No matter how harsh Airi acted towards her parents, the fact that they didn't show support to her was enough to make her refuse to apologize. She was angry, sad, mad at them, those feelings clouded her reasoning so much that the thought of admitting guilt or asking for forgiveness didn't even cross her mind. To her, she wasn't wrong.
And just like that, days went by with all the work of promotions she had to do. She did her best to be friendly with anyone in the class and befriending Carter surely helped her to be on good terms with the second years, except those who were the loyal dogs of Lloyd, or more precisely, Rena's, claiming to be his friends. But no matter what, whenever Rena comes into the picture, everything turns fade. Teachers liked Airi for her modesty, for her cherry, well-behaved nature, but the effect Rena had, be it the way her family was powerful, or the way Rena handled student council efficiently all these years, receded Airi's good impression on them. Moreover, Rena always had a bright aura and loads of money, so she stuffed the mouths of the students to keep them flocking around her. But Airi neither had the cheap mentality nor the money to conduct a lowly act like that. Yet, she tried to pay occasionally whenever Maria and the other girls went to some cafe or shopping malls, taking Airi along. These girls had been helping her in those promotions since the first day, despite how useless spoiled brat they looked. So, Airi felt the necessity to treat them once in a while. No matter how they were, these people are the only ones around her after the cut-off happened between her and Emma, Hazel, and Dew.
As the day passed by, the frequency of them going to those cafes and shopping malls started increasing. They also started to ask for different kinds of stuff like simple gifts or dresses or accessories, treating them to snacks was a bonus to all of this. With the passing days, girls around her started increasing, so did her spendings. All of these were taking a huge toll on her pocket money. Because of her hectic schedule, she couldn't manage time to do a part-time job; and asking for money from home making different excuses, was draining a lot of her mental energy. Yet, she never considered forfeit. She never thought of escaping from all of these. She carefully evaluated everything around the school and whatever loophole she was getting, she used it for her promotional strategy. In all this mess, Maria and Airi got quite close to each other, though it was known to her all too well how Maria was, so the closeness they had was rather beneficial to each other, kind of a business-like relationship. That was all to it. They were both getting their profit by being by the side of each other.
But this wasn't the only relationship she developed. She also had gotten a lot more friendly with Carter, as he helped her with almost everything. Carter was admired by all despite him being short-worded, so the sophomores came to fond of her to a lot extent, except the girls from every class who were having a mixed feeling of jealousy and gratefulness for bringing out a new side of the non-approachable Carter, but only to Airi. Being a sophomore, he helped with the studies as well, and that made them spend more and more time together. Those self-study sessions and lunch breaks made their relationship more of close friends than senior-junior ones.
Just like that, a month passed by, and soon the important day in Airi's life approached near. It was just a day before the election, as well as their exams for the first semester. So Airi was studying hard for it, going through all the topics one last time. Suddenly, she got a call on her cell phone, which was a cute yet expensive-looking one. She decorated her phone with different accessories of her favorite pink color, as it was a precious gift from her father upon being selected for Sandra High. She noticed the call was from Maria, and quite reluctantly, she picked it up.
"Dude! You won't believe what I have gotten my hands on!" Airi almost went deaf by the loud voice from the other end. She looked at the clock in her room, and got more annoyed by the time it was showing. "MARIA! Do you have any idea what time it is right now?"
Maria seemed to check the time on her side, as for a couple of seconds, there was silence on her end. The next time she talked, her voice was a lot lower than before, "Okay, I'm sorry. It's just… the news itself is really huge, so I…"
"So you chose this time to call huh? At 1 AM? Really? Maria, am I dying tomorrow? Is there a term like, 'next day', in your dictionary?"
"Well, I said sorry, didn't I? Since I already called, just hear me out."
Airi sighed loudly even Maria could hear over her phone. "Say it."
"I got something on Rena, that would surely wreck her reputation."
Airi's back was straightened by Maria's words. "What do you mean?"
"You have something to check your mail on?" Airi replied in negative to Maria's question. "God! Everyone got one for them, why don't you?"
"Because there are people who aren't like some leech sucking off wealth from others. Just tell me the news."
"Fine, I'll show you the video later."
'Video? What video?'
Airi wondered for a while. Yet, she didn't interrupt her and let her finish her talk.
"Listen, Rena is my sister, so definitely I would know what she does and where she goes, and all that sort of information. So I thought of tailing her one day, in hope that I would get something to use against her. And guess what, I saw her going to a red zone area!"
"Wait, red zone area? What's that now?"
Maria gasped out, and felt lost in words for a while, hearing Airi. "Dude, are you that innocent? You don't know what a red zone area is?"
"What is it, some kind of prohibited area, war zone, or what?" Just then, Airi heard a burst of loud laughter from the other end. "God! War zone! Seriously! Now I am going to feel guilty to tell you this." Maria found it hard to control her laughs. And when she finally did, she continued, "Red zone is a locality where people eagerly wait for their customers to come and have a passionate night with them. Guess I won't need to spell it out."
Airi was almost choked by the explanation. "Wha… What in the world… that kind of place, isn't it a bad place or something?"
"Of course it is, dude. It is the filthiest and the riskiest place to go. But then again, physical pleasure multiplies when you get involved in a bit of risk. And people tend to go there cause one party gets sex without any attachments, and the other party gets both pleasure and money. It's that simple."
"That's gross and unethical!" Airi snarled up at Maria.
"So what did you think, rich people, are pure and refined? The wealthier you get, the filthier you become. And then rot until the last cell of your body. But that's not the report I am going to give you here."
"Then what is it?" Airi felt sick to her stomach, getting filled in such a dark aspect of her beautiful city and its people.
"As I said, I tailed Rena and saw her going into a host club or some sort of that. So I had to deal with a lot to get an entry there. And there I saw her with some weird revealing clothes, serving some fat-ass oldies. And the way those geezers were groping on her…"
"Okay, stop! I don't want to hear anymore." Airi felt like she might throw up anytime.
"Hahah, fine fine. I won't say anymore. The main point is, I shot a video of that with my camera, and prepared a copy so that I can send those via email. And… I am planning to send that to everyone's mail…"
"Have you lost it completely! How can you do that to your sister!?" Airi cried out loudly, startling Maria. "Have you thought how badly Rena's reputation will tamper if you do that? And why would you do it just before the election? Why mess with someone's private…"
"Oh, dude! The privacy you are trying to respect there, is something totally illegal. And unethical for sure. She is still underage, and even if she was at her legal age, there is no way this type of thing could be excused by anyway." Maria talked back with the same frequency as Airi. "and to think I got hold of something like this just before the election, that makes things just perfect.