Haruko looked up at her redheaded friend in surprise, "Nani?"

"Take it back Haruko-chan," Hanamichi said placing the locket onto the girls' palm, "It does nothing but bring me bad luck."

"But Kanagawa Kaede-"

"Is an asshole," gritted Hanamichi, "I wish I'd never met him!"

While Hanamichi was busy imagining all sort of things he would love to do to the fox-eyed young man at the moment which included the typical Sakuragi violence, a girl and a boy walked over to the two friends.

"Hey, guys," said the boy, "What's up?"

"Oh, hi, Yohei," the redhead sighed, sitting on a chair, "Nothing much."

"What this?" the girl called Fujii asked, picking up the locket from Haruko's palm.

"A good luck charm," Haruko replied.

"Whose is it?"

"Mine," mumbled the redhead.

"Oh!" exclaimed Fujii, "It really works, huh?!"

"Eh?"

"I mean, Sakuragi-kun has Kanagawa Kaede as a boyfriend!" Fujii giggled delightedly, "That must be the greatest luck anyone can ever have."

"Yeah, bro," laughed Yohei, slapping his friend at the back, "I don't go for guys but with that kind of money, it must count for something to be his beau."

Hanamichi scowled when Haruko smiled at him smugly.

"Where did you get this Sakuragi-kun?" asked Fujii, "I want one, too."

Suddenly the redhead sat up and Haruko could distinctly see the yen sign 'ka-ching'ing in his eyes.

"You would?" Hanamichi smiled, taking back the locket from Fujii's hand, "you can get it at the Akagi store a few miles away from here. Y'know, I didn't believe in this crap at first but Haruko told me of my future and when she gave me this locket I felt something was going to happen. I was kinda going out with Kaede at that time and before I knew it he said that he wanted me to be his boyfriend! That was the *cough* happiest *choke* day of my *ahem* life!"

Fujii and Haruko looked absolutely entranced while Yohei was watching Hanamichi with worry especially with the way the redhead's face was turning to all shades of red.

"I definitely want one!" Fujii gasped, "What's your store's name, Haruko-chan?"

"It's called 'Haku'," Haruko smiled, pleased that the Akagi powers still has it, "We sell all sorts of antiques and charms. Come over later and I'll show you what we have."

Right after class Fujii arrived at the store with half a dozen of her friends in tow. Haruko was delighted and she showed her customers the different kinds of lockets and pendants claiming that each was unique in the luck they bring to the wearer. In a few minutes eight lockets were sold, a first for the Haku store.

"Wow!" exclaimed Haruko after the last customer left, "I've never sold so much lockets before in one day!"

"This is it!" laughed Hanamichi.

"What is?" blinked Haruko as she put away the money into the cash register.

"We will sell all kinds of charmed jewellery here," began the redhead enthusiastically, "From lockets to bracelets to pendants to rings or pins! With your family name and my story of luck we'll be able to make profit on this idea. What do you say partner?"

Haruko turned thoughtful, "I have never seen you act this way, Hanamichi-kun. I like it!"

"Bwahahahahahaa!!" laughed Hanamichi, "I'll be able to pay back my debt in no time!"

"You got debts?" the brown-haired girl asked in surprise, "Couldn't Kanagawa-san help you with it?"

"Errr...." Hanamichi sweated. "I don't want to trouble him..."

"Ah..." Haruko nodded, as if it made sense especially for a person like Hanamichi who has no trouble troubling other people.
"But where will we get the model to buy the jewellery?"

Hanamichi went silent. That was right. He was broke.

"K'so!!"


~~~~

Hanamichi stepped through the gate of the Kanagawa residence with a sigh, "I hate going here. Everytime I come here I have bad luck."

When he reached the house, Hasegawa was there to meet him and the few times Hanamichi met him, Hasegawa was an ok guy - good natured, trustworthy and most importantly easy to intimidate.

"Kanagawa-san will meet you in a moment, Sakuragi-san," Hasegawa informed him.

"Doumo," Hanamichi said looking around the house to notice two big boxes of clothes beside the staircase and two maids bringing bundles of more clothes to add to the collection.

"That's a whole load of wash," commented the redhead to one of the maids.

"Oh, these are not for washing, Sakuragi-san," the woman replied, "These are donations for the charity bazaar. They've only been used a few times and it's such a waste to throw them away so the master has us donate them to charity."

Hanamichi walked up to the boxes and when he inspected the clothing he was surprised to note that the clothes still looked brand new as if it wasn't worn at all. Suddenly an idea popped in his head and when Hisashi appeared, the redhead quickly walked up to the scarred-face man with a grin.

"Hisashi-kuuuuuuun."

The young man looked at him suspiciously, "You want something, don't you?"

"Hai!" the redhead nodded fervently, "I want those clothes!"

The brunette arched an eyebrow before taking out a cigarette from his breast pocket and began to light it.
"No."

"What do you mean 'no'?" frowned Hanamichi.

"Those clothes are for the bazaar with the profits going to the less fortunate students in Japan," replied Hisashi taking a drag from his cigarette.

The redhead glared at him, "Which student is more unfortunate than me?! I'm bought for 100 million yen for Kami's sake! Give them to me!"

Hisashi rubbed his temples with a sigh, "Alright, alright. Take as many as you want."

"Yatta!" Hanamichi cheered, running towards the clothes and grabbing as many as he can before wrapping all of them in an extra large sheet nearby.

The brunette stared at the young man whose face was covered by the bundle, "You can carry all that?"

"No problem," came the muffled voice of the redhead from behind the clothes, before the bundle was shifted to lay on his back like a backpack, "I'm the tensai."
And with that he walked out followed by the stares of Hisashi and the maids who had no clue as to what has happened.

From behind the pillar of the mansion, a fox-eyed young man was watching the scene with interest, his mouth slightly quirked up in amusement. When he realised what he was doing he changed his expression back to a blank mask and stepped out to watch how the redhead was faring with the heavy load.

As soon as Hanamichi stepped out of the gate, realisation dawned on him that it would be a difficult task to bring his load into the train during that busy time. Wondering how he could get back home without having to spend half an hour in a train full of bratty kids and noisy mothers, the powerful purr of an engine alerted him to an oncoming vehicle.

Turning around he saw a black porsche coming towards the gate and stop just beside him. The windows came down and the cheerful face of Akira Sendoh appeared.
"Hello, there Hanamichi-kun!" greeted the spikey-haired actor, "What is this? Are you a part time hawker?"

Hanamichi walked up to the young man with a serious look on his face that Akira thought that the redhead would do something to him because of the other day's incident but instead, the young man with the bundle asked, "Hey, got any more room in your car?"

"You're more interested with my car than me?" pouted Akira.

The redhead rolled his eyes, "Of course. I'm more interested in my life than a hot-shot actor."

"Oh," shrugged Akira, "Sure, get in."

With a grunt, Hanamichi forced the big bundle into the trunk and when he was about to get into the seat beside Akira he saw Kaede looking at them from behind the gate with surprise.

"Akira?" mouthed Kaede.

"Let's get outta here!" demanded Hanamichi, shutting the door quickly, "Kaede warned me not to see you!"

"Oh?" Akira smirked, "He did? I wonder why."
With a laugh he hit the gas pedal and away they went with a roar of the engine.

Kaede's blue eyes narrowed in displeasure.


~~~~

"Ah!" Hanamichi exhaled after breathing in the salty air of the sea, "I've never been here before."

Akira smiled at him before he too looked out into the sea where the waves were rolling and the seagulls flying in the sky.
"I go here lots of time to escape. Nobody ever comes here in this time of day so I get some privacy."

"It's been a long time since I've been on a beach," the redhead told him, "I've been so busy lately and now..."

"Hm?"

"Nothing."
Hanamichi suddenly grinned and before the taller man knew what was going on, he was splashed with sea water by a kick from the redhead.

The brunette chuckled and kicked some water back at his companion but after a while he broke off their mini war to sit on the sand to enjoy more of nature's beauty in peace. Feeling the stickiness of his semi-wet clothes on his body, Akira took off his shirt just as Hanamichi was about to sit beside him.

After a while, Akira realised that he was being watched. Turning around he saw that Hanamichi was looking at his body appraisingly.

"So pure."

Akira looked at him in surprise.
"A man's body is not supposed to be pure," he chuckled, "It's supposed to be strong or sexy."

"Iie," the redhead disagreed, "You do dangerous stunts in movies and yet your body managed to remain looking so pure. You have no marks or flaws on you. Girls are crazy about you."

Akira smiled as he took out a packet of cigarette from his back pocket, "Not if they know about Kaede first."

"Nani?"

"Compared to Kaede I'm second rate. My father thinks that being an actor is a foolish profession since banking is the family business of the Kanagawa. Hisashi and Kaede became good businessmen in the family and I'm considered as a failure."

The redhead shrugged, "Why should you care what people think? As long as you're happy what you're doing, that's alright."

Akira gave him a thoughtful smile and slowly he shifted closer to the redhead.
"Do you think you can like me like the girls who are crazy about me?"

"Eh?" Hanamichi blinked when Akira tilted his face to meet blue eyes which were so close to his brown ones.

"To like me more than Kaede," murmured Akira, his breath brushing against the redhead's lips, "How about it?"

Hanamichi sighed, "You want me coz I'm Kaede's."

Akira's hands dropped from Hanamichi's chin while the redhead scratched his cheek as he continued to talk, "I thought about it. You're kinda like the black sheep in the family and you feel useless compared to Kaede. To get back at him you want to humiliate him by stealing me away from him. Am I right?"

Akira stared at him for a moment before he broke up into a big smile, "You got me."

"Yatta!" Hanamichi laughed, giving the brunette a victory sign, "Don't underestimate the tensai!"

"Your bluntness might get you in trouble you know," Akira commented, throwing away his cigarette before putting his shirt back on, "People might not appreciate it at all."

"I don't care what people think," huffed the redhead, "Especially you. You'll only go for those nice and agreeable ones."

"I used to," Akira corrected, hooking his thumb through the belt loops of his jeans, "I'm sick of those people. But you - you're special. You're going to be a hard person to forget, Hanamichi-kun."

Hanamichi gave him a one-sided smile and prepared to follow Akira back to the car but when he saw the spikey-haired man take out the bundle of clothes out of the trunk, he stopped.

"What are you doing?!" demanded the redhead

"It's time to say goodbye now, Hanamichi-kun," Akira grinned, dumping the bundle onto the sand, "I have to go to a photo shoot in five minutes."

"You're not just gonna leave me-"

And just like that, Akira sped off leaving the redhead staring at the disappearing car in a cloud of dust.
"-here..."

After a while, the redhead predictably began to rant, drowning out the noise from the sea with his curses, "Damn you Akira! And damn the Kanagawa family! I hate you all!"


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