She Who Seemed Heartless

Chapter 4

Armin and Annie went straight to the registrar's office, bringing the latter's required documents for enrollment. Rina and Albert brought Annie to the academy after Armin's classes and asked him to inscribe her to the same school as him. Armin did all the talking there, seeing how the blonde's innate weakness is interacting with other people. The only thing she did was to provide necessary information on the student registration form. She accidentally wrote 'Leonhardt' on the surname section so she asked for another one and started again, writing 'Arlert' that time. Doing so made her feel rather dithery but settled to hold on to this fact in order to avoid confusion. Armin paid a part of the tuition fee but Annie filled in the official receipt.

"Now take care of that, alright?", Armin reminded, referring to the receipt.

"Of course."

Mikasa happen to pass by the registration office as the two walked out of the room, causing Armin and her shoulders to collide lightly to each other. "Oh, sorry!" He immediately realized it was Mikasa though, after seeing her overall physical figure that's already genuinely familiar to him. "Armin. I thought you already went home." Mikasa, of course, noticed Annie's presence there. She just refused to acknowledge it. "I have to enroll Annie here." That was the only time she turned her head to cast a look at the other for a short while. Annie did nothing but look back, face still lacking emotions.

"I see. It's not impossible. I've thought about it."

"Where's Eren? Still at the fields?"

"Yes. Practice stops at 3 so we'll leave by then."

"Okay. Hey, Annie", he turned his attention to her. "Let's go watch Eren's practice. Aunt and uncle won't be here for a while since they went to the grocery so we have some time to kill."

Annie simply obliged to the offer. She has nothing else better to do and sports practice piqued her interest somewhat. Also, this may be a chance for her to choose a sport to participate in once she enters school. The three went straight to the open school fields though conversations were mainly done between Armin and Mikasa, the two girls not uttering a single word to each other.

--

The school field was occupied that day, various sport players having their respective practices. Each group has their own zone to make things more organized for their own convenience. The baseball team, where Eren joined as a pitcher, was positioned by the eastern side of the ample parcel. Armin, Annie and Mikasa sat by the fourth row of the audience seats to have a good view of the game. Eren threw the ball towards the batter's position and as he was about to strike it, Mikasa's presence took away his fiery concentration and directed it towards her.

"Mikasa!"

He managed to pull off a toothy grin to the brunette before his face dramatically deformed when the ball successfully hit him, added the brute force Eren put on that launch.

"What a loser." Eren glanced to their direction this time and waved at them. "Yo, Armin! And..."

The sight of Annie made his body static for a while. His first thought concerning her presence at their current place was Armin brought her along with him. Yet Eren knew that Armin won't do anything without a pragmatic reason. He decided to brush off his speculation and riveted on the situation at hand. He greeted her nonetheless. "Hi, Annie!" Unexpectedly, Annie waved back at him but in a more minimal manner while retaining her wonted apathetic facial expression.

The practice ended at around 3:15 in the afternoon. Mikasa swiftly stood up from her seat to approach Eren, who was making his way upstairs with his things. "Here you go, Eren." She handed him a bottled water which he gladly accepted and consumed. The batter, on the other hand, went to Armin's side, eyeing Annie carefully. As he sat down on the chair where Mikasa was seated before, he playfully nudged the blond's shoulder. "You didn't tell me you had a girl." To dispel Armin's bafflement, he pointed at Annie with his lips.