XX High School.
On the first class of year – 3, section – D.
Mr. Ricks entered the class, walking to the teacher's desk and hitting the attendance book on the table with a thud – a trial to signal the class that he was in the room now, "Alright everyone, pay attention."
The class settled down quickly as they noticed the teacher at front and awaited for him to say something.
Mr. Ricks pushed his glasses back in position, "I'll take your attendance first and then let's start on where we left off yesterday."
The class replied loudly with positive energy, "Yes."
"Okay," Mr. Ricks looked down on the open attendance book on his desk, "First off, Wood Dickens."
"Present," Wood said to the teacher from his seat.
"Kaori Izumi," Mr. Ricks glanced up at the girl through his glasses.
"Present," Kaori said a little louder so that she wouldn't go unheard since her seat was far to the back.
"Yamaken Yamaguchi."
As he didn't get a reply, he looked up with a frown, "Yamaguchi?"
The class remained silent.
"He's absent today as well?" Mr. Ricks looked down at the attendance book, "I see that it's already been over a week that he's being absent. Does anyone know why he isn't coming?"
Nobody spoke.
"No one knows?" He asked again in low hope.
Some of the students shook their head side to side this time in silence.
Mr. Ricks took this as the answer and sighed, "In that case, we have to find out the reason. He shouldn't be absent over a week without any notice. Didn't he just return from a break?"
Most students nodded strongly in affirmative as the answer.
Mr. Ricks became thoughtful for a moment at this – probably thinking what was going on with Yamaken – and then he said, "Anyway... Robin Parker?"
"Present."
"Neil Herbert."
"Here."
"Georgina Stewart."
"Here!"
"Kyle Kristen."
"Here."
"Willia Holland."
"Present."
"Melissa Dony."
"Here."
Mr. Ricks continued calling the names and marking down the attendances while Kaori stared at him until she let out a sigh and glanced over at her right side from the corner of her eyes where laid an empty desk and a vacant chair.
𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶?
*************************************************
On the last class before lunch break, when the bell rang, the students were ready to hear the class to be dismissed by their teacher and dash out of the room to the cafeteria but it didn't go as planned, since their class teacher had already been waiting at the door when Ms. Karen, the Geography teacher, dismissed the class. The teachers exchanged smiles before Ms. Karen walked out of the classroom and their class teacher came in.
"Everybody stay seated!" The class teacher ordered loudly upon entering the room, "I have an announcement to make!"
Silence fell in the classroom as the students put all their attention to hearing the announcement to be made.
The class teacher raised up a thick stack of sheets in her hand, "These are career survey forms. Each of you will receive one of these forms and you have to fill it up and submit it to the class representatives within the day after tomorrow. The class representatives will hand them over to me," She eyed Wood, Robin and Kaori, "The counselling will be held on the same day I receive the forms – in the afternoon; yes, you can't go home that day after school," She added with a smirk, seeing the arising reactions on the students' faces.
Everyone started to whine, complaining about the timetable.
"Now!" She shouted to get the attention back on her, "All of you have to be careful on filling out the forms. Remember to think carefully before writing anything in. This is a matter of importance, a matter that your future depends on. So choose wisely."
She gave the stack over to Wood who was standing beside her, "Distribute these properly and return the extra ones back to me."
Wood nodded, "Understood."
Their teacher was about to leave when she stopped at the doorstep, looking back at her class and flashing a smile, she said softly, "Good luck!"
*************************************************
Lunch break.
After eating lunch, Kaori slipped out of the group and came over to the vending machine. She bought a cold soda and sat down on the laid out bench to drink it.
"Hey," A voice called.
Kaori turned around to see Dylanthy smiling at her.
Kaori smiled back, "Want a drink?"
Dylanthy shrugged glancing at Kaori's hand, and then a smile apeared on her lips, "I guess I'll buy a soda, too."
*************************************************
Kaori threw the empty can in the bin and sat down again beside Dylanthy.
"Can you believe we're already close to graduating?" Dylanthy asked Kaori, to which the other lightly laughed.
"Graduation is far away," Kaori replied, "We need to go through a lot before that."
"Still..." Dylanthy muttered, "We received the career survey form already."
Kaori nodded to Dylanthy's statement, "That's true. What are you going to write?" She suddenly asked of Dylanthy, "What do you want to be in the future? Which college are you going to aim for?" She asked curiously.
Dylanthy chuckled, "Why? Will you follow me?"
Kaori shrugged, "I could."
"You shouldn't, that'd be a waste of talent," Said Dylanthy, "The way you are, you'd get chance in way better places than me very easily. Maybe even the best places."
Kaori looked disgusted, "No way, what are you talking about? I'm not that good as you say! But you sound like you see yourself in a low light. Why is that? You're good, too."
"Trash compared to you," Dylanthy blurted.
"Dylanthy..." Kaori was surprised, "Are you okay?"
Dylanthy suddenly laughed, though it looked like she was on the verge of tears.
"I'm sorry," She apologized," I didn't mean it like that. Actually... I can't make it to college, Kaori."
"What?" Kaori was shocked now, "Why not?"
"For two reasons," Dylanthy smiled, "First, because my grades are really bad and second, because I can't afford to go."
*************************************************
In the classroom.
Willia checked her phone again before stating worriedly, "Where did Kaori and Dylanthy go? Lunch break is going to be over in twenty minutes."
Melissa was to reply quickly, "Kaori told me that she was going to get a drink. She also mentioned that she wanted to be alone for some time, so let's not bother her."
"Alone?" Willia raised her eyebrow, "Why?"
Willia and Melissa were the only ones of their group to be in class now. Robin was avoiding his friends for a while now, so Wood and Tom finally lost their patience and went to find the guy to have a talk with him.
Melissa shrugged in return of Willia's query, "Not sure. Maybe because of Yamaken?"
A frown appeared on Willia's forehead as she said, "That's right, what happened to Yamaken all of a sudden? Why is he absent in school unannounced?"
"I don't know that either," Melissa said in an anxious tone, "I couldn't get a hold of him lately. I thought he was busy with studies. But now he's not coming to school, too. It's rather worrying, isn't it?"
Willia hummed, "I just hope nothing happened."
"Yeah, me, too."
*************************************************
Kaori stared at Dylanthy for a long time, "What do you mean? Your grades aren't as bad as you—"
"I was called to the staff room earlier today," Dylanthy cut in, "By our class teacher. She told me that my grades weren't good enough to take me to college. I agree on that, too. I don't know how I've been able to come this far with just self studying."
Kaori couldn't say anything because she couldn't understand where this was going.
"Then what did you mean by the second reason?" She asked uncertainly.
"Well, that one is the main reason, I'm poor," Dylanthy confessed straightfowardly, "So I can't afford going to college. I managed very hardly to cover high school, too. College is out of my league."
"Dylanthy, what are you talking about?" Kaori finally asked in strong confusion, "Whatever you are saying isn't going through ny head. What do you mean by all this? Why are you suddenly being like this?"
"Kaori," Dylanthy turned to face Kaori, "It's hard for you to understand because you don't know about me. So I'll explain, if you want me to."
Kaori gulped.
𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘺, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘐'𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴. 𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴, 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘐 𝘥𝘰?
*************************************************
"I'm the only child in the family," Dylanthy started her story.
Kaori didn't know why that feeling crept in the back of her mind but she couldn't flatly reject Dylanthy. Besides Kaori was curious to know more about her friend, too. So she had told Dylanthy to proceed.
"There's only mom and me.. And our financial situation is not so good. Mom used to work hard day and night to send me to school and to earn enough money so that she could raise me properly. But she fell ill ever since I got into high school and she can't go out to work as usual anymore. I wanted to drop out but mom... She didn't let me. She tells me that if there's anything I should do, then it's to establish myself by studying and by doing that, she told me that we could pull us out of the situation we are in now."
Dylanthy chuckled sadly at Kaori, "Silly, right?"
Kaori stiffly shook her head in the negative, Dylanthy's untold truth drowning her inside. However, her story was not finished yet so Dylanthy continued.
"So to earn the living and other expenses, I took up some part time jobs," Dylanthy laughed, "I'm busy doing those and I don't get enough time to study. The jobs don't pay well, so I couldn't get myself admitted to any private lessons. I didn't have anyone to help me at home, too. So I studied as much as I could on my own, though it's not like I did a lot."
"How many part time jobs do you do on a day?" Asked Kaori.
Dylanthy said thoughtfully, "Five, at most?"
"A day?" Kaori reacted in shock.
"Yeah," Dylanthy nodded, "I barely get any time to come home. I leave for my first job after lunch and come back home finishing all the jobs for the day after midnight. I eat dinner and then study for a bit and then go to sleep."
"While working to earn money," Dylanthy said deeply, "I realized something. The money earned by yourself are like gold, you are extra careful on how you spend it. When mom used to work her limbs out every day before, she always returned back with handful of delicious foods and gifts for me. I never thought that I was poor. I always made wishes for things and mom would get it for me no matter how hard it was. Even if it was expensive, she would get them all for me though we were tight on money. That's how hard she worked to raise me. When I finally was enough old to understand in reality, I now know. How much she went through to keep me satisfied and happy, how much she did to raise me up. How hard it must've been for her to keep up that smile in front of me. "
Dylanthy sniffled, becoming teary, while Kaori was silently watching her friend who had her head hung low.
"I hated school," Dylanthy spoke again, "I skipped often. But that was until I met you and became friends with you guys. I felt like I had found meaning to all of this again. When I was in the dark, Kaori, you pulled me out to the light. You made me love school, you made me be grateful for who I am. You know what? You are my best friend. I talk about you often to my mom and she's become a total fan of yours," Dylanthy smiled at her friend who was sitting before her with eyes flooding with tears.
As Kaori chuckled, some droplets of water fell down from her eyes, leaving some wet marks on her cheeks.
Dylanthy didn't move her gaze from Kaori and went on, "I'm proud to have you as my friend. And I'm really happy when I'm with all of you guys. I would do anything to stay with you forever. But I can't go any further than this.. I have reached my limit."
Kaori muttered audibly, "Didn't you want to stay with us forever?"
Dylanthy just smiled sadly.
Kaori took a deep breath, noting up everything in her mind that she wanted to tell the friend who's sitting in front of her.
"Look," She began, "Just like what you said earlier, you are the same for me. You don't know what was going inside me when I left the headquarters. I was lost, I didn't know where to go, what to do, nothing. But when I met you guys, you helped me go back to being normal again. You guys are like a gradient light that supports me all the time, that tells me to move forward every inches. And Dylanthy, you are a part of that light."
"I can't," Dylanthy said desperately, "Kaori, only if I could, I would but I just can't and you know why."
"I know," Kaori said firmly, "That's why I'm wanting to help you. By providing financial support as well as helping you to get your grades up."
"Until when?" Dylanthy argued, "Even if you can do it, until when will you support us like that? You can't take the responsibilities of a family. You're still underage!"
Kaori was at a loss for words. Because that was a fact – she's still too young to take responsibilities on her shoulders about this.
Kaori spoke quietly, "Putting aside all of that... What about Robin?"
Dylanthy let out a sigh. Looking up at the sky, she mumbled, "It's not meant to be. My status will effect our relationship even if we were to start one."
"Dylanthy," Kaori said sharply, "Why are you worried over that? Did you ever tell this to Robin? Does he know? Did he say anything negative about it?"
"I didn't tell him."
"Then stop judging wrongly! What if he doesn't think the way you are expecting him to?" Kaori said loudly, "You should talk to him before running into conclusions. This isn't just about you. You know that you guys like each other now."
"I never.." Dylanthy stated softly with a broken tone, "Thought about my future. Because I was always walking on egg shells in the present, worried if this wonderful dream would be broken anytime soon." She glanced at Kaori, who's eyes widened at the wet eyes of her friend.
*Ding dong dong*
As the bell rang, Dylanthy took a deep breath – biting back her tears – and stood up, smiling at Kaori, "Let's go back to class, shall we?"
Dylanthy began walking away, thinking that the other would be following her. But when she looked beside her, there was no one there. So she looked over her shoulder to see Kaori still sitting on the bench. But tears were pouring down her face without her realization. Dylanthy stood still watching her friend crying from afar again.
*************************************************
Kaori's residence.
Placing the school bag on the floor, Kaori wearily dragged herself to the bed and flopped herself on it.
She let out a sigh when she looked up at the white ceiling above. She let her eyes rest for a moment before suddenly sitting up.
"Yukine-kun."
"Yes?" The yellow haired boy appeared on the call but he stopped at his master's tired looking sight. "Are you okay, Kaori?" He asked worriedly.
Kaori rubbed her forehead, "Yeah, I'm fine. My mind is just full of thoughts, that's all."
Yukine silently waited for his master, although he was still eyeing her with anxiety.
She looked up at Yukine to meet his eyes, "I don't know if this will be okay for me to ask of you but I want you to do something for me."
Yukine waved his hand impatiently, "Stop beating around the bush."
"Do a background check on Dylanthy."
"Dylanthy?" Yukine asked, surprised, "As in Dylanthy Daven?"
"Yes," Kaori ensured, "I need all the information you can gather on her, be it personal or anything. Whatever you find, get it noted. Report directly to me after you think you've gotten every single bit on her."
He knitted his eyebrows but nodded nonetheless, "Understood."
"Haruhi.." Kaori suddenly began, causing Yukine to shoot one of his eyebrow up in question.
She looked up again to meet her server's eyes for the second time, "How is she doing?"
The latter's lips spreaded to a smile, "She's as fine as ever, along with completing her lessons as a shinki."
Kaori's mouth formed a shape of 'O' with surprise, "She really did it? That's great!"
Yukine chuckled, "Yes, I even helped her learn English so that it'd be easier for her to communicate with everyone just like us. You can call her if you're eager to."
"Haruhi!" Kaori piped up, jumping up from her bed.
In instance, appeared the jolly young girl, "Yes, master!"
The elder one hugged the younger, "Oh, how I missed you! I just heard from Yukine," She pulled back to face Haruhi, "Congratulations on the success!"
"You wouldn't believe how happy I was when I was almost there, thinking about how I'll be able to serve you just like any other shinki!" Haruhi replied with twinkles in her eyes. "Is there anything you'd like me to work on?" She then asked with great enthusiasm, "Yukine-kun taught me every little things."
Kaori suddenly turned serious, saying, "If I task you with something, can you promise me to do it right? If so, I'll assign the first work of yours as an official shinki."
Yukine stared at Haruhi while the girl suddenly started to feel tensed, hearing how Kaori's tone changed. When she glanced at him, he gave her a firm nod.
To this, Haruhi took up the bravery to reply to Kaori's enquiry, "Yes, I'll do my best!"
Kaori's spot up reaction indicated that she had already arranged her thoughts. Folding her hands, she leaned her back on the wall, calling Yukine, "Yukine-kun."
"Yes, Kaori," He answered promptly.
Kaori thought a little before announcing, "Give the previous job to Haruhi, the one to find out more about Dylanthy."
Haruhi looked at Yukine for details but he signalled with his eyes that he'd explain her later that she quietly put her gaze back on her master.
Kaori looked up after staying silent for a few more moments, asking Yukine, "Say, were you in touch with Yamaken lately?"
Yukine shook his head side to side, "Is something the matter?"
"Well," Kaori shrugged, "Only that he's been absent in school for over a week."
"What?" Both Yukine and Haruhi asked in unison.
"I haven't really seen him much in these days, either," Kaori noted thoughtfully, "Did he go back to the headquarters by any chance?"
Yukine shook his head first, "No. Well, he used to visit before, quite often in the afternoon but he didn't do that ever since all of you came back after that short vacation. I thought that he'd had enough of that place in those days so maybe he's taking a break or something."
Kaori asked with strong demand, with her eyebrow raised in action, "Why would he go there regularly? What did he do?"
"Mostly to meet Maki and the others," Yukine shrugged, "I guess he missed his old friends a lot."
A long silence fell in the room. Haruhi was just hearing her senior and her master conversing with her head lowered but when they stopped, she looked up at them to see Kaori be in deep thought while Yukine had his steady look locked on her.
Kaori suddenly looked up at Haruhi and then she looked back at Yukine and then back at Haruhi again. A light started to fill her eyes as she smiled, "Haruhi has already been assigned with a task, right?"
"Yes, master," Haruhi replied respectfully.
"Don't call me that," Kaori said sharply, "I'm fine with only my name."
"Understood, Kaori," Haruhi slightly nodded.
Kaori nodded in approval before going back to what she was saying, "Anyway, it seems that I'll be assigning Yukine-kun with another task."
Yukine eyed her with question.
"Yamaken that ridiculous idiot," Kaori grumbled, "How dare he disappear on me! Did he think I'm still that naive little girl who wouldn't care if he broke his promise?"
"Promise?" Haruhi and Yukine repeated.
"The promise to stay by me forever, he broke it the first time, so he had remade it. But he's on the verge of breaking it again," Kaori huffed, "But worry not! I won't let go easily this time, I'm not the old me anymore. Even if he ran away to hell, I'd still bring him back by his ears!"
"Won't that be humiliating, though..." Yukine muttered while Haruhi giggled.
Kaori looked up with determination, "He's definitely vanished like before as we can't contact him nor did he reach out for us. And it's already been enough time we stayed motionless about it. So Yukine-kun, I'll assign you with the job that you find out his whereabouts and report to me by tomorrow."
Yukine nodded with confirmation, "I will."
"What about me?" Haruhi pointed herself.
Kaori smiled, "It's okay to take time, you can report to me whenever you think you're ready."
Haruhi beamed brightly, "Okay!"
"Then, you are dismissed," Kaori concluded and the two of the others bowed before disappearing into thin air.
Kaori looked at the calendar and let out a sigh, "𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘮! 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵, 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮 𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸."
*************************************************
The next day. After school.
When the final bell rang, all the students dashed out of the classrooms as fast as they could. Willia and Wood slowly stood up from their seats and started packing their bags while Melissa and Tom did the same, but more sluggishly.
On the other hand, Robin was the fastest to pack up his bag and he began walking out of the room. However, Kaori was quick enough to catch up to his pace. She hurried up to him and gripped his wrist tightly from behind, causing him to jump up in surprise. "Come with me," She ordered sternly that the latter couldn't struggle to do anything.
Both Wood and Willia goggled at them walking away as Robin was practically being dragged by Kaori. Tom and Melissa joined the two soon, while Melissa questioned curiously, "What's going on?"
A sudden ring of the notification going off in Willia's phone made her fish it out of her bag. She swipped open the phone to see a text pop up on the display – it was from none other than Kaori.
𝐊𝐚𝐨𝐫𝐢
The back of the school, at the running tracks. Bring Dylanthy, now.
And thus, all four pairs of eyes landed on an innocent twin braided girl who was about to head for home.
*************************************************
"The power of Kaori is indeed undeniable" — it was the thought that was roaming around all of their minds at the current moment.
With just her strong determination, she was able to make the two stand each other face to face right now – the two, who had been avoiding each other ever since that day and were desperate on not even meeting each other's eyes.
𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵...
Kaori took in a deep breath and let it out slowly back again as if she was practicing breathing exercise.
Then she walked towards Dylanthy without any words and patted her shoulder, "I'll help you make things right, that's what best friends are for." Then she nodded at them both, "And do clear all of the misunderstandings between you guys while you're at it. Remember to get a clear conception on each other's feelings, got it?"
Robin yelled in bewilderment, "I told you that this isn't what it was about!
Kaori smirked, " Yeah, yeah, I know that you actually wanted to hear everything from her directly after all. Just take the chance and talk things out, you two. You can thank me later," She winked playfully.
She added importantly, "Oh also, Robin, I want you to have a proper talk with Johann, too. You shouldn't pull someone else into your mess and get her hurt. I'm trying to help you both make things right, so you better follow my footsteps and make it right."
"Wait," Dylanthy took Kaori's hand, "Are you going somewhere?"
"What?" Kaori asked in confusion, "No, I'm not. I'm just taking care of the problem I have at hand," She glanced over at Wood, "So that I can focus on the new problems that come at me head on."
"Anyway," She smiled brightly, "Talk. We'll be going now," She looked at everyone else aside from Robin and Dylanthy.
But Dylanthy started to make grabby hands towards her friends, "H-hey.. D-don't just leave us l-like this.."
"Um, guys?" Robin glanced at the boys for help to which none of them reached out their hand to.
All of them gathered together casually and walked out in a group while laughing and talking, leaving the other two behind to reconcile in their meeting place.
When they walked out of the entrance gate of the school, Willia threw her hand over Kaori's shoulder.
"Do you think it'll work?" She asked with doubt.
In reply came a beautiful smile from Kaori, and a positive response, "Yes, without a doubt, it will."
*************************************************
Kaori's residence.
Kaori walked into the room with a cup of green tea in one of her hand while gently pressing her wet hair with a towel with the other one.
Putting the cup on the desk for studying, she started drying her hair with both of the hands this time.
Right at that moment, Yukine appeared in the room.
As soon as he did, he lowered his head and apologized politely, "Excuse me, I'm sorry to have come at a bad time. I didn't know you just came out of the shower..."
"Relax, I'm just drying my hair," Kaori shrugged it off.
"What is it?" She asked, throwing her towel on the bed, she sat down in the couch with her legs crossed, taking a sip of her tea.
Yukine breathed, hesitation starting to take him over.
Kaori noticed the sudden chnge of his behaviour that she asked sharply, "I recall that you were supposed to report to me about Yamaken's whereabouts by today."
"Uh, yes..." Yukine agreed half-heartedly, "That is what this is about."
"Can't he be located?"
"No, that's not the problem, actually," Yukine said straightforwardly, "He was found out easier than expected this time."
"Is that so?" Kaori put the cup back to her lips for a long sip after asking, "So where was he tracked?"
The answer that came was rather unexpected as well.
"Yamaguchi residence."
⭐❤❤⭐🌟❤🌟⭐❤❤⭐🌟❤🌟⭐❤❤⭐