Red

• Vermilion

"Hey, have you watched the news?"

"Yeah. It's so scary! How could someone do something so horrible?! My god I'm still getting goosebumps"

Those are the words that reached Justin's ears upon opening the classroom door. He scanned the room to look for the group talking about the morning news. Upon seeing them in the corner of the room with open notebooks lying on the table, he can only shake his head. He proceed to go to his own desk and do any homework that he forgot to do the night before.

A scraping noise caught his attention from his notes and look upon the person who caused it. He's not surprised that it's his friend, John. Sighting the grin on his face, he already knew what going to come out of his mouth.

"Have you—"

"Heard the news. Yeah, I did. Mom was watching the news earlier. I can't even focus on my breakfast because of that," He grimaced. Remembering the blurred images and the topic that his mother brought up.

"Man! The suspect must be a psycho. With all those mangled faces and ugh! Remembering the news makes me want to throw up my breakfast," John made a gagging noise.

"Can you please stop that. The image that you put on my mind is so disgusting," Justin pushed John away with his face scrunched up.

"Not my fault that you have a wide imagination," John shrugged his shoulders while trying hard not to laugh at his friend.

"I hate you"

"I know. I love you too~," John stood up and ran before Justin can threw the eraser he's holding.

× × ×

The morning class passed by like a blink a of an eye. The usual silent room suddenly got filled with chatters and scraping noises.

"Oh yeah. It's time for lunch. I wonder if Mom packed a lunch for me..," Justin whispered to himself.

"Hey! Hey! Let's eat on the rooftop. The sun is radiant and the wind isn't that cold!," Hanna banged his desk and that almost cause him to let out a girly shriek.

"What the—?! Why do people like to mess with me today?," Justin grumbled after recovering from his shock.

Hanna only threw him a huge grin in which he reciprocated with a glare. Deciding that he don't have any energy to argue with her, he silently rummage his bag for his lunch and followed Hanna out of the classroom.

"Ah~! The weather is so nice today! I can't wait to see what's everyone's lunch!," she exclaimed while bounding up the stairs. An obvious bounce in her steps brought a frown on his face.

"You didn't bring any lunch again?,"

"Yeah. I overslept. Binge watch some animes," she laughs like it's a normal thing.

"You and your animes," Justin can only shake his head and Hanna took it as an insult.

"Hey! Animes are life! So don't show that ugly disappointed face at me!," she points her finger between his eyes while trying to give a scary glare.

Justin can only roll his eyes while opening the rooftop 's door.

"Hey! Don't ignore me you—!"

"Stop fighting you lovebirds! Hahaha!," John called to them. The two glared at him and get cause him to laugh louder.

× × ×

"Ah~ I'm full! Thanks for the meal!," Hanna flashed them a huge grateful grin and in turn receive "No problem"s except for Justin, who cleaned his mess with a huff.

"You should make your own lunch. We're not your personal pantry," He grumbled but only receive another huge grin. He resisted the urge to plant his face on his palms while mumbling "Why am I friends with you?".

"Hey, cheer up. We don't mind besides we all knew Hanna's situation at home," Lyra interjected while elbowing his side.

'Oh, yeah. Hanna's family isn't getting enough financial support right now'. Justin suddenly felt guilty and kept his mouth shut.

"Stop talking about me and let's talk about the fresh from the oven issue this morning," Hanna waved her hand to dismissed any discussion about her family and opted to change the topic.

"Oh, Yes. About the murder from last night. As I told Justin this morning, I really think the murderer is a psycho. How can he stomach all of that?," John shuddered.

"There's even a rumor going around," Jiro inserted.

"Rumor? What rumor?," Lyra questioned.

"About the rape Incident last year. Everyone in my neighborhood keep talking about it. Saying "Karma finally bit back" at them," Jiro explained after taking a sip from the milk carton in his hand.

This caught Justin's attention and he paused from stuffing his utensils inside their pouch. He turned to Jiro asking him to elaborate.

"You only moved here this year, right? Well, last year maybe a month or two before the last semester there's an incident involving highschool students. It's a rape incident and the parents of the victim even brought it to court but those high schoolers got a "Not Guilty" verdict since they don't have enough evidence to prove their guilt. People said that after their defeat, the family moved away from here.

"And before the school year ended, news spread that the victim committed suicide. There's not much information about the incident and whether the suicide's true or not. But as a respect for her memory, we always leave flowers for her on her former table,"

"That's right. Wait, what's today's date?," John questioned, almost jumping from his position on the floor.

"It's December 6. Why? Oh..," Hanna said quizzically and then her shoulders sagged upon realization.

"Today's her death anniversary..," Lyra solemnly said.

Silence hovered over them before Justin decided to break it. His mind is whirling with questions that he want answers to but decided not push upon seeing his friends gloomy faces.

"I hope you don't mind me asking.. But do you know the victim's name?," He mumbled while looking in his lap.

"We don't mind. She's our late classmate. Her name's Lin."