Summary: The roles in the Hana Yori Dango universe are switched. When Tsukasa was four, the Doumyouji family's fortune was lost. Now, his family's in the middle class and he goes to Eitoku. Tsukasa despises rich people and he despises the F4, a group of four girls who want to help the poor. What happens when he, Rui, Akira, and Soujirou become friends with them? Will his mother still get in the way of his relationship with Tsukushi? Will the secrets both of their families are hiding rip their blossoming relationship apart?
Warnings: AU, Language, etc.
Disclaimer: The Hana Yori Dango universe belongs to Yoko Kamio. No copyright/trademark infringement is intended and no profit is being made from the writing of this story.
Hana Yori Dango: Reversed Roles
Doumyouji Tsukasa scowled and angrily stormed up to the sides of his best friends. He crossed his arms and his nostrils flared as he gazed at the student body of Eitoku Academy. They were all so pathetic, showing off their money and accessories in hopes of upping their popularity and status one minute and acting differently whenever the F4 was in the vicinity. He watched in poorly concealed disgust as the male population sighed dreamily when the F4 showed up. The F4 made him sick; they were a small group that consisted of four rich girls who were into helping out the poor and doing community service. Tsukasa’s scowl deepened; all rich people were the same. They acted differently when they were in front of cameras, but in private they were all the same stuck-up douches. The likelihood of the F4 being any different was slim to zero. Tsukasa’s eyes narrowed as he took a look at the four girls. Grudgingly, he admitted to himself that they weren’t bad looking.
Ookawahara Shigeru had brown hair that didn’t reach her ears and brown eyes. She was a very enthusiastic girl and was always laughing and talking with the other members of the F4. Tsukasa remembered a long time ago when she was his fiancée. That was before the Doumyouji family lost their entire fortune and was put in the working class. As soon as that had happened, all because of a bad business move, the Ookawahara withdrew their offer of Shigeru’s hand in marriage. Tsukasa doubted she even remembered; at the time, he was only four and she three. Heck, the only reason why he even knew about it was because the elderly, loyal maid Tama had told him. Tsukasa had the sneaky suspicion that one of his best friends, Mimasaka Akira, had the teensiest crush on her.
Todou Shizuka had beautiful wavy brown hair and a gorgeous face. When she was only in her pre-teens, she started modeling and instantly became famous all around the world. She left Japan before starting Eitoku Academy to continue studying abroad in France. There, at the age of seventeen, she was crowned ‘Miss Teen France’ and had only just returned to enter Eitoku for her final year of schooling. Absentmindedly, Tsukasa could see why one of his best friends, Hanazawa Rui, fell in love with her poster upon spotting it immediately.
Matsuoka Yuuki was a brunette with a baby face. Most rich girls focused on looking sexy, but Yuuki couldn’t even if her life depended on it. She was just too cute and seemed to radiate a child-like innocence that seemed to naturally draw people to her. Tsukasa noticed another one of his best friends, Nishikado Soujirou, seemed to smile a little more whenever she was in the vicinity and internally groaned; it wouldn’t do if his best friends were all going to fall in love with the F4.
“Hey Doumyouji, what’s with the long face?” Akira asked, laughing. All of Tsukasa’s friends, while not as filthy rich as they had been, still had lots of money. Their families had followed Doumyouji blindly, thinking his father would increase their fortunes. One wrong move and everything fell apart, although the others were able to save over half of their fortunes and cut their business ties with his father. After that, his father fell ill and was constantly in the hospital. Thanks to the combined efforts of Tsukasa, his mother, and his sister, they were able to not only pay the hospital bills and their living expenses, but were also able to have money on the side.
“I hate the F4,” Tsukasa grunted. “They’re so fake; as if they would really care about the poor.”
“You never know,” Soujirou said as he grinned. “Matsuoka isn’t bad looking.”
“Yeah, and Rui is head over heels about Todou,” Akira teased, watching the teen in question turn slightly pink before returning to his pale complexion and looking away.
“And maybe you’ll end up falling for Makino,” Soujirou said, ducking Tsukasa’s fist that came flying towards head.
“YEAH AND HELL WOULD FREEZE OVER!” Tsukasa yelled in disgust, ignoring the way the student population stared at him. They could think whatever the hell they wanted to; he could care less what their prestige opinion was. They could shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.
“Alright, alright! Geez, you’d think it was a bad thing,” Soujirou said affronted.
“IT IS!”
“You know, Makino sure doesn’t look like most rich girls but she’s definitely not too hard on the eyes,” Akira said thoughtfully. “If only she were ten years older.”
“Easy on the eyes? Not that weed! She’s uglier than a pitbull. I don’t get why so many people look up to her; she’s probably a nasty bitch when she’s not in public!”
“You shouldn’t make such incredulous accusations,” Rui said quietly, looking at Tsukasa out of the corner of his eye. “You never know who might be listening.”
The other three stared at their quiet friend for a full minute before shrugging and getting back to the topic at hand. “You know what, Tsukasa? I bet you fall for Makino before the school year ends,” Akira said confidently, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
“No way! I bet he’s going to fall for Makino next year,” Soujirou responded, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
“Are you willing to put your money where your mouth is?” Akira challenged.
“You bet your sorry ass I am,” Soujirou accepted. They shook hands after a silent exchange between them and sat down at an empty table in the cafeteria.
“No use in betting over anything since it’s not going to happen,” Tsukasa scoffed. “I’d rather gouge out my eyes with a rubber spoon and eat my liver than even consider falling for that weed. Hell, I don’t even see why you two are always drooling over anything in a skirt. Women are pathetic.”
Akira and Soujirou exchanged worried looks. “Tsukasa, my friend, you know you can tell me anything, right?” Akira asked, his face uncharacteristically serious.
Tsukasa’s brow furrowed. “Where the hell did that come from?”
“Tsukasa,” Soujirou took over, “what he means is that it’s kind of abnormal for a seventeen-year-old guy to not be interested in dating women. Tell me, have you had any weird urges towards men? Do you find a male attractive?”
“W-what?” Tsukasa sputtered. “I’M NOT GAY, YOU DUMBASS!”
The student population once again stared at Tsukasa. Akira and Soujirou chuckled nervously at the many gazes directed towards their table and blushed in mortification on Tsukasa’s behalf. Rui rubbed his temples and looked down at the table, willing himself not to look over at the F4’s table to check if Shizuka was looking.
“Sit down, dummy. Everyone’s staring,” Akira hissed, glaring at Tsukasa.
Tsukasa glared back at him. “Good! That’s what you get for instinating I was gay!”
“Baka, the word is ‘insinuating’,” Soujirou replied smartly.
“You understood what I meant!” Tsukasa said as he sat down, flipping off the few people that continued to stare at him and even had the audacity to whisper crap about him.
“You’re in school for a reason; learn to speak correctly!” Akira grumbled. Tsukasa mumbled something incoherently before wincing as he took a bite out of his homemade onigiri.
“Don’t tell me you’re actually eating that thing your sister made,” Soujirou said disgustedly. “Ugh, it doesn’t look or smell appetizing. This proves how strong your stomach is.”
“You try telling her that her cooking tastes like crap,” Tsukasa muttered, shuddering as the onigiri slid down his throat. Tsubaki, his sister, definitely needed some cooking lessons but he wasn’t going to tell that to her face. Not when she could definitely kick his sorry hide any time she wanted.
“No way! She’d skin us alive! You tell her; as her brother, it’s your duty to tell her the truth all the time. Even if it’s brutal and cruel.”
“And have her wipe the floor with me again? No thank you!”
“Do it or she might try to feed us again!” Akira wailed.
The group shuddered collectively.
Tsukasa threw the rest of his practically inedible lunch out and sat down, yawning slightly. Before he could get too comfortable, the bell rang to signify the end of lunch. All of them, bar Rui, groaned. School sucked and it’s not like they were learning material that they didn’t already know. Well, the other three weren’t learning material they didn’t already know. Coming from prestigious family lines, their parents made sure they were advanced in their academics and while Tsukasa got a head start in his education, he wasn’t able to continue the private tutoring sessions because of the downfall of Doumyouji Enterprises.
The rest of the school day passed painfully slow. Tsukasa glanced at the clock ever so often and tapped his pencil on the table. A few students nearby glared at him, to which he sneered in response, and muttered under their breath. When the last class of the day was over, Tsukasa practically ran out of the room. In his haste to get out of the building, Tsukasa accidentally knocked someone over. Tumbling to the floor himself, he cursed his luck.
“Why don’t you watch where you’re going, dumbass?” he hissed, gathering his books.
“Excuse me? You’re the one that crashed into me, you jerk!”
Tsukasa froze and looked up. Being helped up by the rest of the F4 was Makino Tsukushi, the leader of the group. She had long brown hair and bright brown eyes that were currently sparked with anger and agitation. Standing up, she brushed off her uniform. The hallways, that were usually crowded and loud during this time of day, were still and quiet. Everybody was watching the scene and whispering and pointing. Absentmindedly Tsukasa noted his friends looking at him worriedly. Well, one really couldn’t tell with Rui unless one knew him for a long amount of time.
“Tch, if you hadn’t taken up so much space in the hallway, this wouldn’t have happened,” Tsukasa replied, glaring at the now gaping girl.
“And what exactly are you implying?” she said through gritted teeth, her hands balled into fists.
“I thought it was obvious,” Tsukasa said dryly. “But, since you’re so slow, I’ll repeat it for you. If you hadn’t taken up so much space in the hallway, this wouldn—”
He didn’t get to finish his sentence as suddenly his head snapped to the side. Grabbing his stinging cheek, Tsukasa gaped at Makino who still had her hand raised.
“You pompous asshole! How dare you imply I take up so much space in the hallway? If you had actually watched where you were going, we wouldn’t have crashed into each other! It’s called common courtesy and I’ll assume you were taught some manners! If not, then allow me to give you some advice. When you run into someone, it’s polite to not only say sorry, but to offer to help them up,” Makino said, glaring at Tsukasa. When he remained quiet for a few moments, she let out a small grunt and walked away, the rest of the F4 following her. The rest of the student body, as a whole, gave Tsukasa dirty looks and whispered even more. He ignored them all and caressed his stinging cheek.
“Tsukasa, are you okay?” Akira asked hesitantly.
Tsukasa turned towards his friends. “I can’t believe that bitch slapped me!”
Rui shrugged. “You did bump into her.”
“I did not! She was taking up so much goddamn space in the hallway!”
“How would you know when you weren’t paying attention?”
Tsukasa turned to Soujirou. “How do you know I wasn’t paying attention?”
“I saw you, of course,” was the reply. “I thought you’d do the gentlemanly thing and help Makino up after you ran her over, but I see I was wrong.”
“Tsukasa, gentlemanly?” Akira said as he laughed, doubling over and slapping his knee.
“It was a momentary lapse of good judgment, I assure you,” Soujirou replied dryly. He suddenly whooped and jumped up and down. “The way they reacted, I’ll definitely win this bet!”
Akira slapped his forehead. “Damn you, Tsukasa!”
“I already told you, I won’t fall for that weed!”
“Embrace your feelings for her!”
“I don’t have any, damnit!”
Rui sighed and began to walk away, shaking his head. Soujirou quickly followed him, wincing as he heard flesh hit flesh and Akira’s whine of pain.
“Shit, I’m going to be late for work!” Tsukasa exclaimed, cursing colorfully at the clock that hung on the wall.
“Relax; I’ll give you a ride,” Rui said quietly, eyeing Tsukasa from the corner of his eye.
“I can get there on my own,” Tsukasa said stubbornly.
“Yes and arrive late again and have your pay docked.”
Tsukasa let out a grunt and followed Rui to his limo, waving his farewell to Akira and Soujirou. Rui instructed the driver to bring Tsukasa’s bicycle and put it inside the limo. The ride to Tsukasa’s job was filled with a quiet, comfortable silence. He was able to make it a little earlier than he would have been able to even if he left school on time.
“Thanks, Rui,” Tsukasa said quietly. Rui let out a tiny grin, knowing how rarely Tsukasa ever thanked anybody.
“Don’t worry about it.”
The limo left and Tsukasa quickly chained his bicycle to a pole before walking inside the restaurant he worked in. He hurriedly went to the back and put on the required uniform stored in his locker. When he came back out, his co-worker Kunisawa Amon waved at him. At first glance, one would think they were related but the truth was they only met each other when applying for a job. It was a little disconcerting and creepy to see someone looking just like you, but they eventually got over it.
“I’m surprised you’re early,” Amon said with a smirk. “Who was it that dropped you off? Was he your boyfriend? And what’s with the bruise on your face?”
“Damn it all, why does everyone assume I’m fucking gay?! And this is from some bitch at school,” Tsukasa replied grumpily.
“We assume you swing the other way since you show no interest in women. And, please, do elaborate on the bruise issue.”
“This bitch bumped into me and had the nerve to blame it on me. When I told her she shouldn’t have taken up so much space in the hallway, she fucking slapped me!”
“Did you watch where you were going?” Amon asked curiously with a cocked eyebrow.
“Of course I did!”
“Liar,” Amon said, smirking. “So, was she hot?”
“Hell no!” Tsukasa hissed. “She’s uglier than a pitbull.”
Amon grimaced. “Tell me she’s not named after something beautiful.”
“No; she’s named after a weed. Her name’s Makino Tsukushi.”
Amon choked on air. “Are you serious? Makino Tsukushi is the one you bumped into? And what do you mean she’s uglier than a pitbull? She’s like a goddess.” Amon’s eyes clouded up and a small, goofy smile grew on his face.
“No!! This can’t possibly be happening!” Tsukasa yelled as he covered his ears. “Don’t tell me you actually like her!”
“You have to get her to come here!” Amon said, gripping at Tsukasa’s shoulders and shaking him a little.
“No way! Get the hell off of me before I knock you out!”
Tsukasa regretted bringing up the subject. Whenever they had a break, all Amon would do was go on and on about how great Makino was and how beautiful she was and how lucky he was to attend the same school. Tsukasa was crying on the inside.
‘Why me?’
