A/N: mini sequel to Dik, but the focus of the fic has changed. however, the summary about Dik is slotted somewhere in the fic, so no worries if you haven't read it.

enjoy my new fic, yea (:

in this first chap, we'll pay a little visit to Domino High...

The gang groaned as they realised the door leading to the school's rooftop was locked for the first time in all their years at Domino High. Joey tried to kick the door down, but only ended up hurting his toe. As he hopped about helplessly in circles, Tristan attempted to budge the door open one last time before finally giving up.

"I can't believe they locked it!" Tristan cried out incredulously. "They've never locked it. As in, never. So why the heck is it locked on a fine sunny day like today?"

Joey stopped hopping and settled for standing still. He winced. If that was supposed to lessen the pain, he was sorely mistaken. "Yeah," he chimed in, one hand gripping Yugi's shoulder for support. "We've been having lunch at the rooftop for ages. They can't do this to us."

Tea sighed as she proceeded to sit on the steps. "Well, we didn't exactly have our names on the roof, so we can't claim it as our own."

"Actually, we did," Joey objected too happily for his own good. At his friends' quizzical look, he corrected himself sheepishly, "I mean, I did. I drew a smiley on one of the walls. That smiley is my trademark, so that makes the roof mine."

Tea glanced skywards and sighed deeply as she let her head drop into her hands. Yugi merely blinked at Joey, unsure whether to be impressed or not with his friend's action.

"Not… giving… up," they heard Tristan wheeze as he tugged harder at the door. "Must… open… door."

Joey cracked up as he replied as robot-like as possible. "Help. Us. Tristan. Is. A. Zombie. Who. Talks. Like. This."

That had Tea and Yugi doubling over with laughter as well. To add to that, Tristan even had the temerity to shoot back, "You. Sound. Stu. Pid. Joe. Eee."

"As if you sound like Einstein!" Joey snorted, waving his hand dismissively in his friend's direction.

To his surprise, Tristan crowed, "Oh yeah! I win! Wheeler just can't keep up with the likes of my style!" He danced around for a while, before deciding to try the door again. Just then, the heavy, metal double doors swung open so hard, it smacked Tristan in the face.

A famous annoying voice soured the entire atmosphere, "Oh great. Dorkfest."

The gang stared up to see a towering Seto Kaiba clad in his uniform peering down at them. They caught a sneak peek of the still-buzzing KaibaCorp helicopter behind the CEO. Last time they checked, he was no longer entitled to compulsory attendance at Domino High. So what the heck was he doing here?

Somehow, the blue-eyed brunette seemed to read their mind. Rolling his eyes, he said curtly, "Technically, I'm still a student here. So shut your gaping mouths and get out of my way. I'd like to head to class."

Joey was quick to come up with a rejoinder. "Yeah well, technically, no student comes here on a helicopter."

Seto sneered. "I secured permission to use the rooftop. So I can come by in whatever I want. Next time, I'll come in a jetpack and have the smoke blow in your face."

The gang watched wordlessly as the CEO skulked away from them, one hand tightly gripping his silver briefcase that he called a school-cum-office bag. Three-quarter of the time he ignored the going-ons in class and just sat at the back on his own, self-entertained by his office work. The only time he did bother to talk to people was to ask them to clear the path for him. He was civil, but not friendly. Talk about being anti-social.

Tristan and Joey seethed after him, one hurting from the impact of the door, the other stinging from the words. Tea and Yugi watched them carefully. They made a mental note to restrain their two more proactive friends if they ever decided to go offensive. When Tristan turned away and sighed in frustration while vigorously rubbing his head, the two of them heaved a sigh of relief too. That was, until they caught sight of Joey sprinting after Kaiba and launching himself on top of him.

XO XO XO XO

Just my luck, Seto thought contritely. The moment I step back into school, and guess who are the first few faces I see? The geek squad.

To be honest, he was exhausted with the piling work at the office. It was ironic, because usually the president of a major corporation dish out the workload. Unfortunately for him, he was the president, he was the inventor, he was the tester, and he was the overall executive to oversee the finances of his company. One thing that was nagging at him was the discrepancy in the accounts. Worse still, the accounting team had no idea where the discrepancy originated. That led him to flying out to every single country where Kaiba Corporation had set up office in to personally check in on his staff.

School was not compulsory for him – he knew more than the teachers, so waking up in the early morning to drag himself to school was a complete waste of time. But once in a while when he just wanted to lead a normal life as a nineteen-year-old CEO could ever have, he dropped by for a school day. That was precisely why he touched down in Domino High all the way from Switzerland.

"AARGHH!"

Seto barely had time to react when a heavy weight latched itself to his back. Thinking quickly, Seto dropped his briefcase with a loud thud on the cement floor, and using his assailant's momentum, flipped himself over. His blond attacker hit the floor hard.

"Ouch! Man… my back…" he groaned.

Seto casually brushed the shoulder of his uniform a few times before picking up his briefcase and continued on his way. "Stop proving yourself to me how much of a loser you are, Wheeler. I am perfectly aware of that."

Joey slowly got back to his feet and ran after Kaiba, stopping directly in front of him. Jabbing a finger on his nemesis's chest, he remarked stubbornly, "No go, richboy. Now's the time to settle all you've done to me, you cre-"

"Creep," Seto finished for him. He pushed Joey aside harshly. The blond guy crashed to the floor again. "Come up with a new vocab, Wheeler. And who knows, maybe the monkey near the zoo gate might be impressed."

"That's it!" Joey yelled out from where he was seated. "You think just cos you're filthy rich and had a lousy past, you have the rights to treat people like this? Guess what, moneybags! You ain't the only one with a bad past! Thousands of others do too, but are they a pain in the ass like you?"

Seto stopped, turned back and narrowed his eyes at Joey. "Shut up, Wheeler. You weren't forced to fend for yourself at a young age. You didn't even have a younger sibling to take care of, per se. Your mother does that for you, doesn't she?"

"You've no rights to say what you said, Kaiba!" Joey shot back heatedly. How much he hated this guy. "You were never separated from Mokuba. You guys were always together. My own mum took Serenity away from me for years! Not once did she ever check in on me. Losing both your parents seem so much better than having parents that are always at loggerheads."

"Try having my stepfather as your father," Seto spat. He had enough of this argument. The mutt was just trying to fish him until he lose his temper outwardly and engage in a brawl with him. Not that he would ever fall for that trick. "Then you can stop complaining about your sad family history. I've had it rough, Wheeler. But I don't go around whining about it and trying to piss the person I don't like. Now stop bothering me before I get my guards to hole you up in some cage like some rabies-infested dog."

XO XO XO XO

Tea sneaked a furtive glance at Joey, who was seated not too far from her. The blond was furiously scribbling something on the table, and she could bet her life on it that it was not Economics. Probably one of his silly but crude drawings about teaching Kaiba a lesson, she thought amusedly as she turned to see what her other friends were up to. All four of them had opted to take Economics because it had seemed the most comprehensible subject, but then it turned out that neither of them liked or understood it very well. Regardless, they made do with the Economics lesson and considered it their 'free' period.

Yugi was taking sneak peeks at his new cards below his desk. A new set had arrived, and naturally, other than Kaiba, he was the only one to ever accumulate all the latest cards. But unlike Kaiba, Yugi treasured each cards well, adamant that there must be a way to put them to give him advantage in a duel. Those same cards that Yugi cherish, well, Kaiba happily discarded. He looked up, caught sight of Tea looking in his direction and gave a little wave. He inclined his head in the teacher's direction and made the gesture of going to sleep. Tea stifled a giggle. She did not blame him; Mrs Sakaki was boring. Never mind the fact that the rest of the school nicknamed her Mrs Sadako for the way she styled her hair.

Beside her, Tristan was fast asleep. One good thing about having a teacher whose hair covered almost her entire face was that she would not catch you sleeping. Ever. Tea, restless as ever, somehow found herself turning her attention to the back. The back row was graciously unoccupied by anyone save for an arrogant CEO that, while winning himself an army of admirers and enviers, opted for seclusion from the outside world.

Tea blamed the boringness of the lesson when she found herself intently studying Seto Kaiba. The lean young man was surprisingly not doing anything, be it related to the lesson or work. Instead, he was hunched forward, facing downwards on his table and twiddling his thumbs. Occasionally he glanced out of the window, letting the passing breeze blow back his hair gently. Tea frowned. Was this his way of relaxing?

Somehow, she found herself wondering, Gee, Kaiba always looks so uptight, even when he's supposed to be relaxing. At least, I'm assuming he's relaxing right now. Can't the guy loosen up a bit?

"Miss Gardner."

I wonder if he's like this even at home, with Mokuba. If that's the case, man, I really salute the little guy for putting up with a brother like that.

"Miss Gardner."

A pair of cold blue eyes looked up and met hers. Shocked, Tea quickly turned away and found Mrs Sakaki bending down over her desk. She almost yelped in surprise. The kids were apt in nicknaming their teacher.

"Y-Yes Mrs Sadako, I mean, Mrs Sakaki?" Tea blabbered.

Mrs Sakaki pointed to the whiteboard with her green marker. "Do you mind explaining to the class about the basic concept of macro-economy? You have read the textbook, right?"

Oh great. How was she going to get out of this one? Tea willed her brain to think up of a solution quickly. Finally banking in on luck, she put on her most guilty and apologetic voice and fibbed, "I did but I didn't understand it at all."

Mrs Sakaki pushed herself up from Tea's table and swiveled her head in wiper mode. The entire class suddenly seemed engrossed in their textbook. Only one student appeared unaffected by the whole deal.

"Mr Kaiba, I'm sure you have a very precise understanding of macro-economy?"

All heads turned back to look at him. The richest kid in the classroom – and incidentally Domino City and third richest in the entire country – regarded their teacher with a cool stare. Then, to everyone's surprise, he shrugged and leant back into his chair. To add to the insult, he inwardly averted his gaze and let it land in the lush green field outside. Murmurs of "way to go" and "cool move" broke out from among the students. Mrs Sakaki meanwhile just looked flustered – or harried, seeing she was raking at her hair wildly – at being treated like that by her own student.

Luckily for her, the bell rang, signaling the end of the grueling school day. The students barely completed their thank yous before they dashed out of the classroom to freedom.

XO XO XO XO

"Is it just me, or is Kaiba being excessively egoistic today?" Tea randomly raised the question to her friends.

Joey snorted in annoyance. "Tea, his ego's bigger than even Japan itself. That makes him egoistical every single day."

"Actually, I think Tea's right," Yugi chimed in as he sipped his soda. "Kaiba's being himself too much today."

Tristan and Joey gave him a blank look. Yugi caught their gazes and explained slowly, "What I mean is, Kaiba's too irritable and rude today for even himself. Come on, we all know how Kaiba is. Joey, you're used to being insulted by him, but today's insult was too overboard even for Kaiba. And in the classroom. Usually he's civil with the teachers, isn't he?"

That got the gang thinking. Kaiba was being too… Kaiba. Tea thought back to the scene in the classroom, when Kaiba looked up and caught her staring at him. The coldness in his eyes was not the usual coldness she was accustomed to seeing – the coldness that radiated stubbornness and egoism. At least, that coldness was alive. The coldness she saw was lifeless.