"Um… Eugene?" John said hesitatingly. "Are you okay?"

"Of course I am," Gene replied through gritted teeth. "What gives you the impression that I am not okay?"

As he finished speaking, Gene snapped his pencil in half.

"Um, well, you just broke your pencil," John pointed out. "And you're glaring at your brother. Are you two fighting? That's not like you two..."

"We're not fighting," Gene said. "And I hate Mr Lin."

"I thought you liked IT," John said, gesturing to the computer they were sharing. "Databases aren't that bad, are they?"

"Databases?" Gene repeated. "What?" He glanced at the screen. "Oh right, yeah, no they're fine."

He went back to glaring at his brother."

"So why do you hate Mr Lin?" John asked, confused.

"Because Oliver is flirting."

If John had been confused before, he was positively baffled now.

"You've lost me," he admitted.

Gene growled and turned back to the screen.

"Let's just get on with this. What are we even doing?"

"Making a database and a GUI to access it," John said quickly. "Mr Lin said we can make it on whatever we want, got any ideas?"

"How about ways your brother can betray you?" Gene suggested.

"I don't have a brother," John said, "so I—"

"Okay, we can generalise to ways people you care about can betray you. We can have an entry for the type of person, the thing they do, the amount of pain it gives you…"

"It's kind of subjective, don't you think?"

"Mr Lin never said it had to be an un-subjective thing," Gene said.

"Sure," John said, nodding. "Let's go with that then."

He pulled the keyboard towards him and made the three titles that Gene had suggested for the columns of their database.

"Okay, so first entry," he prompted.

"Person: twin brother who told you literally yesterday that they think they like a girl," Gene dictated.

John paused for a moment, then typed in 'brother'.

"And the rest," Gene said with a frown.

"Well we need categories really, is that a category that is going to have many entries? Perhaps it should just be sibling—"

"Fine, leave it as 'brother'," Gene relented. "Amount of pain, at least one hundred."

"What is that out of?"

"Ten."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're a drama queen?" John asked.

"No one worth listening to," Gene muttered, and he glared at his brother again.

"Okay…" John typed in '10'. "And what is Oliver's crime?"

"Oliver? This has nothing to do with him," Gene said, picking up another pencil. "But put 'flirting with someone other than the girl he told me he was interested in'."

"Who's he interested in?" John asked, without having entered the field for the database.

"I don't know if you'll know her, but Mai Taniyama from the year below."

"Brown hair, in drama club, right? Friends with Masako Hara?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

John regarded Oliver for a moment, then nodded.

"Yeah, I can see that," he said finally. "They'd make a good couple."

"That's what I thought!" Gene exclaimed. "Until he betrayed me."

John closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Eugene, I really think we should talk through this issue," he said in a calm, level voice. "It's stopping you from focusing and I don't think bottling it up is healthy."

Gene scowled.

"I just told you, he's flirting with other people."

"He sat by himself in Maths before this lesson, and he doesn't really talk to anyone but you during registration, so who on earth has he managed to flirt with since…" A dawning realisation spread over John's face. "Lin paired him with Yasuhara."

To John's surprise, Gene blushed.

"Oh my gosh," John said. "You like Yasuhara, don't you?"

"What? No. Don't be stupid. Why would I like a handsome, funny dork like him? No. I'm just astounded that Noll would tell me one thing and then contradict it."

John did not believe this for one minute.

"So you do think he's flirting with Yasuhara?" he asked.

"Well of course he is! Look at him."

John did exactly that. Oliver was sitting next to Yasuhara, typing away at the computer and occasionally asking questions. His facial expression was characteristically blank.

"I don't know him as well as you do," John said diplomatically. "But he doesn't look to me as if he's acting any different."

"Of course he is," Gene huffed. "He smiled at him. I saw it."

"That's hardly—"

"The only people he usually smiles at are me and Luna."

"Luna?" John asked.

"Our cat. Oh and I suppose he smiled at Mai that one time," Gene relented. "But still. Not acceptable."

"I'm not sure that's strictly true," John said. "I'm sure I've seen him smile at other people…"

"Scoundrel."

"...and I think he was just being nice, I don't think he was flirting."

"Don't be ridiculous. I know my brother and—"

"I think the real issue here," John went on, ignoring Gene for the moment. "Is that you like Yasuhara and are jealous that your brother got paired with him."

Gene gaped at John like a goldfish for almost a full minute.

"That's— How— No— I—"

"It's okay," John said quickly. "I won't tell anyone. Yasuhara is a nice person. It's perfectly understandable that you'd—"

"I do not fancy Yasuahra!" Gene shouted.

He shouted so loudly that the entire class stopped what they were doing and stared around at him.

"Something to share, Mr Davis?" Mr Lin asked, his visible eyebrow raised.

"No, sir," Gene squawked.

The class collectively sniggered and broke out into hurried conversations.

Gene banged his head against the desk and groaned.

"I'm such an idiot," Gene moaned.

"Um, Yasuhara is staring at you," John pointed out. "So you might want to keep your head on the desk for a few more minutes."

"Thanks, John."

"No problem." John scrapped the database and started a new one, this time about cats. He googled some breeds and started filling the database in. "So when are you going to ask Yasuhara out?"

Gene almost choked.

"I can't do that!" he hissed, sitting bolt upright.

"Surely you want to do it before your brother does," John teased.

"Okay so maybe I was acting a little irrational before," Gene said. "But that doesn't mean I can just go up to him and ask him out. That's—"

"What you're gonna have to do if you really like him."

"I don't have to!"

"Well no, you don't have to. But if you did, then everyone else would know he's unavailable, and your brother definitely wouldn't 'flirt' with him," John pointed out.

"You make an excellent point but asking people out is scary," Gene protested. "What if says no?"

"Then you thank him for considering and carry on with your life knowing you at least gave it a shot."

"But it'd hurt," Gene mumbled.

"Yeah, and so does falling over, but does that mean you'll never run anywhere ever again?"

"That's different."

"How so?"

"That's physical pain. Emotional pain is far worse."

"Perhaps, but it's the same principle," John said. "And even if he does say no, it'll make his day knowing that someone else finds him attractive."

"I guess…"

Gene looked over and stared at the back of Yasuhara's head.

"I'm doomed," he muttered, and put his head back on the desk.

"Here, look at these pictures of kittens," John suggested. "We need to pick one for our GUI."

"What have cats got to do with being betrayed?"

"Nothing, I changed it to a cat database."

Gene nodded slowly.

"Smart."

"Well I am a year older than the rest of you," John pointed out.

He had moved from Australia two years prior, but had become ill not long after that and had to drop down to repeat a year at school.

"Yeah, is this why you're so wise?" Gene asked.

"Sure."

"I'm glad you're my friend, John."

"Good, now pick a picture of a cat."

At the end of the lesson, Gene packed away his broken pencil and thanked John again for being level-headed. He headed out, still sort of ignoring his brother, and walked through the corridors to his locker. He needed to grab his chemist—

Yasuhara was standing by his locker.

Sirens and flashing lights whirled in his head.

Yasuhara was standing by his locker.

Gene gulped. His throat was dry.

YASUHARA WAS STANDING BY HIS LOCKER.

"Um, hi," he blurted.

"Hey, I, uh, I heard what you kind of shouted in class earlier," Yasuhara began.

"Kill me now," Gene muttered.

"And I was sort of wondering if you could explain why you had to shout that to the room?" Yasuhara asked. "Like, I'm not offended, but you're kind of popular and having you shout that doesn't exactly do a great deal for my street cred… Did I do something to upset you or—"

"No!" Gene grimaced. "Look, can I get my Chemistry textbook and then we can talk about this somewhere else, like outside, not in a corridor where there are people."

"It's December."

"So?"

"It's cold," Yasuhara elaborated.

"You're hot enough, we'll be fine," Gene mumbled.

"What? Nothing."

Gene grabbed his textbook and hurried outside into an empty courtyard. Yasuhara followed him.

"So what did I do?"

Gene grimaced.

"Nothing, really, you did nothing. I was… I was acting like a prat and John called me out on it. And pointed out something that I hadn't really, quite, admitted to myself just yet and… Sorry?"

"He pointed out that you don't fancy me?" Yasuhara asked, eyebrow raised.

"No… Quite the opposite…"

Gene stared at his shoes, not daring to look up.

"You… You fancy me?"

Gene winced and nodded.

"Well that explains a lot," Yasuhara said. "Your brother was trying to help you out, you know."

"He was?"

"Yeah, he was talking you up a bit. He gave up after your, uh, outburst."

Gene wished that the earth would open up underneath him and swallow him whole.

The earth did not oblige him on this one.

"Okay well I better run off to Chemistry," Gene said quickly. "Sorry again!"

"Oh… You're not going to…"

"Not going to what?"

"Ask me out?" Yasuhara finished his question.

Gene looked horrified.

"I think I've embarrassed myself enough for one day, really. I—"

"Okay then," Yasuhara said, forcing a smile. "No worries."

Gene turned and started walking away in the opposite direction as fast as he could before his brain caught up with what just happened. He gasped on horror, turned back around and ran.

"Wait!" Gene shouted to the retreating figure. "Yasuhara! Wait!"

Yasuhara waited.

"I didn't mean that asking you out was embarrassing! I just mean in general that asking people out is embarrassing! I don't think you're an embarrassment, is what I'm trying to say!"

Yasuhara laughed.

"You know, I used to think you were so smooth," he commented. "But you're a mess."

"Yeah, pretty people do that to me."

Gene clasped a hand over his mouth.

"I'm sorr—"

Yasuhara laughed again.

"Look, if asking me out is too embarrassing, how about we just go to a coffee shop or something after school?" he suggested.

"Like a date?" Gene almost choked on the word 'date'.

"Yes, not actually a date, just like a date."

"That sounds amazing. I mean if something like a date works out we could try an actual date afterwards, right?"

"You're such a dork. I'll meet you by the gates after school, yeah?"

"Yes please."

Yasuhara laughed again, half waved goodbye and headed off to his next lesson. Gene stared after him for a few more minutes, then realised he was late to chemistry.

Author's note: Nanowrimo is over! I won on the last day but my story is not yet quite finished. I hope to finish/edit it during December, but I'm also looking forward to writing thing that aren't my Nano story... Please review :)