LOVE LOTTERY ~ Kirihara Akaya

Love Lottery ~ Kirihara Akaya Side

"This is so stupid," Kirihara Akaya muttered to himself as he was walking home from school. Earlier that morning, he already received the result of the "Matchmaking lottery" that was held by the student council. He hadn't opened his envelope yet, too afraid to see the results.

"But you still need to look at it. What's the use of being afraid?" Niou Masaharu chuckled as he took a sip of fruit juice during lunch. Everyone in the tennis team already knew his partner, he being the only one who didn't know his yet.

"I-I just want to open it later. You might take the envelope away from me if I read it here." Kirihara reasoned with a lame excuse.

"You should make up a better excuse than that," Marui Bunta interrupted, as he ate the last slice of cake that he brought for lunch.

He stopped in his tracks and took the envelope from his pocket. Staring at it for a couple of minutes, he gave up and tore the edge of the envelope to open it up. His eyes widened in disbelief as he read his result.

"What the hell is this?!"

**********

"Oi Akaya, aren't you going to get up? Your date's waiting for you." This was what Kirihara heard when his cell phone rang and eventually woke him up. He had played video games the night before mainly because he really wanted to oversleep and be late for the Valentine's event.

"N-Niou-senpai!" Kirihara blurted out. He got out of bed panicking, as if Niou was inside his bedroom and not talking on the other end of the line.

"That's so ungentlemanly of you, trying to oversleep so that you won't have to meet your date," Niou said, and then chuckled. "Like what Marui said yesterday, try thinking of better ways to avoid it – but the sad thing is, you really can't avoid it. Get up already or else I'll tell this whole thing to Yuki– "

"Okay! Okay! I'm going! Just leave it, okay?!" Kirihara shouted, and threw his cell phone on his bed. He looked at the mirror and messed up his already messed-up looking hair. No matter how much he tried to avoid this silly event, he really could not do anything about it.

**********

The junior high school division of Rikkai dai Fuzoku was already filled with lively atmosphere as soon as Kirihara stepped on to the campus. A lot of familiar faces seem to give off a very weird aura (in his point of view, at least) and made him feel like puking. People are being irrational today, he muttered to himself.

He quietly went to his classroom but the silence was only temporary when he saw a girl sitting on a chair. His chair.

"!" He exclaimed. Fourteen-year-old turned around upon hearing her name. "Ah, Harahara-kun!" She smiled happily and went towards him.

"Why on earth are you wearing that... that?!" Kirihara pointed to the huge pink ribbon that his classmate was wearing on her head.

"Ah, this?" Her voice trailed off. "Well, I need to be prepared for the Valentine's event, right?" She grinned.

"I don't see the point. You look stupid." Kirihara said.

pouted. "You are so mean, Harahara-kun! To think that..."

"I know, I know! We're going to spend the whole day together." Kirihara said. It took him hours to believe and finally admit that his classmate, the bizarre , was his date for the day.

pulled her result envelope out of her bag and showed it to Kirihara. "Wow, you know what Harahara-kun, I cannot believe that this thing said that we're compatible! Isn't it exciting?"

"It is not! And why are you calling me Harahara? It's Kirihara!" Kirihara said. He turned to see that her classmate was again, pouting. "You're mean, Ha–Kirihara-kun."

Kirihara felt a pang of guilt. He hated this day, but there was no point in blowing his top off at his classmate. "Fine. I am sorry. So what are your plans for today?"

's face lit up upon seeing Kirihara's calm expression. "You see, I think it'll be best to check out the booths that the clubs prepared for today instead of just staying in one place in the school. What do you think?"

"Yeah, whatever floats your boat," Kirihara said. The boy was surprised when took his hand and pulled him along as they went out of their classroom. Kirihara felt this strange tingly feeling as soon as flicked her hair and continued to lead the way out of the building.

That feeling was so foreign to him that he didn't know if he should just leave it as is or if he should shrug it off immediately.

**********

When mentioned about the booths that the different clubs managed, she was talking about the other half of the student council's project. Not all of the students were interested in participating in the lottery, so the rest of the student body threw together booths that would provide food and entertainment for the Valentine's Day event. The whole place looked like the usual school festival, only that love was actually in the air.

Kirihara thought that the whole day was too bothersome, but as soon as he saw the booths, his face lit up with delight like a child in a candy store. Some classrooms were set up as small cafes, movie theaters and game shops. He was standing in the middle of the quadrangle, the place surrounded by food stalls and game booths, when he felt that someone was tugging on his shirt.

It was then he remembered that he was not alone, and that was holding onto the sleeve of his uniform.

"Uh, yes?"

was grinning. "Do you want to eat first? I'm hungry."

Kirihara sighed and looked at the girl beside him. "Okay. So where do you want to eat?" The girl pointed to the donut shop that was being managed by the swimming team. When they got there, happily sat down in her seat while Kirihara slumped into his as they waited for their order.

While seated, Kirihara couldn't help but notice the huge, pink ribbon that was wearing that it began to irritate him once more (for the nth time).

"Oi, , aren't you embarrassed that you're wearing such a huge ribbon on your head? You look really weird in that." Kirihara said, getting 's attention.

looked up and touched her head. "This one? No. In fact this is actually really small. I've worn bigger ribbons compared to this one before."

Kirihara's jaw dropped. "B-bigger ribbons?"

"Yeah! I even have a purple ribbon with polka dots on it. It's really cute. I also have a rainbow one, and leopard print one. Maybe I should wear that to school sometime–"

"Don't." Kirihara said, looking at her intently with narrowed eyes.

"But it's cu–"

"I said, don't! You already look weird with that thing on! In fact, you should remove it! It's pretty distracting too! People are looking at us."

"You're pretty mean, aren't you, Kirihara-kun? That's the second time that you've said that to me." commented. Kirihara noticed that became oddly quiet. She didn't even feel excited as soon as their orders arrived. The pair ate in awkward silence.

As they were about to leave the donut stand, Kirihara decided to face . The silence between them irritated him more than the sight of the girl's ribbon.

"Look, , just... forget what I just said earlier. It's my fault." Kirihara said as his hands were holding 's shoulders. The girl was looking down, avoiding his gaze.

Seeing that was not responding, he continued. "I'm just not into this kind of... occasions, you know? I really didn't want to join this thing but I was forced to, and... I'm pissed off about it. There. I'm not going to deny it. I'm sorry if I'm putting all of my frustrations on you."

"Well, you think that I look stupid with this ribbon on. This ribbon is a part of me, of my personality. You saying that it's stupid is like saying that I am stupid. That hurts, you know." responded. "I actually thought that I was going to enjoy this date, but I guess I was wrong. Maybe we should just end it here." She pulled away from his hands that were on her shoulders and left Kirihara standing there alone.

**********

"You did what?!" Niou Masaharu exclaimed on the other line as soon as he heard Kirihara's story. The sophomore was under the tree now, after being left by his date for acting like a jerk.

"But I said sorry already!" Kirihara muttered. He just couldn't deal with the fact that even though he was supposed to feel relieved after being 'dumped' by , he actually felt guilty. Thus, he called his senpai and asked for help.

"Seriously Akaya, you're being a nuisance at the moment. You know that I have --"

"I know, I know. So just tell me what I should do and stop giving me sermons so that I can hang up already!" Kirihara insisted.

"Damnit Akaya! You shouldn't have hurt her feelings in the first place! Look, just go find her and apologize. That's the only piece of advice that I can give you right now." Niou said, before finally hanging up.

"Tch, what kind of advice was that?" Kirihara said before hanging up his cell phone. He looked around and wondered where he could find . He knew that it was a waste of time guessing where she was. Kirihara sighed and went toward the school building, hoping that he can find her there.

**********

"That's the fourth try, and I still haven't gotten anything," sighed as she was standing in front of the UFO Catcher machine that was located in the gaming club's room. She had decided to spend the rest of her time alone since she left Kirihara Akaya for being such a jerk towards her. Clearly, there was nothing wrong with her ribbon, and she knew that, but it seems that Kirihara hates it for whatever reason he had.

She took out another coin from her bag and was about to put it in the slot so that she can play the stuff toy catcher once more. However, she was surprised when someone took the coin from her hand. She let out a small gasp when she who the person was.

It was Kirihara.

"I'll get one for you," He said rather calmly. Kirihara dropped the token and started moving the controllers. Without looking at , he asked, "Which stuff toy do you want to get?"

was silent for a moment, and then she answered, "The panda with the huge ribbon on it."

"Okay." Soon, Kirihara moved the controllers with precision and in a couple seconds, he was able to get the toy that he targeted. The toy dropped from the huge slot and came out of the machine.

Kirihara took it and handed it to . "Here you go." He could see that there was a hint of excitement in her eyes. "Thank you."

Kirihara chuckled. "It has the same ribbon as yours."

smiled and looked at the stuff toy that she was holding. There was an awkward moment of silence between them, for they didn't really know what to say to each other.

Thinking of the reason why they were together again, Kirihara was the first one to speak up. "Again, I want to say I'm sorry. I feel bad about what I had done earlier. Sorry if I messed up your day."

shook her head. "Nn. Apology accepted. I was just thinking that maybe… the matchmaking lottery didn't really work. Maybe we don't really click as it said we would, you know?"

Kirihara looked at her and saw the disappointment that was clearly reflected on her face. "B-but how can you say that when we haven't even started anything yet?"

"What do you mean? Didn't you say that you didn't like today's festivities?" questioned.

Kirihara scratched his head and let out a boyish smile. "W-well, I thought that you were really looking forward to see what the council and the clubs had prepared for today. So, I guess I can deal with it, if it'll make you happy. I mean that's being courteous, right?"

Kirihara's statement lit up 's face. She looked at him with disbelief and delight. "You're not kidding, Harahara-kun?"

"No I'm not – wait, didn't I tell you not to call me Harahara?!" Kirihara exclaimed as he attempted to take the stuffed panda toy away from her as punishment. laughed heartily, as she tried to avoid him. As the two stopped their small game and proceeded to go outside to check out the rest of the festival, Kirihara glanced at the girl beside him one more time. Perhaps there was no harm if he would take a look at her again for the second time around.

##########

January 8, 2007
Written by: Megane-ko
Edited by: Kurohane

A/N: The nickname "Harahara" came from my friend Julie, who used to play Kikumaru in a role-playing community that I am in. She (as Kikumaru) usually calls Kirihira as "Harahara", hence the use of this nickname in this story. Now, I don't know if any of you guys call Kirihara "Harahara", but I'll give the credit to my friend since I learned this whole thing from her. :)