Girl Next Door

Chapter Fifty

Kyosuke looked down at the girl who bumped into him all of a sudden.

"You okay, Miss?" he said, offering Hikari his hand.

"Oh," uttered the idol. "Y-Yes." She took Kyosuke's hand and got up from the floor.

"Say, you're Hikari Manabe, aren't you?" asked Kyosuke.

"Y-Yeah," replied Hikari, rubbing the back of her head. "By your tone, I assume you're not a fan." She smiled at him.

"No, I'm not," said Kyosuke, smiling sheepishly. "But my sister's a big fan of yours. Hehe."

"Really," said Hikari with a giggle. "That's nice." She uttered a sigh.

"What is it?" asked Kyosuke.

"Living a life like this is pretty hard," replied Hikari, smiling sheepishly. "You get chased all the time by fans and press hoping to get a decent autograph or pic of you. Tee-hee."

"Tell me about it," said Kyosuke with a slight smirk. "I get flirted with by some girls here because of my status as captain of the baseball team."

"You're captain of the baseball team?!" said Hikari, obviously amazed.

"Haha, yeah," replied Kyosuke, rubbing the back of his head. "It's not easy work but I'm doing my best."

"I see," said Hikari. She gave a sweet smile.

Suddenly the crowd of fans came upon Hikari and Kyosuke in the hallway. They came stampeding towards the two. Hikari's eyes widened as she ran for her life. Kyosuke, unfortunately, screamed as the drove of students trample him nearly to death as they ran after their idol.

Meanwhile, many of the students of Yoshiba were now at the bulletin board, checking out which class they belonged to. Takeru and Risa were trying to get past the crowd and find out.

"There sure are so many students," said Risa, standing on her tip-toes to get a better view of the bulletin board.

"Tell me about it," replied Takeru gruffly, who, despite being taller than Risa, still couldn't make out what was posted on the wall.

Mio, Yukie and Ichiro then arrived at the bulletin board and joined the two.

"Hey, Risa-chan," Mio greeted Risa, waving.

"Oh, hi, Mio-chan," replied Risa. "We're sort of having a hard time finding out which classes we belong to."

"I see," said Mio. She then stood up on her tip-toes behind several students, but couldn't see what was on the bulletin board either. "Jeez, I can't see a thing."

"Ichiro," said Takeru with a smirk. "You're tall. Why don't you check what's posted on the wall, huh?"

"M-Me?" said Ichiro. "But there are so many students. Even if I stood on tip-toe, I wouldn't be able to see because their heads and bodies are blocking the way."

"Fine," said Takeru gruffly. "I guess I'll just cut in through the line."

He then proceeded to pave his way through the crowd with his hands until he got through. It took him a minute to get back out off the crowd. His eyes were wide in astonishment.

 "Well," said Mio, hands on her waist, "what'd you find out?"

Takeru took a brief pause before he answered her.

"The six of us have been placed in the same class."

The four processed the information Takeru had given before reacting.

"WHAAAAT??"

"It's true," said Takeru with a much calmer expression. "We're all in the same class this year."

"That's crazy talk!" said Mio in a raised voice, though nobody minded since all were busy. "I can't be in the same class as you again!"

"Hey, hey, Tsukisaki," replied Takeru with a smirk. "This is our chance to get, you know, closer to one another. As friends, you know?"

Mio snorted and turned away from him, slightly blushing. "As if I really want to get close to you."

"Tsukisaki..." said Takeru with a sheepish sigh.

"That's actually a good thing," said Risa, clasping her hands together. "Now that we're all classmates, we can help each other with our school work, and we can all hang out together. Tee-hee."

"You're so optimistic, Risa-chan," replied Mio, arms folded.

"At least she looks on the brighter side of us being together in the same class," said Takeru, grinning.

"Shut up," said Mio gruffly.

Soon, Kyosuke arrived on the scene, looking as if he'd been run over by a herd of wildebeest and survived.

"Kyosuke, where have you been, bro?" asked Takeru.

"And what happened to you?" said Risa, walking up to Kyosuke and dusting his coat.

"It's kind of a long story," said Kyosuke, giving a half-smile.