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"Oh, isn't it too early?"
The next morning, Klaus waved at Aoi with a slice of bread in his mouth. He'd known that Aoi would come over by seven-thirty, but this time, she was waiting for him at the front door. They would go to school together every morning.
Had she eaten breakfast already?
"I'm always early," Aoi responded calmly. "Come on, Klaus. Eat faster."
"Aoi, it's still quite early, isn't it? Come here and have some sandwiches."
Grandma motioned for the girl to sit next to her. Immediately, she obeyed. Even for the expressionless girl, an invitation from an elderly was hard to reject.
"What's the rush?" Klaus asked Aoi as he put on his shoes. The girl in question bit her lip slightly and ran a hand over her bangs.
"Aren't you curious?" she said.
"Of what?"
"That prank letter. You must be dying to find out who sent it, right?"
"Well..." Klaus scratched his head. "I am, but it's not like I can just ask anyone at random and make them confess. Hey, did you write this? Of course, they would run away if I choose to do things this way. Besides, I'll forget about it sooner or later."
The duo left through the front door and began walking down the streets. The spring season was near, so the cherry blossom trees near the sidewalk the two were walking could be seen preparing to bloom. Klaus unzipped his schoolbag in his hand and pulled the white letter. He was merely trying to assuage the butterflies in his stomach.
After taking a good look, he slid the letter in his schoolbag smoothly.
"There's quite a lot of people today," Aoi commented.
"Well, this place is always bustling with people early in the morning. And we're already at the school gate. I don't know what you're talking about."
"You're hopeless. Look, those are students from our middle school. Why are they grouping like that?"
Klaus poked his head into the school-uniform-wearing crowd of people. It appeared that these students were girls, most of them, and they were fawning over someone standing in the middle of the sidewalk. A celebrity?
The girl receiving all this attention exuded a soothing aura and wore a pleasant smile on her face. She had her blond hair tied into a ponytail. From a single glance, one would think this girl came from abroad.
"Oh, an exchange student?" Klaus muttered. A strange sense of deja vu hit him when he focused on her, which was peculiar. He'd never met her.
"Her bow is blue. She's a middle school student like the rest of them," Aoi spoke out disinterestedly.
"Hmm?" Even though the shouts and girlish cheers had drowned their conversation, the blond girl noticed these two immediately. More specifically, she had her gaze directed towards Klaus.
She raised her right hand to silence the crowd.
"Hm?"Klaus stared at the blond girl as well, and after a few moments, he felt a throbbing pain in his head. Huh? It happened too sudden that he groaned from it unexpectedly. Aoi's eyes opened wide.
"Klaus...?" Mouth agape, the blond girl took a few steps back, turned her head, and pushed her way through the crowd.
"Miss Tsujihara?"
"Wait for us, Tsujihara!"
The crowd quickly dispersed and followed behind the blond girl obediently as if they were ducklings.
"Klaus!" Aoi supported him as he shook his head from the pain. What exactly had happened? It was as if someone had hit him with a metal baseball bat.
"Did someone hit me with a metal baseball bat?"
"This is no time for your stupid joke. Are you okay? Do you need to go to the nursery office?"
Aoi had a worried expression on her face, a rare one at that. Usually, even when she was around Klaus, the girl showed little to no emotion.
"I'm fine, I guess. A-anyway, who was that girl?"
Klaus could've sworn he heard the blond girl said his name? It was strange that she knew him since they'd never met before. The more he tried to recall back the event that had transpired before him minutes ago, the pain intensified. No, he didn't have to think about this.
"I'm fine, really," Klaus repeated when he saw Aoi looked at him with such a rare emotion expressed visibly.
"If you say so..."
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Klaus rubbed his temples and took a sitting position. Opening his eyes slowly after he had some sleep, he wanted to wash his face and continued sleeping, but it turned out he was someplace else.
The wooden planks underneath gleamed a warm color and environing him were dozens of bookshelves. He was supposed to have woken up from his bed. Where was this? Was he still dreaming?
He looked up at the high ceiling and caught sight of winding staircases leading to the first floor. Bright chandeliers lit up the place, so he had no problem trying to grasp where he had ended up.
"...A library."
He could feel his heart thumping loudly against his chest. Cold sweat appeared on his skin, making him uncomfortable.
"...I have to get out of here."
With long strides, Klaus made his way to one side of the library and found a large double wooden door. Yes, an exit! Elated with this finding, he leaned against the door and brought down his weight to open it.
"Ughh... It's not budging!"
He was trapped. This fact couldn't be any clearer to him. With a loud sigh, he turned around to find another way to escape the place, but just then, a golden light flashed before him.