Lunchtime.

Maron made herself scarce before it was officially time for the break because her phone had been going off too much and she opted to answer it. Her departure loosened up the tension in the room as everything went back to normal.

The relieved people from cla.s.s 5-B didn't know however, that Maron's arrival was only the prelude of the true storm that was about to befall them. Kazuya was warned by the eye of the storm beforehand so he was already prepared to have a headache. He had actually prepared himself a long time ago but he was given two long years before the girl actually had gotten herself admitted to the same school.

"Hey Kouzuki, did you know that today has been full of surprises?" Takaya wasted no time and immediately tried to open a conversation.

"Do you mean that girl?" he turned to Takaya who was shaking his head.

"No. Us members of S cla.s.s have usually stopped by the cla.s.sroom for members of the cla.s.s so that we can check in. We don't need to meet with the staff members because we use the pin that was given to us to activate the machine where it will confirm that it was us who used it. That room doesn't really look like a cla.s.sroom but more like a lounge for members of our cla.s.s"

"Rich people sure are weird" Kazuya commented. "What does it have to do with anything though?"

"You hardly see anyone there because as what the S cla.s.s members are most famous for is their absence. We just need to use that room to sign in and then sign out or in some cases, use the machine to ask some of the staff members to prepare the stuff we need" he continued.

"Get to the point" Kazuya already started eating and really wasn't interested in knowing more about such things.

"I checked in this morning and you know what I found? Almost all of the members from S cla.s.s were present. Even 6th graders were present as if they were waiting for something. I didn't know what it was about but only after I heard the name of the girl who was here earlier did I understand" This time, Takaya's explanation caught his interest.

Kazuya pondered for a bit and gave a dry laugh. This was what Mei hated about this school. It looked like the members of S cla.s.s were the people who were involved the most about these things. The arrival of the daughter of the head of Stockton International made all of them wait for her arrival.

He hadn't expected to encounter this sort of thing until he made it to middle school. It looks like either these children understood the concept of making connections with influential people or their parents made them do so. Either way, this was going to be Kurumi's problem. She had Maron with her so he didn't think there would a problem because from the way Kurumi described her, she was very protective of her.

"Maron-chan! I can't believe you actually left me at home while you went on ahead to meet Kazuykun!" Kurumi puffed her cheeks as Maron arrived to meet her in front of the school building.

The boys who were pa.s.sing by couldn't help but stare at the two eye catching girls who were standing in front of their building. They wondered why they haven't seen such students until now. Even though they were wearing S cla.s.s' pins, these two were not the ones they were already familiar with.

"You can't blame me, you were the one who couldn't get to sleep because of excitement. It's just going to another boring school" Maron laughed.

"But you left me and went on your own! You made me come half a day late already! Dad called home and scolded me for oversleeping too…" Kurumi sighed. She really couldn't put all the blame on her cousin since it was true that she couldn't sleep after imagining different scenarios when she finally met Kazuya in person again.

During their phone conversations, she would often ask him about random things like his preferences and such. Kazuya didn't try to hide anything and answered most of her random questions. What Kurumi didn't know that although he answered, his current environment would affect most of his answers since he really didn't focus much when he talked to her.

One example was when she tried asking him if he preferred girls who had long hair or short hair. Back when they were in second grade, she kept her hair short so she was disappointed when Kazuya that he preferred girls with long hair since he was with Mei at that time.

"I know you're excited to meet up with that annoying guy but you still remember we have to stop over that room everyday right?"

"Yeah! Let's go!" Kurumi couldn't wait to see Kazuya so she urged her cousin to quickly get it over with.

"I hope those annoying people aren't there anymore" Maron murmured. She didn't like the people who tried to suck up to her when she checked in for attendance. If it were her old school, she would have already beat them away but this school had too many restrictions that it made her feel troubled and worried for her cousin.

"Annoying people?" Kurumi tilted her head.

"You'll see" Maron led the way and both of them entered the luxurious looking cla.s.sroom that only looked like a cla.s.sroom from the outside. The inside was like a VIP lounge that didn't look the least bit like their other counterparts.

What bothered Maron right away was that not only did the previous people not disappear, the number of people wearing S cla.s.s pins increased instead.

All of their eyes landed on the two girls who entered the room. Most of them stood up and walked towards the two to welcome them to their school. Kurumi immediately understood what Maron meant when she said 'annoying people' as these kind of people were what her father wanted her to avoid when he allowed her to go to a regular school.

Though these kinds of people weren't at all nonexistent in normal schools, there were a lot more carefree people compared to this one. These students intentions were clear enough as the members of S cla.s.s had a reputation for only going to school when it required them to do so or if they had their own agendas to attend to.

Kurumi hid behind her cousin after they started introducing themselves. She felt extremely uncomfortable around these people. She could tell that they were not being genuine and their smiles were the same type of smiles that people flattering her father had.

"She's already late so move aside and let her check in" Maron didn't care for what they thought. She already met some of them in the morning but could care any less about their intentions. She tried to push through the crowd and led Kurumi to the device.

"I say, aren't you being too overprotective Stockton Maron-san?" One of the girls who were sitting near the device spoke as soon as they came close. The two girls knew this person's ident.i.ty as she was always present when they attended banquets together with Kurumi's father.

This girl was called Muimina Ringo. The eldest daughter of Ringo corporation, one of the most popular companies when it came to computers and cell phones. They have been trying to collaborate with Stockton International so that they could release their products more conveniently internationally.

"I have to agree. All we wanted was to politely introduce ourselves. We are in the same cla.s.s so don't you think you're being too rude by simply brus.h.i.+ng off your cla.s.smates?" A boy who was the same as Ringo, made his way through the crowd and stood beside her.

Although he was not at the same level as Ringo anymore, it was only because of the events of the recent years that his family had undergone a setback. This person was known as Kurogane Suzaku who belongs to the same family that both the Kouzuki and Stockton families collaborated against.

Maron of course was on guard against this person since they were already warned about dealing with people who had special influences before they transferred. This person specifically had motive to get back at them for letting his family experience such a setback. The Kuroganes were known to be very vengeful and would resort to means that were heavily frowned upon so she had her guard up against this person.

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"Cla.s.smates? You lot? Do you take us for fools?" Maron frowned. Truly a model for both shamelessness and hypocrisy. The S cla.s.s had never been a.s.sembled like this and they were not only of their grade. One would be a fool to believe such wordplay.

"I have to agree with Suzaku-kun on this" Ringo spoke again. "We may have the reputation to be students who are the most divided but we do not fail to recognize people of our own circle. We gathered here to welcome the both of you and you seem to not put everyone in your eyes. Is this how a big international corporation sees us local companies?" Ringo frowned and looked at the rest of the students who seem to have become dissatisfied with the two.

"Tsk…" Maron frowned. These people were truly of a different breed. She could be considered older than most of them but the way their brains worked were not as simple. All of them may not have been truly rotten but it only took one or two rotten apples to influence the lot.

This was their first day and she already wished she could deal with them like she usually would. The two were successful in making them look like the bad ones. She only wanted to protect her shy and naïve cousin and yet she could not help but consider giving into them to avoid trouble for now.

*CLAP CLAP CLAP* the tense situation suddenly got a sudden interruption. Maron, who was about to give in, turned towards the crowd to see someone familiar who she did not notice before because of the cell phone hiding his face.

"I have to applaud you people for ganging up on these two ladies. Truly my disdain for having to do anything with this cla.s.s like the rest of you is not without reason" The boy stepped up. Maron recognized him because he was the one who stood beside Kazuya when she went to his cla.s.s earlier.

"Aoki Takaya, What do you mean by that?" Ringo frowned. She knew that this person was troublesome to deal with.

"First of all, let me point out that you and Kurogane Suzaku do not have the right to refer to yourselves as cla.s.smates of us 5th grade S Cla.s.s students. Was I not informed that both of you got held up a grade and brought shame to those who are known as elites?" he grinned. He actually didn't want to partic.i.p.ate in this but his friend gave him a reason that he couldn't say no to.

One, he could act cool in front of the Stockton girls and possibly save them. Two, he would owe Kazuya a favor so he immediately jumped at the opportunity because it was very rare that he could ask him to do something.

"You…" from the others reactions, she could tell that they did indeed forget and just realized that the two were indeed not in the same grade as the Stockton girls.

"Why are you trying to turn everyone against the Stocktons? Can you take responsibility for everyone else here if they really do retaliate after this ploy of yours to gang up on them goes south?" Takaya then turned towards Suzaku. "You of all people should know what happened when you touched the Stockton's princess right?" he grinned mockingly.

Suzaku couldn't retort and just glared at Takaya. Their family had still yet to recover after Lee's actions implicated them and he was well aware of how the Aoki family contributed to this. He felt wronged that his family had to pay for some b.a.s.t.a.r.d's mistakes and the people who were involved didn't bat an eyelid even if they were aware that it was Lee's independent action.

It was because of his intense glare that he noticed a small earpiece that was barely recognizable on Takaya's left ear. This was the moment he realized that this boy's appearance was suspicious and too coincidental. He was not part of the business scene but the entertainment scene. He may have been from an influential family but it was from a different category. He should not have been that knowledgeable about what happened to them.

Suzaku's suspicion was dead on because Takaya was not acting alone. Kazuya, who was eating peacefully with Tomoyo was providing him what he needed to point out while leaving his friend to use his skills to appropriately improvise with his presentation. This was indeed successful as Takaya's acting skills made the people understand a bit about what they were doing.

The rest of the S cla.s.s students knew that even the mighty Stockton corporation wouldn't be able to shrug it off if all their families worked together to make trouble for them. What Kazuya wanted to let them realize that even though they did gather together for the same purpose, they almost had little to no interactions with each other.

It wasn't only that, even though they come to a consensus, there would be no guarantee that their parents would. Come of them were even rivals of the same field so a united front against Stockton international would not only be impossible but also complete suicide.

Some of the students silently dispersed and hoped that the girls wouldn't look them up. The others that already introduced themselves, apologized before backing out. This left only Takaya, Stocktons and the duo who started trouble for them.

"Like I said, a fruitless endeavor" Takaya shook his head and turned towards the girls. "You can check in without problems now" Takaya gestured towards Kurumi who smiled after confirming that there was indeed a piece of equipment in his ear. She felt happy and knew who was behind this.

"Thank you to both of you" Kurumi whispered before letting Maron lead her to the device. Maron took another look at Takaya before giving him a nod and leading her cousin away.

Takaya was satisfied after getting such approval. Even he himself felt that he had acted cool and saved two damsels in distress. This was much more satisfying since it was not an act. He turned to leave but Sukazu was one step ahead of him and blocked his path before moving in closer.

"Kouzuki Kazuya should be on the other end right?" Takaya tried to retreat but stopped when he heard what Suzaku had to say. He was planning to play it off since Muimina Ringo heard their conversation.

"That's right, it's me" Takaya decided to play the part after getting confirmation and tried to imitate Kazuya's voice and gestures.

"Are you trying to monopolize Stockton Kurumi's influence to your advantage?" Suzaku made sure to keep their voices down since he did not want the girls to hear their conversation. Ringo on the other hand moved in closer to hear what was going on.

"Monopolize? Don't bring me down to your petty thinking. I merely owe Stockton Jonson a promise and Stockton Kurumi a debt. I've helped her today so my debt with her is paid." Takaya was improvising using how he knew Kazuya so he couldn't help but act overbearingly.

The debt Kazuya meant was his failure to protect Kurumi from getting hit after he promised her that she wouldn't get hurt. He was glad that he could write off this debt so soon and didn't care what a guy from the Kurogane family would think.

"I approached her to get a chance to soothe the relations between our families because of the incident with that idiot that had nothing to do with us. Are you going to keep that from happening because of our families' past misunderstandings?" Suzaku never met with Kazuya before so he was quite irritated at how Takaya was acting.

"As long as you don't do it in a place where I am present then she would not be able to ask for help" Takaya was surprised at Kazuya's reply since he a.s.sumed that he and Kurumi were friends after suffering through such an incident together. "But let me give you a warning"

"Warning?" Suzaku couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. The only reason the Kouzuki Family had been able to make them suffer such damage was because of Stockton International. He felt that Kazuya was being too arrogant but still wanted to hear what he was about to say.

"Don't give me a reason to go against your family again. I am not Stockton Jonson, I don't intend on stopping after a few skirmishes. I am not the type of person who will stop until my enemies have completely been taken care of"

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