Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in Kuroko no Basuke, but I do own my OC(s) and this fanfic's plot.

A/N: This is a one-shot from perhaps upcoming story. I made the story because I like Kise so much! If the response to this story is good, I may create the full-version one.

The translation from Replace is found in the internet. I alter it slightly to meet this story. I hope Kise is not too OOC .

This is a REWRITTEN version.

Summary: It's summer and the basketball club are out to get some girls. Everyone comes along, including their female manager who dresses up as a boy. A twist from a story in Replace. KisexOC [REWRITTEN]

When Life Gives You Lemons

One-Shot: A Group Date

"Are you serious?" Mutsuki asked with her eyes narrowed, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Of course, Shirogane," Moriyama replied her with a satisfied smile, looking at her up and down. "You actually looked like a real guy."

The girl rolled her eyes, unfazed by her senior's comment. "Gee, thanks for the compliment."

She was dressed in a simple light blue shirt and black, slightly-loose trousers. Over the light-colored shirt, she wore an unzipped dark-grey sleeveless hooded jacket. Her short platinum blonde hair was messy as always, leaving the longer strands of hair on the right side of her head to frame her heart-shaped face. Just for that day, her senior had told – or commanded, in her opinion – to take off her spectacles and put on contact lens instead, causing her green eyes to stand out even more. Being tall and skinny, her body barely had visible curves and was hidden even more under the thick and baggy clothes.

In short, nobody could tell she was a girl in her current get-up.

She let out a long sigh. The green-eyed girl was standing together with the regular members of Kaijou Basketball Club, near the school entrance. Even during holidays, she had to come to school thanks to the basketball club's practices. After a long day in the club, she wanted to escape and just rushed home to have a break and catch up on her study. The busyness of the club had caused her to kind of abandon her summer-break homework. Being a good student that she was, Mutsuki always made it a point to complete her tasks before they were due.

On the other hand, she did not want to reject the request from her seniors, especially after she had rejected their pleas multiple times. It really didn't help that they were getting better at persuading her do things she would not consider doing. As she took a deep breath to calm down – slightly frustrated at herself for being so easily persuaded – she noticed that the guys, for some reason, smelt like...orange. Why in the world did they all wear citrus scent?

"Gee, can today become even worse?" she mumbled to herself, shoving her hands into her trousers' pockets.

"Alright, let's go and pick up some girls now!" Moriyama told all of them.

It just went worse, she mentally noted.

"Wait a minute!" Another voice, one she recognized as the captain, interrupted the guy from going away.

"What is it, Kasamatsu?" Moriyama asked.

"Why do I have to accompany you?" he asked with a glare, pointing at himself using his thumb.

Moriyama shrugged. "The internet said when picking up girls, the success rate is higher when there are more people."

"Really, you guys-" The captain protested, but was interrupted by Hayakawa's enthusiastic voice.

"Yeah! Mo(r)iyama-senpai, I wi(l)(l) do my best!" He said in his usual confusing way.

"You need to show a bit of restraint," Moriyama dryly noted.

"Mo(r)iyama-senpai, what do you mean!? I'm being ve(r)y se(r)ious!" Hayakawa exclaimed.

"Hey, will you listen to me?" The irritated captain was near to punch his regulars, but someone stopped him from doing so.

"Alright, calm down a bit. Occasionally going out to play isn't a bad idea," the most sensible regular – according the her personal opinion – Kobori, stated calmly, trying to reason with his captain. "If Hayakawa goes out of hand, then it'll be easier to control him if you were around, won't it?"

That caused the captain to shut his mouth and think. Mutsuki inwardly nodded; she had to agree with Kobori, after all, the only one who could perhaps stop Hayakawa and Moriyama from going wild was their captain. She watched as Kasamatsu let out a long, tired sigh, reluctantly agreed to join in the group.

"Um, can I go home now?" A new voice butted in. Mutsuki noticed that it was Kise, donned in a white v-neck shirt with a short-sleeved dark blue jacket. The blonde received a deadly glare from their captain, causing him to take back whatever he had just said.

She raised her hand, catching the captain attention. "How about me? Can I go away?"

Similar to Kise, she got a sharp annoyed glare from Kasamatsu. Briskly, he walked away with a grinning Moriyama, a nervous Kobori, and an enthusiastic Hayakawa following closely.

"I'm a girl, for God's sake!" She grumbled under her breath as she walked behind the group. "Why am I joining the guys to pick up some girls?"

There was a small chuckle coming from her side. "Aw, Shiro-chan, don't be so uptight!" She heard Kise spoke up, walking next to her. An annoyingly bright smile plastered on his face. "With your looks, you can definitely get a girl!"

Mutsuki glared at him and stepped on his foot hard, causing him to yelp in pain.

"Hey, I'm injured, you know?" the blonde said.

She scoffed and glared at him. "I didn't step on you that hard. Take it like a man, Kise!"

The first-year regular pouted but dared not to complain anymore, afraid of becoming the target of her pent-up annoyance. She smirked in satisfaction as he quietly walked past her to catch up with Kobori. Quietly, she listened to the conversation between the two young men in front of her. It seemed that the whole idea was to cheer up Kasamatsu, who might be feeling down after the match against Touou, but was forcing himself nonetheless. The girl sighed, understanding fully how the match had affected all the members, especially their captain who seemed to think that what happened was his responsibility. She silently approved the concern and support the members were trying to show to the captain, even if the whole plan seemed stupid, and she made a point to do her best to support them.

They finally arrived at a place in front of a station, which according to Moriyama's online research, was a sacred ground for picking up girls. Mutsuki noticed that there were a lot of girls walking around, in a pair or small groups. Some of the girls who were passing by were looking at their direction…or to be more accurate, looking at Kise's direction. It was hard to not notice the good-looking blonde after all, being a model and all.

She did not realize that some girls were actually checking her out.

"Okay, how do we do it?" Kasamatsu asked his friend, a bit nervous.

"Just watch," Moriyama replied confidently.

The platinum blonde had to suppress a grin. Now that would be amusing to watch.

After three miserable failed attempts of the seniors, Kise was pretty sure that there were getting nowhere. People who had not tried were Kasamatsu, Shirogane, and he himself. They were rather uninterested about the whole ordeal and were sitting on the fountain's fence. Kobori was also sitting with them, smiling nervously while looking at Moriyama and Hayakawa who just got rejected, again. Kise froze as the two seniors turned to face them, seemingly about to throw the next 'bait' to attract girls.

The blonde held his breath as Moriyama approached them, Hayakawa following closely.

"Shirogane, go!" He told the green-eyed first year while grabbing her arm.

He let out a breath of relief. He got lucky.

"What?" Their manager said in annoyance, eyes slightly wide. "No way!"

Moriyama and Hayakawa stared – or glared – down at her. Although she was exceptionally tall for a girl, standing almost the same height as the captain, she was still short compared to the regulars. The way they look at her caused her to flinch slightly and then, her shoulders slumped in defeat. Despite most of the time appearing to be tough and confident, she actually was a softie at heart.

"Fine, let's just get this over with," she mumbled, standing up and walking towards the mass.

"Senpai," Kise glanced at his seniors worriedly as they looked at him, "Shiro-chan is a girl."

Silence

"Are you sure you want her to do this?" he continued.

Another silence

An awkward laugh

And they all turned their head towards the manager in a snap.

Anxiously, they watched as she casually stood there, one hand in her pocket while she used the other hand to run through her hair in such a cool manner. Kise was fully aware of the fact that some girls were giggling as they looked in her direction. Several groups of girls were going around repeatedly in front of her, hoping she would notice them and maybe ask them out. Shirogane looked quite oblivious though, as she remained unmoving, her eyes glancing around slowly. However, when her green eyes met one of the girls' brown eyes, she flashed a confident, slightly flirty smile. They giggled happily, glancing at her while whispering to one another.

"Wow," Kise quietly said, amazed.

Kasamatsu was staring with his mouth wide open.

Moriyama and Hayawaka were mentally shouting in victory.

Kobori was too stunned to do anything.

Their manager was actually succeeding in attracting girls, much more than they did.

It made sense, honestly, he told himself. The blonde had observed how their manager could look relaxed, but collected at the same time. Her smile was mysterious and charming, but kind all the same. The color of her hair was so striking that people, be it a girl or a guy, would stop to take a look. And above all, she could act like a true gentleman.

They watched her as the same group of girls started to approach her shyly, pushing one another. Out of the blue, one of the girls, the one with wavy brown hair, tripped on a small pebble. She squeaked and Shirogane smoothly caught her before she fell. Her pale arms circled around the shoulders of the wavy-brown lady, holding her firmly.

"Are you okay?" Kise heard her asking the shorter girl. She purposely had made her voice to be lower than it actually was; the voice was deep enough for the girl to believe that Shirogane was a real guy.

The brown head blushed and nodded, getting back to her feet.

"That's great." She smiled coolly, her hands remained on the shoulders of the wavy-haired girl for a few seconds before letting go. "Listen, I know this may be too daring, but your beauty has captured my eyes. Would you like to go with me to have a cup of tea?" Shirogane had taken the girl's hand by then, holding it gentlemanly.

The blonde saw the unknown girl squealed, looking at her friends, as the platinum blonde continued with a suave smile, "Certainly, your friends can come along."

On the slight uncertainty of the group of the girls, Shirogane gave a quick peck on the back of the hand of the girl. They squealed at the gesture and that seemed to seal the deal.

"YES!" the girl shouted gleefully.

"We'll be glad to!" his friends followed up, swarming around her excitedly.

The regulars gaped as they saw their manager waved them over, smirking in victory.

They chose a nearby family restaurant for them and the six girls whom the manager had managed to pick up to sit down. They were sitting on one side while the group of girls on the other side. Mutsuki noticed that the girls were giggling while their eyes darted around, checking out each of the guys on the table. Despite their weirdness, the regulars were generally quite good-looking in their own ways and the platinum head was not surprised that there were girls who would find them attractive.

"It feels like a group date," Kobori said in a low voice, but loud enough for her to hear.

Moriyama, who sat between Kobori and herself, patted her shoulder. His eyes twinkling in happiness. "Good job, manager."

"Shut it," Mutsuki grumbled, reverting back to her real personality, leaning back on her chair as she passed the menu back to the waiter. As fun as it was to beat the guys in getting things done, she felt somehow irritated that those girls actually thought she was a guy. Did she not look like a girl at all?

The girls left their seats the moment they ordered their drinks, excusing themselves to go to the washroom. They went as a group, each carrying a small pouch which the manager assumed was probably a set of make-up items. She was amused at how prepared the girls were for that sudden pick-up. She had never been the one to wear make-up and accessories and so she could not comprehend why the girls were so busy to wear ones. The thought of wearing make-up to look more feminine crossed her mind as she stirred her latte, but she immediately dismissed it, thinking she would look ridiculous.

Her musing was interrupted when she heard someone next to her choking and spraying his drink.

"S-Senpai!?" Kise shouted in shock, causing her to turn her head to the left. Her view was obstructed by the tall blonde regular. She sighed and slightly tilted her body forward a bit more to take a better look at the stiff captain, who had turned his head to face his juniors.

"W-w-what is it?" the senior said in a stuttering voice.

"I should be the one to ask you! Are you okay?" Kise continued, shocked at the way the captain acting.

"N-nothing," the black head replied stiffly, his hands shaking greatly. The two juniors stared in surprise as Kasamatsu's drink splashed out of its glass thanks to his trembling hands.

"Senpai, calm down! Put the cup down! Let me wipe it up!" Kise stopped him, hastily used a wet towel to wipe the table while Hayakawa picked up the ice, using a paper towel to wrap it up.

"Are you okay, Kasamatsu-senpai?" She finally asked after the whole scene ended.

Kobori answered her inquiry, "Kasamatsu has never spoken to a girl before."

Mutsuki frowned, pointing at herself, recalling how the captain had repeatedly talked to her. "Err, hello? Am I not one?"

"You can barely count as one," Moriyama absentmindedly stated, causing the girl to glare daggers at him. She clenched her fist and was seriously considering giving her senior a good punch.

Kise, grasping the tense situation, patted her shoulder gently with his right hand and used his other hand to bring her fist down. "He means that you're different than any other girl, Shiro-chan, so don't be so angry!"

She turned to face her classmate with a bored look. "You mean by looking like a guy?"

The golden blonde sweat-dropped for a bit, before grinning mischievously. "You're different because…you don't need make-up to look attractive."

Mutsuki would have blushed, but blushing was totally not her. Besides, she was sure that he meant nothing with those words. She knew that teasing grin and that he simply said it to tease her, as usual. And so, with all her might, she calmed herself down and cursed when she felt her cheeks still became slightly warm. Damn the blush…

Coughing to hide her embarrassment, she replied while trying to sound as nonchalant as possible, "I don't have time to make-up with so many stuffs to be done in the club."

As she looked down on her drink, stirring it nervously, she was oblivious that the regulars are grinning and smirking. They knew that she actually, once in a while, did act like a girl. Even Kasamatsu forgot his nervousness for a while, and then he returned to his robotic state due to extreme anxiety as he stared at the empty seat in front of him.

"Anyway, back to the main topic, Kasamatsu-senpai." Mutsuki gestured with her hand to the captain, eyes closed to avoid any eye contact. She was sure any eye contact at that moment would rush the heat back to her face.

Kise turned on his seat to face the senior. "How can you not speak to a girl – saved for Shiro-chan – when you have girls in your class? Don't you have a lot of opportunities?"

"As much as I found out from him, since he started school until now, he has only spoken these two words 'Nn' and 'No' to girls," Kobori explained.

Mutsuki literally face palmed, while Kise cracked a nervous smile. "That doesn't count as talking."

"Senpai, I'm a(l)ready on the ve(r)ge of c(r)ying," Hayakawa spoke up, his eyes tearing.

Kasamatus hit his friend on the head. "I-I'm not scared! I'm also a man! I'll definitely…talk to them nicely today!"

He huffed, his speech was back to normal, but his face was beet red. It was obvious to them that he only put up a brave façade. He softly muttered some words to encourage himself, but it was too vigorous that the people watching him started to feel uneasy.

"Then, which girl does you like, Kasamatsu?" Moriyama asked. He was probably as nervous as the captain was, but was hiding it better.

"That…it's…the rightmost one," the captain bowed his head and said with a low, shy voice. Mutsuki had to bury her face on her hands to hide her chuckles at the sound of his meek voice. It was so different from his usual tone that it was hilarious to see.

"Rightmost? Ah, the very well-developed girl. I see, you like big boobs," Moriyama spoke as he nodded in understanding.

The only girl scoffed in annoyance. Damn them with all those attention to females' chest…

A snort caused Kise to shift his attention from his seniors to the girl sitting next to him. The blond turned to face the sour-looking manager as the conversation between two seniors carried on. "What's with that scoff?" He asked as he faced Mutsuki, putting his chin on his palm with his elbow on the table.

"Big boobs," she replied as she shrugged. "Why do guys only look at those?"

"You don't have to be jealous," the Copy-cat stated. His eyes slightly wandered to her rather…flat chest.

"I'm not jealous!" She retorted, looking at him directly. He had to smile at her response. She was hard to crack, but once you know the correct method, she was an open book. And boy, he had so much fun teasing her.

"You're jealous, Shiro-chan," he said as he poked his forefinger to her cheek.

She swatted his hand away. "I'm not!"

"You are!" He said, grinning widely.

"Am not!" She replied irritably.

"Come on, you spent time with Momocchi so much during middle school. It's normal to be jealous," Kise argued in a teasing tone.

"Satsuki's size doesn't bother me." Shirogane scoffed, crossing her arms.

He let out a short laugh. She was obviously bothered about it. Although she didn't really complain about it, her lanky frame still bothered her, especially since she had smaller breasts than average girls. She was compared to Momoi a lot since they were close friends and hang out often in middle school. He remembered that she once admitted, albeit grudgingly and accidentally, about the fact. And yet, there they were with her denying the whole thing again.

"Don't worry," he said as he patted her head, causing her to frown but doing nothing to move it away. "You're still adorable."

The way her cheeks reddened made him chuckle. She was just so fun to tease!

"Whatever," she said, failing to suppress a small rare genuine smile on her lips, as she gently took off his hand off her head.

It caught him off guard. Every time she smiled, he always found it hard to argue with or talk to her.

When they first met, Shirogane had always been a cold, stubborn, and tough-looking girl. When she became the manager of the basketball club, the members had been so irritated at her crude remarks and occasional temper. However, over time, she opened up to them and became slightly nicer. She did not complain as much and eventually become as dedicated as the regulars were, coming over to school even during their day off. Sometimes, she even came earlier and stayed back later than the regulars to clean up the court and wash their clothes and prepare the equipments. The regulars finally able to see that behind her blunt comments, there were hidden kindness and attention for every single person. Ever since then, she had been completely accepted as an important part of the club.

Kise was the first to know her real persona. When she was first brought by the coach, he had thought of her as a mean person. He treated her like a fellow male friend and kept their interaction to minimum. Weeks later, he discovered another side of her, the kind, caring, and feminine side of her when he accidentally stumbled across her taking care of an abandoned puppy. It changed his whole opinion about Shirogane Mutsuki. Unlike the other members, he had always seen her as an actual girl ever since then.

And that girl was smiling at him.

He opened his mouth to tease her, but his brain was frozen, and no word came out of his lips.

Thankfully, his captain's voice interrupted the moment. "Kise."

The blonde broke the eye contact and replied, "What is it?"

"W-When talking to girls, w-what is a good topic?" Kasamatsu asked urgently, his eyes darting to the chair across his.

Kise pondered for a bit. "Just…very normal topics."

"What is 'very normal'!?" the captain questioned in confusion.

Next to him, he heard Shirogane chuckling as he sighed. "Do you not know even this!? Let me think, such as…Yeah! Just like Moriyama-senpai, just praise the other party that she's cute or something like that! Also, during appropriate times, say something interesting!"

"Praise…Something interesting?" The captain looked ready to faint due to headache.

"Sorry, we've let you guys waited for a long while," the girls, who had finally returned from the washroom, said in unison.

His eyes widened at what he saw. Delicately drawn eyeliner. Thick fake lashes. Curled long hair. Shimmery lipgloss applied on the lips. Also, they were pretending to expose them unintentionally – the boobs. Compared to before they entered the washroom, the level had definitely gone up.

"Wow." He heard the girl sitting next to him say in amusement. "What did they do in the toilet? Putting on some masks? How the heck do they look so different?"

Kise suppressed a laughter that almost erupted thanks to her comments. "Shiro-chan, you should do that sometimes too," he said teasingly as he smiled at her, causing her to wave her hand dismissively. "Maybe you'll finally be noticed as a girl."

"Nah, too troublesome. I don't really care what others think," she finally said as she sipped her drink. The golden blonde shook his head, although his grin remained.

"Ah, everyone has already taken their drinks! We'll also go and get ours," the girls chattered as they went to the counter to pick up their drinks.

When the girls returned to their seats with their drinks, they proposed 'Then let's make a toast! Who shall we let to shout kanpai?"

Kise realized that the girl sitting opposite to him was sending him a fiery hot look. He could not be the one doing it though, since it should be someone who had greater rank than him. His head turned to look at his captain. "Let's let Kasamatsu-senpai do it."

Little did he know, he would soon come to regret his choice.

Despite looking composed and calm, Kasamatsu was completely nervous. He raised his cup and loudly said, "T-Then let's… Oppai!" (oppai = big boobs)

There was a pregnant, awkward silence.

And then somebody accidentally knocked the drink, causing the cup to clatter and the drink to spill all over. Some of the girls squealed in surprise.

Kise looked around to find who the person was.

It was Shirogane.

"Ah, sorry, sorry," she casually said, standing up trying to clean her stained light blue shirt with a napkin. "I must have heard the kanpai wrongly. My cup slipped."

"Eh?" One of the girls said in surprise, "Didn't he say-"

"Kanpai, right?" Shirogane cut her off calmly. "I must have heard it wrongly. I don't know what's wrong with my head." She acted as if she was nervously rubbing the back of her neck.

The girls murmured and then sighed in relief, giggling. The girl in front of Kise smiled and nodded. "I must have heard wrongly too!"

Her friends bobbed their heads in agreement, causing the tension to disappear.

"Did she just…" Kise questioned inwardly, "-help Kasamatsu-senpai?"

"Anyway," she continued, getting out of her chair, "Excuse me for a moment. I had to quickly clean my shirt. Please, all of you enjoy your time." She sent a wink to the girls, which caused them to giggle.

He stood up automatically, but with one look from her, he understood. She wanted him to stay to make sure nothing went wrong again. The seniors were seriously hopeless. The only people who could perhaps handle girls were the two of them. Kise sat back down on his chair as their manager walked towards the girls' washroom, silently thankful that the group of girls did not notice where Shirogane went.

"To think this is one of my favourite shirts," Mutsuki mumbled as she washed the shirt on the basin. She had taken off her stained shirt and was only wearing her jacket, totally zipped up to cover her body. "Well, at least, it gave them a second chance."

She was so stunned that her captain actually said oppai because he was so anxious. Luckily, her quick mind was fast to think of an idea to cover up the mistake. The girls seemed to believe her lies since they looked relief and rather happy then. Besides, the dirty shirt was a good excuse for her to skip the socializing section. She seriously did not want to have a girl really hitting on her.

After a good ten-fifteen minutes, her shirt was completely wet, but the stain was still slightly visible. She groaned. Oh well, she could always wash it properly at home. At least, the stain would not be too hard to remove then if she cleaned it then. Squeezing the water out of the shirt, she carried the damp shirt on one of her arm, using the other to open the door knob.

When she exited the washroom, she saw the girls were leaving the restaurant in hurry.

She narrowed her eyes in confusion and walked briskly towards their table.

"What happened?" She asked with one hand on her hip.

Kise looked at her tiredly. "Actually, it went okay. No wrong word being said. In fact, almost nothing we said were interesting to them."

The green-eyed girl shook her head. "With only basketball in your heads, definitely they wouldn't be interested."

The regulars, saved for Kise, bowed their heads in defeat.

Seeing them looking like that made her feel bad.

"At least," she said, thinking hard to try to cheer them up, "you can learn from your mistake. Next time, we should prepare what to talk to the girls."

They looked excited upon hearing what she said. "That's right! Next time, you and Kise will be our teachers!"

"What?" The two juniors exclaimed simultaneously.

The seniors had walked away abruptly, out of the restaurant, casually talking, even before she had a chance to reject the request. "H-hey!"

When she got out of the restaurant, they had walked away, disappeared in the crowd. Standing all by herself as a mass of people passed by, Mutsuki sighed irritably at the seniors' request. She had always been bad in communicating. Why in the world would they ask her to teach them how to talk with girls? She would push all the responsibilities to Kise. He should be better than her at least.

She was unaware of some people staring at her, especially when a group of guys approaching her.

"Hey, cutie, are you alone? You wanna go with us?" Mutsuki turned sharply at a male voice which came from her left. Next to her was a group of guys, mostly taller than she was. One of the guys had placed his hand on her shoulder. How in the world these guys noticed she was a girl? That did not matter, though, not that she cared.

"Leave me alone," she said briskly, shrugging the hand off her shoulder while walking away.

The boys whistled while one of them grabbed her arm. "She's feisty. I like it!"

"Let go!" Mutsuki had raised her fist to punch the guy right on the nose when somebody appeared behind her and had pushed the guy away from her. The person grabbed her swiftly and hid her behind his back. She looked up to see the golden-colored hair and realized who the person was.

"Leave her alone," he said, dangerously low. His hands were spread in front of her in a protective manner, as if trying to block her completely from the guys. Mutsuki shivered involuntarily at the tone he used. She had always thought of Kise as someone who was always happy and laid-back. For him to sound so angry – the kind of tone he never used before – it surprised her.

The boys backed up, irritated and scared at the same time, walking away quickly. "Tsk, she is with someone."

Once they were out of sight, he turned to face her. "Are you stupid? Walking out with that clothes alone?"

"Huh?" She frowned in confusion. "What's wrong with my clothes?"

Kise face palmed, irritation clear in his voice. "And I thought you were smart…"

"Hey!" She was offended by his statement. "What do you mean by that?"

"Look at yourself!" He exclaimed as he gestured to her appearance.

Mutsuki frowned, not understanding his point of view. She looked down at her jacket, which was zipped up. Although it was zipped up, it only covered up most part of her chest, leaving a small part of her chest and her defined collarbones for all to see. Her slender neck was exposed without anything to cover it. The sleeveless jacket left her thin arms bare, revealing the white smooth skin. She further inspected the sides of the jacket. A part of her bra could be seen from the wide gap on her jacket's armhole. The beige-colored underwear contrasted brightly against her grey jacket.

Her face burned in embarrassment as the realization dawned upon her.

"Oh," she said quietly, but too stubborn to accept his remark openly. "I thought they won't notice I'm a girl. I mean I looked like a skinny boy, and my hair is short. Nothing about me is-"

Her rambling was cut short when she heard Kise groaned in exasperation. "You ARE a girl, okay?" He took off his jacket and wrapped it around her. Being much taller and having wider shoulders as compared to her, his jacket completely covered her form. She instinctively pulled it closer to her body, still slightly stunned. She was more shocked about Kise's actions than the fact than some random guys were trying to pick her up.

The first-year regular bent down slightly so that they were on the same eye level. He placed both of his hands on her shoulders. "You have to know, people notice you're a girl."

The intensity of his stares and the seriousness of his voice made Mutsuki froze. The platinum blonde could only nod as the golden hair guy looked straight into her eyes. His golden eyes seemed to glow slightly darker than usual. There was something in his eyes which confused her. She saw the anger, the worry, but there was something else. Something else which she could not put together. She looked at his golden orbs carefully - she could not tell what it was, but for sure, something was there.

Realizing their close proximity, Mutsuki blinked and pushed him gently, coughing to clear her throat. "Anyway, that help wasn't necessary. I could have handled it by myself."

She saw him grinned, back to his usual self. His eyes twinkled in the usual teasing way. "I know, but why would I miss the chance to become your knight in shining armor?"

He was apparently changing to the teasing mode.

"Do I look like a damsel in distress?" She raised an eyebrow and punched his arm lightly, causing him to laugh. "I don't need your help."

She heard him mumble something like "You certainly do" but was not sure since he spoke under his breath.

"Anyway," Kise abruptly changed the topic before she could ask. "Were you helping Kasamatsu-senpai back then?"

The green-eyed girl shrugged. "What do you think?"

He grinned at her antic. "I think you do."

"Then I'll leave you at that," she nonchalantly agreed.

"What's with the vague answer?" He looked at her as he quirked an eyebrow.

Mutsuki shrugged again. "You can think whatever you want, not that I care."

Kise shook his head warily and whined. "Come on, Shiro-chan, why can't you just answer directly?"

"Because I don't want to," she replied airily, walking away. "Oh, look at the clock! I've to go home!"

"Hey, Shiro-chan!" Kise trailed closely behind her. "Answer my question!"

"No can do," she replied as she increased her pace.

It ended with him following her until she reached her house, still not giving her answer even after she closed the door, before he went back towards his house in defeat. However, the two were both unaware of the secret smiles on the other's lips.