Friday lunchtime came all too quickly for Mai's liking. She had chosen to hide in one of the study rooms to do her homework while waiting for Masako to join her.

"Do you want the good news or the bad news?"

Mai looked up to see her friend in the doorway.

"The bad news? No. Just tell me the good news."

"The good news is I am an amazing friend."

Mai winced.

"And the bad news?"

"I think Yasuhara and Gene are going to make a sickeningly cute couple. And I can't stand it."

Despite her words, Masako was smiling. She sat down opposite Mai and dumped her bag down on the floor.

"You mean it?" Mai asked.

"So I had a casual chat with Yasuhara. He said many things that lead me to believe that he might be interested in Gene and also that he thinks he has no chance."

"Lead you to believe? That's not very concrete—"

"I'll give you some quotes, shall I?"

Mai indicated with her hand that Masako should go right ahead.

"Okay, 'Yeah, Gene is really cute', I quote. And 'anyone would be lucky to get with him'—"

"That's just nice stuff to say about a friend, that doesn't mean—"

"Let me finish, damn it! He also went on to say 'I think Gene was jealous that I'm going on a date with Mai' and 'but if he fancied Mai, he would have just asked her'. I brought the conversation around to the other obvious option and he went bright red. 'He can't fancy me' and all that."

"So at the very least, he's flattered by the idea."

"I think he has at least a crush on Gene. I mean, it makes sense. Gene is handsome and a genuinely nice guy. If only Yasuhara had some self-confidence."

Mai rolled her eyes.

"Wow, it's almost like the media bombards us with images of perfection and Yasuhara fails to copy those in some way," she deadpanned. "Not all of us are beauties, Masako. We can't all have perfect skin."

"I take your point, but I don't appreciate your sass."

"Oh come off it, Masako. Gene could have whoever he wants."

"I mean statistically speaking, he can't if he's gay."

Mai let her face drop to the table.

"You know what I mean," she moaned. "It's easy for you to say these things, you're gorgeous. Yasuhara is a lovely guy, genuinely, but if you went by looks alone, no one is going to pick him over Gene."

"You think so? Or are you just saying that because you're attracted to Oliver?"

Mai kept her head resting on the table so that Masako did not see her blush. Masako did not choose to push the issue.

"Either way, I think your Saturday date needs to be re-thought out."

"Yeah, I think I might be conveniently late and have Gene turn up in my place," Mai said.

"Yeah, maybe you could go out with Oliver instead."

"Maybe I will!" Mai exclaimed, sitting up suddenly. "Maybe I will. Got a problem with that?"

Masako raised an eye at Mai's sudden aggression.

"You okay?"

"Sorry." Mai put her head in her hands. "It's been an emotionally exhausting week."

"Yeah… Nothing a good snog wouldn't fix."

"No one even says snog any more Masako, what are you… I give up…"

Masako laughed.

"Come on, we've got class."

Oliver: Are you sure this is going to work?

Mai: I mean if it doesn't, I'm blaming Masako.

Oliver: That doesn't fill me with confidence. Gene might be a git, but he's still my brother.

Mai: He's not a git. I think his intentions were good!

Oliver: I would have gone with meddlesome, but sure.

Mai: He wanted you to be happy!

Oliver: He didn't even know if you liked me.

Mai: Yeah, but I do like you. And besides, we don't know 100% that Yasuhara likes Gene. But we're doing this anyway.

Oliver: If it all goes wrong, I reserve the right to say 'I told you so'.

Mai: And if it goes right, you have to take me to prom.

Mai: Oliver?

Mai: You don't have to…

Mai: I'm sorry.

Oliver: Deal.

"Gene? What are you doing here?" Yasuhara asked.

Gene's mouth dropped open as he looked up from his book.

"I was supposed to meet Noll here. He said you wouldn't be here… He said he checked so we wouldn't intrude on... Intrude on you and Mai. Because he doesn't want to see that, obviously."

Yasuhara sat down opposite Gene in the relatively busy cafe.

"Well, I can wait here with you, can't I?"

"Sure."

Gene swallowed hard.

"You've been avoiding me," Yasuhara said.

"I haven't—"

"Do you fancy me?"

Gene cringed.

"I should leave," he said quickly, closing his book and refusing to look up at Yasuhara.

"Don't leave, please."

"I don't want to interrupt your date with—"

"I'm only going on a date with her because of your dumb plan to set up your brother!" Yasuhara exclaimed. "Not because I want to date her. Not that she's not lovely but…"

Gene continued to pack away his belongings.

"Gene! Please!"

"Look, don't you get that this hurts me?" Gene retorted, his voice full of anguish.

"It doesn't need to hurt you! Are you not listening to me? I don't want to date Mai!"

"But—"

"I'd rather date you," Yasuhara said, his voice softened. "If you want to…"

Gene dropped his bag.

"What? Really?"

"Yes, really."

"But what about Mai?"

"We tell her the truth."

"But she'll be—"

"Relieved you two idiots are now on the same page," Mai interrupted.

Yasuhara and Gene both looked around to see her looming over their table.

"Mai!"

"Now, which one of you would like to apologise to Oliver for playing games with his feelings?"

"I—"

"Please don't make them do that," Oliver said, appearing behind Mai. "How about we all just move on? They could buy me some tea, that would be apology enough."

"Noll!" Gene exclaimed. "I—"

"Am a massive idiot that shouldn't butt into his brother's private life?"

"Not the words I would have chosen but—"

"Why don't you go and buy us all some tea?" Mai suggested. "And then maybe we can have a nice afternoon."

"Sure."

Gene hopped up and ran to join the back of the queue for the barista.

Oliver and Mai sat down.

"You knew?" Yasuhara asked.

"We worked it out," Mai answered.

"No, you worked it out," Oliver said.

"Either way," Mai waved a hand dismissively, "you two maybe should have just talked to me and Oliver? Rather than this bullshit?"

"Yeah, I think Gene has read too many romance novels," Yasuhara said. "Or seen too many romance animes."

Mai and Yasuhara both looked to Oliver for confirmation. He shrugged.

"Is Ouran High School Host Club a romance?"

"You mean the epitome of reverse harem anime where the main character dresses as a boy for the majority of it?" Mai asked. "Yeah. He's definitely not projecting there at all."

"What are you guys talking about?" Gene asked as he put a tray down on the table.

"Who's your favourite in Ouran?"

"What do you mean?"

"Which boy would you pick?"

Gene narrowed his eyes at them all as they sat down.

"Tamaki? Why?"

"Called it. Totally projecting," Mai said with a laugh.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Are you two dating now or what?"

Mai coughed in a way that sounded suspiciously like 'projecting'.

"We will be going on a few dates to test our compatibility," Oliver stated.

"Only you would put it like that," Yasuhara said.

Mai slipped her hand into Oliver's.

"Yeah, but its fine," she said. "Now, no more drama. I don't think I can take another week as emotionally stressful as this one."

Gene laughed.

"Well, it's not like we're going to be thrown into a global pandemic and all quarantined in our houses or anything. So I think we'll be fine."

The End.

Author's note: This is the final chapter. It has not been edited. I'm tired.

Yesterday, I spent a lot of time trying to work how to better engage with my readers. After reading some reviews, I'm severely demoralised about it. I don't know what to do any more...