CHAPTER 37

          "Hold on, have you seen him?"

          "Have I? He's so badass and hot!"

          "Ah, he's perfect!~"

          Hibiki paid me a glance. "Look, Miyuki. All these girls are making passes at me. Isn't it making you jealous?"

I rolled my eyes as we shuffled through the bustling hallways. Hibiki made a face.

"Aren't you even a teeny bit green from envy?"

"More like red from annoyance."

Sighing, I glared at the crowd that wasn't moving an inch. The bundle of fan-girlish screams continued on, though, they definitely weren't aimed in our direction. Despite knowing that, I didn't want to notify Hibiki that he had the wrong idea. It would deeply affect his ego and I wasn't too sure I wanted to deal with one of his emotional breakdowns.

"He's so swoon-worthy~!"

Passing girls were still dreamily gushing over this random specimen.

"Hinata-kun is so perfect!~"

This time, I perked. I craned my neck the same time Hibiki did, fluttering my eyelashes in confusion.

"They got the name wrong," Hibiki assured me, brushing it aside with a smile. He held up his hand. "It's Hibiki," he called out to the girls.

The two honestly sent him a puzzled, and somewhat freaked out stare before sauntering off a good distance away. I resisted the urge to snort, but it soon got caught in my throat when I once again came to terms with just how hopeless this crowd was shaping up to be. It wasn't moving at all. I made a face from displeasure.

"We should go another route if we want to get to the cafeteria," I told Hibiki, already pivoting on my foot. "Preferably before lunch ends."

Hibiki reluctantly pursued me and we returned to the more vacant part of the building before long.

"So just so I make this clear," Hibiki said. "Not even a tiny bit of jealousy? You were completely fine with them fawning over me?"

"Yup," I responded. Even though they weren't fawning over you.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

Hibiki sighed, stuffing his hands into his pockets. Then, he smiled. "Well, it's cool. I'm not really a fan of clingy girls anyway."

"Hibiki." His ramblings halted as I outstretched my hand to the poster hung on the announcement board beside us. "That Music Festival is today after school, right?"

"Yup," he replied, joining me in taking in the flashy colours of the poster. "You better be there."

"Is that because you want to tell me something important?"

Hibiki jolted, his confidence flying away to zilch.

Puzzled, I tilted my head towards him. Hibiki met my eyes for a brief moment and despite the difficulty of him paling due to the brown pigment of his skin, he appeared as uncomfortable anyway.

"Well," he said.

"You told me the other day," I prodded. "To 'look forward to it.'"

Hibiki was losing his cool faster and faster. "That... Yeah. Yeah."

My eyebrows scrunched together. Why was he so awkward all of a sudden?

"And you can't tell me it now?" I asked.

"Well, I mean, telling you now would be, you know..."

I pushed out my lower lip into a pout. "That's not fair. You're making me curious—"

"Miyuki!" I stiffened, jerking up my head. His golden eyes connected with mine, doused in newfound determination. "After the concert, I'm going to find you. And you better hear me out."

My skin crawled with newfound goosebumps. Why was he so serious? "Alright...?"

As if my answer has somehow bestowed him relief, Hibiki released a heavy breath, returning his gaze to the poster before us. I narrowed my eyes, feeling my skin bristle with goosebumps. What was that about? It was definitely unusual for Hibiki to be serious. What did he have to tell me?

"Yo, it's Hibi!"

The unexpected shout caught me off guard. Hibiki and I twisted away from the poster. The sea of giggling girls eased out a bit, only to have tall, unfamiliar faces emerge. The one who'd called out to us, I was guessing, had his arm in the air, waving frantically. His blond hair was definitely on the shorter side, sharp piercings sticking out all around his ears. Even in uniform, he was definitely a formidable sight.

"Hibi!" he called out again.

The one accompanying him was more on the silent side, red hair mixed with green streaks barely brushing past his eyes. He too wasn't someone you'd look at to be easily approachable, and his impassive countenance only added to that assumption.

I was hoping these delinquent-looking individuals were calling out to some other "Hibi," and was already turning around to go, but Hibiki dashed to meet them halfway. Once in front of each other, the blond and Hibiki broke out into matching goofy grins. Soon, the three of them were fist-bumping one another and doing other complicated handshakes.

I could feel my features fall as I raked them over once more. Somehow, I wasn't surprised Hibiki got himself involved with people like them.

"Hibi, they were selling the best melon bread in the cafeteria," the blond was rambling, arms wrapped around his abdomen. "I ate like five and I still want more."

"You need to stop being so much of a glutton," the redhead sighed.

Hibiki bobbed his head. "I agree."

The blond's jaw fell, an innocent pout taking the form of his mouth. "Hey, don't team up on me, Mori, Hibi! At least I ate them all!"

It didn't take long for me to piece together that the three of them were close, more so when they continued to go off about different matters, and one that especially stood out to me was their mention of music. I had been following their good-willed conversation from the sidelines for a while that I hadn't quite expected one of them—the redhead, "Mori"—to suddenly shift his gaze to me.

"So?" he asked, deep voice aimed toward Hibiki. "Who is she?"

All eyes then landed on me, and the blond let out a loud wolf-whistle, placing his hand to his forehead. "Now that you mention it, there is a total babe right in front of us! Hibi, is she your girlfriend?"

I deadpanned. Hibiki, on the other hand, promptly clasped my shoulder. "She is—"

"Excuse me?"

"—my childhood friend?" Hibiki grinned from ear to ear, doing his best to ignore my black look. "I mean, she could also be my girlfriend if she finally agreed to date me, but— Ow."

Hibiki clenched his teeth, holding his arm I'd just socked. Huffing, I crossed my arms over my chest. "Stop running your mouth, idiot. Nobody in the right mind would believe your lies."

Another whistle and chuckle left the blond. "Yo, she's so feisty! That's such a turn-on! Hey, if you're not Hibi's girlfriend, wanna be mine?"

Although I hadn't wanted it to, my glare had already fixed itself on this rowdy character. Despite that, he only cocked his head. Clearly, one look wasn't enough to rid him of his broad smile. I opened my mouth to tell him off, but Hibiki extended his arm to keep him away before I could.

"Hey, I know Miyuki's adorable but I'm not giving her to you, Kaishou."

"So your name's Miyuki?" Kaishou said anyway, manoeuvring himself so he could see me better. "Such a turn-on!"

"Her name's a turn-on?" Mori asked. The only one, I realized, capable of using common sense.

"Duh! It means 'beautiful snow,'" Kaishou reasoned with a chuckle. "And I love snow."

I heaved a sigh, not even wanting to refute to this idiot. Leave it to Hibiki to befriend a bunch of weirdos, seriously. "Are these your band mates?"

"How'd she know?" Kaishou asked, tilting his head. "How?"

"It's not that difficult to piece together," Mori sighed, again.

Hibiki grinned and beckoned to the blond. "The loud one's Nishioka Kaishou."

"Who's loud? Me? You talkin' about me, Hibi?"

"And he's Okabe Mori."

He bobbed his head in a bow. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"You, too," I replied, doing the same.

When I'd gotten back up, I stared at the guy. What was someone like him doing involved with these idiots? If I were him I'd get fed up dealing with Hibiki, let alone that Kaishou character and ditch them for another band.

"Miyuki, are you coming to watch us perform today?" Kaishou asked, voice practically reverberating off the walls. "You have to!"

"You're too informal," Hibiki enunciated.

He simply laughed. "Who cares. A friend of Hibi's is a friend of mine. Or if she wants, we can pass that friend boundary right now and—"

"You wish," I said, once again scowling. I took it back. He and Hibiki were one and the same. "So?" I asked. "What are you guys performing today?"

The three of them shared a look, as if hurt that I'd ask such a question.

"We can't tell you that, Miyuki!" Kaishou pouted.

Hibiki nodded. "That ruins the fun."

Even Mori chimed in, "You'll have to wait and find out."

So they all agreed on that.

"Say," Kaishou was already onto something else, once again putting his hands to his forehead and scanning over the perimeter, "have you guys seen that new kid around? He looked so epic I wanted to recruit him to the Light Music Club!"

"New kid?" I asked.

"You know, the one the second-year girls keep talking about," Kaishou said.

"Weren't they talking about me?" Hibiki replied.

"Nope," Kaishou said.

"They were not," Mori agreed.

"Why would they?" I also put out.

Hibiki's mouth dropped in disbelief, and he placed his hand to his chest. "You guys have no delicacy."

"Ah! There he is now!" Kaishou exclaimed, waving vigorously in the distance. "Hey! New kid!"

I lifted my head as did the others only for my eyes fall upon a startling sight. Spiked up orange hair, a dishevelled uniform, a half-smirk. He strode toward us, girls ogling and giggling from a distance.

So he was the reason the school was in such an uprising today? I furrowed my eyebrows as I scrutinized his face even after he arrived at a stop beside Kaishou. Had I seen him somewhere before...?

I shrugged the idea aside. "Hey, Hibiki." I nudged his arm. "I'm hungry so I'm heading to the cafeteria."

"Sure," he replied. "I'll just hang around here a bit."

I nodded and ambled onward.

It wasn't even three steps later that it came crashing down on me like a meteorite.

I'd dashed back to the group in less than a heartbeat and snagged this so-called "new kid" by the arm and forced him toward me. All at once, my jaw collapsed to the ground. I scoured every portion of his appearance—his face—and I could feel my sanity slipping further and further away from me as I did.

"Hinata?" I demanded, my grip on his sleeve not relenting.

The innocent, happy-go-lucky boy I'd once classify the name with completely betrayed my expectations by shrugging my arm off him. There wasn't a speck of nonchalance coating his features—his chin was instead high from disdain.
"What'd you need?"

My eyes were bulging from their sockets. And although he asked, he was more focused on the twittering girls and even flashed them a haughty smile, to which they combusted some more.

I grabbed him by the collar, forcing him to stare at me. "Hinata!"

We locked gazes, him more reluctantly than I. Then, his eyebrows furrowed together. My heart skipped its beat, appalled.

Hinata was scowling. At me!

"Miyuki sure is forceful," Kaishou chuckled.

"If only she was that upfront with me," Hibiki agreed.

"I'm sure that's not what this is about," Mori said.

And damn right he was. Anger, if anything, was surging up from me like a volcano. "What is the meaning of this, Hinata?"

"You do realize we're in public," he replied, grabbing my wrist as if to tell me to let go.

With his first couple buttons undone, I got a clear look of his collarbone. I grounded my teeth, defying his wishes.

"Then tell me why you're dressed like some kind of hooligan!"

Hinata merely rolled his eyes. At me!

No matter how I tried, I couldn't wrap my head around this let alone believe it.

I caught sight of the mark underneath his lower lip and squinted my eyes. "Is that fake blood?" I stepped towards him at once but before Hinata could recoil again, I pressed my finger against his chin. "It is!" I cried in disbelief. "And those are fake piercings! What exactly are you trying to imply? I need a damn explanation, Hinata!"

Hinata finally nudged me away from him and stuffed his hands into his pockets, slouching his posture in the act. "It's none of your business, Miyuki."

"Miyuki?" I screeched. He'd never once called me by my given name!

Albeit knowing how terrible things had gotten, that still didn't halt my heart from pounding. Even before he was charming with that was a sweet, good-boy look, but this full-fledged bad boy act was swoon-worthy, too. It was no surprise he'd won the fancy of every other second-year girl. Regardless, it was so wrong. So, so wrong!

"Wow, this new kid is awesome," Hibiki snickered.

"Awesome?" I shouted in a huge swirl of anger. "He's Hinata!"

"Hinata?" Hibiki's lips pursed, and he tilted his head to the side. "You mean the one who left your club for the art one?"

"Yes!"

Hibiki gave him a good look over and waved the notion aside.

"Nah, this kid's way more epic than that goody-two-shoes in my class."

"It! Is! Him!" I enunciated.

"Hinata, right?" Kaishou called out to him anyway. "Are you interested in music by any chance?"

Before Hinata could even open that mouth of his to respond and shatter my heart even further, I yanked him back and answered for him, "He's definitely not! He likes art! And he's really sweet and compassionate and hates causing other people trouble!"

I was grinding my teeth—possibly even growling like some protective guard dog. Kaishou and Mori were evidently caught off guard, and though I gripped Hinata's arm as tightly as I could as I defended him, my embarrassment caught up with me soon enough. My cheeks warmed considerably, but I wasn't going to back down. It was true! This kind of bad boy appeal didn't suit Hinata at all. Why would he suddenly put on this act then? It didn't make any—

The sudden realization that dawned on me nearly knocked all the air out of me.

An act.

It took a good while for my to mouth finally regain its feeling. I gasped.

I caused this. I created a monster!

Securing an even harder grasp on his arm, I dragged him forward, pushing through startled girls and a baffled Hibiki, Kaishou and Mori. My destination was long clear in mind.

"Hey, Miyuki!" Hinata was shouting, but I didn't give it the time of day to respond.

No. Not the pure-hearted Hinata I knew. I wasn't going to let this happen.

I wasn't.

_______________________________

Hey guys. Long time no update, lol. I'm sorry about that. I really thought I could update in a flurry but I kinda underestimated the workload of university.

Plus, me being dumb ol' me, decided to do NaNoWriMo again this year, so I was working on a new book in my drafts. Thankfully I hit the 50k goal and got around 19 chapters of it done... so after I finish THC I'll probably post it on my account. Then you guys can check that out or something.

That aside, I'll be updating chapters of THC everyday/every other day. I still have to write a couple chapters but hopefully I can actually do this. I want to finish the book before the end of the year, lol. Anyway, as always, thanks for reading! <3

—Misty