As Kai and Hina arrived at the school gates, they were cheerfully greeted by Yuna, who had been waiting for them, her posture tense and anxious.
Kai noticed her nervousness from a distance before approaching the school gates, as Yuna kept glancing around as if she expected someone to jump out from the shadows.
Her eyes darted between students, scanning the crowd with an alertness that sent a chill down his spine.
Something was definitely wrong.
She was constantly looking around her, like she was scanning the whole area in search of any possible danger.
"Hey, guys!" Yuna called out, forcing a smile, but her voice betrayed her unease.
She waved eagerly, trying to appear cheerful.
Hina smiled back at her, though she too had picked up on Yuna's strange behavior.
"Good morning, Yuna! Everything okay?" Hina asked, her voice warm but probing.
She had always been good at sensing when something was off.
Yuna nodded quickly, almost too quickly.
"Yeah! Everything's fine. Just... didn't sleep well last night, Hehe~." Her laugh was awkward, and she avoided making eye contact with Kai.
Kai raised an eyebrow, his concern deepening.
He knew Yuna well enough to see through her excuses, but decided not to press her for now.
Instead, he greeted her calmly like he didn't notice anything.
That was the best choice.
Answers will come without questions.
"Good morning, Yuna. Let's head inside." Kai said with a calm tone of voice.
With that, the three of them entered the school, exchanging a few more words before parting to their respective classes.
The tension from Yuna's strange behavior lingered in Kai's mind, but he pushed it aside as the morning's lessons began.
He couldn't overthink for all the morning.
Even his brain has limits, and there were other things to think about, like the school festival.
That was that first day of organization and there was a lot of work to do, from the schedule to the club activities.
Days would've been stressful.
The morning passed uneventfully.
Kai tried to focus on the material, but his thoughts kept drifting back to Yuna.
He was certain something was bothering her, something she wasn't sharing.
He made a mental note to check on her during lunch break.
As the bell for recess rang, Kai gathered his things, preparing to head out for a pause when a member of the student council approached him.
"Kai Suzuki?" the girl asked, a slight formality in her voice. "The student council president wants to speak with you in the council room."
Surprised but not alarmed, Kai nodded and followed her.
"Is it… Naomi?" Kai asked to himself.
Upon entering the student council room, he was greeted by the president and several other members, all seated around a table discussing the upcoming school festival.
But there was no sign of Naomi or Yuna, and that thing sent a small alert to Kai.
"Kai, thank you for coming," the president said, motioning for him to sit. "We've been discussing the festival plans and we know about you, and that specific reason we should talk about the logistics." She said, with a professional tone of voice.
Kai expressed his ideas briefly, suggesting ways to improve the layout for the event and ensuring everything ran smoothly.
The council listened attentively, nodding along as he spoke.
The council president wanted to know if Kai had some kind of ideas in mind, and he expressed all the sketches he had in mind, from the starting to the ending.
He suggested to split the event in multiple part in order to give every club the right amount of importance.
When he finished, the president smiled. "That sounds perfect. Actually, we were hoping you could help with a new student transfer. She'll be in charge of the logistics, and we'd like you to work with her directly. It seems you two already know each other."
"A transfer student? This time of the year?" Kai thought in his mind.
Kai blinked in surprise. "Know each other?"
Before he could ask anything more, the door to the room opened, and in walked a girl with long blonde hair cascading down her back, her gray eyes bright and sparkling with a confident yet graceful air.
"Kai Suzuki," the girl said with a playful smile, "long time no see."
Kai's heart skipped a beat.
It was Emi Fujimoto, one his childhood friend.
He hadn't seen her in some time after their meeting at the cat cafeteria.
Emi had always been the center of attention, popular not only for her looks but for her presence online as a rising influencer.
Kai also remembered her appearance on a famous national TV.
She hadn't changed much as she was beautiful as always, still carrying an effortless charm that drew people in.
"Emi," Kai murmured, caught off guard. "I didn't know you transferred here."
"Surprise!" Emi laughed softly, her eyes locking onto his. "I'll be working on the festival logistics since I got called for this. Looks like we'll be seeing a lot of each other." Emi said with a very lovely smile.
Kai forced a smile, trying to mask his growing sense of dread.
He wasn't worried about the work itself since he knew that Emi was reliable and capable.
But the thought of how Hina might react to this... He could already imagine the jealousy and possessiveness stirring in her.
She could easily murder someone for just talking to her boyfriend.
So, seeing a random girl appearing out of nowhere working all the time with your boyfriend would've been… really annoying.
The president seemed pleased with the match.
"We're counting on you two and Hina Ishikawa to make this festival a success. Emi, we're confident Kai will be a big help."
Hearing Hina's name sent a shiver down Kai's spine.
Emi flashed Kai another playful smile. "I'm sure he will." She said.
Kai also noticed that she didn't ask about Hina.
But the reason was probably that everyone in the school knew her name.
As the meeting wrapped up, Kai left the room with Emi walking beside him.
She chattered excitedly about catching up and their old memories, but Kai's mind was elsewhere.
He knew he needed to tell Hina about Emi soon, but he also knew it wouldn't be an easy conversation.
In the back of his mind, Yuna's earlier nervousness gnawed at him too.
Something was happening, and it felt like the pieces of a larger puzzle were beginning to fall into place, one that could disrupt the fragile balance of peace they had been clinging to.
But for now, he had to deal with the more immediate problem.
He started to think about Hina's reaction at the sight of Emi Fujimoto.
Hina would've probably reacted very bad.
But hiding something like that from her would've been even worse.