~Scarlet Kozi~

Ma Cherie: Chapter Ten
Author: Scarlet Kozi

Later that morning, Gackt came down for breakfast.

"Do you want some tea?" Klaha asked him, after lowering himself into the chair next to Gackt. It was a huge dining table, meant to entertain guests, and Klaha always felt funny when he and his parents were the only ones sitting there. But now, Gackt was next to him, and the two of them occupied the chairs at one end of the massive table. Klaha had just set a bowl of rice alongside Gackt's soup and the fish and the many other breakfast items, and was sitting also in front of his own food.

Gackt was staring down at all the bowls. At first he only raised an eyebrow, pushing some hair from his eyes, and then he glanced up at the other boy. "Klaha ..."

"Hai?"

"I ... I usually don't eat this much in an entire day," he confessed, his expression darkening in mild embarrassment.

Klaha watched him for a moment, then sighed briefly. He shook his head and reached out, pushing the bowl of rice closer in front of Gackt. "Well, that's a shame. Itadakimasu." He paused, and then blinked at Gackt, who had not moved, but who had only continued to stare blankly at him. "Well? Eat up."

"Why?"

"Because you need to eat better. You're practically starved."

Gackt only nodded, almost obediently, which was an unusual gesture for Gackt to make in Klaha's company. He picked up the bowl of rice and the chopsticks, and quietly began eating as Klaha anxiously watched him. Once Klaha was certain that Gackt was eating, he began to eat also.

It was a pleasant meal. Klaha found that he truly enjoyed eating at his house with Gackt. Gackt had been here on limited occasions before, but they had never eaten at the table, and it had never been quite like this. As Klaha ate, he continually snuck glances over in Gackt's direction, not only flushed with pleasure at Gackt's company, but a bit worriedly. After all, it had taken Klaha about fifteen minutes not too much earlier that morning to clean up the broken glass. He had replaced the mirror with a slightly different one from another room downstairs, and hoped that his parents wouldn't notice when they returned. They probably wouldn't.

At last, they finished eating, and Klaha sighed contentedly. "Gochisou-sama." He glanced at the clock across the room, and blinked, starting to push his chair back. "I should get going!"

Gackt's hand suddenly fell on his wrist, stopping him. Klaha blinked again and halted, glancing over back at the other boy. Gackt usually managed to keep himself expressionless, but right now there was pleading in his face and in his eyes. "Don't go."

"Don't go?"

"Please."

"But I have school today," Klaha reminded him quietly, even though his mind was telling him that it would be foolish to leave Gackt by himself. If he ignored it, he would be a fool. Gackt's actions that morning had been all too disturbing to him, and he had a horrible suspicion that if he went to school and abandoned Gackt in his house again, then something hideous would happen while he was gone. Maybe Gackt would get desperate again, and ... No, he didn't want to think about that.

"I know," Gackt said, and shook his head. "Gomen." He released him.

Klaha hesitated, however, studying Gackt. He propped his elbow on the table and leaned his chin in his hand, as his eyes searched Gackt over once. "Ano, Gackt ..."

"Hai?"

"Do you want to come to school with me today?"

Gackt's eyes widened. "N-Nani?" he asked, aghast. "Are you serious?"

"Well, I think it would be best." Klaha chose his words carefully, and shrugged lightly so as to make no big deal of the entire event. "You said so yourself: you would probably feel better if you were with me. And I WOULD stay home with you again, but if I miss too many classes, I'll fall behind."

Gackt still seemed perplexed, and shook his head slightly. Clearly he was intimidated by the idea of taking the risk of trying to deal with hundreds of strangers at once, no matter the fact that they were his age. Even when he'd gone to school he hadn't known anyone he'd liked that much. "I ... I don't know, Klaha." He sounded uneasy.

"Please," Klaha implored him, as he put one bowl in the other, setting up piles of dirty dishes that he would tend to later in the day. "I don't want to leave you here alone."

"But why? You have before."

"Today is different."

Gackt didn't bother trying to argue with him. He sat there sullenly for a moment, deep in thought, knowing that Klaha was right. He didn't know what had come over him that morning, and he felt much better now, especially since Klaha had cared for him so well. He'd eaten a bit too much, of course, but that would solve itself eventually. What was now on his mind were the difficulties he'd encounter if he even thought about accepting Klaha's offer. "But what would I do there?" he asked Klaha, glancing up at him again, nervously. "I haven't been to school in almost two years. I wouldn't know anything."

"You don't have to. All you'd need to do is follow me around and help me in class for a day."

"Wouldn't people wonder who I was?"

Klaha snorted slightly. "It's none of their business. I only have a few friends, anyway, and they probably won't be too much of a problem." He wasn't sure about that, but now wasn't the time to become doubtful. "Besides, if I forge a note with my parents' signatures on it, then they'll let you in school as a guest."

"What will I wear?"

"We wear uniforms, but you don't go there, so it doesn't matter. I'll just lend you something nice."

Gackt still wasn't certain. Klaha seemed to be able to think up all of this on the spot, able to solve every possible problem before it occurred, but still, Gackt wasn't sure. He wasn't very good with people anymore. He used to be friendly, but then he had come to look at all other people he saw as potential customers, as menacing strangers, and it had begun to get hard for him to remember that not all other people were bad.

"H-Hai, Klaha. I'll come."

[Later that morning]

Together, they walked to school. True to his word, Klaha chose a nice outfit from his closet that Gackt could wear, and luckily, since they were both slender and only a couple of inches apart in height, Klaha's pants fit comfortably on Gackt's hips. Klaha also helped brush Gackt's thick brown hair into a more neat and attractive state.

When they got there, Gackt became extremely nervous. However, Klaha tried to reassure him.

All of the teachers mercifully allowed Gackt to sit by Klaha during all the classes they attended. But all the teachers, all the students, stared inquisitively. Everyone wanted to know who Gackt was, why he was with Klaha, and why Klaha seemed to act so differently to Gackt than he'd ever acted to any of them: whispering to him with a slight smile behind his hand at certain times to elicit a similar smile from the other boy. Gackt felt their eyes on him the entire day, even though no one really spoke to him at first. He cringed, unable to stifle his hateful feeling of shame to be in their presence like this. He resorted to staring either at his lap or at Klaha to avoid meeting anyone else's eyes.

During lunchtime, they went out onto the lawn. Klaha had packed himself and Gackt a bento each, so they were prepared, but Klaha decided silently to himself, "It's probably better if Gackt and I sit alone today. I don't even know what the others will think of him ..." Meaning his friends, who he hadn't seen yet that day, Daisuke and Toshi among them.

Klaha sat down on the grass, stretching, and set down his lunch. "Here is good." He'd chosen a part of the hill behind the school where no one was nearby, but Gackt still seemed nervous.

Klaha blinked up at him. "Well? Sit down."

"Oh." Gackt came next to him and lowered himself carefully, sitting on the grass next to Klaha. As he did so, his eyes traveled above the grass to the tables and the other locations where students were eating outdoors, and he noticed with a sinking feeling that there were at least twenty pairs of eyes focused on him from the distance. He hated that feeling, and tried to ignore it.

Klaha unwrapped his bento and picked up the first piece of fish with his chopsticks. He was in the midst of bringing it to his mouth when he saw that Gackt was barely touching his lunch. "Oi, Gackt, eat something," he softly begged him.

Gackt looked up at him. "Mm?"

"Don't just sit there. I made that just for you."

Gackt blinked once, then flushed a little and began to eat. "It's really good, you know."

"You're just saying that," Klaha pretended to pout, in order to tease him. Normally it was so hard for him to pretend that he had a sense of humor, because usually he didn't have anyone to joke with, but Gackt seemed as though he needed to cheer up a little. And Klaha would do anything for him.

Gackt shook his head and swallowed another mouthful. "No, I mean it. It's delicious."

Klaha gave him another smile, a more genuine, sweet one, and fell into thoughtful silence. While they sat there, Klaha's mind wandered. He couldn't help wondering why he hadn't seen any of his friends yet. He knew he didn't have any classes with them on this day, but nonetheless, they usually managed to corner him in the hallway or during lunch before now. They were probably wondering where he was, why he wasn't sitting with them today.

Also in the back of his mind, Klaha wondered almost curtly when K�zi would approach him. Since that time in the auditorium, K�zi had come up to him and had talked to him a number of times, and though Klaha's friends had joked with him about it, suggesting that Klaha wake up and see the lust in K�zi's eyes, Klaha couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable about K�zi.

Just when Gackt had finished lunch, when Klaha was still eating his way through his bento, they were found.

"THERE you are!"

Klaha blinked and looked up, still chewing a mouthful of rice. Daisuke and Toshi were coming over to them. Daisuke of course was in the lead, his hands in the pockets of his uniform and some strands of glossy hair falling over one eye. He smiled slightly, glancing back only once at Toshi, who was following him quietly and curiously. Klaha felt nervous, and when he saw Gackt's face he noticed that Gackt seemed a bit frightened.

"We were wondering where you were today." Daisuke invited himself to sit down next to Klaha, and so, Toshi did also after a moment. "It took us a little while to find you."

"You've already eaten?" Klaha asked, trying to divert the subject as he himself continued eating.

"Un."

Daisuke's eyes wandered, and he saw Gackt sitting there. At first he only looked puzzled, and then his eyes suddenly glimmered a bit in a dawning of recognition. "Oi, it's you!" He paused a moment. "Kyo was talking about you. And we saw you on the bridge a long time ago. Gackt, ne?"

"H-Hai," Gackt managed barely audibly, staring at the grass.

Toshi was looking at Gackt silently, almost with suspicion. He could sense something about him, but wasn't as forward as Daisuke, so he just sat there and looked at him. After a moment, Gackt felt eyes on him and glanced over at Toshi. When he saw that he was being stared at, his own eyes widened slightly and then he immediately looked down at the grass again, hastily.

"So how come you're here today?" Daisuke asked, attempting to be cordial.

"I ... came with Klaha," Gackt answered.

"How come?"

Gackt blinked, apparently unable to think up a good answer. "Because I ... I mean ... I ..."

Klaha quickly interjected. He was much better at making up spur-of-the-moment answers, since he'd been dealing with his parents for the last seventeen years, whereas talking had rarely been something that Gackt had had to do. "He's staying with my family for a little while," he shortly said. "So he decided to come to school with me today."

Daisuke nodded, but seemed surprised by how unusual this was. He was still looking at Gackt. "Oi, didn't you drop out?"

Gackt winced. "H-Hai," he said again.

"Why?" Toshi asked now, speaking up.

Gackt swallowed visibly, his eyes searching the ground as he tried desperately to think of something to say. Timidly, he said in an expressionless voice so soft that it was barely audible, "I had ... conflicting matters at home. I was needed to help out. I couldn't afford to go to school, and I ... I didn't have the time."

Klaha watched him. He had summed it up rather nicely.

Whereas Daisuke just nodded again, deciding that it was best to leave it alone, Toshi still wasn't convinced. He seemed suspicious of Gackt, for some odd reason. "What kind of conflicting matters?" he asked now, raising an eyebrow at him.

Klaha's heart sank at those words, and immediately he looked to Gackt, wondering if he should step in.

Gackt didn't look at Klaha, nor at Daisuke or Toshi. He was staring down at the grass, over his slightly-bent knees, and his hands were very still as they rested on the ground. "I dropped out just before I turned sixteen," he said, his voice a bit unsteady, "because my ... step-mother ... died. My father's job didn't bring in enough money as it was, so I ... I worked for him, so that we could have enough money. If I'd stayed in school, we wouldn't have had enough. I had to drop out."

Daisuke and Toshi were silent now, both blinking dubiously.

Klaha stared at Gackt from his seat a couple of feet away, his mouth slightly ajar. His surprise, however, turned to slight concern when he saw that Gackt's eyes had filled with tears. And he knew that Gackt would hate the idea of crying in front of other people, especially strangers. Klaha was the only one he would cry in front of.

Klaha immediately rose to his feet, dusting himself off. He reached down and grabbed Gackt's hand, looking only at him, and helped him up, even though Gackt glanced at him, swallowing, surprised. "Well, we've got to go," Klaha apologized quickly to his friends.

Daisuke blinked again. "Already?"

"Hai. Ja ne." He waved a little and then pulled Gackt away.

[An hour later]

Klaha's last class of the day was physics, which, fortunately, he didn't share with any of his friends. The only person that he actually knew well in it was K�zi. But then again, Klaha wasn't exactly certain how to classify K�zi: as a friend, or an enemy?

Gackt had recovered by the time he came to this class with Klaha. However, Klaha was still a bit worried about him. "Ano ... I think it would be okay if you sat next to me," he said. Klaha sat down in the right side of the lab desk, leaving the left partner chair open. He gestured to it, and Gackt nodded, blinking curiously, as he sat down next to him. He wasn't used to school anymore, especially not an expensive private school like the one that Klaha went to, which was more privileged than the one he'd attended. Gackt set the few things he'd brought down and glanced at the head of the room. "Where is the teacher?"

"He'll be here soon." As Klaha spoke, however, his eyes were roving around the class.

He saw that once again, K�zi was sitting silently and solitarily, across the room from him and back a few rows. He had to turn around slightly in his chair to see the other boy, actually. K�zi had one leg crossed over the other and his arms folded, and was gazing out the window with a bored, brooding expression. Klaha thought to himself, 'He must not have realized that I got here.' Normally, whenever he entered a room, K�zi's eyes would immediately settle on him, and Klaha would have to look away because of the smile that K�zi would give him.

Soon, the teacher entered the room, and spotted Gackt. "Who is this? A guest?"

Klaha stood up, and spoke shyly when addressing his superiors. "He's a friend of mine, and he came to school with me today. I left the guest permit from the office on your desk ..."

"Oh. Thank you." The teacher picked the piece of paper off the desk and studied it. Seeing that Gackt's presence had been authorized, he adjusted his glasses and peered at Gackt one last time, who was looking back at him from his chair uncertainly. The teacher nodded. "All right then. Class has begun, so everyone, take out your notebooks and open to a fresh sheet of paper. It's time to take notes."

Many people groaned. Klaha sat down again, sighing also and rolling his eyes, and did as the teacher asked. Gackt watched him.

Neither of them knew that K�zi, on the other hand, was watching THEM. Once the teacher had come in the room and addressed the fact that there was a stranger in their midst, K�zi glanced up in Klaha's direction and noticed that indeed there was an unfamiliar face. Or, more correctly, an unfamiliar back. Klaha and Gackt were several rows up from him, and K�zi could only see their backs, and the backs of their heads. At times, he glimpsed their profiles, but it was hard for him to make out Gackt's. 'Who IS that?' he wondered, somewhat curious.

During the entire class, he looked up regularly from his notes at them. He had heard rumors between classes that Klaha had brought someone to school, but no one had been able to tell him anything more than that. No names, not even a gender. Now, K�zi was inquisitive as to who Gackt could be. 'There's something about him,' he thought to himself musingly. 'About his back, anyway. I wish I could see his face ...'

At last, Gackt turned around to reach behind him, and K�zi blinked. 'What the hell?' he muttered, his eyes widening.

Then, slowly, he started to smile. 'No wonder he looked so familiar ...'

Halfway through the lesson, the teacher finished with the first portion of notes, and realized that he had to make some copies. Therefore, he left the class with the order of their good behavior, although the moment he was gone, the quiet dissipated into chatty conversations and giggles. Klaha, however, always a good student, was working on some of his physics problems to get the work done early. Gackt was watching him with interest, but his mind was absent. He was wondering whether his eyes looked red from all the crying he'd been doing, and decided that he would go and check. Softly, he said to Klaha, "I'm going to go to the bathroom, ne?"

Klaha nodded. "Hai." His eyes absent-mindedly followed Gackt as the other boy rose from his chair. Tapping his pencil lightly against the paper, Klaha put his chin in his hand again, studying Gackt as he crossed the room slowly. However, Klaha was taken by surprise when he saw K�zi stand up the moment Gackt passed his desk. With a funny little smile on his face, K�zi slowly followed Gackt order to the counter, where Gackt paused to get a tissue.

After Gackt had blown his nose, having caught a slight cold because of the weakness of his mind and body lately, he seemed about to walk out. However, K�zi came up behind him. He flashed Gackt's back a small, searching grin as he let his fingers brush over Gackt's hip.

No one else in the class really noticed, so distracted were they with their own conversations, except for Klaha, who was watching. 'What the hell is he doing?' he immediately thought, feeling a swelling of alarm, sitting up a little straighter.

Gackt jumped a little bit and turned his head quickly, shocked.

Klaha was watching intently. He saw K�zi's mouth moving, indicating that he was saying something to Gackt, and Klaha was dying with curiosity to know what. His mind demanded an explanation for this behavior. Just who did K�zi think he was? Maybe he thought that just because Klaha had brought Gackt in, that gave K�zi the right to approach him so straightforwardly as he was now. But why was he so interested in Gackt?

Klaha pushed his chair back, forcefully causing a slight scraping sound to break the silence. A few people glanced in his direction, but then turned back to their own conversations. Klaha's indignance was brewing. He crossed the room in swift strides, his brows furrowing. He saw Gackt struggle with the composure to respond to whatever K�zi had said to him. Gackt's eyes searched K�zi, startled and wary, almost frightened, and before he could answer K�zi with a response befitting to the shock in his face, Klaha stopped in front of them. "What are you DOING?" he immediately asked K�zi, frowning.

K�zi gave him a little amused look, and seemed entirely ready to respond, but Gackt interrupted him.

He moved in front of K�zi, as though to block Klaha from seeing him. In a quiet, blank voice, he said a second time, "I'll be right back." He shot one glance, an almost frightened glance, at K�zi behind him, and then said even softer to Klaha, "I need to ... to talk to HIM for just a few minutes," of course meaning K�zi when he said "him".

Klaha frowned slightly. Why would Gackt need to talk to K�zi? Did they KNOW each other? He wasn't sure whether he wanted to trust K�zi and Gackt together. He didn't know K�zi well enough to be able to read his actions, but he was almost certain that something was wrong here. He moved forward, almost ignoring K�zi for a moment as he put his hand on Gackt's arm. "I should stay here, then?" he asked. "Will you be okay?"

Gackt's eyes softened, and he nodded. "Hai. Arigato."

"All right, then." Reluctantly, regarding Gackt a bit worriedly, he moved back and nodded.

K�zi watched this exchange, and his amusement disappeared slowly with every second, as his eyebrows lifted higher and higher. His eyes slid from Klaha to Gackt and back again, and his entertained smile slowly became a mild frown, his expression one of suspicion. K�zi's eyes widened even more when Gackt glanced over at him once almost coldly before turning away from both him and Klaha, and strolling out of the room calmly, clearly expecting him to follow.

K�zi was speechless. He was about to follow Gackt, feeling some anger brewing inside him at the way he'd seen Gackt and Klaha acting, but his eyes traveled back to Klaha one last time: the object of his desire.

Klaha said nothing, but was looking almost darkly at him. K�zi blinked. Then his eyes narrowed, not at Klaha but at the door that Gackt had exited. 'I don't know what's happened between these two, but I can tell that Klaha is being driven even farther away from me,' K�zi thought as he walked away from Klaha, towards the door, without a word. He felt angry again, at Gackt, whose name he barely remembered. 'Damn him!'

About five minutes later, Gackt and K�zi were in the hallway. It was about five rooms down from Klaha's class, so they wouldn't be heard.

Gackt paused by a long row of dark lockers, standing just by them, gazing at them, knowing that K�zi was coming. Truly enough, he heard the rapid footsteps of his follower, as K�zi approached him and then stopped several paces back from him.

K�zi folded his arms and raised his eyebrow, upset, at him. "I take it by now that you remember me."

Gackt couldn't explain the mass of feelings that were bubbling up inside him now. Shock, to see K�zi again when he thought that he never would. Fear, at what was going to happen now that K�zi had run into him. And anger, because of how K�zi had touched him back in the classroom---in front of Klaha, no less! All Gackt could manage without glaring at K�zi was a nod. He knew that if he spoke, his voice would betray his emotions.

"What are you doing here?" K�zi asked him, almost disdainfully now.

Gackt tried to briefly explain, in one sentence, not looking at him. "Klaha's family is letting me stay at his house." He thought back to lunchtime, a few short periods ago, and tried to remember the joint explanation that he and Klaha had given Klaha's friends. "He asked me to come with him to school today." When there was no immediate response, he said again, softer, "I'm ... I'm staying with him for a little while."

"Staying with him?" K�zi now demanded, his eyes wider and more angry with his incredulousness. "As what? His lover?"

Gackt swallowed at the pronunciation of the words. At first he didn't know what to say to that, but he knew that he wasn't Klaha's lover, so he shook his head. He didn't like K�zi's tone, so he looked up at his face now, his voice cold. "No. Klaha and I are just friends." Just friends, he told himself.

"Just friends," K�zi repeated, searching him. "Are you trying to tell me that you didn't fuck him?"

A little gasp caught in Gackt's throat, and he stared at K�zi.

"Well?" K�zi insisted, almost fiercely.

"I didn't!" Gackt protested, frowning back at him. A flash of memory hit him, reminding him, near to tears, how he had tried to convince Yoshiki of his faithfulness only a month, two months ago. "I DIDN'T," he said again, facing K�zi indignantly.

K�zi appraised him, then sighed. "It had better stay that way," he said, almost threatening.

Gackt felt upset here, and almost retorted something back, even in his still-injured state after Yoshiki's death. How dare K�zi try to lay claim to Klaha? What right did he think he had? Klaha didn't belong to K�zi. If he didn't belong to Gackt, then he didn't belong to anyone. And that wasn't all. Gackt just hated the idea of anyone trying to say that someone else was THEIRS, as though that person was a possession to be handed around. He'd felt that way so many times in the past that he didn't even want to think about it happening to someone else, especially Klaha, who was becoming more and more important to him.

K�zi was watching Gackt, and apparently read his mind. A little smirk came over his face to see the obvious offense that Gackt felt even though he was attempting to hide it from view. K�zi said, almost amused again, "I can see it in your eyes that you want to."

"Nani?"

"You want to fuck him."

Gackt looked at him very quickly, in disbelief.

"I can tell." K�zi nodded at his expression, his smirk turning into more of a smile. "You want to sleep with him. And not just as a whore, either. But that's too bad," he interrupted himself now, shaking his head, frowning at Gackt. "I'm telling you right now that if you fuck him, I'll tell him."

Gackt found his voice. "Tell him what?"

"That you let ME fuck YOU, not even two months ago."

K�zi didn't give Gackt much time to respond. A little glimmer that was more playful than menacing came into his eyes, and he came forward, as Gackt balked and automatically moved back. It worked to K�zi's advantage, and K�zi put his hands on Gackt's shoulders, pushing his back against the locker. He pinned him there, not strongly enough to be restraining him, but all Gackt could do was stare at him.

K�zi reached his hands up, watching Gackt in amusement, and tickled the other boy's neck with his fingertips while stroking his hair with the other hand. His eyes suggested that he was fondly remembering the experience they'd had together.

He murmured, "It's so strange to see you here. You look all neat and pretty, ne? I remember what you looked like when I met you ... I even remember what you were wearing. You had on that kimono with the rip down the right side, so one of your legs showed. Now here you are in a civilized school, in MY corner of town." He moved his mouth very close when he said these things, almost breathing in Gackt's ear as he pressed his body up against Gackt's. "How much did I pay you for that night, anyway? I don't remember."

Gackt hated feeling this. Suddenly unable to restrain himself, he reached up and put his hands on K�zi's shoulders, summing up only enough strength to shove the other boy off of him. "Don't touch me!"

K�zi was barely fazed by this, and released him obediently. As he moved back, allowing Gackt to push himself off the lockers, he said to him, "Oi ... that's okay. It's Klaha that I'm after now, anyway. But then, I was never really after you in the first place, was I?" He smiled. "More of a one-night stand."

Gackt kept himself from glaring at him, and just stood there staring at the floor.

K�zi winked at him. "Oh, and remember---if you fuck him before I get to, then I'll tell him everything about that night a couple of months ago. Everything. He must already know that you're a whore. It just seems that way, from how worried he was about you. He seems like the type who would hate to think that one of his friends had to do something like that." K�zi paused a moment. "I can tell how much it would hurt him if he knew that you'd gone down on ME, and that we'd even---"

Gackt's eyes bored into K�zi now, filling with angry tears, and then, before another word could be spoken, he looked away and bit his lip, hard.

Therefore, K�zi stopped there, but a hint of a smile played at his lips, born of his jealousy that Klaha seemed so much more affectionate towards Gackt than he had ever been to him. "As long as you know what damage it would do to your relationship to have Klaha find out that I fucked you. I know I already scare the shit out of him anyway," he added, almost bitterly. Without saying anything else, he turned and went back to class.

The moment K�zi walked in the door of the classroom again, Klaha practically ran into him.

He caught his balance, and immediately stopped the other boy. "K�zi! What's going on?" he now asked him, almost suspiciously. Since Gackt and K�zi had left, he had been dying with curiosity to know what was the reason for all of this, and how Gackt and K�zi could possibly have known each other before.

K�zi gave him a rather innocent smile and shook his head. "Absolutely nothing." The same answer as in the auditorium, a while back.

Klaha stared at K�zi, but the other boy only flashed him another little grin and then walked past him, heading for his seat across the room. Klaha's eyes were on K�zi, watching him sit down, and he didn't even realize it when Gackt entered the room also. He only noticed when Gackt stopped next to him, waiting to be noticed instead of saying anything, having wiped away his tears.

Klaha was startled when Gackt silently approached him. When he looked at Gackt, he saw that the other boy wasn't looking at him, and seemed expressionless again. That was usually a sign that something had happened that he wanted to cover up, because he didn't like letting others witness his weaknesses.

"What did he say to you?" Klaha demanded, watching him.

Gackt shook his head and softly said, without meeting Klaha's eyes, "Nothing."

The rest of that school day passed uneventfully.

NOTES~Even I didn't really expect for things to happen that way. I wasn't planning for K�zi and Gackt to have had any connection, but somehow, it came out that way and I immediately got ideas for how I could further it, so I had to use it. In any case, responses please!

Glossary

hai: yes
itadakimasu: statement recited before eating a meal
gochisou-sama: statement recited after eating a meal
ara: expression of surprise
gomen: I'm sorry
ano: um�
nani: what
oi: hey
un: sort of like "mm-hmm"
ja ne: see you, bye

To Be Continued

To the next part

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