"Are you really okay? I can hand him the transcript myself. You don't need to come with me." Sydney said, her eyes trained on the road.
"No, no it's fine. I always like to be present when Ikki reads the final version. He'd give me funny looks while biting on his pen. At first, I thought it was weird but then he said that it was because he couldn't find anything wrong with it." Mei smilingly said as she looked out the window.
The drive to campus seemed normal. They kept finding new topics to talk about and all seemed normal. But something had been eating at Sydney's thoughts. She knew Mei was just playing it up. That she had not yet grasped whatever it is they talked about back there. She decided to leave it for later.
"So you left Rikki alone to handle the club? I mean he is the boss, but I won't be surprised if I see a few fires here and there." Mei said.
"I left him for one hour, the best damage he could do is jam a few printers." The two proceed to laugh and proceed to joke about Rikki some more.
~~~
"Charlie, what the hell are we doing behind the paper club? It's almost the end of the school year and we're wasting our time here!"
"Shut up! Don't you think I know that? The old man asked me to look into the paper club. And you two know as much as I do that we do what he says."
Charlie and two of his friends surveyed the exterior of the paper club building. They peeked through windows and listened in on conversations but did not catch anything worthwhile.
"Oi! You guys lost or something?"
They looked behind them and saw Rikki. Charlie signaled the others to calm down and let him handle the situation.
"Not really, the boys and I were just sightseeing. End of the school year and all. Gonna be missing this campus, you know?"
"Yeah, I do know. But I never recalled the back of our building, or any other part of it to be your hangout spots."
Rikki approached the boys, holding his jacket over his shoulder with one hand and the other in his pocket. He thought of approaching them confidently, trying his best not to lose his composure in front of three larger individuals.
"Seems like you guys don't have the club's best interests at heart with all this loitering around you've been doing. Plus, you're making the others uncomfortable, so how's about you all move along."
"Hmph, or what? You gonna make a story about us too?" Charlie responded, answering Rikki's approach with his towering presence.
"I've heard you've been poking your nose around the Fine Arts department. Not a smart move considering your club's history with these types of stories."
"Oh? Is that confirmation I'm hearing?" Rikki asked.
"It's a warning. But judging from your curiosity, you HAVE been digging through their business."
"So what now? Are you planning on threatening me into dropping the story?"
"Oh, nothing like that. Well, not with you of course. We know you just handle the business side of things. What we want is to talk to the journalist behind the story."
Rikki raised his right eyebrow.
"I'd think twice about throwing around threats like that. More so when in front of other people."
Charlie looked up to see other members of the paper club peeking through the windows. Some started recording using their phones while others were jumping at the chance of supporting Rikki if things were to go south for him.
"I suggest you walk away now. Don't want your face on the front page of the last paper we'll put out now do you?"
Rikki was convinced that he won the argument. So convinced that he started walking away from the trio.
"Hey, wait a minute. Weren't you that guy we chased around campus for hours the other day?" Charlie said.
Rikki stopped and started to sweat profusely.
"Yeah! You kept shouting insults, calling us dumb to make us keep chasing you!" One of Charlie's friends said.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about," Rikki said with a stuttering voice.
"Yeah, it was you! Well, how about that? No one's gonna come at us if they think we're just settling the score with you, right?"
As Charlie and the others approached the nervous Rikki, a honking from the distance caught their attention. A deep blue car was charging at them at full speed. They only had a split second to react as the car parked right between them with a screeching noise.
"Hey Charlie, how's it going? How's about you start walking out of my parking spot?" Sydney said with Mei cheering on from behind her.
"Damn crazy bitch." Charlie said as he bolted away from the building together with his friends.
"So what was that about Ikki?" Mei asked as she stepped out of the car.
"You know, same old. You get a potentially scandalous story and I get all the threats that come along with it." Rikki said as he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Well looks like we came at just the right time didn't we?" Sydney said.
"I had it under control. And what's the big idea for messing up the driveway? These tire marks you made don't come out easily you know!"
"You can clean that later, Mei has something she wants to talk about."
"Oh, right! Here."
Mei handed Rikki a sizable folder.
"I take it this is your final version for the article? And it's as thick as a thesis. I'll get to reading it right away."
Just then, Rikki noticed the dark circles around Mei's eyes and the reddish hue of them.
"Hey, you doing alright Mei?"
"Oh, yeah."
"Well, you don't look okay. Maybe you should take a few days off of campus and leave the rest to us?" Rikki placed his hand on Mei's shoulder.
"That sounds… Amazing… Thanks, Ikki, and I also have to visit Ms. Aikawa. I thought I'd celebrate finishing the story with her."
"Sure thing, just take it easy for a while, okay?"
Mei nodded in agreement. When Sydney finally returned, they entered the building and debated lunch plans.
Leaves started rustling at the other side of the building. Over the distance, Charlie was walking away.