“If Ulf says no then I'm not interested.”

Yukio glared at Kuri. Damn you and your stubbornness! Are you Siamese twins or something?

He growled mentally realising the day had come to a bad start. An hour from now he'd deliver not one but two negative messages to Principal Nakagawa.

“Is there anything I can do to get your head screwed on right again?” Yukio said to a choir of amazed gasps from her classmates.

“Listen kiddo, you get Ulf to jump on the bandwagon I'll do as well, but I'm joining crap without my boyfriend.”

The high colour in her face had absolutely nothing to do with feelings of embarrassment, and Yukio felt no major need to explore further from whence it came. Instead he sighed and bowed formally.

“I guess I've done my part in convincing you two then,” he said and retreated from her classroom. He even managed to give her a polite smile on his way out. Muttering could wait until the long walk through the long corridor connecting the two wings in the school building.

I think this is bad. Principal Nakagawa shouldn't attempt to influence the student council elections in the first place, so why is he so desperate to get Urufu and Kuri on the council?

Turning left at his wing Yukio made for their club room where Kyoko hopefully waited for him. He slid the door open and went inside.

“Yukio, here!”

She was. Waiting for him that is.

Yukio waved back at her and sat down in the sofa next to her. With an angry shrug he zipped open his bag and fished up the bento box Kyoko had given him on their way to school. Tomorrow he'd make their lunch.

“Grumpy much?” she asked when he slammed his box onto the low table.

“Sorry Kyoko,” Yukio said. He took his chop sticks in one hand and dug for some rice. “It's just that they're so damn stubborn!”

Her face split up in a wide grin. “Tell me about it,” Kyoko said. “Noticed she's seldom here during lunch?” she added.

None of them needed to explain who 'they' or 'she' was.

“Uhum,” Yukio said and got in a hurry to swallow his mouthful. “Why's that?”

Kyoko bit of half a sausage and chewed on it before answering. “She's marking her territory. That's why?”

“Huh?”

“There's hardly a conversation where Kuri doesn't insert boyfriend this or Urufu that.”

Yukio stared at Kyoko. He hadn't thought of that, but then he didn't spend as much time with Kuri as Kyoko did. “How come?” he asked. “Honestly, she can't really be afraid of the competition.”

“Yukio, I love how adorable you are!” Kyoko flashed him a grin that made his heart jump. “But you really don't understand love,” she continued as if their two month long relationship had made her some kind of love expert.

He bit down on a retort and mentally thanked his mother for teaching him to listen before he spoke. “How so?” he said to make Kyoko explain her thoughts.

In the background he heard and saw club members come and go, most of them sitting down in groups and pairs proving that the club had been operating long enough for smaller constellations to come into existence.

“You know, I couldn't believe you wanted to be together with me,” Kyoko began. “It was so obvious you should be interested in Kuri-chan like everyone else.”

Yukio mulled over Kyoko's words before he answered. “I was never interested in her after I saw you, but I understand what you're saying.” Hopefully that was the right thing to say.

“Now that's why I fell for you. I can see how you made an effort not to hurt me right now without telling me I'm an idiot.”

It had been the right thing to say. “Still, I don't see what that has to do with Kuri,” Yukio said relieved he had navigated the minefield without stepping on something dangerous. “I mean, it's Kuri we're talking about. It's one thing if people like you and me are afraid,” he said and left his real question hanging in the air.

“To begin with she's making it clear she's unavailable. There are still a lot of guys calling her out for confessions.”

“And?” Yukio said.

“And I believe she's afraid Urufu will get angry.”

Yukio could understand that part. He'd felt the same when Rie-sempai followed him around like a lovesick puppy during the cultural festival. “But there's another reason as well, isn't there?” he continued.

“Mm,” Kyoko said and swallowed some food. She nodded at him. “Yeah. I think she's honestly afraid she'll lose him.”

“What?”

“She's been pretty down since school started, and I think the last thing reminded her she could actually lose him if she's not careful.”

Yukio didn't need a reminder what 'the last thing' was. He'd pay Urufu a visit at the hospital after school.

“It wasn't her fault,” Yukio said. “She can't possibly believe Urufu would think that.”

Kyoko's smile thinned to a white line. “She can, and she made some fairly bad calls before that, didn't she?”

So you can see she's not without faults, can you now? Yukio nodded back at Kyoko. “Uhum, she stood him up a few times. I can see how he'd be angry for that. But he isn't that way. Trust me!”

“I trust you. But none of us have anything to lose here. Kuri-chan does, and I think that makes her see less clearly.”

Yukio looked at Kyoko. He hadn't thought of it that way. “So she's using the time Urufu isn't here to hammer down the message that Urufu's already taken by the princess of Himekaizen?” he suggested.

“Yes,” Kyoko said, but she didn't smile, “and I believe she's making a huge mistake.”

“A huge mistake? As in Kuri could actually lose?”

Kyoko nodded. “She's famous, and not everyone likes her. Now she's making Urufu famous as well. There are a lot of people who would want to come between them just to make them break up.”

Urufu hardly needed Kuri's help to become famous. Not after the cultural festival, but Yukio understood how people targeting Urufu could destroy their relationship if Kuri was the jealous kind.

***

“Yes, I like my high school very much. Himekaizen is so much fun,” Christina said and giggled inanely.

The anchor gave her a pained but professional smile in return. Most likely the woman had seen more than her fair share of beautiful airheads flaring into fame just to be forgotten half a year later.

Well, you're going to remember this interview, Christina thought. You fired first and I'm responding with heavy artillery.

“Is there something special that makes you like your school that much?” the anchor asked.

Christina stared into two uninterested eyes facing her. This is where you expect yet another brain-dead answer.

“Yes, as I'm a foreigner I'm very happy my school doesn't tolerate racism the way Red Rose Academy does,” she said and made her face light up in a wide grin. Christina knew it made her look stunning, and it offered the anchor an opportunity to gloss over the uncomfortable message.

“I’m happy that you have found a school to your liking,” the anchor said and didn’t look happy at all. Her smile hardly reached her eyes.

They quickly moved on to Christina’s model career and she made an effort to balance between being an airhead and a professional model. Christina had to keep her persona as the billion dollar empress in check, because it was one thing to stride down the catwalk as haughty royalty and a totally different one scaring away a television audience who thrived on cuteness.

After the talk show Christina changed into her baggy incognito set of clothes after checking for needles and other booby traps as usual. She found nothing, and hadn’t really expected to here at a television studio, but better safe than sorry.

When she left the studio she walked to the bike stand where her body guard stood waiting patiently. But for the attack on Ulf her agency would have dropped him by now. After the assault there was no way she’d have her privacy back.

“Pleasant evening?” Christina offered.

“Yes miss,” her bodyguard answered. Nothing in his voice indicated whether he found anything pleasant or not.

Christina shrugged and mounted her bike. She plugged in the earpiece to her headset and dialled one of her new-found contacts in the computer club. After a few rumbling sounds, ‘ringtones’ didn’t really describe the feeling of ringing someone in Japan, he picked up.

“Ageruman here,” she said. They had agreed she’d announce herself even though he saw her contact information when she called. Just in case anyone stole her cell.

For once she didn’t care if the paid muscle heard her conversation or not. She was embarking on a dirty smear-campaign and any kind of rumour-mongering would further her case.

“I’ve dropped the bomb on the show,” Christina said.

“They could edit it out.”

“Yeah, and break the contract. Costly, dangerous and they’ll never see a teen model on their show again.” Christina didn’t know if the penalty would really stretch that far, but her contact at Uniclo, Alice Kerringer, had pulled some strings of her own.

“I don’t believe you,” came the response.

Computer geek and a coward. Immediately after that thought Christina felt ashamed of herself. She did this to avenge Ulf, and he started out his professional life as a computer geek himself. “At the moment I’m Uniclo’s little mascot and I told my contact there what could happen to their Korean and Chinese market if they glossed this over.”

“Why should I care about Koreans and Chinese?”

Just because we don’t accept that kind of behaviour at Himekaizen doesn’t mean there aren’t anyone who thinks that way. “Would you care to repeat that for me?” Christina said and made an effort to lace her voice with the next ice age.

“Sorry Ageruman-san. I apologise. That was uncalled for.”

Uncalled for, my arse. You’ll be ostracised until graduation if I want. “I don’t mind, but I’m certain Hamarugen-san would be unhappy if he heard you say those things,” she said instead and felt her stomach cramp at the lie. She cared very much. You didn’t build a global fashion empire if you truly believed in eugenics.

“Ah, sorry. My bad.”

Your bad indeed. Ulf had garnered his fair share of adoration in the computer club after he ran some kind of tech seminar there a few weeks ago.

“Anyway, the show goes live tomorrow at five pm. Could you start those voices of indignation from half past five?”

“Sure, and you're certain you only want those sites seeded?”

Christina nodded as she biked. “Yeah. I'll give you a new list and a new starting hour later.”

He only needed the list. Explaining demographics would take too long. Explaining how she happened to know exactly where that TV-channel made an impact was impossible, and in truth she didn't really know. Christina gambled on the demographics being mostly the same in this world as in her old one. She'd make certain the ugly rumours about Red Rose reached other local communities like rings on the water.

Next on her agenda was setting up a live protest. One that could be traced back to 9:1 but no further. After that a few well-placed libellous newspaper articles. As far as she knew the right wing loonies at Red Rose would take the bait, and Christina already had Noriko's consent to detonate the real bomb.

Sorry Ulf, but I won't let him stay peacefully in his grave. She'd use the evidence on the suicide victim, because that evidence included damning photos of two teachers and the principal of Red Rose. When I'm done with you arseholes you're going belly up. Not even right wing loony parents will place their kids there.

Christina used the time at a red light to place another phone call and continued her smear campaign.