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The weekends passed by quickly, and while Monday hit most students like a freight train, one of them was getting ready with a fierce look in his eyes. He buttoned his school uniform and put on his vest.
Looking at himself in the mirror, Klaus ran a comb through his short dark hair. Downstairs, a bespectacled girl with shoulder-length dark hair went to the foot of a wooden staircase leading up. "Klaus?"
A figure ran past her post-haste and quickly pulled his shoes out of the shoe rack. The girl Akeno Aoi blinked a few times.
"...You seem to be in a hurry."
"There's no time to waste!"
"But I haven't had breakfast yet."
Hearing this, Klaus stopped and closed the front door. He looked back at Aoi with a frown. "I'll treat you today."
"You'll treat me? I want a special lunch."
"You'll get that special lunch!"
They bid farewell to Klaus's grandmother and made their way to school. Klaus was dragging Aoi as they went. Though, his expression shed some light on what made him act this way.
Something related to his family?
Aoi could only guess this much on her own. What else could have spurred Klaus to take action? Then again, he was eccentric enough, so her head hurt thinking about the exact reason.
"Why are we stopping here? Are you..."
Schools are always bustling with people in the morning. Klaus was aware of this, so he came to the Yokoyama Ichi Middle School early.
Good, aside from a few students, no one else seemed to have come here yet.
"Klaus, I'm talking to you."
"Huh? Sorry, what did you say?" Klaus was too focused on finding the Freda-look-alike girl that he forgot he was practically dragging Aoi with him. "You can go to class now if you want to."
"...And leave you here? Remember, I'm always with you at school, so if you do anything weird here, I'll be sharing the scorn and blame as well," Aoi muttered monotonously.
Her sentences didn't match her voice and the expression she was making at all.
Klaus raised an eyebrow when he heard his best friend. The girl refused to come with him yesterday, but now, it was different? He found her hard to understand at this time.
"What do you mean? I invited you yesterday, but you turned me down so that you can come to your non-existing club. Why do you bother to accompany me now?"
Aoi's mouth twitched slightly. She had to admit that her emotions took the better of her yesterday, and that was why she couldn't follow. For some reason, she was hesitant to come with him that day.
"As I said, I will make sure that you won't do anything weird here. You're looking for that blond girl, right? I want to see how pretty she looks up close."
"You swing that way?"
Bump!
Aoi's school bag hit Klaus squarely in the head, and he winced from it. "I was joking!"
"She's here."
As Aoi had pointed out, the blond girl Klaus was waiting for showed up. The blond girl appeared to have walked to school by herself, and once she noticed Klaus standing near the school gate, she gulped.
"Why are you here?" the blond girl said with a somewhat forced disgusted look.
"Let me get straight to the point," Klaus said. "Is your name, Freda, by any chance?"
The girl glared at him. "Tsujihara J. Freda. I'm sure you know my name. You are one of those creepy admirers of mine, right? If so, I'm sorry, but please get out my sight."
"...You even have the same name," Klaus mumbled.
The blond girl had no intention whatsoever in talking with the duo in front of her. Aoi could tell this much from the tone of her voice and her body gestures. It was understandable, and Aoi had hoped that Klaus would peacefully retreat.
"Do I remind you of someone?" Freda said, almost a whisper.
Klaus flinched when he heard this. He wanted to say that the girl did remind him of his sister, who had passed away. But then, what would happen after that?
In fact, why was he there in the first place?
While the girl does have the same name and appearance, she was a different person entirely. Klaus couldn't mistake reality and mere delusion. Still, he had to confirm one thing with this person no matter what. He wouldn't be able to calm down if he didn't do this.
"I know this is a stupid question, but since I'm an idiot, I don't know how I can find another way to do this. Listen, do you remember the memories of your past life?"
The last sentence elicited quite a reaction from "Freda" as she furrowed her eyebrows and took a step back. Her gaze switched between Klaus and Aoi.
What did he just say?
"...You remember them too?"
Klaus didn't hear this and wanted to clarify this fact again with her, but she walked away. He turned to grab at her instinctively, but Aoi stopped him.
"Aoi!"
"If you lay a hand on her, you'll just cause a scene."
"But... But she is Freda! The Freda I always knew and love as a brother. That girl knew what I was talking about!"
As Klaus bickered with Aoi, Tsujihara J. Freda was walking towards the school building with a sad expression. Various emotions swirled in her chest, and when she arrived at her classroom, tears streaked her cheeks. Klaus's unexpected appearance had caused countless memories to surge into her mind.
"Hey, you're early, Freda."
A tall male classmate approached her, and she quickly wiped her tears and put up a facade of a smile.
"Yeah... I thought that I was ready, but it seems like I need more time."
"Huh?"
"...I was talking to myself. Anyway, are you free this evening?"
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The Yokoyama Ichi Academy.
"...Hey, did something happen to your boyfriend? He looks pale and lethargic."
Nishihara Ryota, who sat in the seat to Klaus's right, asked this to Aoi. Ever since the first lesson started, Klaus kept looking out the window with dead fish eyes. He didn't say a word to anyone until the lunch break, which bothered Ryo to some extent.
Ryo had never known Klaus was the type of guy to have mood swings.
"...What did you say?"
Aoi raised an eyebrow at Ryo after he'd asked her his question. She could've sworn that he referred to Klaus as her boyfriend. Did she hear him wrong?
"Your boyfriend, did something happen to him?" Ryo repeated his question calmly.
"Who's my boyfriend?"
"Huh? Klaus, of course! Hey, if it was a personal matter that made him that way, then you don't have to tell me."
Aoi was speechless for a few seconds. Did Ryo assume she and Klaus were a couple right off the bat? It was roughly a month since high school started, but such a rumor had already spread to the rest of the classroom?
She figured Ryo was the one who'd done it since he was quite a talkative one. It was a minor detail to her at first that she didn't notice it, but this had gone in the wrong direction.
"You. Did you say that to everyone in the class? That Klaus and I are a couple?" Aoi asked this in a low voice.
Aside from Klaus, she was not known to talk to anyone else. She couldn't let this slide, and she had to clarify the truth right then and there.
"Um, was I wrong?" Ryo scratched his head. "I didn't say it to anyone. But some of the girls have been talking about the two you in a chat group. I always talk with the class rep, Kitabayashi, so I know."
"...What did they say?"
Ryo rubbed his chin and looked at a group of girls chatting a few seats in front. "They've been saying that you two are quite close to each other. But, hey, you can talk to the others if you want to know the details.."
"...I see. Thank you."
"I thought you two have that kind of relationship."
"No, we're only friends."
Aoi didn't say anything else as she watched Ryo exited the classroom with a few of their classmates. From the looks of it, Ryo was quite an extrovert, so he had no problem getting all sorts of information.
Still, it perturbed Aoi that everyone else thought about her like that. She didn't talk to anyone else except Klaus, so it was a misunderstanding at best.
Was it wrong for two friends of the opposite gender to be overly friendly with each other?
Aoi looked at Klaus with slanted eyes. He was still looking out the window with those 'dead fish eyes.'
"Hey, Klaus..."
"Ignore them, Aoi. Don't let what they say about us bother you."
Did he hear what Ryo said? Aoi had thought he was still daydreaming.
Klaus let out a sigh of exasperation and put his hand over Aoi's. It was too sudden that Aoi flinched for a moment.
"Sorry, I was thinking about Freda the whole morning. I have two different sets of memories of her now. What should I do?"
Aoi bit her lip and removed her hand from Klaus's grasp. She knew Klaus was merely apologizing for his behavior this morning, but somehow, she felt uncomfortable. Her mind kept repeating what Ryo had said to her.
Her and Klaus having that sort of intimate relationship?
At some point, she shook her head and stood up from her seat.
"Let's go to the cafeteria," she said monotonously.
"Yeah, I'm starving."
"You can tell me why you were obsessed with that blond girl while we are there."
Aoi watched as Klaus walked in front of her in the corridor. She took a deep breath and pinched her cheek. Their friendship should remain as they were as is.
After all, if this one thing she held very dearly disappeared from her grasp, she would lose everything.