10/01/13 - Original chapter 1 was completely dumped in the dumpster, and with the help of Write or Die and EditMinion, I have created this... thing. I would delete this LOF and create a new LOF, but all the reviews that people put so much effort into and gave me were too precious to let go. So I'm sorry if you can't review again.

Summary: An innocent flower leads to an unspoken conflict, and the genius Hotaru Imai has a plan up her sleeve. But predictable circumstances become unforeseen circumstances, and things go awfully out of whack.

Words you may/may not need to know:

*Taishitsu-kei - AKA Somatic Class, the class Ruka and Narumi-sensei and Permy belong to.

*Gijutsu-kei - AKA Technological/Technical Class, the class Hotaru, Misaki-sensei, Nonoko and Anna belong to.

*Flying Swan - Tell me you do know this invention of hers. Please.

*Selective Headphones - Doesn't actually exist, not even in the manga.

Hope you enjoy reading~

"Yellow hyacinths mean jealousy in the language of flowers, Nogi." Hotaru narrowed her eyes at the flower that her source of income placed under her nose, blocking her projects on the desk. It was hideously bright yellow, completely opposite from the message it gave. "Get that thing away from me."

"You don't want it? I have a whole bunch of them," Ruka replied. When Hotaru looked over, she found that he wasn't lying; he did have a whole bunch. And he was only giving her one measly flower from the stalk.

Did he not think her important or terrifying enough for more than that? Hotaru quickly banished the useless thought.

"What do you plan to do with those? Put them in your hair?" Her lips twisted into a smile, and it widened when Ruka yelped 'No!' with a flushed face. Tell me the spy bug in the room caught that on tape.

The blond didn't say anything else, so Hotaru returned to her blueprints. Then she heard him murmur, "I wanted to give them to people I loved."

Her hand twitched. The conversation was moving swiftly towards uncharted territory, she could get cornered without a plan, and that was the last thing she wanted. Not with so many projects still incomplete due so soon. For a while, Hotaru didn't respond - she didn't deem it worthy of a response – until she saw Ruka glancing behind from the corner of her eye. It wasn't too hard to figure out what or who he was looking at. It wasn't too hard to figure out a plan, either.

For the money, of course.

"So you love me, do you?" The line got a satisfying sputter from the teenage boy. "What about the idiot behind me?" She jerked her pen backwards to point to Mikan, who was loudly bothering Hyuuga. He was just trying to get some sleep, and Hotaru didn't understand why the idiot felt the need to talk to somebody at all times.

"Well, I... I don't hate you so much anymore. And of course Sakura gets one; why would you even think otherwise?"

Why would she even think otherwise?

"Do you love Hyuuga too?" Hotaru mentally shook her head at her own stupidity – something she never thought she would do. So many possible questions to ask, and she chose something as irrelevant as that. What the hell was wrong with her?

"You're kind of too curious about who I love, aren't you?" Of course she would be caught out. A smile slowly crept over Ruka's face; the type of smile that wasn't quite smug but still got on your nerves somehow. "Are the hyacinths making you jealous?"

"When did you get so confident when talking to me?"

"When did you get so defensive when talking to me?" Ruka quickly retorted. If Hotaru wasn't at a loss for words because she didn't have an answer for once, she was at a loss because Ruka Nogi never retorted quickly around Hotaru Imai. Bold Ruka Nogi was Bizarre Ruka Nogi.

Luckily – which Hotaru would never admit, and screw the mindreader in the room – she was saved by the bell. Not quite literally, because if Narumi was a bell, he would be the frilliest and one of the noisiest and most annoying, second only to the idiot called Mikan Sakura. But it was close enough.

Hotaru narrowed her eyes at the blond. He must have understood the message, because Ruka backed away - Hotaru didn't even notice him get closer than they already were, sharing the same desk and all – and sagged into the seat beside hers. When she squinted, Hotaru saw him gulp.

Good, because this is far from over.

Alice classes were right after homeroom, and went on until the end of the school day. Hotaru found them convenient, because most of the time, nobody bothered her as long as she looked busy at work, and the class gave her time to think. For some unknown reason, the class was a lot noisier that day, and many of her classmates crowded in groups, but Hotaru drowned them out. She needed time to reflect on her stupidity and find out just why Ruka Nogi became so bold.

Before he left for his own class, he had placed two yellow hyacinths from the stalk on Hotaru's side of the desk, as if giving two instead of one made things a whole lot better. The boy shouldn't be surprised if Hotaru didn't appreciate the act; in fact, he shouldn't be surprised if posters of him in a spaghetti-strap lace dress, forced onto him two years ago by the ever-loyal Taishitsu-kei, go up on all walls of all blocks of the academy. Hotaru knew that photo would come in handy.

Formulating a plan and strategy in her mind, Hotaru hastily completed most of her projects. She still had five to get done by the next day, but even with the task of putting the plan in play, she would have plenty of time to finish and also revise the inventions. Piece of crab cake.

There was a flaw in the plan which Hotaru would have taken into consideration on any normal day, but as it turned out, the day was anything but normal. She might have heard something about decorating for Christmas from Mikan and some groups in Gijutsu-kei, but the Selective Headphones she invented and often wore did their magic. The headphones drowned out anything the wearer wished using the sound of waves literally drowning them, and 'Christmas' stood no chance.

Crowds of students filled all the hallways, putting up stars, wreaths and tinsel wherever they could: walls, lockers, ceilings, doors – name it, there was likely a decoration there. Someone mischievously hung mistletoe on a cubicle door in the girls' bathroom, as if anyone would really kiss in such disgusting places. Maybe some people would, but Hotaru decided not to dwell on it.

Riding her Flying Swan above the crowd, she scouted for a place to put up at least one poster. Hotaru did so for five minutes, but all the hallways in the High School building were full, as though the students were purposely being everywhere she turned just to spite her. She had even checked the Middle School building, abusing her position in the Hanahime just once, but the situation there was the same.

I should invent something to make all these people suffer, Hotaru thought wickedly. They deserve it.

Almost as if the students nearby felt her deadly aura, the next corner Hotaru turned was surprisingly empty. At first, she felt it was too good to be true - the statistics didn't add up - but she took the chance. Hotaru briskly stuck a poster on a bare space of wall between a Christmas tree and a fake spray-painted Christmas tree. She found another space, which could fit two posters side by side, so she stuck two posters side by side.

Hotaru tried to move on fleetly, but she hadn't expected a blond male named Ruka Nogi to run full-speed towards her. When she turned her head, the next thing she knew, his face was right in front of hers; his eyes were a refreshing shade of blue she never noticed, and they were as wide as hers probably were, and their noses weren't touching because their lips were.

Hotaru didn't think she had ever been so shocked in her entire life.

The sudden extra weight made her lose her balance, but she regained it with the help of a step in the right spot and Ruka wrapping an arm around her waist. As soon as she was upright, Hotaru pushed him off and wiped her sleeve across her lips.

"What the hell were you doing, running at me like that?" she spat, glaring at the blond who also wiped his lips with his sleeve. He glared back, but his cheeks were scarlet.

"Why were you putting up those posters? What did I do this time, or are you just broke?" He stopped rubbing his sleeve across his face, but he kept it there, covering his lips. "I-I was trying to tackle you, but—"

"—You miscalculated," Hotaru blandly finished for him. Just because she was calm didn't mean she forgave anyone. "Typical."

"You were putting up something embarrassing of me again, and I just tried to stop you!" His tightly clenched hands were at his sides.

Her arms were folded across her chest. "By tackling me? You couldn't have shouted a warning first?"

"That's what I always did back then, but it never worked!" Ruka yelled, exasperated. The loud music from the corner of the hallway didn't muffle him at all. "I had to catch you by surprise!"

Hotaru closed her eyes and leaned her head back, pinching the bridge of her nose. She sighed and counted from one to five silently, and when she opened her eyes, she had to count from five to one aloud. Ruka was confused of the usually-calm girl's actions, but as soon as he looked up, he understood.

"Imai, tell me that's not—"

"Mistletoe," Hotaru muttered. Her eyes seemed to be glued onto the plant on the ceiling, like her thumb and forefinger seemed to be glued onto the bridge of her nose.

"One misfortune right after the other," sighed Ruka. His eyes then widened, as if he just realized he had just kissed the girl who had always blackmailed him ever since they met. But he didn't. Instead, he said, his voice rather croaky, "Please tell me that wasn't your first kiss."

The girl finally freed her fingers, and without batting an eyelash, she replied, "That was my first kiss."

"It was mine, too."

"You're telling me such a fact for free?"

"Maybe because I do sort of love you, which is why I gave you those flowers," Ruka murmured. "But it's not like—"

Hotaru didn't even raise an eyebrow. The whole scene with the mistletoe still pissed her off, and the last thing she wanted to deal with was a confession.

"Nogi," she uttered, immediately catching Ruka's attention. "Save it. Right now, all I want to do is sleep."

"Oh," he said dejectedly. "Oh, okay."

"Really though, save it. Warn me first before you start confessing, so I can record it. I wouldn't miss it for the world." Avoiding his stunned reaction, she turned to her forgotten Flying Swan and headed back to her dorm, the echoes of Ruka's laughter filling the empty hallway.

Hotaru had to skip homeroom the next day to finish all the five projects that had slipped her mind, but staying up late to discover who hung the mistletoe and to plot their humiliation was well worth the time.