Pondering, 12/27 (Previous Year)

[Inoue Takashi]

The cafe was quite a busy place, especially during the holidays. People, young and old, loved to hang out there, enjoying a warm cup of hot cocoa and watching as the snow fell outside.

With a sip of his coffee, Takashi put down the newspaper that he was reading. On the cover page was a picture of Wesmin Academy---the school that he went to, and would return to as a fifth year. The academy had always been on the front page whenever there was an achievement. But this time probably counted more as an announcement.

It was a new principal. The previous one had resigned all of a sudden, and they brought in a new one just recently. It was not that Takashi was thrilled, or disappointed. He did not have much reaction to that. There was a new principal---sure. And Takashi was the president of the prefect association. It was all just dingy to him.

He looked out of the window, where snow was lightly falling. He was wondering what would happen during his last year of the academy. It was his almost his second home, after all. As he was pondering about that, he could see a familiar figure trudging towards the cafe.

[Yoshinari Natsuichi]

The door opened, and cold air rushed in. Natsuichi immediately closed the door behind him, brushing snow off him and shivering a little. "Some hot cocoa, please," he called to a waitress as he made his way to Takashi. He slipped into a chair across from the prefect, wiping his brows. "Glad to finally get out of it," he commented, shaking his hair. "What's up?"

[Inoue Takashi]

Takashi pushed the newspaper to whom he called his friend. "News don't get around you, does it?" he asked as if he was speaking in a statement. "The new principal has arrived. We have a first look of the man who will be watching over the academy from now on."

He took another sip of coffee as if nothing was wrong.

[Yoshinari Natsuichi]

Natsuichi raised an eyebrow as he scanned the article. "This guy looks too young to be our principal! I was expecting someone around late middle or late forties, or even in the fifties. Not that it's very hard to control us---students are more disciplined in our school than anywhere else."

His hot cocoa had arrived. He took a little sip and sighed with relief.

[Inoue Takashi]

"Brilliant people don't always have to be old," Takashi told him, resting his chin on the back of his hand and glancing towards the counter. "And even if we're the most disciplined students in the school, they're those who aren't. That's what prefects are for."

He slipped a folder from his lap and put it on the table. "I've been made president of the prefect association the day before we were let out for the holidays, but I'm sure you know, since you've been made treasurer. Akira is a committee member for party management. I've got everything figured out for the prefects' duties."

[Yoshinari Natsuichi]

Natsuichi stared at the folder before glancing at Takashi with a weird look. Mr perfect, he thought haughtily, taking the folder and opening it up. The duties roster for prefects was as he expected, perfect. Everyone had equal duty at logical locations and others. The timing was excellent either. No one would go against the president's will anyway.

"Been busy throughout the holidays?" he finally asked, putting it down. "Don't you have anything else to do, like go on a vacation or something?"

[Inoue Takashi]

"My father did take me on a cruise in a tropical country," Takashi replied, taking his folder back. "It wasn't as exciting as I expected. Water everywhere, a library filled with interesting but limited knowledge, crappy movies and such. Sunbathing isn't my thing too."

He took out a slip of paper from the folder and passed it to Natsuichi. "Prefects meeting date. Inform Akira as well."

[Yoshinari Natsuichi]

Natsuichi groaned after listening to the part about vacationing on a cruise boat and accepting the note. "You got to go on a cruise in the tropical?! All I got is cold, snow and frostbite! I would trade my life with you any day, having a rich famous father, able to live on your own without any obstacles in your way, being swooned all over by girls since the day you're born..." He let out a dramatic sigh, sipping some more of his drink.

[Inoue Takashi]

Takashi looked at Natsuichi with some kind of faraway look in his eyes as the boy in front of him ranted. He looked a little sad for some reason.

"...If you trade your life with me, you'll regret it forever."

He said these in such a soft voice that nobody would be able to hear him among the chatters in the cafe. He took down his glasses and wiped the lens with a handkerchief which he brought out from his pocket.

[Yoshinari Natsuichi]

Natsuichi raised an eyebrow at Takashi. He knew that he had heard something from him and it sounded sad, but he couldn't make out what he had said.

"What did you say?" he asked, ignoring the fact that Takashi would not usually repeat what he said, and he was stubborn like that.

[Inoue Takashi]

"Nothing." Takashi put his spectacles back on and straightened himself up. "So, either we get on like idiots who have nothing better to do, or you tell me something about your life. Not that I'm interested, but it's better than doing nothing. Besides, there isn't much for me to do now, which is a pity, even though I like to visit the former principal later."

[Riosamu Arano]

The bell above the door rang once more as a girl of about fifteen came rushing in. She quickly brushed the snow off of her as she looked around eagerly for the people she thought would be here. Spotting the two of them, the girl waved them down, smiling the whole time.

"Hot cocoa please!" she said as she passed a waitress, who nodded in reply.

The girl stopped herself at the table and exclaimed in an anxious voice, "We have a new principal! I read it in the newspaper earlier!"

She then added after a few seconds, "I thought I'd find you two here."

[Yoshinari Natsuichi]

Natsuichi looked at her in a bored way. It was not that he didn't like her to be around. Actually, he liked it, especially on a day like that. It made him feel warmer somehow. But she did not have to know that.

"It's not like that's a big news," he pointed out. "Are you sitting down or something?"

He was half-expecting her to sit by Takashi. That would be logical. In his mind, Arano liked Takashi more than Natsuichi. That was where he had been wrong though.

[Riosamu Arano]

Arano scowled at Natsuichi's reply, "Perhaps for some of us it's big news, right Takashi?" she asked, sitting down beside Natsuichi without really thinking about it.

Shortly after she said that, the waitress reappeared and handed her her cocoa. Arano muttered a small thank you before the nurse walked off. She was a little too eager to take a drink, and when she did, she burnt her tongue.

She winced slightly and put her cocoa down. She would just have to wait until it coolled some.

[Inoue Takashi]

"Considering the fact that we're supposed to get a new principal sooner or later, it isn't what you say a 'big' news," Takashi said as-a-matter-of-factly, proceeding to sip his coffee only to find that he was out of it. He waved the waitress over and asked for tea instead. He was not very fond of hot cocoa, but the rest did not have to know that.