"Ah... what a nice day it is for a cruise."
The sun was shining high in the sky.
The cool breeze could be felt, and the gentle splashing of the waves could be heard as four girls were gathered before a cruise ship.
"I can't wait! I wonder what kind of things we'll see!!"
The girl known as Charlotte seemed to be excitedly looking around.
Dressed in a frilly shirt with jean shorts and a sunhat, the short haired girl looked around with excitement.
Her brown hair bobbed as she looked around, and her mouth seemed to gape with a childish smile as she took in the scenery.
"It's so big!! I can't believe they can build a ship this big!!"
"When you have money you can do anything."
Responding to the girl was the one known as Melody.
With long black hair that made it's way all the way down to her heels, she wore a purple sundress and a pair of vintage sunglasses.
"It's nice. I'd like to see what types of food they're serving on board though."
The one who said this was Elizabeth - a blonde girl with a long ponytail who wore a more masculine outfit.
She wore cargo shorts and a baggy t-shirt, giving her the appearance of a tomboy.
"Well... I guess this much is alright. I wonder if it's really all it's cracked up to be though."
With an arrogant smirk, Stella brushed her hand through her shoulder length blonde hair.
Wearing a high cut top and a pair of short shorts, she appeared to be the most revealing out of the four - as if she was trying to emphasize her own importance.
"Haha... you know, you've never really told us anything about your parents, Stella. You transferred into the school at the end of the year but you've never really talked about why."
Bringing up such a topic, Melody approached the girl with a smile.
"Based on the way you dress and act... can I assume that your father is rich as well?"
"Hah? A-ah! Yeah. My father is...."
Glancing away as she responded, the tone of Stella became a bit quieter as she responded.
"My father is a famous psychologist. He's written papers that have been recognized all around the world. He's performed many experiments on human behavior and… that sort of stuff… and he is well known among the scientific community. So of course he makes a lot."
"Hmm... a psychologist, eh?"
With a victorious grin, the black haired girl seemed to tower over Stella at that moment.
"So you go on cruises all the time just like this?"
"Eh? Ah, you... you could say that."
'Why am I lying?'
'Why do I feel like I need to lie to her?'
"Haha... I see. Well my daddy is a CEO. He's the CEO of Marcel Incorporated."
"EH!?!?"
All three of the girls dropped their jaws - including Stella as such a bomb was dropped on them.
"That rising megacorporation that's been involved in almost every branch of the economy recently!?"
"Your dad is the CEO!?"
"Are you serious!?"
Elizabeth and Charlotte seemed to look to the girl with surprise and even further respect, however Stella twitched her eye as she was filled with irritation.
"Haa... I see... that is pretty impressive, I guess.", she said, fumbling with her words.
Clenching her fist, the girl stepped forward as the four began their ascent onto the cruise ship.
"Well, anyway. We should get going, right?"
'I have to take the lead.'
'I have to show her... that I'm better than her.'
Why she felt this desire to defeat Melody, Stella did not understand herself.
She only felt it.
And it overwhelmed her.
"After all, if we don't hurry up... then there might not be any good food left. Right?"
It was then that Stella felt a hand on her shoulder as Melody passed her up, ascending the ship with grace.
"As if they would run out of good food on a cruise like this. Only a poor person would say something like that."
----
Lights blared.
Music shook the cabin.
A rave overtook the dance floor, and not a single person held back.
The area was filled to the brim with all sorts of pompous wealthy people, from heads of companies to political and military figures to mafia leaders.
It was a frenzy of the rich and well off.
'This...'
Stella found herself overwhelmed by the sudden change in atmosphere, and the desire to shrink in the crowd overcame her.
'Is too much.'
"What's with that face, Stella? Is something like this... surprising?"
Walking right onto the dance floor, Melody grinned as she placed one hand to her hip.
"This is just an everyday scene when you're the beautiful daughter of a CEO."
Charlotte and Elizabeth too were taken aback, however soon enough the two grinned with excitement.
"Food."
With this single word, the tomboy rushed off, her ponytail fluttering as she made her way over to the buffet, leaving the other three for her own pursuits.
"Liz... always so eager to eat stuff... how the heck do you not gain weight?", Charlotte whispered with a smile.
"A-anyways! What should we do first, Melody?"
"Haha... isn't that obvious? Let's get some drinks."
----
'Drinks...'
Stella found herself at the counter of a bar with yet another cocktail placed in front of her.
"Hey, don't throw up like last time. If you can't handle it then just drink a tiny bit."
"I... I can handle it. Haha..."
Putting on a false grin, Stella grabbed the drink once more.
'I'm... not like my father.'
Gulp.
'I'm... not a drunk bastard like him.'
Gulp.
'I'm... not abusive... I'm... different.'
Gulp.
'I'm... a decent person.'
Gulp.
"HEY!! I said just to drink a little!! Why the hell did you drink it all!?"
"Hah? Is something wrong, Melody?"
As Melody grabbed the shoulders of Stella, she was met with a different expression than last time.
Rather than the timid girl who couldn't hold her alcohol who was throwing up all over the place just nights before, she was instead met with a confident grin.
"What... did you think that I'd be the same as last time? Hahaha... you know... being able to hold drinks runs in my family. I just needed... a warm up."
Melody was taken aback by the sudden change, and Charlotte looked over with worry.
"Stella, are you really alright? Maybe we should just head back to the room-"
"I'm fine. Didn't I just say that? Come on."
Stepping off of her seat, Stella smiled with a lavish expression, thinning her eyes as she approached the dance floor.
Then, bumping into a young man, she looked up to him.
"Hey, good looking. How's it going? What do you say we dance together?"
"Hm? Oh, sure thing, beautiful."
Within moments, Stella had found a prettyboy to focus her efforts on, at which he gripped her hips as the two began to dance.
Melody was left to watch in surprise, wondering what could have possibly overcome her friend.
'This... is strange.'
'How could she have changed so much... in so little time?'
'This... is abnormal.'
'What is wrong with her?'
----
"So cool... you're the son of the Governor? Haha... my father is only a drunk bastard. Or wait... wasn't he a psychologist? Something about writing some papers or something... what was his name again? Ah... I never asked."
Stella found herself hanging over the guy, who seemed to be drooling over her.
Even as she said such incomprehensible things, the boy seemed to be infatuated with her.
"Haha... well, being the son of a Governor isn't that impressive. More important than our fathers, I'm more interested in us. That is... what kind of chemistry will go on between me and you?"
"Oh, is that so? You're pretty direct, aren't you? Do you say this to every girl you meet on these things?"
"Er..."
The boy seemed to sit back, choking up as the girl voiced such words, however immediately she laughed it off.
"I'm joking, I'm joking. I'm just messing with you. After all... the answer is already obvious.", Stella stated.
Standing up, the girl grinned as she walked away in a teasing manner.
"Well then... if you want more, then I suppose you'll have to find me again. I'm not going to give you my number unless you can do at least that much."
"W- wait just a minute, miss. Isn't it a bit cold to just leave me like this?"
"Cold? Haha... would a rich boy like you actually understand what it means to be cold?"
With a grin, the girl chuckled lightly to herself.
"I think I'm starting to understand dad Number 2. He observes people from afar, only commenting on their behavior while he watches in order to learn about them. And it's because of this strange habit that he's learned so much about people. Maybe I need to be a bit more like him. Ah, I know."
Walking off that day with a shameless demeanor, the girl grinned to herself.
"I'll study Melody and see just what it will take to defeat her."
----
'Wrong, wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.'
A girl sat in a private cabin, surrounded by crumpled papers as she threw yet another idea towards the waste bin.
'This is all... wrong.'
Scratching her head with her pencil, the creases in the girl's face increased as she stressed over something.
'Why... is she so flawless?'
This girl was Stella.
After having spent days on that cruise hanging around Melody, she had noticed something.
'She leaves... no openings.'
'How the hell am I supposed to make her jealous?'
Stella had tried to steal boys from the grasp of Melody, however such things were trivial to the girl.
"Hah? Oh, did you fancy that one? Take him if you wish. I wasn't particularly fond of his upper lip."
"Hmm? You seem to be awful loose, switching from one boy to the next. Is everything alright, Stella?"
"Hey, that's like the fifth boy that you've tried to get with since you've come on this trip. Don't you think about anything else?"
Stella had made a fool of herself, and painted herself as a flippant bitch in the process.
'I just... wanted to see her irritated.'
'I just.... wanted to defeat her once.'
'But now... it's gotten out of hand.'
As she sat there in that room on that day, Stella flopped onto her bed, laying faceup with a pained expression.
'What... should I do?'
'Should I just stop all this and have fun for the rest of this trip?'
'Should I just forget about defeating her and leave with at least a few decent memories?'
Without a doubt, this was the right option.
It was logically sound.
Her goal to defeat Melody was something she had imposed on herself - nothing more. Melody was not even aware of such a competition.
'She... isn't even aware.'
Grimacing, the girl turned over in her bed.
'That I've been trying so hard to compete with her.'
It was as she turned over in her bed however, that a thought made its way into the mind of Stella.
'Wait... just a minute.'
Widening her eyes, a flash of inspiration overcame the girl.
'She... doesn't care... at all.'
Then, a smile.
'Of course she wouldn't care. After all... these are guys she just met.'
'What if I were to defeat her by stripping the one she actually loves from her?'
Thus, Stella's goal formed.
'That's right.'
'Even if everything is taken from you... if it isn't precious to you, what would it matter?'
----
The trip ended.
Stella, however, was too focused on a delusion which she had grown inside her mind to so much as enjoy the time she spent in such a place.
The ship had arrived at the island resort, where there were countless activities, people, food, and all sorts of tropical festivities.
It was a paradise, yet Stella was unable to so much as enjoy a single moment of it.
For her overwhelming desire to win rotted away at her mind, and ruined her every last ability to enjoy her own life.
Too focused on the lives of others, she was destined to pursue measures which would never lead her to happiness.
----
"You do appear quite... exhausted. And yet, you are rejuvenated. I feel that you have come back without so much as producing results... yet you contain in your eyes the glimmer of hope, as if you have had some sort of enlightening encounter."
"Why do you always speak in riddles like that? It gets kinda annoying, you know."
"Your efforts are fruitless. If you continue doing what you do, you will only drive yourself to failure, ruin... and MADNESS."
"You always act like you understand everything about me. But you're a human too."
"Is that so?"
Holding out his hand, the man looked at it with a grin.
"I... am a human too... eh?"
Pushing up his glasses, the man smiled lightly as he fixed his tie.
"Haha... I suppose so."
----
Stella found herself watching Melody at all times.
'Who does she like?'
'No... it doesn't even have to be a boy she likes or anything like that. What is her goal?'
'What is something... that she wants more than anything?'
Like a hawk, she hovered about her prey as she carefully planned for the moment she would descend, baring her sharp talons in a single swoop.
"You seem a bit more cheerful recently, Stella. Has something changed since the cruise? You seemed awfully... constrained."
"Ah, I suppose cruises aren't really my thing. I've gotten quite bored of them, you know. I was trying so desperately to have fun, but no matter what I tried, it didn't seem to work out the way I wanted it to."
With a combination of truth and lie, Stella responded to the statement of Melody.
"Is that so? I see. Well I'm glad that you seem better. But to think someone could get bored of cruises... haha... you really are strange."
"I suppose I need more stimulation these days."
"Haha... is that so?"
"Of course."
----
Study.
Study.
Study.
Stella begun to study Melody at every moment.
Days passed.
Days turned to weeks, and weeks to months, and months to years.
As if she was obsessed, Stella continued to watch her every motion, patiently trying to find some sort of weakness in the girl.
Yet she showed none.
Until one day, years later when they found themselves in high school.
"Do you want to go out to dinner tonight, Melody? My treat."
"Oh... ah... actually, I have plans tonight."
"Oh... is that so? Then what of you two?"
"Ah, I'll go!"
"Are you paying?"
Melody had rejected Stella's invitation to dinner, therefore Stella instead invited the other two who stood by them - Charlotte and Elizabeth, who agreed without hesitation.
'This... she is acting weak.'
Stella immediately sensed a change in the usually confident demeanor of Melody, and this sparked a flash of hope within her.
'Something... is happening.'
'Finally.'
"Alright. I'll meet you guys outside of the school then."
"Later!"
"Hey, you are paying, right?"
"Yes, yes. I'll pay. Liz, you're truly shameless, aren't you?"
"What's the point in something like shame if I can get free food by giving it up?"
"Haha..."
----
The three girls met one another outside the school, at which Stella took the lead, standing before them while raising a finger.
"Melody was acting very suspiciously when she rejected the offer earlier."
"Huh?"
"What do you mean, Stella?"
The other two girls looked to Stella with confusion as she spoke to them with a smile, however she continued nonetheless.
"Have you ever seen Melody act... unconfident?"
"Ah... now that you mention it... I haven't."
"Who cares about that? I'm ready to get something to eat."
With the roll of her eyes, Stella chastised Elizabeth who didn't seem to care in the slightest.
"We can eat later, but this is important. I think we should investigate this. For the sake of our friend."
"Hah? Isn't this just butting into someone's business? And making me wait for food for something so stupid..."
Elizabeth seemed annoyed at the detour which Stella wanted to take, however Stella wasn't going to give up such a chance.
"I'll buy you an entire meal and another meal for leftovers. How does that sound?"
"If I go along with this?"
"Yes."
"Hmm... I guess that's fine."
Bribing the girl with food, Stella was able to move the situation on track, heading in a direction which she liked.
"Great. Now then... here's the deal. We're going to tail her and see what Melody is doing tonight."