With his arms crossed, Kapel awaited Jogrin to commence the discussion related to Zanphia's adversity. The boy in question, still with his backpack and blue contact lenses, had his hands on his waist as he looked at Garty and Zenover.
"I'm relatively clueless about what's actually going on, but according to what I perceived, other than Zanphia, the person directly involved in this, you two appear to be knowledgeable about it as well." Jogrin spoke up after ensuring that everyone was focusing on him.
"That's..." Garty glanced at Zanphia, hesitating to reply to Jogrin.
"Let me reveal something I've been perceiving between you siblings. Before those girls showed up, Zanphia, you've been feeling guilty about something related to Zenover. Tell me, does it have anything to do with those girls?"
Zanphia looked away without saying around, while Zenover's and Garty's guilt continued to build up.
"An acquiescence then. I see." Jogrin closed his eyes and pondered for a few seconds. "Kapel, do you know anything about any of this?"
"My apologies. It has only come to my notice only very recently."
"Alright then."
Jogrin knew Kapel wasn't one to lie. If he wanted to conceal the details from Jogrin, he would've said so directly.
"I'll... talk..." Zanphia, with her eyes glued to the floor, muttered. Her voice was so soft that she could be barely heard.
"Zanphia..." Zenover also muttered.
"It was about fours ago..."
According to Zanphia, she was a popular girl at school because of her above-average looks, physical abilities, and academic abilities. Although she wasn't the best in sports or academics, she still managed to outperform many others. She had many admirers, boys and girls alike, from different grades in middle school.
And it was also because of that that many developed romantic interest in her.
She'd received many confessions, but she rejected all of them, since she wished to focus on bettering herself in various aspects. In other words, she didn't have the time to date someone. She told those who confessed to her, hoping that they would come to understand her.
Fortunately for her, many of them understood and accepted her reasoning, while some eve encouraged her to continue with her hard work. She was extremely glad to receive support even from those she's rejected. That was why she wanted to work even harder to strive for the best. Her goal was to snatch the top spot in either sports or academics, while gaining knowledge that was outside of both of those.
Of course, there were still many who were charmed by her looks, so she continued to receive confessions, but she would still patiently explain herself.
"That was how it went during my first year of middle school, but something happened when the year was about to end..."
Zanphia was currently reaching the end of second semester in the third year of high school, and was about to graduate and go into a university. That would would mean the end of her first year in middle school would be... about five years ago.
At that moment, Jogrin was able to connect the dots.
"So it was five years ago... I see how it is." Jogrin spoke up after he'd been enlightened.
"... Oh, so Dad... already told you?" Zanphia figured out that Jogrin had been told about the horrifying incident five years ago.
"Yes."
"Telestrophe." A term that had been mentioned multiple times after Jogrin had arrived at Zuta. It referred to a tragic incident which took many lives. Being the one who witnessed everything taking place during and after the incident, Proxer had been greatly traumatized. However, with the support from others, especially his family, he was able to recover.
That was from Proxer's perspective only.
It was to be expected that, the mental states of the ones close to Proxer would be negatively affected as well. Jogrin was sure that Naytia, Zenover, and even Suzannia had been in the brunt of that, not just Zanphia.
However, in Zanphia's case, her disrupted emotional state led to more complications due to the incessant confessions.
"Even though we were going through hard times, the confessions just kept coming, so... I said something mean to one of my male classmates..." Unable to continue, Zanphia only stared at Jogrin with dreary eyes.
"Because you hurt his feelings, and pride, he began to spread fallacious rumors about you. And I guess what those girls said was a part of it."
After Jogrin completed what she couldn't, Zanphia became more dour, as her eyes was a little watery.
The rumors themselves weren't the ones to directly deal the blow, but it was those who heard, and believe it. At the beginning, many would just deny the authenticity of the rumors because they believed in Zanphia.
However, under the admiration from the guys, there was also jealousy from some girls. Without any evidence, the girls would spread such rumors whether they believed it or not. Since the number of people mentioning the rumors kept increasing, their "credibility" would see similar trend.
Eventually, most, if not all, would say that her "efforts" were simply making use of her feminine appeal to get her way. Even though it wasn't possible to "use her looks to attain better physical abilities," no one cared.
That was what Jogrin could deduce from Zanphia's words. Nonetheless, that didn't the least bit about her guilt towards Zenover. No, he had an inkling, but couldn't be certain of it until he heard it directly from either of them.
"I can talk about it further. Zanphia... do you mind?" Zenover decided he should speak in Zanphia's stead.
"Let me keep going... I can't always be relying on you..."
"But-"
"Please!!!" Abruptly, Zanphia's voice switched from soft muttering to yelling at the top of her lungs. Both Zenover and Garty were taken aback, while Jogrin and Kapel kept their cool.
It appeared that unlike she'd behaved for the past few days, she was making an effort to deal with her own issues. Admirable as it might be, simply yelling could solve nothing. That was what Jogrin had in mind as he gazed at the agitated Zanphia.
Zanphia took a deep breath before continuing.
"When the rumors were starting to spread, I tried everything I could to do to put it to rest..."
Doing that was definitely no easy feat, especially when you were on your own. In most cases, the more you denied them, the more "credible" they would become.
That was the case for Zanphia, at the beginning. However, the rumors soon reached Zenover's and Garty's ears. Knowing her since their childhood, they knew Zanphia wasn't the type of person as described by those rumors. Hence, they decided to defend her.
With that, Jogrin managed to understand where the guilt from Zanphia toward Zenover came from. He stole a glance at Kapel. It seemed that he was able to put all the pieces together as well.
'Because they were defending Zanphia, they became targets as well. And after some time, it wasn't just verbal abuse anymore.'
When Kapel noticed Jogrin, instead of returning a glare like he usually would, he ignored Jogrin and entered a state of contemplation as he looked away.
'He's already trying to come up with a solution, huh?' Jogrin surmised what Kapel was pondering about. 'The rumors have been ingrained in her peers' minds for five years. Even if no one mentioned them for a long time, it didn't mean that they forgot about them. Unless some kind of miracle happens, they will only continue to circulate... And I personally don't believe in miracles.'
In any case, that was the whole story about Zanphia's situation. Alienation due to slanderous rumors led to emotional damage. Then, her little brother and childhood friend got caught up in the crossfire as well. Because of these prolonging on and on, her mental state only continued to decline.
'She'd been putting up a front for Zenover and Garty's sake, but in the end, all it took were those words from the girls a few days ago to shatter her heart that was barely intact... I have an idea on what I should do, but the timing is important... It may not resolve the root problem, but at least it'll distract her...'
Jogrin thought of something. Now, he just needed to wait for the right time to execute it.