The person who seemed to have known Kiana for a long time and was sitting beside her was Satou Yunona.
Satou Yunona was one of the few girls in the class who had never targeted her with malice. Not long after Asakura Miyuki transferred in, Yunona had even spoken up to stop people whenever she heard them badmouthing her. This seemingly honest and ordinary girl possessed a courage and resolve that Asakura Miyuki lacked.
Voicing one's thoughts despite the atmosphere created by most people might seem immature in some eyes, but to those being defended, such a person was incredibly great—like the only ray of sunlight in a dark world, warm and precious.
If—if Asakura Miyuki hadn't broken, perhaps she might have gained a little comfort from this.
Unfortunately, there were no ifs.
So annoying, so annoying, so annoying, so annoying, so annoying.
Why, why, why?
Why did Satou Yunona get to know Kiana before me?
Other than her twisted and deformed "love" for Kiana, the girl's heart now held nothing but unfathomable darkness. Even Satou Yunona, who had once reached out to help her, had become no different from everyone else in her eyes. She had even begun to harbor murderous intent toward her.
Endure, endure, endure. She told herself that she couldn't let Kiana notice anything strange about her.
Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to get close to her properly.
Endure, endure, endure, Asakura Miyuki whispered inwardly.
Her ink-black eyes looked somewhat frightening against her expressionless face, but then she revealed a shy smile.
It was attractive and natural, as docile as a harmless fawn.
During lunch break.
Kiana sat on a bench in a relatively secluded part of the school. The energy of the female high school students in this country was honestly a little too much for her. She sighed inwardly and opened the lunch box Su Qing'an had prepared for her. Inside was a normal girl's portion.
After more than four weeks of spending time together, Su Qing'an had already realized that although Kiana could eat a lot, that was merely because her upper limit was high. In reality, unless she engaged in extremely strenuous exercise, a normal girl's portion was enough to keep her from going hungry.
In fact, during her years of wandering, she had encountered places where money was useless, and had experienced the hardship of not knowing where her next meal would come from. So whenever she had the means, she would instinctively eat a great deal of food. No one could say how much of that came from loving food and how much came from her habitual wariness of what might happen the next moment.
In any case, the girl used her chopsticks to pick up a piece of rolled omelet and put it into her mouth. Her cold expression unconsciously relaxed, revealing a hint of a smile.
It's delicious. Su Qing'an didn't secretly add chili as a prank. He deserves praise.
So... so cute. The girl secretly peeking at Kiana from behind a tree sighed at the expression on her face.
"Is something wrong?" Kiana asked the girl hiding behind the tree after swallowing the omelet completely.
Asakura Miyuki stepped out from behind the tree. Her beautiful face was shy and bashful as she said, "My name is Asakura Miyuki. Um... yesterday... thank you for saving me."
"This is the hoodie you lent me yesterday." She handed Kiana the neatly folded hoodie she had been holding behind her back.
"Uh, thanks." Kiana accepted the hoodie.
"Um... I have a gift for you! It's my thanks for saving me yesterday. If you don't accept it, my conscience won't let me rest."
"Let's meet here tonight. I didn't expect to run into you so soon, so I left the gift at home. Then it's settled, okay? I'll head back to class first, Kiana."
Without waiting for Kiana to respond, the girl turned around and walked toward the classroom with a radiant smile, her steps light.
Kiana would come.
Because Kiana was kind.
Asakura Miyuki was certain of it.
"Um, Kiana." Two girls from the same class walked over.
"Hmm?"
"Whatever you do, don't get too close to Asakura Miyuki. That girl has something wrong with her head." The girl spoke with absolute certainty.
"Yeah. I heard that at her previous school, she used to associate with all kinds of shady men, and she even got—" the other girl hurriedly added.
Kiana had no interest in gossip, but what the two girls said next made her stop and listen.
"After that, she started acting kind of weird around girls."
"Yeah, she still likes pestering the girls at school."
"It's seriously disgusting." The two girls revealed looks of disgust.
"..." Kiana's expression remained cold and silent.
"Speaking of which, wasn't the upperclassman Asakura used to pester one of the victims in the recent disappearance cases?"
"Yeah, and that second-year student too... But they found her body recently, didn't they? The disappearance cases have already turned into a serial murder case."
"Wouldn't that make everyone even less willing to get close to her?"
"Anyway, that person's a jinx. We don't like badmouthing people behind their backs either, but it's safer to stay as far away from her as possible."
A serial murder case. Clues flashed through her mind one after another. Her instincts sounded an alarm. Combined with the trace of something strange she had noticed earlier, Kiana couldn't help frowning.
"Then we won't disturb you while you eat lunch, Kiana. See you in class." The two girls waved goodbye.
"Yeah. See you."
The hand holding the hoodie tightened involuntarily. Kiana's pleasant mood had vanished.
The sky was high and the clouds sparse. Birds swept across the heavens, while the rushing wind rolled maple leaves along the ground. In this autumn so close to winter, even the bright sunlight seemed to dim abruptly.
The girl's skirt fluttered in the wind as she gazed at the clouds in the sky. Her eyes were as clear and cold as frozen spring water.
"Huh? Kiana, you're not coming to the shop with me?" Satou Yunona asked in confusion. Ever since getting to know Kiana, the girl had basically only gone out to the café and rarely went anywhere else. The fact that Kiana wasn't returning to the shop after school aroused her curiosity.
"I'm going to pick up a package mailed from Europe. The address seems to have been written incorrectly, so I thought I'd go get it today," Kiana urged her. "You should hurry home. If I'm not there, Su Qing'an might not feel like opening the door. You don't want to make a wasted trip, do you?"
Kiana had stated the truth without a doubt.
"What you're saying makes so much sense. I've wanted to complain about his attitude toward running the shop for ages. The manager was already like that half a year ago. Speaking of which, he's only seventeen, right? How can he run a shop? Is there some strange criminal organization behind him?"
Satou Yunona began complaining, but her curiosity soon shifted in another direction. Afterward, she said goodbye to Kiana:
"Then I'll head home today. See you tomorrow, Kiana. Bye-bye (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡."
"Yeah, bye-bye." The girl nodded, watching Satou Yunona's energetic, bouncing figure gradually disappear from sight. A while later, she too chose to leave the empty classroom.
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