"Ahhhh." I plopped down onto a chair lying around after another hectic day of touring. A sniper was assigned to assassinate Korosensei, and of course, he failed. At least he knew when to give up.

"Hey Leiko-san!" Sugino-kun came up to me, holding two cans of drink. "You look beaten up, want some soda?"

"Yes, definitely." I took a can from him and sipped. "Thanks." I had to say, I like this life style better. Not taking account of the hectic assassin, bloody, underworld things that happened after year six, always being with the girls literally meant I had no freedom. Especially when you had flowing long hair and is in the supposedly 'popular group' of girls. All they would do was talk on and on about make up, shopping, how to make your hair look nice and how other people are stupid or ugly. I found that I really started to hate those talks, like how those girls just seem like their so much higher than anyone else. I got sick of it, and I'm just not interested in any of the other kinda things. I got dragged in by a friend, and all I did was occasionally make a comment and stare outside, where the boys are playing soccer and tag, slapping each other on the back and congratulating each other, and doing all sorts of fun things, wishing I could join them. But the main problem is gossip. When a pretty girl, or really just any girl who looks remotely nice, go hang out with the boys, no matter what's the cause or reason, the whole school starts gossiping, especially in years five and six. That's the world, somehow.

Then I found out that if you hide your long and soft hair, talk rough, don't wear skirts or girlish out fits, no one ever says anything even if you hangout with the boys all the time, even if that earned me glares and looks from other oh-so-popular people and my original friends. But I never minded. Although, in class 3E, everyone was nice and equal, that's what's good about this class. And even if I talk with the girls a lot more, I still prefer the company of boys, and that's why I'm spending more time with the guys in class than the girls, even though I tend to stay away from Karma. They're much more straight forward, and more bold and active. Rio-chan is like that, but how many girls can you find that are like her?

"Ahem."

Eh? Snapping out of my mind I look towards Sugino-kun. "Sorry, I spaced out. Continue?"

"God, you're a daydreamer aren't you?" he shook his head exasperatingly. "I was just saying, if you wanted to, we're hosting a game of 'assassination tag' in five minutes, care to join?"

"No problems."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Good game man, that was so fun!" I say, stretching out my arms.

"I knew we shouldn't have invited her..." Maehara-kun says, looking defeated. "Your team won like five times in a row cause of Leiko and Karma!"

"Can't help it..." I grinned.

I parted with the boys after we reached floor where we were supposed to sleep, and went to get a change of clothes after that session of chasing and tackling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's already after dinner, and I'm wandering around the inn aimlessly when I walked past the boys room, it's really noisy. "It's Leiko~" I announced loudly, then pulled open the door and stuck my head in. "What's up?"

Okajima-kun perked up as I entered the room, everyone was sitting in more or less a circle, surrounding a piece of paper. "Ohh, Leiko-kun" he started, then corrected his unavoidable mistake. I sighed. "I mean Leiko-san, what girl are you interested-."

"I'm a girl." I interrupted before he could say anything else, and everyone else burst into laughter. "This is a hard role." I sigh, and plopped down onto the floor. "So what'cha guys doing?" the piece of paper look interesting.

"Ah, that's the list of girls we're interested in and the voting polls." Isogai-kun said, then snatched the paper from me. "Wait a moment, don't tell the other girls."

"Obviously." I resumed reaching for the piece of paper.

"Wait, you sure you wanna see this?"

"Yeah." I rolled my eyes, exasperated. "What, I can scheme up some drama with this after all." I smirk.

"Oh god no."

"Seriously?"

"Everyone make it a mission to stop Leiko from getting it!" someone shouted playfully, and I'm suddenly swamped by multiple bodies.

"It won't work!" I began skilfully untangling myself from the mass of people and this turned into a tackle war, with me being the target. I laugh as I got dragged down again and started to navigate my way around more quickly and effectively.

"What's going on?" Everyone stopped, and turned towards the source of the voice. Karma stood with a can of drink in one had, the other hand on the open door.

"Hey Karma! Good timing." Maehara-kun yelled. "Come help us with this situation, we can't win against Leiko and she's gonna see that paper!"

"What paper?" Karma frowned slightly.

"The list of girls we're interested in from 3E!" Isogai-kun replied. "Karma, who'd you like?"

I stopped wriggling slightly as I glanced towards Karma, who is apparently thinking over the question. "Oduka-san, I guess." I felt a little tug at my mind, and something feels a bit wrong. I put my hand over my head again, although it isn't really hurting. Sugino-kun noticed immediately "Hey, Leiko. You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I mutter, shaking off that feeling and trying to pay more attention to the world around me. "I think we may have went a bit far with the wrestling while your head's still recovering, you should go rest for a while." he said, intentionally loudly as well.

"Yeah, I think we may have went overboard." Isogai-kun agreed. "Leiko, go back and see if your heads alright, You want me to go with you?"

"No, I'll go my self." I muttered and stood up, walking out the door. "Laters guys." I walked past Karma, who moved aside slightly to let me through. After I closed the door behind me, I can still hear everyone chattering.

"So why do you like Oduka-san?"

"Eh? Well, she looks like..."

I picked up my pace so I can get away from that conversation. And as soon as they were out of earshot, I allowed myself to relax. Somehow, my body just seems to be feeling not well all of a sudden after Karma said that. It felt like that my stomach was turning disgustingly. What's this? I feel so confused and fazed, yet my brain just won't provide me with a proper explanation. No matter. I'll just sit down for a little bit. I sighed to myself at my weird behavior that's popping up for no reason and I can't even explain it. Not bothering to return to the girls room, where it would be surrounded by chatter, I found a place along the corridor that is slightly indented because of a storage room door and settled down, closing my eyes and relaxing.

Maybe I relaxed a bit too much, because I felt myself drifting into sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was dark, and cold. The room was also filled with the heavy metal tag of blood. I opened my eyes to the darkness, my mind sluggish and not alert. Gradually, I began to see things. I made out the shape of a table, a few fallen chairs, a bed, and an approaching figure. Freezing on the spot, I was unable to move. The figure approached more quickly now, like they have found a target, whereas I stood frozen, my body not responding to my commands. Trying to scream, I discovered that my voice was gone. The most I can manage is a faint croak, hard to hear even with my own ears. No. No! I struggled, trying to regain control of my body, but I was paralyzed. Help! Someone! I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. The figure is about to reach me. It reached out with it's hands, making a grab at my shoulders. My mind was messed up, and no clear thoughts would come. I was unable to do anything.

"Leiko!" someone shook me by the shoulders. "Leiko wake up!" Opening my eyes, I see a familiar build, a pair of mercury gold eyes and a mass of crimson red hair. Karma. I don't know why, but somehow it feels like he's the last person I want to see now after that confession like words he spoke back in the boys room about Oduka-san. "Geez. You are so troublesome." he lets go of my shoulders and sits back on his heels, sighing. "What happened? Was it a nightmare?" I stare at him, then at the unfamiliar jacket draped over me, unable to comprehend the situation. "I walked past and you were just there sitting on the floor, asleep." he continued, studying my face. "You were breathing quite heavily, and your face was flushed. A few moments ago you started to squirm around and looked like you wanted to scream."

"Oh." is all I can manage.

"C'mon. Don't be such a little girl. You missed the mass group assassination on Korosensei after he took notes of that voting sheet and spoiled the girls talk." Karma says, standing up and pulling me up as well "regretting it?" he teased playfully. I stare at the ground. That dream... "Hmph..."

I have seen Karma wearing this jacket before, I stare at the bright red jacket on me instead of the floor. "Huh?" I look up at the sound of his voice. "Did you say something?"

"No..." he sighs. "Look. I don't know what's with you, or why the hell you're sleeping here, but since you look like you feel like someones gonna come and kill you, I just wanna tell you that nothing's gonna happen, you dummy." he reaches out with one hand and pulls me into a hug, "See? Don't need to be this shaken up." Karma sounds a bit awkward. He pats my head with his other hand and steps back. "Goodnight, you little idiot." he walked off towards the boys side of the floor, as I'm standing there, one hand on my head, the other clutching Karma's jacket. My heart is pounding. Wha-what is up with that guy and me?!

Authors note-

We meet once again. Nothing to mention today, apart from the fact that the dream our Leiko-chan had, is actually the dream I dreamed a week ago when I fell asleep on my laptop while I was typing up chapter seven. Hope you enjoyed and I'm sorry for the short-ish chapter. My mind is screwed up after NAPLAN and three other tests, so right now I'm not exactly in a good writing condition... Still, thank you guys for the votes and comments!

-Raven