Thanks to Rostary-chan who started to read and vote this story. And also for others, thanks for reading and voting too ^^ As for this story, did Syo call Ai by 'Ai'? I am not sure about that and I apologize if I got it wrong. Feel free to tell me what is the correct one, guys.

CHAPTER 4

A tetchy dandelion head, a stuck-up Elsa wannabe, a poker-faced scientist, and an 'all-rainbow' senpai but most likely had a dark past...

Hmm...

Come to think of it, all QUARTET NIGHT members have the personality traits which make them need someone innocent and nice like Nanami/Lady.

Was what Masato and Ren had in their minds. Since the dramatic 'reunion' between Haruka and HAYATO, the scions were brooding over what HAYATO said about their seniors while eyeing dangerously at Ranmaru. The said dandelion head was sitting comfortably on the sofa at the center of the room while taking a nap.

The childhood friends were so rapt and curious about the grumpy guy that their body naturally moved closer to him.

Meanwhile, Ranmaru twitched his eyebrows as for some reason, he no longer could feel the serene vibe that enveloped his muscular body after being annoyed all day at Reiji's 'Ran-Ran' jokes.

Instead, he felt like he was watching a 5D horror movie with eyes closed.

What's with this feeling? Why do I feel like there are two sharks are going to attack me?

Ranmaru opened his eyes which quickly sized up as a pair of 'orange and blue sharks' were staring at him in the same manner with Ai.

"What the hell are you guys doing here!?" The rocker shouted furiously, almost flipped from the sofa. The two poker faces were so scary that he almost threw his black headphones to them.

"No need to be so surprised, Ran-chan. We are your roommates. Of course we are here," Ren said, casually. Masato and he were not even astounded when they found themselves standing next to each other, which seemed like they already mentally agreed to interrogate Ranmaru.

"You guys are standing like a pair of morons and you expect me not to be taken aback? What do you guys want from me!? It's better not to be something stupid or else, two people will be dead meat tonight!"

"Of course it's something smart. It's about our future," Ren said, followed by Masato's nods.

"Huh!? To me, once it came from you, it sounded stupider."

"Kurosaki-san, are you interested in Nanami?" Masato asked bluntly. This guy was even stranger and creepier. He always talked respectfully but there was something in his speech that made Ranmaru thought that the scion was mocking him. Unlike Ren who he could easily discern just why he disliked the guy's presence, Masato remained as a mystery. He was well-bred so Ranmaru would be perceived as crazy if he told the pianist off.

"What!? Where the hell did it come from!?" The rocker was even more frustrated when no matter how daunting he sounded, his juniors did not even flinch. Working with his teammates every single day was onerous enough so he did not need his or somebody's juniors to be tiring as well.

As if being forced to eat Natsuki's cookies by the guy yesterday was not a sufficient agony...

"Just like what we normally see in shoujo dramas, the pessimistic Ran-chan will see something pure and lovely in Lady and he will end up falling in love with her," Ren insisted on his conclusion which was profoundly influenced by HAYATO.

"I agree with you, Jinguuji."

Crap! How the hell did they know it!?

"You are a tsundere who always whines and swears but in fact, you're just a lonely soul who needs someone who can understand you, right?" Masato remarked as he possessed Ai's habit; staring at people's face up-close.

"Shut up! Get out of this room, you weirdos!"

The night was dreadfully cursed since Ranmaru flipped his lid that he did not even bother to filter out his swearing.

"Oi, Ai!"

"Syo-chan, calm down," Natsuki interrupted, thinking that his friend was way too casual with their strict senior.

"What?" The poker face turned from his computer, sending his small but grumpy junior recoiled. "As usual, you have no sense of respect to your senior. Do you want me to include an ethics class in your schedule next time, Syo?"

"Hell, no! Please don't!" Syo waved his hands at Ai's face, desperately expressing his thought.

"I told you, Syo-chan," Natsuki sighed. It was ironic when he wanted to protect Syo from being abused by Ai when in fact, he was way more menacing for Syo's life.

"Then, please mind your manners when you talk with your senior," Ai said, crossing his arms over his chest. His voice was way monotonic but God knew what he could do while maintaining his blank expression.

Said a senior who claimed my height 100 cm.

"Did you say something in your mind?" In a flash, Ai stood up from his chair, staring at Syo up close.

"Huh? No, I am not!"

Damn!

"Oh, really? My data said that when a person shows an irritated face while looking straight at you, it shows that the person is talking bad about you in his mind."

Does he even have data for that? Did he seriously conduct a research for everything? Natsuki pondered.

"I swear, I don't!" Syo said, frantically. He dared to swear since he was positive that he did not exactly talk bad about the QUARTET NIGHT. He just criticized...

Well, that's the same with talking bad. Crap, am I going to die now?

"Ai-chan, what do you think about Haru-chan?" Natsuki interrupted. It was the best moment for him to stop Ai from browbeating Syo... yet again.

"Huh, Haru-chan? Do you mean Nanami Haruka?" Ai asked back. A finger was pressed against his chin as a sweet girl image crossed his mind.

"Yeah, who else is... Natsuki?" Syo almost thought that Natsuki was strangling him from behind when what he actually did was hugging his neck tightly.

"Calm down, Syo-chan. Don't talk back," Natsuki murmured while still smiling at Ai. His big hand covered Syo's mouth or to be exact, he was covering more than half of the face.

"Well, I don't think anything about her. I don't know what to think about her. But, since she is the composer of your debut song, I think she's talented."

"Then, when you listen to the song, don't you admire and want to know more about her?" Syo asked after biting Natsuki's palm and escaped from the deathly grip.

"I don't think so. I don't even know what is 'admire'. Is it the feeling that you get when the person does something remarkable or something?"

What a pain, Syo thought. The childhood friends could not help but stare at his senior hopelessly like he just said something stupid.

Well, for a young adult standard, Ai did sound too naive.

For Natsuki and Syo, their senior had more ways to go. He did not even know what to feel in the first place.

"Good morning, Ichinose."

"Good morning, Tokiya-kun!"

"Wait, he just went past like that? How rude!" said the guy who was warned last night for being insolent to his senior, Syo. He scowled at Tokiya who was marching heatedly, could not care less about their very existence at the corridor.

"Tokiya-kun, are you okay!?" Natsuki shouted as loud as possible but in a fraction of a second, the blue head already disappeared. Up until now, they had no idea that Tokiya could move that speedy. "Otoya-kun, what's wrong with Tokiya-kun? He seems angry about something."

"I don't know," the redhead's voice was surprisingly detached, unlike the usual him.

"Most probably HAYATO picked a fight with him," Masato presumed while eyeing Otoya.

'No, I am not okay' was the only thing that Tokiya managed to answer in his mind. HAYATO, the source of his unlucky events since a few days ago had destroyed his mood since this morning and maybe he would continue it in future.

After HAYATO and Otoya went back from entertaining their fans in the family restaurant, Tokiya did not fritter his time away from giving his alter ego a rap on the knuckles. He could not stand the way the guy just said whatever his loud mouth wanted.

Not to mention he just declared that he wanted to maintain his HAYATO-esque personality despite debuting as Ichinose Tokiya.

"What the hell is your problem, huh!? Why did you say something like that to my fans!?" He was positive that his loud voice would make HAYATO's ears cried with blood but to no purpose. Instead, only Reiji and Otoya drew back when they were not the original targets.

"Because I am HAYATO, not Tokiya. Of course I don't want to disappear from my fans' sights. Plus, your fans are my fans too. I just entertained them in HAYATO-esque way. I don't see anything wrong with that," HAYATO said, ignoring Otoya's poke in his arm. He could see how much Reiji and Otoya were intimidated by Tokiya's spleen and to be honest, he did not like it.

It just showed that rather feeling close to each other, Tokiya was like a monster to them.

"You are Tokiya when you are out of Master Course dorm so the clown with the stupid smile is basically is not here anymore. I suggest you know your place and..."

"Hey, Tokiya. That's a little mean, don't you think so?" Otoya interrupted. His eyes were quivering as he could not stand to see any of his friends fought loudly. "HAYATO just wanted to entertain your fans, you know. You quitted being HAYATO just like that and it shocked everyone. Not to mention your real self is quite opposite with him. Of course they will take time to like the new you and..."

"It's their problem if they don't want to accept the real me! I don't want to have anything to do with a shallow dullard like him! His image is very idiotic and I had to smile a lot..."

"What's wrong with smiling a lot and act cheerfully? That's what an idol supposed to do, right? You make it sound like you belittle people like him," Otoya remarked sadly, making Reiji stood up from his bed anxiously. Once the sweetest person in that particular fight was on the threshold of anger or frustration; that was when he knew that the fight had reached the last straw.

Otoya's defensive comment made Tokiya chuckled sardonically. His eyes did not only turn dark with anger. Instead, it was derisive for a soft-hearted guy like the redhead.

"Of course a person like you can understand someone like him. You never take things seriously. All you do is being nosy when in fact, I don't care about you. You both are clowns who have nothing better to do other than pestering me. Did you get that? So, you should know your place too, Otoya. Someone like you can't survive showbiz even if your life depends on it."

HAYATO's cheeky expression turned flat. From the corner of his eyes, he could see the pair of red eyes was gazing at Tokiya in shock. HAYATO held Reiji's eyes, indirectly asking 'what should we do now?' but the senior just shrugged. Apparently, he was too busy with being surprised by Tokiya's harshness.

Or maybe, he was upset since he was also a 'clown' like Otoya and HAYATO. From the way Tokiya talked so unfriendly when he was supposed to show his respect to the very experienced senior, it told HAYATO everything.

"Tokki, I don't think you need to put it that way. Otoyan is just trying to help you," Reiji said while stroking his back. He never thought that his well-behaved juniors would get themselves into a fracas like this. "What he meant was even if you disapproved what HAYATO did, you don't need to be harsh. HAYATO was very nice with your fans after all and I think you can learn a lot from him. You don't need to be serious all the time."

"It's okay, Rei-chan. Thank you for the explanation," Otoya said, holding Reiji's sleeve hem. He stiffly turned at HAYATO. "If that's the case, let's act clownish somewhere else, HAYATO. Somewhere that suits idiots like us. Besides, he treated you the same as how he treated me before so I hate to see the same thing happened to you."

Call him strange and stupid but Otoya's words which implying how much he was hurt felt like a stab through Tokiya's heart. The blue head did not mean to hurt his roommate. It was like an outcome of his stress since HAYATO messed up his life.

Since then, Otoya no longer grinned at him nor pestered him. He only addressed and talked to Reiji and HAYATO while treating Tokiya worse than a wall. It was uncomfortable when the guitarist clearly disapproved when the pacifists Reiji and HAYATO tried to drag Tokiya into their conversation as well. It was a pain when Otoya did not acknowledge his existence so since then, Tokiya rarely spent his time in their room unless he was really tired and had to rest.

But, wait...

A pain? He should feel grateful to his Lord. Otoya did not disturb him anymore. He was too busy making HAYATO at home so...

It felt more peaceful... for the first time.

"A... A date with you?" Haruka stuttered as she was still in HAYATO's arms.

When Tokiya was silently reading in the library during his off day, his alter ego was swift to take the very first step that no one in STARISH had guts to do.

As for Haruka, bumping into Tokiya habitually was not enough. This morning, when she moseyed around the dorm while finding inspiration for Syo's song, she came across HAYATO, who made a beeline towards his room after having a breakfast with other STARISH members. Haruka's body balance was always weak and had a tendency to meet the floor as if the other person's body was a wall. Unlike her previous encounters with Tokiya, she was lucky because this time, HAYATO was much quicker to catch her.

But apparently, he was slower to release her from his hold. Instead, HAYATO was busy smiling before asking her permission to bring her for a date out of nowhere.

"Yes!" the guy echoed cheerfully as he finally released his hold around her frame. "I am so bored to stay in dorm and Tokiya is spending all day by reading anyway. I think it's safe to say this is a date with my fan."

"Oh..."

"Oh?" Haruka exclaimed, finally getting surprised at where and with who she ended up going to.

They were in a shopping complex. He said 'a date' but they did not do anything cheesy or cute. Just watching a comedy movie and playing in an arcade for hours instead of watching a horror (Tokiya's favorite genre) or romantic movie and strolling in a park. It seemed to Haruka that HAYATO was so desperate to be as contrasting as possible compared to the mature Tokiya.

She never said yes to the date just like how the bride-to-be said yes to the dress but somehow, she just played along with HAYATO's exhilaration. He chatted a lot and acted exactly the same with the on-screen version of him. He really knew how to carry a conversation with his fans every time he participated in a variety show or fan meeting. His smile was contagious and frankly speaking, it was almost a poison for Haruka's brain which was supposed to generate ideas for STARISH's singles.

Yet, since she was one of the few people who was lucky (?) enough to know Tokiya well at the same time, she found herself spending the rest of time imagining how out of character this Tokiya had been.

It must be hard for Ichinose-san to be this lively, she thought.

After buying a pink dress and a pair of hairpins for Haruka (since he asked Haruka to compete with him for basketball arcade game when she was bad at it), they both ended up sitting together on a bench in a nearby park, eating ice cream.

"Hmm!" Haruka exclaimed, relishing the chocolate flavor. It was perfect for the sunny day especially after being suddenly asked to play an arcade game with an idol.

She was oblivious with the fact that HAYATO was staring at her, smiling at his thought.

Well, I know I will cringe but the more I spend time with her, the more I can see why Tokiya is interested in her. One of the reasons is... her naivety? That really sounds like Tokiya to be attracted with someone pure and hardworking like her.

He knew it sounded downright cheesy to feel attracted with a girl who ate ice cream deliciously but he could not help it. She was certainly not the most beautiful girl that he had ever met but her innocence, completed with her smile and personality were what made her charming. When he looked like he was too engrossed in their previous activities, he still managed to observe her. One of his favorite expressions of her was when she suddenly stopped walking and had a finger lifted. Her eyes would widen before a lovely smile crept over her lips. It was a sign that she just gained inspiration and so far, she had made the expression five times. Just what kind of melody did she get from the crowded and noisy shopping complex, HAYATO did not know.

"I am curious about this, Haruka-chan," he said, attempted to stop himself from falling into the hole of Haruka's harem. "Why does the way you address everyone in STARISH is inconsistent? You called all of them their family name with -san except... Syo and Otoya, right?"

"Ah, yes," she said. She never thought about this matter until HAYATO, out of all people questioned it. "I called Syo-kun in that way because he asked me to. I initially called him Kurusu-kun. As for Ittoki-kun, it's maybe because his seat was near with mine back then in school and he was my partner for our first assignment."

"I see. At least your reason is acceptable. Unlike Tokiya's," he said. He did find himself a new hobby; scorning at the said guy as soon as he woke up from sleep. "I don't get this guy. He dislikes Otoya but he calls him with his first name. And then, there are Ren and Syo who are also being called by their first names just because they were his classmates but sometimes, he thinks they're annoying and he rarely spends time together with Syo. Now, they are teammates and he still called Masato and Natsuki by their family names? Why must he make it complicated and sound like he doesn't have to be closer to the guys? I bet if another guy joins STARISH, he will call the guy by his last name and it'll be divided equally. Three guys with last names and three guys with first names."

All Haruka did was chuckled awkwardly. She agreed with HAYATO but found it rude to share the same idea about Tokiya. Her reserved personality was one thing but she did not find her relationship with Tokiya was that casual to the point of she could scoff at him as she pleased.

She looked around as she finished her ice-cream. There were only a few couples who were in their own world; talking, shamelessly argued or flushed when they held hands.

Observing them especially the couple who held hands, it managed to spark an idea for a new song. Haruka took out an empty music sheet before scribbling across it. It was silent for a while as HAYATO himself gave her time to focus on her work.

"Done," she muttered as she heaved a sigh of relief. She believed that the rest of the song would be finished in a jiffy.

She still needed more time to spend with a certain person so that she could gain more inspiration.

"Do you always bring your music sheets everywhere?" HAYATO initiated, eyeing the music sheet in her hand.

"Yeah, it's kind of a habit," she said, sheepishly. She felt bad for ignoring HAYATO for a while. "We don't know how inspiration will hit us so I think it's more convenient to bring them everywhere."

"I see. May I take a look?" HAYATO stretched out his hand, feeling the smoothness of the sheet soon after that when she timidly passed it to him. He hummed using Tokiya-esque voice, soothing her right away. She always loved that sweet voice. "Well, the verses are fabulous and harmonious! No wonder you always got the best score in your course. You're a real gem, Haruka-chan!"

"Thank you but... I don't think I am that good, HAYATO-sama," she said. A warm blush spread to her cheeks.

"Haruka-chan, please... don't call me HAYATO-sama. You can call me HAYATO-kun or HAYATO. We live in the same place anyway. At least for the time being."

"Well, if you insist... HAYATO-kun?" She repeated.

"Yeah, that sounds friendlier! You see, I don't want anyone to feel awkward around me especially you, Haruka-chan. It's only a few days since I've known you but I already found you admirable. You're someone that I love to hang out with. Your attitude to working is just like Tokiya. He will fulfill his mind with his work and that's why he can do everything perfectly. But, unlike you, he can't balance his social life and career."

"I see."

I think it's because Ichinose-san started working at a very young age so his job means a lot to him, she thought.

"I think you are a good match to him, Haruka-chan."

"Huh?"

"Now tell me. What do you think about Tokiya?" The wide smile no longer crept over HAYATO's face. Instead, his eyes were full of curiosity.

"About Ichinose-san..." She repeated uncertainly. "I think he has a great voice. He's hardworking and..."

"No, I don't mean his talent," he said. That was not what he looked for. "I mean, what do you think of him as a man?"

That was when she could feel her whole face flushed with embarrassment.

Ichinose-san as a man?

I don't know what am I doing with this chapter. Sorry for making it crappy (T_T)