Rainbow

Past and Present

"Akira-kun..." she started the conversation with, in the same jovial tone she used introducing the weather.

"Marin-chan?" he replied, sounding as though he was lifting a heavy burden off his shoulders.

"I've been thinking... about Kasumi, and Saiji, and Ayumu, and what they've been doing."

"Yeah, I guess I've been thinking the same thing. We've got each other, at least."

"It hasn't been the same since then."

"Agreed..."

With those words, their minds collectively went back to those horrific days.

The day Maiko, by pure accident, killed her best friend Nico.

The day Kego gave up on the group and took... aggressive measures towards Misuzu.

The day Mitsunari succumbed to malicious influence, butchered Aruma, and almost claimed Kasumi's life as well.

The day Kazuomi couldn't handle it anymore and chose death.

The day Seishi... no, Zen, tortured Mikoto to death for knowing too much.

The day Narumi finally revealed her scheme of revenge, before Monodora self-destructed the whole academy, killing the both of them.

But that was in the past now. It was all over now. They had to focus on the present and the future. Both of them. All of them.

At that moment, Akira noticed a faint scent coming from the kitchen; a perfect distraction from the dark clouds in his head. Marin, who had been expecting him to turn up at her house sooner or later, was quick to receive his answer on what exactly he could smell.

"...Are those cupcakes?"

"How did you guess? I'll go and get them right now, 'cause they're most likely done!"

Marin went to the kitchen, and took the cupcakes out of the oven. They looked nice and crispy enough. Akira couldn't help but treat himself to one, and thought of them as delicious. He would have compared them to Narumi's cupcakes, but he didn't want to think about it. He remembered hacking files on a computer with a gun pointed at his head, and didn't want to bring it up and kill the mood. Marin understood this. She didn't want Kasumi to think about Misuzu, Saiji to think about Maiko, Ayumu to think about Mikoto. Nobody wanted the dreadful memories to flood back to them.

So it was that the remainder of their conversation was idle chit-chat. About the weather. About TV shows. About Kasumi, Saiji and Ayumu.

About each other.