Akashi unlocked the door and entered followed silently by Yuzuki. There were working desks in it, with piles of papers on top of them, waiting to be completed, signed and/or checked. Positions in the student council are vice president, treasurer and secretary. The previous president offered more positions back then but Akashi got rid of them all to maintain efficiency.

'It's huge and air-conditioned,' Yuzuki commented, looking around. 'Which one is your desk, Akashi?'

The president walked further inside the large office and arrived in front of a door. 'Get inside.' He commanded and gestured Yuzuki to go inside with his head.

'You have your own room...' she murmured and entered.

Akashi's own room was a quarter of the area of the whole office; it was pretty huge. The desk had a desktop and a keyboard on it, some papers were arranged neatly on the table and there was a bookshelf behind his working desk. A sofa and a coffee table was placed at the right side of the room from the door and the room smelled of citrus from the air diffuser/humidifier placed on the bookshelf.

'Have a seat.'

Yuzuki did as she was told and sat comfortably. She completely forgot that she was here because of a punishment. 'So you get to chill here? That's unfair and cool at the same time. Your own personal study room.' She said.

Akashi folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the wall, watching the dumb girl admiring the room.

'And if you ever feel like skipping class you can just say, "I have some work to attend to" and run here,' she shook her head in disbelief. 'Damn, I might want to snatch that president title from you.'

'Try it,' Akashi interrupted. 'Besides, I didn't bring you here so you can worship my room.'

'I wasn't worshipping your room!' Yuzuki protested.

'Okay then,' Akashi went behind his desk and pulled out a paper from the drawer, grabbed a pen and handed it to Yuzuki. 'Sign this.'

'What's this?' Yuzuki queried and began reading. She frowned. 'You seriously produced a whole letter just to declare that I have a punishment?! How free are you?'

'That was the secretary's job and you are to execute the punishment obediently.' He replied.

'You really wasted the secretary's time and ugh,' Yuzuki rolled her eyes. 'I'm not that unreliable for you to print out a damn agreement for me to sign. If I have a punishment due, I will do it, okay? Why do you make me look like a convict?'

'You don't know how much power an agreement holds. Just sign it and listen to me.'

'So petty,' Yuzuki sighed and signed her name at the bottom of the paper. 'So? What's this punishment about? You didn't mention it in the agreement.'

'You'll find out,' said Akashi. 'Let's go.'

'Where to next? Are you doing a school tour?'

-

'This is Miyamura Yuzuki, our temporary manager.'

'HA?!'

Reo frowned at the sight of the girl standing beside Akashi.

'Why am I suddenly a manager?' Yuzuki yelled, glaring at the captain of the team.

'That's your punishment.' Akashi answered.

'Welcome to our team, Miyamura-san,' someone said. Yuzuki looked at him. 'I'm Hayama Koutarou.'

'Ah, am I already accepted?' Yuzuki winced. 'But I don't want to.'

'Reo, if you would,' Akashi said and Reo nodded. 'Show her what she needs to do.'

Yuzuki sighed and followed Reo to the bench for him to explain stuffs a manager always does.

'Our manager is Higuchi Shouta but he could not attend to us for the time being for personal reasons so we've been searching for a manager,' said Reo as they sat next to each other. He pulled a paper out from one of the bags gathered by the bench. 'I don't know why he chose you though.'

'Simple,' replied Yuzuki. 'He wants me to suffer.'

'Why? Sei-kun is not that kind of person.'

'Maybe not to you,' Yuzuki took the paper from his hand. 'He probably likes it when I'm distressed.'

Reo didn't reply but eyed her with suspicion.

'Now this is a lot of things to handle.' Yuzuki shook her head in disapproval.

'Then, good luck, if you have any questions you can ask me.' Reo said and left the bench to join his members at the center of the court. Yuzuki read the list again.

'Akashi probably prepared this earlier. He's unnecessarily such a hardworking man.'Yuzuki told herself. The boys had begun their warm-ups.

'Are you the temporary manager?' a voice said. Yuzuki turned to look. It was Shirogane Eiji, the coach; she remembered him from the other day she tried to drag Akashi home. He has black swept-back hair with a grey stripe on each side.

'Ah, yes,' Yuzuki put on a smile. 'Nice to meet you.'

The coach nodded grimly. 'I feel like I've seen you before.'

She began to panic. 'Y-you must have been mistaken, it's the first time we're meeting each other—if you'll excuse me, I have to do some manager stuffs. Goodbye.' And she left the court.

-

Miyamura Yuzuki

That was close! If he ever remembered that I was the rude girl who tried to bring Akashi back home the other day, I'm going to get killed. The coach looked like he could slaughter people with just a click of his tongue.

Sighing, I looked at the list. 'Organize a friendly match, with the supervising teacher.' I read it out loud. Even though I had no idea who the supervising teacher could be, I headed towards the teachers' room to find it.

-

Reo wiped the sweat on his forehead that was starting to form. He looked at Akashi who was talking to the coach. 'Sei-kun,' he interrupted the captain. Akashi stopped talking and turned to him. 'Can I have a minute with you?'

'I'm talking to the coach, Reo.' Akashi replied coldly.

'After, then.'

The coach waved his hand slightly, signaling that it was okay to leave. Akashi nodded and Reo pulled his arm towards the storage room at one corner of the court. It was dark in there.

'What are you trying to do, Reo?' Akashi asked calmly.

'I don't usually question your choices but why pick someone untalented and unfit to be our manager?'

'Is that all you wanted to ask?' Akashi raised a brow, judging Reo.

'Yes,' said Reo firmly. 'She's not of any use to us.'

'She can do everything Shouta does as long as she's told so. What's wrong with that? Are you a sexist?'

'No, that's not my point,' Reo shook his head. 'It's that she doesn't know anything about basketball, how would she be able to manage us?'

'She won't be doing anything like that,' said Akashi. 'I've let the coach handle it. Can't you trust me for a second?'

Reo fell silent and after a while, nodded. 'Fine. I hope something good comes out of this.' He said then left. The redhead glared at him as he walked out.

-

Yuzuki entered the court as she glanced at her wristwatch. It was past 6pm and the sky was getting darker. As expected, the court was deserted. Except for one person sitting on the bench.

'Akashi? Why aren't you home yet?' she called out. The captain turned to look. 'Ikinoshita would've sent you first and come again to fetch me, you don't have to wait, you know.'

'What were you doing?' he asked, dismissing her completely.

'I went to find the supervising teacher. She's surprisingly reluctant about discussing it with me.' she replied.

'About the friendly match?'

'Yeah,' Yuzuki nodded then examined the court. 'You guys cleaned the court already? That's fast.'

Akashi got up from his seat. 'You can go to the car first.' He said as they exited the place together.

'You're going to change?'

He nodded and went the opposite way from Yuzuki. She immediately walked towards the front gate even though she knew the redhead needs protection or some sort. It wasn't her business. She is not the responsible one for this.

Yuzuki stood and stared. There was no car waiting outside so she quickly texted Ikinoshita but he didn't answer. Feeling annoyed, she spun and headed for the male changing room.

'Yuzuki?'

She halted her steps and turned around. She just passed the infirmary. 'Oh, Iride!'

Mao smiled. 'Why are you still here?'

'I just finished club activities and my ride isn't here yet. You've been in there since I left you?' she replied. Mao neared her.

'The nurse wanted to see me and we talked a lot about my conditions and stuffs and it got dragged until this time,' he said then looked out of the hallway's window. 'It's getting dark.'

'Yeah, I've never been here at this hour.' Yuzuki nodded, gazing out as well.

Mao giggled. 'Everyone in our class goes home a second after the last class ends, I'm not surprised.'

'Yeah,' she turned to him. 'Are you going home now?'

He nodded. 'My house is just two stations away. And I guess you're waiting for the president.'

Yuzuki gasped.

'You two were arguing in the infirmary just now so I just happened to hear it.' Mao explained before she could say anything.

'Ah, that,' she rubbed her nape nervously. 'Sorry you had to hear those stuffs.'

'No worries, where are you going though?'

'Oh, the changing room. I'm dragging that sadist to the gate.'

An idea came to him. 'Do you want me to check on him instead? Since it's for males.'

'If it doesn't trouble you, I'd love to.'

'It doesn't, let's go.'

-

Mao pushed the door open. The sound of water from the shower hitting the floor was clearly audible even from the main entrance of the large male changing room. He glanced at Yuzuki waiting outside and she gave him a nod. He closed the door behind him and proceeded to the source of the noise.

It was the last room that was occupied, located at the end of the space. The changing room became foggy because of the steam from the hot water of the shower. He neared the last room but saw the door of the shower room opened.

'Aka—' he tried to call out but was interrupted when a cold arm curled around his neck from the back. He didn't move but his eyes travelled down to the tip of a knife pointing only a millimeter away from his neck. His breath got caught in his throat.

'What are you doing here?' the attacker whispered in his ear ferociously.

Mao recognized the voice. 'I-I was just checking on y—' the knife touched his skin and he gasped in fear. He thought it was a hot shower that the president had taken but his arm was as cold as ice.

'Whose order?'

Mao was getting dizzy at the increasing temperature of the room and he was panting. 'Yuzuki.' He choked out the name.

He was released. Sucking in air, he dropped to his knees out of terror. He turned around to talk but there was nobody in sight. Trembling, he crawled to the door and forced himself to stand to open the door.

'Iride,' Yuzuki saw him and rushed over. 'Why do you look like you've seen a ghost?'

Mao wanted to reply but he was still shaken.

'Are you feeling anemic?' she asked, holding his arm so he could stand properly.

He shook his head in reply. 'I need to go first...' he said quietly, almost like a whisper.

Yuzuki frowned in wonder. 'What happened?'

'Nothing, I just—' he stopped himself then massaged his chest, regaining composure. 'I'm sorry, I need to go.'

'Okay, take care.' Yuzuki released his arm and he walked away.

A few steps ahead then he stopped and spun. 'Akashi-san is still showering by the way, it might take some time.' He informed and left.

Yuzuki merely nodded, worried at Mao's condition. Did he see the Yukimura attacking Akashi? But why would he be released unharmed? Is the redhead even doing okay? All kinds of thoughts ran through her mind.

Clicking her tongue, she approached the door but it was suddenly opened from inside. Yuzuki took a step back in surprise then saw Akashi.

'Were you worried?' he asked mockingly.

'No,' she denied. 'I just needed you to be quick.'

'So much that you dare to step into a male changing room?' asked Akashi. 'How shameless.'

'I'm sure there was nobody in there.' She defended.

'That's still a crime.'

Yuzuki grumbled something under her breath and quickened her steps. Then she glanced behind. 'If you're late, I'll ask Ikinoshita to go without you!' she threatened.

'You know he won't do that.' Akashi said nonchalantly, his steps unfaltering.

Yuzuki pouted then ran away. The president chuckled to himself.

-

Takato slid the basement door open and descended down the stairs. It was a large area complete with a small kitchen and a bathroom. There was one room at the corner on his left. The kitchen was just in front of him while the bathroom was located under the stairs. There was someone sitting on the dining table, sipping a cup of coffee serenely.

He was wearing a white coat, often worn by doctors. His black hair was rather unkempt and there was a bandage around his neck. He was absorbed in his own thinking but he heard the creak of stairs when Takato entered the basement. He looked up and smiled.

'Kenji.' said Takato.

Sasaki Kenji, a 21-year-old genius medical practitioner working under the Miyamura. 'Takato-san.' He replied.

'Up all night?' he asked and took a seat across the doctor.

'Yeah, I'll go up in a few to have a nap though.'

Takato nodded. 'Have your rest. I'll keep watch for now.'

Kenji gulped down the last bit of his coffee and left the basement without words. The leader of the Miyamura clan inhaled sharply, got up and headed for the sole room. He entered silently.

The machine was beeping as usual and at a consistent pattern. The bed held an unconscious woman; with wires connected all over her body and an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth. There was a chair by the bed and Takato sat down.

He touched her lifeless slender fingers and squeezed them. 'Everyone is doing fine,' he spoke softly. 'Yuzuki is healthy as always.'

The woman was unresponsive. But her breathing was steady.

'It's been years. Don't worry,' he continued. 'I've sent some men over to find them. We should have some Intel by now.'

He caressed her hair. 'I'll always wait for you...Shiori.'

-

A/N: I'm still alive, guys. Lol. Sorry it's too short.