After having a late lunch, she went to her room. "Now that the job problem is solved, I should start workin' on other things." She took her phone and searched for a number. "Well, when this is where lackeys come in handy."
She dialed the number, and after a few rings, the person on the other end picked it up.
"Yo, Maria. What up?" Airi started talking when the other end picked up the call.
"Airi, I'm in my afternoon extra classes, I'll talk to you later…" Maria said in a hushed voice, without replying to Airi's question.
"I called ya for somethin' now, then why wouldya talk to me later, huh?" Airi dropped her voice to multiple levels, and right now she sounded quite calm yet cold enough to intimidate anyone. "Didya think I got that free of a time?"
Maria's end fell silent, as if she was thinking what to say or how to talk. Although she soon broke the silence, "No, I mean… if you just waited for just 30 minutes, my classes would've ended."
"So you wanna make me wait thirty minutes for ya? Am I givin' out offers here?" Airi sounded more annoyed by each passing second. She honestly never liked Maria in the first place, not now, not then. And realizing how two-faced she was, "I hate her to my fu*king core", that was Airi's thought.
"Listen girl, I gotta job for ya, so do it for me. I want you to find out what Hazel, Emma, and Dew are doin' this summer. Even if they are out of the city, find them, and inform me. Within 30 minutes." Airi said it out in a single breath.
"But my classes won't…" Maria wanted to reason with her, but Airi brushed her off in the middle. "Oh, so you wanna defy me now? Really?"
"Okay, I'll… let you know." Maria dejectedly agreed and cut the call.
"You badly wanted me to boss over ya, ne? So be it yer own way." Airi shrugged her shoulder, and slumped on her bed with all smiles.
------
Meanwhile, upon reaching Annwn, Ryo got called to Iris's palace. He took his time to get there, but when he reached, he found her in her living room, a bit angry over something. "Iris, you called for me, is something wrong?"
"Better ask if someone is wrong, Ryo," Iris blankly said that, yet her voice had clear dissatisfaction towards something.
Ryo sat on one of the chairs comfortably. "So, let me rephrase it. Is someone wrong?" he smiled lightly while asking the question again.
And this time, Iris looked back at him. "Yeah, someone is. You are the someone."
"And care to explain what did I do to be wrong this time?" he asked again, only to get an angry gaze, drilling enough to make a hole in his face.
"Why didn't you let them meet?" Iris coldly stated out, by which Ryo finally got the grasp of the reason Iris was angry.
"That doesn't mean that they would have met, even if I just stayed there, and didn't take her away," he replied with an equal calm tone, but this time, he avoided meeting her gaze. "Not that it's necessary for them to meet each other."
"But they are bound to face each other, Ryo. you can't prevent that. Otherwise why would that guy be there everytime she is in this world, and involved in her life? Those two are destined to get involved…"
"THEY ARE NOT, IRIS!" Ryo roared, startling Iris so much that she lost the track of her words for a while. He had jumped up from his seat, but soon, he realized that and composed himself. "Look, just because they were connected to each other in her past life, doesn't mean that they are fated or something. He has nothing to do with Airi. Right now, she is here to make her life better, and for that, he doesn't need to be in the picture," Ryo calmly stated, crossing his arms over each other.
"So, you are planning to keep them away from each other? For how long?" Iris felt equally irritated by his words. "Ryo, you can't go on defying the fact."
"And the fact is, that guy could be a threat to her. So I can't let him come any near of her. No matter what! That's the end of it," he got up and turned around to get out of the palace.
"What if they meet nevertheless? What makes you think that he could be a threat? What if they are connected to each other, like last time? Even if you say they aren't?" Iris shouted back, stopping him in his tracks. And in response, he turned around to meet her eyes, "Then I will do the same I have always done, this time too."
With that saying, Ryo went away, leaving a fuming Iris behind.
------
The next day, another field trip started with the little two-membered group of an angel and a cross-timeline girl. And as usual, the angel was rubbing his eyes, while occasionally yawning.
"Gosh, dude. How much sleep do you need to be fully awake huh? You sloppy geezer!" Airi sighed helplessly, with a bit of an annoyance.
"Enough to ignore duty calls," Ryo nimbly said, while still yawning. "Then, what is it today?"
"Well, I gotta mend my public relations, that's all." Airi walked ahead, looking here and there for road signs.
"And that's supposed to be...?" he asked back, following her eyes to the road marks.
"That means I'm gonna fix my good'ol friendship, now c'mon, I found it," Airi dragged him towards a library.
Both of them walked slowly into the library, although Ryo kept himself visible only to Airi. So for the others in there, it was only a high school girl creeping in weirdly.
"Well, so now?" Ryo asked her, noticing her looking around in search of something.
"I found out from Maria that Hazel and Dew would be here at the library. So imma talk to them today… there, I found'em." Airi pointed at a corner, where a girl and a boy were sitting together, books open in front of them.
"Dew, how long are you going to take to finish these simple assignments? I'm sure others have done it ages ago." Hazel clutched her head, feeling annoyed. "Here I thought we could use this vacation to have a small picnic, but you just used up every day of it."
"I am trying you know. This is… hard…," Dew scratched his head, still not getting the maths in front of him, even though Hazel explained it to him hundreds of times.
"Yeah, right. I hoped way too much out of your dumb brain…"
"Hey, I am not dumb okay!" Dew cried out loud.
They both kept bickering to each other, lowering their voices, when suddenly they heard someone calling out to them. "Hey, guys."
Both of them looked up to see Airi standing in front of them. And for sure, they had a surprised look on their faces.
"May I take a seat, if that'd be okay?" Airi tried to give them a smile she used to give, but as she wasn't used to smiling for long, that turned out a bit awkward.
"Sure, I mean, who are we to stop you from taking a seat in a library? Go ahead," Dew calmly replied, landing his eyes on his books, removing them from Airi.
Hazel cleared out a part of the table silently, letting her use it. Yet she didn't talk even a single word. Airi felt a lot awkward, seeing them acting like nothing like she hoped for. She expected them to act angry or harsh to her. Or worst, they would leave the table as soon as she was in the picture, at least that's what she hoped for. And she was ready for it. But seeing them not reacting to her at all, made her perplexed.
Maybe it had been too long since last they talked. After all, two years isn't a little time.
But she was determined to get them back by her side, because she wants to cherish the love and care they had shown her once again, and for that, she would like to go to any extend.
"Hazel, Dew, I have something to talk about," Airi spoke up, dragging their attention to her. Thankfully, they didn't ignore her, and as she went through this apologizing thing once, she was feeling less embarrassed or scared. "It'd take up a good while, and I wanna talk to the three of ya. So if it's okay, can we go somewhere else?" Airi looked up to them with expectation in her eyes, but Dew's reply died down that expectation.
"Why should we? I mean, what's new you are cooking right now?" Dew curtly asked back in response. "Look, we had got nothing to do with you for this long. So I don't think we have got anything wth your private life, that you would need to mess up with us."
"Dew, stop, you are going overbroad," Hazel put her hands on top of his, to signal him. But he got more furious.
"Why Hazel? Do you think she didn't get overbroad when she messed up with Sayuri? Do you think it was okay when she got entangled with that junior? And when she felt helpless, she went on dying. Do you think that's justifies everything she did just because she was pitiful enough that she had to eat up sleeping pills?"
"What do you think, Airi? Now that you actually survived, you want more reasons to make another mess and attempt again?" Dew looked straight at her, and by that Airi seemed to flinch a bit.