Yumiko walked silently down the corridor, holding a file of school documents in her hands. So, unexpectedly for a silent girl, the girls from the parallel class attached themselves to her, and from their watchful gaze, Yumiko could think that she was in trouble.
"Isn't that you, Yumiko Sato?" exclaimed the girl standing in front of the other three. By the looks of them, they assumed they were self-appointed school princesses, keeping a stylish eye on their clothes and makeup.
"Y-yes…" trembled Yumiko slightly, not knowing how she should have acted, for she had not encountered such people before. To her, it was a special kind of maiden who thought of herself as an all-powerful lord, like Akiko, but she looked much more humble.
"Shall we go out for a few minutes?" asked the intruder, from whose lips the question seemed more like an edict, but Yumiko could hardly fight them off, and only swallowed her saliva.
They went to the corner behind the school by the running field and pinned the fragile girl to the corner. Yumiko was misunderstood and didn't know how to counteract them, and decided to take a step back, thereby pressing against the wall.
"So you're the same Yumiko who blew off my Yamada-kun…" the girl lowered her head, and the angry faces of her peers showed behind her. "I spent so much time pursuing him, and he picked you, the nameless girl who ended up blowing me off, too! Nonsense."
"Um…"
"Yamada-kun from yesterday for looking creepy," she raised her tone. "You devastated him, whore!"
Yumiko blurred in her mind, not understanding why she was being called such names. Why they were angry at her, and why she deserved the nickname — all these thoughts were absorbed into her mind, and the girl stopped perceiving the aggression from their sides, continuing to bore herself with the negativity emanating from within.
The situation around the girls changed when a tall senior from the parallel class came out of the corner. His folded dark pants pocket and unbuttoned collar with a chain around his neck caught the gaze of the confused girls first.
"He's…" said one of the girls, to which the other covered her mouth, "The tallest one in our school!"
The attractive girl standing closest to Yumiko removed her indignant gaze and tsked. "Glenn."
Before him stood a young man with dark hair that reached down to his ears and covered his forehead, and unsociable eyes that were perpetually rumored in their school to portend danger.
Glenn approached the girls, to which they retreated, but Yumiko didn't budge. "Hey, hey, did I interrupt your quarrels?" he added, appearing to be the goody-goody. "I apologize, girls."
"What are you even doing here?"
"Uh-oh, I completely forgot. Please forgive my tactlessness," the young man added, following up by getting in front of Yumiko. The boy lowered his gentle gaze. "The fact is that the frail and modest girl you attacked… is my girlfriend."
The four high school girls flinched, and to them Glenn's words were news not previously revealed. They figured that was why the silent girl had been turning guys down as of late.
The tall young man took Yumiko's delicate hand and held it out to him, asking quietly if she was bruised, to which the girl shook her head modestly. On the girl's face after Glenn's arrival, all worries immediately subsided, and she succumbed to her friend's improvisation. Glenn moved closer to her, squeezing her against the wall, to which the group of gals stared.
"Listen. If you continue to molest my treasure like this…" Glenn said with a humble tone, and after subsiding, he turned to the maidens with dead eyes. "You may forget where the east is."
The girls were startled by his gloomy eyes. What else, even Yumiko, who felt all the warmth of his body, recoiled from the unhealthy and dark atmosphere, which reeked of creepiness. Glenn was like a black raven that was not afraid to attack the city's animals, and he searched suitable victims with his gaze, then ripped them to shreds. Such a feeling strained the maidens, and the chief of them tsked again with displeasure, and they went away.
"Glenn-kun," Yumiko said modestly, and reaching for his jacket with her hands, to which she squirmed, signaled for the guy to step back. Glenn took a couple of steps back and saw the blushing maiden averting her gaze.
"I'm sorry," the young man waved his hands, "I saw you coming outside. If I hadn't gotten around to it, the situation might have been very different."
"Yeah, it's a good thing it worked out. Thank you."
"This is the rabble of one bully from our school," Glenn looked intently in the direction the girls had gone. "One of them is his best friend, and the rest of them are the local ladies. How dare they touch you!"
"Glenn-kun…" lowered the schoolgirl's bitter eyes, to which the boy responded instantly. "It seems I owe you one again," she added, revealing her childish joy and femininity.
"That's all right. It's a good thing you're in one piece."
***
At recess, Glenn walked aimlessly down the hall. He was in search of some interest to pass the time. After school he had his own work waiting for him. Glancing over at the students walking around in their dark uniforms, Akiko appeared to him, walking toward him. Stopping, they huddled against the windows of the long corridor.
"What do you do?" asked Akiko, starting their conversation. She had never spoken to Glenn alone before.
"Nothing. Just going in one circle."
"Apparently you have nothing to do at all."
"Uh-huh."
It wasn't that they treated each other with warmth, their distance could be felt in their conversation. Akiko wasn't at all close at heart to the young man, but Glenn didn't try to alienate him. He communicated with all people on the same level. A barrier seemed to shine through between them, preventing them from moving on to more private topics of conversation.
"How's the weather?"
"Same as usual," a graceful smile never left Glenn's face. It was a smile that every member of the circle had time to see, and Glenn himself often went with it.
"Honestly, I never thought I'd run into you, and here you are. You seem to disappear a lot?"
"Looking for ways to unwind."
"To get away from what?"
"To slow down."
"I don't understand you, and are you always so inarticulate?" gasped Akiko, and the young man chuckled. "You don't seem like a sociable person. You don't seem like one at all."
"Hmm? How would you know?"
"I listen to you a lot. You look like darkness in the darkness, and you seem aloof."
"I'll take note," he continued smiling, brushing her sullen words from her ears as if he hadn't heard anything at all.
"You're an odd one. Your manner is similar to that of a cunning fox in the depths of the thicket. They can deceive any little beast."
"And this is coming from a woman who hides her sincerity beneath the veil of an innocent girl?" the boy asked slowly, to which Akiko twitched. "After all, it's not for you to judge me, and what's the point of this conversation?"
"What am I hiding?" cringed the girl. "Are you a fool to say nonsensical things?"
"I revealed your secret with Tomoyuki-kun from the start. And you thought no soul would notice your ulterior motives under that mask? You just don't show it, do you?"
Akiko was confused when she heard the snide, sharp tone of the young man standing beside her. Her dark red eyes were agitated, and her ajar mouth showed surprise. Akiko stiffened unhappily.
"How dare you—" she failed to express contempt as she was immediately interrupted by the exclamation of the big man who came up in a flash.
"Hey-hey!"
The pair's gaze met that of a smiling guy standing in the middle of the corridor with a big, muscular body, tall stature, and decent-looking, dark grass-colored hair. The big guy's confident gaze was aimed directly at the dark-haired guy. Akiko fell silent.
In a lucky moment, a taste of unexpected anxiety immediately ventilated the sharp chime of the school bell that rang throughout the interior. The bell solidified the beginning of the next class, and all the students hurried into their classrooms.