Strange Magic [A JUMP fic] Chapter 11: Setting Sun
Oh no, I think posting everyday has become a habit! D;
Previously...
What with both leaders up to their own agendas, the 2nd Years and 3rd Years seemed to be patching up: forging friendship, rekindling sempai respect and to some, admiration blooms. But will it last when Diei finds out what Yamada had done to her stepbrother?
++++++
Yann almost forgot Chinen Yuri was a transferee; he got along so well with their group she felt like they’ve known each other for years. She was also quite sure Kento and Kochi were positively crestfallen when the bell rang indicating lunchbreak was over and they had to get back to the 2-C classroom along with Kikuchi and Matsumura; Mabee and Okamoto to the 2-B classroom. Yamada Ryosuke also had a fit of hospitality to Chinen when he insisted Yann take his seat so they can keep sharing books and notes, though for some reason this irritated Aya (those two seemed to be having some silent argument today, maybe that’s why Yamada wanted to sit with her.) Not until their last period were they reminded when the transferee was called out to be fitted for his complete set of THS uniforms and get his books from the library allowing him not to come back to class for the day anymore; Yamada groaned back in his seat.
“Ahh, I’ll wait for you guys after class if you want?” Chinen whispered as he swung on his bag and briefly checked his phone which Yann was regretting she hadn’t asked for the number before.
“Yeah..” Yamada said dully.
“Wait; did he say where he’d be waiting?” Aya questioned as Chinen went through the door.
Yann had just opened her book before replying when she saw the piece of paper with a phone number written on it. From then on it was quite hard to concentrate in class and refrain from texting Chinen too much.
The last bell of the afternoon couldn’t have come sooner.
“Really?” Aya yell indignantly at Yamada who briskly brushed past her to meet up with his boys from the 2-C classroom while Yann waited for Chinen to reply where to meet up.
“We’ll catch up!” Yamada waved back at them just as Chinen’s text came through.
Found the cafeteria, can you drop by? I want you to meet someone special to me.
Yann had to read this message twice; that sounds foreboding. “Anou ne, Aya-chan? Would you come meet Chinen with me by the cafeteria?”
“Yeah, sure.”
The cafeteria was inside the building unlike the open-air canteen at the end of their floor, and on their way there Yann couldn’t help but stare at her cellphone thinking of Chinen - if she was quite honest, she felt saddened by his description of someone else being “special” to him.
“Hey Aya! Yann!” Tricia called after them looking as if she couldn’t wait to tell them something. “So, have you heard about it? Diei-sama’s fiancé?”
~+~+~+~
“Honki desu ka?” Diei prompted as she placed a tall glass of bubble milk tea in front of herself and Chinen each. She had joined him half an hour earlier just as her stepbrother was done with the fitting and accompanied him to the library to get his books. She was just about to go when Chinen persuaded her to drop him off somewhere ideal to wait for his new friends, which was the empty cafeteria at this time and where Chinen planned for Yann to meet his sister.
“Ah! Unless Nee-chan doesn’t want to?” Chinen was just about to dig in his strawberry shortcake when he fished out a piece of strawberry for Diei.
She chuckled but opened her mouth. “Mm, still tasty cold.” Apparently the cafeteria saves a few slices for the afternoon teachers and night students. “And you know I’d be fine of everyone knowing, even Ojii-sama -”
“Aaaand that’s why we don’t want it to be known Nee-chan, we talked about this with Tou-chan,” Chinen reminded her, brandishing his fork between them. “That super strict grandpa of yours would most likely complicate things. He didn’t like you playing for a band and had it shut down, what more would he do when he doesn’t like us - he never did the moment his daughter re-married to our family.”
“My mother would have wanted us to spend time together before I graduate and move on to college,” Diei countered coolly though she was fishing her sagos with the straw moodily. “And I’m almost done of high school, Ojii-sama can’t do anything much about this.”
She hadn’t meant to let her voice betray her woe about her family situation but Chinen had probably noticed because he lightly guided her head on his shoulder and tried to change the subject. “Okay, let’s worry about other things, like Fuuma-kun and Hokuto-kun.”
“Why?” Diei asked confusedly.
Chinen said starting to chuckle, “Well I’m pretty sure they’ll kill me for telling you they love how you smell up close,” which earned him a slap on the arm as both of them laughed.
Teasing back, she linked her arms around the one she was leaning onto while saying, “Then I’ll just tell them I’m spoken for -”
“Yann-chan!” Chinen stood up in greeting.
Yann, Aya and Tricia stood so still by the cafeteria entrance they looked as if they have just frozen and there was no other conclusion as to what caused it; Diei just couldn’t figure out why they were so surprised. It wasn’t until she glanced at Chinen who was looking at Yann solely and started to disengage his arm from hers did she realized.
“Yann-chan,” Diei started.
But the younger girl turned about and ran out of the cafeteria before she could even get another word out. She raised her eyebrows though when Chinen followed after her.
“Oh my,” Aya whispered audibly as she watched them round the corridor out of sigh.
“Poor Yann-chan,” Tricia said pityingly.
“Why don’t you two enlighten me about that,” Diei cut through clearly from behind them as she pointed to the seats across from her. Aya and Tricia glanced at each other despairingly.
Outside Chinen didn’t even notice Yamada and his 2-C friends bursting in laughter as he passed by them in his haste to follow after Yann. He wasn’t sure what he’d done wrong but the way she looked so pained cut through his heart like a knife; he couldn’t stand her going off with some sort of misunderstanding about him that hurt her that much. He also couldn’t bear it if it was him who caused it.
“Yann-chan wait, onegai!” he yelled after her when he caught sight of her hair disappearing down the curve of the staircase to the grounds. “I -”
That was when the last sunset rays seemed to have caught Chinen’s eyes inevitably making him stop and feel nauseous at the last stairs to the ground floor. He was just at the first step but he had to catch himself on the rails; he wasn’t afraid of heights yet he felt he was going to be sick, looking down, seeing how far it was to the landing that was stretching farther and farther down…
Chinen passed out with a thud! to the ground just as rain started to pour.
~+~+~+~
“Oi Chinen-kuuun, come on,” Yamada Ryosuke was still chortling as he waited at the second year boys’ restroom. “You just have to hold it in till you get home.”
The moment had passed when he savored his success with Kento, Kikuchi, Matsumura and Kochi; surely it was the effects of the laxative powder prank for Chinen to have hurried out like that. When they had enough good long laughs about it, Yamada decided to follow the new guy and let him in on the prank, he wasn’t that big of an ass despite Kento and the others scoffing off about coming clean so he sent them on their way home without him.
It was getting late and darker, since it started to rain hard. “Chinen!” Yamada turned the knob impatiently.
With a long mirror spanning the room opposite the door, there were only three stalls with a door on the right while four toilets hung on the left side, which were all empty. The windows inside each stall were too small besides being locked so Chinen couldn’t have prank him back making him wait in guilty conscience.
“Huh,” Yamada wondered as he walked back out to the corridor. He was sure Chinen went this way and if he went pass by this restroom it was the staircase leading down the grounds already. That was where he found discarded uniform along the stairs. He had just picked up the THS jacket when someone shouted his name.
“Ryosuke!” Aya looked as if she had raced all over the school to find him.
“Hey, have you seen Chinen -”
“Chinen is Diei-kaichou’s stepbrother,” Aya cut him off, looking left and right along the corridors not glancing at Yamada’s shocked reaction as she pulled his arm to make him step off the stairs. “She told me and Tricia-chan herself. They keep it a secret from the school because her grandfather who is the chairman of the board does not approve of her mother’s second family. So, we’ve been asked to clear up the rumors to the others - which of course we would have done even if she hadn’t asked - Tricia’s doing that - but you got to go.”
“W-wait,” Yamada stammered but firmly stood his ground. “Why me, then?”
“Because,” her eyes were bulging as if she couldn’t believe he wasn’t catching on while she tried to drag him back up the second floor. “Because this is Diei-kaichou, even though we kept out any mention of you, she asked us if you knew about this and we couldn’t say no -”
“But I wasn’t with the eavesdroppers -”
Aya rolled her eyes exasperatedly. “Even so, she would deduce the rumors weren’t going to spread without your knowledge and permission. Then she said “so his kindness to Chinen was just because of the rumors” and walked out of the cafeteria saying she was going to look for her brother so they can get home. She was really tight-lipped mad about it and if she sees you around here still with Chinen -”
“But I’m not with Chinen -”
“Then what are you doing with his uniform?!” Aya cried pointing at the jacket in Yamada’s arm that he totally forgot by now. He just saw under the upturned collar the miniscule “property of Chinen Yuri” was written in.
As Yamada and Aya brought up their eyes to exchange alarmed looks Aya gasped in horror; Mitsuhiko Diei was coming down the stairs above them with Tomogawa Airin.
~+~+~+~
Yann sighed. It was raining so hard it made no difference whether she dry her face of her tears or not. Damn Chinen Yuri.
She know she had overreacted and there was probably a lot of fault from her side as well; it was her mistake to assumed they were getting along to the point of developing into something, not even bothering to ask Chinen if he was already engaged in an arranged marriage.
Yann sobbed. She tried to counter the blame in her mind; that when Chinen was asked in class that morning he said he didn’t have a girlfriend. But of course if it was fixed, it wouldn’t count whether they were in a relationship or not before they’re wedded right? But he obviously liked the kaichou, his text and her own eyes that saw how lovey-dovey they were in the cafeteria proved it…
And he definitely pretended he didn’t know Mitsuhiko Diei. There were lots of times she was talked about and even met at lunch. Come to think of it, Diei-sama’s sudden appearance most probably had to do with her fiancé there, as Tricia suggested.
That lying, sneaky, irresistibly charming bastard…
She realized she was shivering only when that second lightning drew itself across the dark sky, and there wasn’t enough shelter the back of the center school building offered her, so she braved getting even more wet to head back up the Lab Room that was the first room on the ground floor nearest if only to warm up. That was when a faint yelp drew her attention.
There at the side of the center building a small, muddied puppy was limping after something behind the school, where she had been actually.
“Oh poor thing!” Yann hurriedly crossed over to pick it up which when she did it gave a shudder as if it was relieved and fell asleep in her arms right there and then.
Yann giggled. Despite getting soaked in the rain and being betrayed by her crush, she felt her day wasn’t as wasted as she thought on her way to the clinic; she can’t bring home the puppy dirty or her mom would never allow it inside the house.
~+~+~+~
Nobody seem to move except Mitsuhiko Diei slowly descending the stairs, her eyes travelling from Hideki Aya to Yamada Ryosuke without saying anything until she was level with them. Yamada also noticed the roll of papers clutched in her hand. This was how Diei tracked their location down.
Moments before Yamada checked the second floor boys’ restroom Diei had already been stewing in her silent frustration that half the school already knew of Chinen’s connection to her (though with the more alarming description of “fiancé”). Checking every room she passed by on the third floor that she gathered could be where Chinen and Yann ended up fixing their issues because of its emptiness given the 3rd Years’ classes ending thirty minutes earlier than most, she couldn’t help but think that with Tricia’s copping up to the eavesdropping, Do, Takaki and Inoo are lucky if they’re not around the school before she finds Chinen. And don’t get her started with Yamada Ryosuke and his friends. Her brother had been so happy over what he thought was genuine camaraderie she’d be damned if she let Yamada make a fool of her brother for one more minute. She was just thinking of turning around to search for Yamada first and have a good long talk with him when she ran into Tomogawa Airin.
“Im so sorry,” Diei said without looking up as started to pick up the scattered papers that fell from the manga club president’s folder of sketches but the first year didn’t seem to mind she was almost knocked down when she realized who bumped into her.
“Mitsuhiko-sempai, have you seen Chinen-sempai yet?”
“No, I was about to -” that was when something on the floor caught Diei’s eye and was distracted over the sketch of a guy giving another guy a cake who’s back was to some shadowy figures laughing and pointing at him. There was a strangely familiar feeling over that…
But Airin suddenly grabbed at Diei’s arm looking worried. “Please Diei-sempai, we have to find Chinen-sempai, I-I feel like.. like something bad happened..”
Diei was only half-listening to her as she looked at the next pictures: there was one with a girl and boy on a swing and the bushes behind them had human-shaped shadows, another of two motorcycles passing through gates just like THS’ had, and behind that one was the drawing of the girl petting a puppy that Chinen had seen before...
“- and I know this sounds really weird and.. and out of the line coming from me,” Airin was still talking just as Diei looked at a guy standing in front of a boy’s restroom with an extra jacket in his arms from the papers. “But -”
“Airin-chan,” Diei cut off her monologue looking at her so seriously that would have been enough to silence her ramblings. “Is this your new manga project?”
“Huh?” Airin looked bewildered but obliged to what she chalked up as Diei’s curiosity. “Uhm no sempai, they’re just my sketches, is there anything wrong?”
“Did you produce them randomly or is there an order to the story?”
“Well..” Airin considered, looking at her drawings. “Well I didn’t feel like there was a story, but the swing was drawn first…”
“Can you show me, please,” Diei asked sincerely. “In order of which you drew first.”
And so while Airin arranged her drawings, Diei’s mind was racing: despite how absurd it was that the girl drew events that happened to others there was no denying of the few she knew already happened; and if she was right the rest room would play part somewhere, though she didn’t know if that was present or future.
“Here,” Airin said finally handing over the papers carefully arranged and Diei had gone through almost half of it before she found the restroom picture right after a girl running from a boy with the cafeteria in the background. Without waiting for Airin to follow, the seto-kaichou was already on her way down the stairs planning to search all the restrooms for Chinen when she found Yamada and Aya.
“Where is he?” Diei’s voice was barely more than a whisper that coincides with the crack of lightning from the outside and made Airin shiver.
“I-I don’t know.” Diei finally stopped advancing and despite realizing she was of the same height as he was, Yamada was also awfully reminded of her black belt.
“You have his coat.” This wasn’t a question as the thunder clapped deafeningly. At that moment she had seized the jacket from his grip and whether it was out of nerves he felt a strong electric current run through his arm or something - but he had already let go.
Diei glanced down the THS jacket, then to the clothes trailing down the stairs to the ground floor. “What have you given him?”
“What?”
“With the lemon pie slice over lunch that I saw you handed Yuri, my only brother, what have you given him?” Diei snarled that made Yamada jump and Aya actually step back.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about -”
SMACK!
Diei had slapped Yamada across the face just as another lightning illuminated the sky outside, making Aya and Airin gasp.
“If anything bad happens to Yuri, I will never forgive you,” were Diei’s last words he faintly heard while his face was still turned when she slapped him. Then she turned and started to pick up Chinen’s things showing her back to him.
Gritting his teeth, Yamada followed after her. “Wait, I’ll help you -”
“Help yourself get as far as possible from me and Chinen before I hurt you even more Yamada Ryosuke!” Diei yelled without looking at him until she was about to pick up the pants that Yamada beat her to.
“Look!” Yamada held the pants out of her reach with one hand while holding up the other between them. “I don’t know what I’ve given him, but I’m sure it wasn’t too bad -”
“Give those back!” Diei growled as she caught one end of the pants and yanked at it.
But Yamada wouldn’t let go, knowing it was the only way keep her turned to him. “Please, listen!”
“Guys!” Aya tried to warn them but it was too late; Diei and Yamada fell down the stairs while Airin screamed.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Anou ne - Hey / You know
-chan - suffix used by speaker for younger female names or females close with
Honki desu ka? - Are you sure?
Nee-chan - Sis ; informal/cutesy way to say ‘Onee-san’
Ojii-sama - Grandfather ; formal way to call a male elderly
Tou-chan - Dad ; informal/cutesy way to say ‘Otou-san’
-kun - suffix used by speaker for younger male names or males close with
onegai - please ; informal way to say ‘Onegaishimasu’
-kaichou - suffix used by speaker for the president of the student council
-sempai - suffix used by speaker for a senior / respected upperclassman or upperclasswoman
manga - comics
Previously...
What with both leaders up to their own agendas, the 2nd Years and 3rd Years seemed to be patching up: forging friendship, rekindling sempai respect and to some, admiration blooms. But will it last when Diei finds out what Yamada had done to her stepbrother?
++++++
Yann almost forgot Chinen Yuri was a transferee; he got along so well with their group she felt like they’ve known each other for years. She was also quite sure Kento and Kochi were positively crestfallen when the bell rang indicating lunchbreak was over and they had to get back to the 2-C classroom along with Kikuchi and Matsumura; Mabee and Okamoto to the 2-B classroom. Yamada Ryosuke also had a fit of hospitality to Chinen when he insisted Yann take his seat so they can keep sharing books and notes, though for some reason this irritated Aya (those two seemed to be having some silent argument today, maybe that’s why Yamada wanted to sit with her.) Not until their last period were they reminded when the transferee was called out to be fitted for his complete set of THS uniforms and get his books from the library allowing him not to come back to class for the day anymore; Yamada groaned back in his seat.
“Ahh, I’ll wait for you guys after class if you want?” Chinen whispered as he swung on his bag and briefly checked his phone which Yann was regretting she hadn’t asked for the number before.
“Yeah..” Yamada said dully.
“Wait; did he say where he’d be waiting?” Aya questioned as Chinen went through the door.
Yann had just opened her book before replying when she saw the piece of paper with a phone number written on it. From then on it was quite hard to concentrate in class and refrain from texting Chinen too much.
The last bell of the afternoon couldn’t have come sooner.
“Really?” Aya yell indignantly at Yamada who briskly brushed past her to meet up with his boys from the 2-C classroom while Yann waited for Chinen to reply where to meet up.
“We’ll catch up!” Yamada waved back at them just as Chinen’s text came through.
Found the cafeteria, can you drop by? I want you to meet someone special to me.
Yann had to read this message twice; that sounds foreboding. “Anou ne, Aya-chan? Would you come meet Chinen with me by the cafeteria?”
“Yeah, sure.”
The cafeteria was inside the building unlike the open-air canteen at the end of their floor, and on their way there Yann couldn’t help but stare at her cellphone thinking of Chinen - if she was quite honest, she felt saddened by his description of someone else being “special” to him.
“Hey Aya! Yann!” Tricia called after them looking as if she couldn’t wait to tell them something. “So, have you heard about it? Diei-sama’s fiancé?”
~+~+~+~
“Honki desu ka?” Diei prompted as she placed a tall glass of bubble milk tea in front of herself and Chinen each. She had joined him half an hour earlier just as her stepbrother was done with the fitting and accompanied him to the library to get his books. She was just about to go when Chinen persuaded her to drop him off somewhere ideal to wait for his new friends, which was the empty cafeteria at this time and where Chinen planned for Yann to meet his sister.
“Ah! Unless Nee-chan doesn’t want to?” Chinen was just about to dig in his strawberry shortcake when he fished out a piece of strawberry for Diei.
She chuckled but opened her mouth. “Mm, still tasty cold.” Apparently the cafeteria saves a few slices for the afternoon teachers and night students. “And you know I’d be fine of everyone knowing, even Ojii-sama -”
“Aaaand that’s why we don’t want it to be known Nee-chan, we talked about this with Tou-chan,” Chinen reminded her, brandishing his fork between them. “That super strict grandpa of yours would most likely complicate things. He didn’t like you playing for a band and had it shut down, what more would he do when he doesn’t like us - he never did the moment his daughter re-married to our family.”
“My mother would have wanted us to spend time together before I graduate and move on to college,” Diei countered coolly though she was fishing her sagos with the straw moodily. “And I’m almost done of high school, Ojii-sama can’t do anything much about this.”
She hadn’t meant to let her voice betray her woe about her family situation but Chinen had probably noticed because he lightly guided her head on his shoulder and tried to change the subject. “Okay, let’s worry about other things, like Fuuma-kun and Hokuto-kun.”
“Why?” Diei asked confusedly.
Chinen said starting to chuckle, “Well I’m pretty sure they’ll kill me for telling you they love how you smell up close,” which earned him a slap on the arm as both of them laughed.
Teasing back, she linked her arms around the one she was leaning onto while saying, “Then I’ll just tell them I’m spoken for -”
“Yann-chan!” Chinen stood up in greeting.
Yann, Aya and Tricia stood so still by the cafeteria entrance they looked as if they have just frozen and there was no other conclusion as to what caused it; Diei just couldn’t figure out why they were so surprised. It wasn’t until she glanced at Chinen who was looking at Yann solely and started to disengage his arm from hers did she realized.
“Yann-chan,” Diei started.
But the younger girl turned about and ran out of the cafeteria before she could even get another word out. She raised her eyebrows though when Chinen followed after her.
“Oh my,” Aya whispered audibly as she watched them round the corridor out of sigh.
“Poor Yann-chan,” Tricia said pityingly.
“Why don’t you two enlighten me about that,” Diei cut through clearly from behind them as she pointed to the seats across from her. Aya and Tricia glanced at each other despairingly.
Outside Chinen didn’t even notice Yamada and his 2-C friends bursting in laughter as he passed by them in his haste to follow after Yann. He wasn’t sure what he’d done wrong but the way she looked so pained cut through his heart like a knife; he couldn’t stand her going off with some sort of misunderstanding about him that hurt her that much. He also couldn’t bear it if it was him who caused it.
“Yann-chan wait, onegai!” he yelled after her when he caught sight of her hair disappearing down the curve of the staircase to the grounds. “I -”
That was when the last sunset rays seemed to have caught Chinen’s eyes inevitably making him stop and feel nauseous at the last stairs to the ground floor. He was just at the first step but he had to catch himself on the rails; he wasn’t afraid of heights yet he felt he was going to be sick, looking down, seeing how far it was to the landing that was stretching farther and farther down…
Chinen passed out with a thud! to the ground just as rain started to pour.
~+~+~+~
“Oi Chinen-kuuun, come on,” Yamada Ryosuke was still chortling as he waited at the second year boys’ restroom. “You just have to hold it in till you get home.”
The moment had passed when he savored his success with Kento, Kikuchi, Matsumura and Kochi; surely it was the effects of the laxative powder prank for Chinen to have hurried out like that. When they had enough good long laughs about it, Yamada decided to follow the new guy and let him in on the prank, he wasn’t that big of an ass despite Kento and the others scoffing off about coming clean so he sent them on their way home without him.
It was getting late and darker, since it started to rain hard. “Chinen!” Yamada turned the knob impatiently.
With a long mirror spanning the room opposite the door, there were only three stalls with a door on the right while four toilets hung on the left side, which were all empty. The windows inside each stall were too small besides being locked so Chinen couldn’t have prank him back making him wait in guilty conscience.
“Huh,” Yamada wondered as he walked back out to the corridor. He was sure Chinen went this way and if he went pass by this restroom it was the staircase leading down the grounds already. That was where he found discarded uniform along the stairs. He had just picked up the THS jacket when someone shouted his name.
“Ryosuke!” Aya looked as if she had raced all over the school to find him.
“Hey, have you seen Chinen -”
“Chinen is Diei-kaichou’s stepbrother,” Aya cut him off, looking left and right along the corridors not glancing at Yamada’s shocked reaction as she pulled his arm to make him step off the stairs. “She told me and Tricia-chan herself. They keep it a secret from the school because her grandfather who is the chairman of the board does not approve of her mother’s second family. So, we’ve been asked to clear up the rumors to the others - which of course we would have done even if she hadn’t asked - Tricia’s doing that - but you got to go.”
“W-wait,” Yamada stammered but firmly stood his ground. “Why me, then?”
“Because,” her eyes were bulging as if she couldn’t believe he wasn’t catching on while she tried to drag him back up the second floor. “Because this is Diei-kaichou, even though we kept out any mention of you, she asked us if you knew about this and we couldn’t say no -”
“But I wasn’t with the eavesdroppers -”
Aya rolled her eyes exasperatedly. “Even so, she would deduce the rumors weren’t going to spread without your knowledge and permission. Then she said “so his kindness to Chinen was just because of the rumors” and walked out of the cafeteria saying she was going to look for her brother so they can get home. She was really tight-lipped mad about it and if she sees you around here still with Chinen -”
“But I’m not with Chinen -”
“Then what are you doing with his uniform?!” Aya cried pointing at the jacket in Yamada’s arm that he totally forgot by now. He just saw under the upturned collar the miniscule “property of Chinen Yuri” was written in.
As Yamada and Aya brought up their eyes to exchange alarmed looks Aya gasped in horror; Mitsuhiko Diei was coming down the stairs above them with Tomogawa Airin.
~+~+~+~
Yann sighed. It was raining so hard it made no difference whether she dry her face of her tears or not. Damn Chinen Yuri.
She know she had overreacted and there was probably a lot of fault from her side as well; it was her mistake to assumed they were getting along to the point of developing into something, not even bothering to ask Chinen if he was already engaged in an arranged marriage.
Yann sobbed. She tried to counter the blame in her mind; that when Chinen was asked in class that morning he said he didn’t have a girlfriend. But of course if it was fixed, it wouldn’t count whether they were in a relationship or not before they’re wedded right? But he obviously liked the kaichou, his text and her own eyes that saw how lovey-dovey they were in the cafeteria proved it…
And he definitely pretended he didn’t know Mitsuhiko Diei. There were lots of times she was talked about and even met at lunch. Come to think of it, Diei-sama’s sudden appearance most probably had to do with her fiancé there, as Tricia suggested.
That lying, sneaky, irresistibly charming bastard…
She realized she was shivering only when that second lightning drew itself across the dark sky, and there wasn’t enough shelter the back of the center school building offered her, so she braved getting even more wet to head back up the Lab Room that was the first room on the ground floor nearest if only to warm up. That was when a faint yelp drew her attention.
There at the side of the center building a small, muddied puppy was limping after something behind the school, where she had been actually.
“Oh poor thing!” Yann hurriedly crossed over to pick it up which when she did it gave a shudder as if it was relieved and fell asleep in her arms right there and then.
Yann giggled. Despite getting soaked in the rain and being betrayed by her crush, she felt her day wasn’t as wasted as she thought on her way to the clinic; she can’t bring home the puppy dirty or her mom would never allow it inside the house.
~+~+~+~
Nobody seem to move except Mitsuhiko Diei slowly descending the stairs, her eyes travelling from Hideki Aya to Yamada Ryosuke without saying anything until she was level with them. Yamada also noticed the roll of papers clutched in her hand. This was how Diei tracked their location down.
Moments before Yamada checked the second floor boys’ restroom Diei had already been stewing in her silent frustration that half the school already knew of Chinen’s connection to her (though with the more alarming description of “fiancé”). Checking every room she passed by on the third floor that she gathered could be where Chinen and Yann ended up fixing their issues because of its emptiness given the 3rd Years’ classes ending thirty minutes earlier than most, she couldn’t help but think that with Tricia’s copping up to the eavesdropping, Do, Takaki and Inoo are lucky if they’re not around the school before she finds Chinen. And don’t get her started with Yamada Ryosuke and his friends. Her brother had been so happy over what he thought was genuine camaraderie she’d be damned if she let Yamada make a fool of her brother for one more minute. She was just thinking of turning around to search for Yamada first and have a good long talk with him when she ran into Tomogawa Airin.
“Im so sorry,” Diei said without looking up as started to pick up the scattered papers that fell from the manga club president’s folder of sketches but the first year didn’t seem to mind she was almost knocked down when she realized who bumped into her.
“Mitsuhiko-sempai, have you seen Chinen-sempai yet?”
“No, I was about to -” that was when something on the floor caught Diei’s eye and was distracted over the sketch of a guy giving another guy a cake who’s back was to some shadowy figures laughing and pointing at him. There was a strangely familiar feeling over that…
But Airin suddenly grabbed at Diei’s arm looking worried. “Please Diei-sempai, we have to find Chinen-sempai, I-I feel like.. like something bad happened..”
Diei was only half-listening to her as she looked at the next pictures: there was one with a girl and boy on a swing and the bushes behind them had human-shaped shadows, another of two motorcycles passing through gates just like THS’ had, and behind that one was the drawing of the girl petting a puppy that Chinen had seen before...
“- and I know this sounds really weird and.. and out of the line coming from me,” Airin was still talking just as Diei looked at a guy standing in front of a boy’s restroom with an extra jacket in his arms from the papers. “But -”
“Airin-chan,” Diei cut off her monologue looking at her so seriously that would have been enough to silence her ramblings. “Is this your new manga project?”
“Huh?” Airin looked bewildered but obliged to what she chalked up as Diei’s curiosity. “Uhm no sempai, they’re just my sketches, is there anything wrong?”
“Did you produce them randomly or is there an order to the story?”
“Well..” Airin considered, looking at her drawings. “Well I didn’t feel like there was a story, but the swing was drawn first…”
“Can you show me, please,” Diei asked sincerely. “In order of which you drew first.”
And so while Airin arranged her drawings, Diei’s mind was racing: despite how absurd it was that the girl drew events that happened to others there was no denying of the few she knew already happened; and if she was right the rest room would play part somewhere, though she didn’t know if that was present or future.
“Here,” Airin said finally handing over the papers carefully arranged and Diei had gone through almost half of it before she found the restroom picture right after a girl running from a boy with the cafeteria in the background. Without waiting for Airin to follow, the seto-kaichou was already on her way down the stairs planning to search all the restrooms for Chinen when she found Yamada and Aya.
“Where is he?” Diei’s voice was barely more than a whisper that coincides with the crack of lightning from the outside and made Airin shiver.
“I-I don’t know.” Diei finally stopped advancing and despite realizing she was of the same height as he was, Yamada was also awfully reminded of her black belt.
“You have his coat.” This wasn’t a question as the thunder clapped deafeningly. At that moment she had seized the jacket from his grip and whether it was out of nerves he felt a strong electric current run through his arm or something - but he had already let go.
Diei glanced down the THS jacket, then to the clothes trailing down the stairs to the ground floor. “What have you given him?”
“What?”
“With the lemon pie slice over lunch that I saw you handed Yuri, my only brother, what have you given him?” Diei snarled that made Yamada jump and Aya actually step back.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about -”
SMACK!
Diei had slapped Yamada across the face just as another lightning illuminated the sky outside, making Aya and Airin gasp.
“If anything bad happens to Yuri, I will never forgive you,” were Diei’s last words he faintly heard while his face was still turned when she slapped him. Then she turned and started to pick up Chinen’s things showing her back to him.
Gritting his teeth, Yamada followed after her. “Wait, I’ll help you -”
“Help yourself get as far as possible from me and Chinen before I hurt you even more Yamada Ryosuke!” Diei yelled without looking at him until she was about to pick up the pants that Yamada beat her to.
“Look!” Yamada held the pants out of her reach with one hand while holding up the other between them. “I don’t know what I’ve given him, but I’m sure it wasn’t too bad -”
“Give those back!” Diei growled as she caught one end of the pants and yanked at it.
But Yamada wouldn’t let go, knowing it was the only way keep her turned to him. “Please, listen!”
“Guys!” Aya tried to warn them but it was too late; Diei and Yamada fell down the stairs while Airin screamed.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Anou ne - Hey / You know
-chan - suffix used by speaker for younger female names or females close with
Honki desu ka? - Are you sure?
Nee-chan - Sis ; informal/cutesy way to say ‘Onee-san’
Ojii-sama - Grandfather ; formal way to call a male elderly
Tou-chan - Dad ; informal/cutesy way to say ‘Otou-san’
-kun - suffix used by speaker for younger male names or males close with
onegai - please ; informal way to say ‘Onegaishimasu’
-kaichou - suffix used by speaker for the president of the student council
-sempai - suffix used by speaker for a senior / respected upperclassman or upperclasswoman
manga - comics