Coming home from school to find Shin curled up on the floor at the Kuroda compound was not unusual. Usually he would be talking to one of Kumiko's men, who would still hang onto every word Young Master Red Lion said.

Finding Shin sleeping was also not unusual. He had a heavy course load at his university and took every opportunity he could to catch up on his sleep.

What was unusual was finding Shin stretched out on his stomach, textbooks lying open in front of him with spines cracked, sheafs of paper scattered around him, red hair lying in a fan around where his head had dropped onto his coursework.

"Oi, Sawada," said Kumiko, prodding at him with a socked foot. "Wake up. You shouldn't nap like this or you won't be able to sleep tonight."

Shin woke with a start, which was also unusual. Ordinarily Shin would wake lazily, grinning as he saw her. This time, he rolled onto his back and staring up at her. "Yankumi. You're late."

"I had to rescue Hanamoto-kun from the upperclassmen." She cracked her neck from side to side. "Weak, as usual."

Shin yawned. "Again? You need more interesting students."

"After the last two years? I'm happy just having to deal with a few bullies." Kumiko thumped her fist into her hand a couple of times.

Shin looked at her doubtfully.

"Anyway," said Kumiko quickly. "What's all this?"

Shin rolled over again and stared at the mess of papers as if seeing it for the first time. "Oh, that." He sat up, curling his legs under him and giving her a sheepish look. "Maths homework."

She scowled at him and mimed a kick at his head. "Maths is not boring."

He didn't even flinch. "It's not boring, it's hard," he complained. "I was stuck."

"Eh? You never found math hard." Kumiko dropped into a sitting position and picked up the nearest piece of paper.

"That was then, this is now."

Kumiko scanned the paper quickly. They seemed to be hand-written notes, but the hand-writing was extremely poor - not to mention the content. "Your notes are terrible," she proclaimed. "Don't they teach you how to take notes at Toudai?"

"I never had to pay attention before," Shin continued, ignoring her. "But suddenly I can't get my homework done because the stupid numbers always come out wrong."

Kumiko stared at him for a moment as the light dawned. "You want me to tutor you? Finally, the day arrives when I can be your teacher!"

"Not if you're going to be like that about it," muttered Shin darkly. "Anyway, I never wanted you to be my teacher."

She blinked at him. "Eh? What do you mean?"

Shin sighed heavily and shoved a piece of paper under Kumiko's nose. "Never mind. Look, just explain this to me, will you? It doesn't make any sense."

"Mathematics always makes sense," said Kumiko, offended. She ignored Shin rolling his eyes and took the paper. "Eh, Sawada, this isn't hard, it's like this, see?" She snatched up a blank piece of paper and scribbled on it for a moment.

Shin took the paper and stared at it blankly for a moment, then scrunched it up and threw it over his shoulder. "Forget about it. I'll get my classmate to help."

"Eh? But that was correct. My beautiful diagram, thrown away liked rubbish!"

"Yankumi. I don't want you to be my tutor."

She paused in her mourning. "But why?"

"Because. It'll be weird if you're my tutor."

"What will be weird?"

Shin leaned forward, his hands placed firmly on his knees. "When I do this."

Kisses were also unusual, and enjoyable enough until she realised what she was doing and pulled away sharply.

He put a finger on her lips before she could say anything. "I know. You can't yet." He shrugged. "I just don't want us to go backwards."

"Oi, I'm not a prize to be won or anything," she complained. "And it doesn't matter how cute you are, you should always ask a girl before kissing her!"

He shot her a lop-sided grin and started gathering his papers together. "So you think I'm cute?"

Kumiko felt her cheeks flood with heat. "No! That's not what I meant!"

Shin shrugged. "So, what are you going to do about Hanamoto-kun? You can't keep following him home like this."

Diverted, Kumiko sighed in exasperation. "I know, but he refuses to back down and his father thinks it's good for him and..."

The rest of the evening passed without any unusual occurrences.