokiya asked calmly even though he could not understand this cat's behaviour. 'It' has always been so timid and endearing but now..

"I will leave first, Ichinose-san," without wasting any seconds, Yuna quickly left the scene, dragging her confused friends along with her.

"Nice work, Aijima-san!" Tomochika remarked happily.

"But now, he is doing a shitty work," Syo responded as his light blue eyes focused on a certain disturbing scene.

Cecil the Cat was doing his job as a lovely cat who typically licked and snuggled closer to Tokiya. The cold face of the vocalist automatically turned loving before he brought Cecil with him and Otoya could guess the roommate of his would bring Cecil to the dorm after this.

That kind of sight was supposed to give a new impression to the other students that Ichinose Tokiya is a loving cat lover but for STARISH members...

That kind of sight was so unsightly. Poor Tokiya.. If he knew that the cat was a grown-up guy like him...

"That jerk... how come he just casually licked and snuggled to his friend like that?" Cecil the Cat managed to make Syo's hair stood on end.

"I think that Aijima is trying to make Ichinose's attitude softer. After all,we need Ichinose to sing the song along with us," Masato sighed heavily while the others could not agree more with him.

"To approach and make friends with him is one heck of problem... let alone making him singing with us. That will be tough," Otoya also let out a heavy sigh.

"I guess,we just have to make new plans," Ren's eyes directed to Haruka. "Even I know Lady right here already made her first move by giving him letters every single day. You know, out of those love letters he received, Icchi paid more attention to your letters."

Haruka blushed, receiving a pat on her back from Natsuki. "Haru-chan, I don't know you can be this upfront when it comes to Tokiya-kun. Well, the fact that Tokiya-kun also can be a lovebird when it comes to you is also hard for us to believe. Are you guys the type who only show your romantic side when no other people around?"

"I guess...so.." the cute face turned even redder than Otoya's hair. "Tokiya-kun can be clingy and cheesy when there are only two of us.. he made me feel.. special. At first, I was shy to express affection but since he loves it, I got more and less used to it."

"Well, that explains a lot when you can tell what's his thinking enough from his face expression. With the rest of us, he is the symbol of a stoic. We could not tell if he is angry, happy or what not. That's unfair," Otoya expressed his unsatisfaction like a kid.

"What did you write in the letters, Haruka? Can we all know?" Tomochika stared at Haruka while giving her a teasing smile. It was so amusing when this best friend of her can easily switch to both all goody-two-shoes and blunt mode, depending on the situation.

"Nothing much.. I just tried to cheer him up since I know he is stressed out with his Hayato persona."

"Wait, Nanami. Did you tell him that you know about Hayato?" Syo was slightly panicky.

"Not really. I just said 'good luck with your part time job' or something along the line," when she realized the others were about to exhale a sigh of worry, she quickly continued, "I mean, yeah... I know I sound like a stalker who knows about his double life but if he continues to be aloof with everyone, my mission to return this world will have a slow progression. I want to be closer with him as soon as possible.. especially when he just left me that sudden for the sake of protecting me... I don't have that much time to just sit around and observe him quietly. I need to do something.."

There is an unpleasant quietness and when Haruka was about to apologize to them for being reckless, she received a pat on her shoulder from Ren.

"We got you, Lady. You know what? You just inspired me to open my heart to someone that I should give a chance to her since a long time ago. I think I need to start over with her," Ren winked at her, signaling that he would support her to win Tokiya's heart.

"I guess.. we have different reasons to return to our past, right?" Syo smiled warmly to Haruka, followed by Natsuki.

"I guess so," Otoya smiled as he thought about Nozomi. Yesterday, he went back to his orphanage out of curiousity and longing and as expected, Nozomi was there, smiling so bright the moment she caught the sight of Otoya.

Maybe the love was still no there but Otoya knew, there was something special about the childhood friend of him.

As for Masato, he planned to know more about Shizuka, his fianceĕ. Maybe initiating a long-lasting friendship with her would end up with something more precious and beautiful rather than an engagement without knowing more about each other.