𝙛𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚𝙙 | 𝘤. 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘴𝘶𝘯𝘰

¹⁹mandala

曼荼羅 || mandala

          BROAD DAYLIGHT WOVE GOLDEN THREADS UPON THEM. Brimming with the sun that has yet to hide behind the other side of the earth, she instead, hid under the edge of the roof's shadow.

Curious ears heeded her anticipated reply to Baji's accusation. They, too, have doubts and skepticism over her. Even if she is proven to be moral and humane, wearing a face mask every day with no obvious reason is odd from any angle.

"Pshhh, you actually thought that?" she huffed, mocking his theory as its silliness eliminated the tension. She's irked, though she can't blame him for thinking that. Honestly, she's glad they didn't jump to a conclusion and beat the shit out of her.

"Baji, no need to accuse her. She was probably supposed to give it to Chifuyu." a lilac-haired boy gave her a look, defending her from Baji.

"Thanks." she mouthed to Mitsuya.

Mikey, their president, looked her up and down. Dark aura was aflame around his otherwise babyish height. "You, do you know anything about Mandala?" he scanned her face a little too close and she leaned her face away.

Students avoided the circle of Toman like the plague, thrashing glances as if she was stupid to look at a Toman member in the eye, let alone talk to them. Perhaps it was concern or plain judgment that they were manifesting, though either way, she doesn't mind.

To some, she might've been seen as an attention seeker, befriending Chifuyu just for the sake of meeting the infamous Toman of Shibuya, Tokyo who carved their names on people's memory—not knowing that her name has already made history all around the world.

To put it simply, she doesn't care about their trivial stares.

Suddenly, a familiar voice came from beside her. "Eh? What are you guys doing here with [name]?"

Mikey, still not distancing his face from her, said, "Seems like she knows something about Mandala."

Warm arm leaned on her shoulders, side hugging her like buddies. "Is it fine for you, [name], if we ask you about it?" Chifuyu asked, soft eyes side-eyeing her.

It'll surely benefit her, too. After all, she's eager to know more about Mandala. "Yeah, sure."

Half an hour had passed since then. After agreeing to their deal, they headed to their hangout zone—the place where Chifuyu saw [name] performing for the first time.

Frankly, Chifuyu didn't bring his motorbike to school, so he sat on the passenger seat of Baji's bike while [name] rode with Hakkai. If only Hakkai knew that his idol was sitting behind him, he might've passed out.

"The seats look so much more many when it's empty...Woah, how many are there?" Nahoya asked no one in particular.

"Seventeen thousand-ish." [name] replied, knowing the number of chairs that her fans sat on during concerts in that specific bowl.

Mikey, back with his childish persona fiddled with her [color] keychain that's attached to her backpack zipper.

Sitting on the grass that tickled her [length] legs came the meek chirps of birds. Emma gracefully hunched behind her as she played with her [h/c] locks. "Your hair and features are so similar to [alias], luckyyyy! You know that famous singer, right?"

"...She's my cousin."

"Eh?! Can you—can you like, get her autograph sometime?" the blonde leaned on the side to look at her.

"Mhm, I can."

Draken crouched in front of her, showing the face of the paper to her. "What do you know about this?"

"It's a guy's tattoo on his arm. Um, he intruded on my house a few days ago—Wednesday, I think. I figured you guys would know something about it."

"Wednesday? Where the hell was Shion?!" Chifuyu spat, something internally alarming him.

"He said he was just going out to buy something real quick and I said yes 'cause I didn't like him anyway. It just so happens that someone decided to do this to me again." Of course, it's not her first time getting overdosed, but she's not ready to tell her story yet.

Limpid, cerulean irises peered at her [e/c] ones, his face subtly contorted.
Unfortunate reality chastised him, thinking he shouldn't have left her with that asshole, and listened to his gut feeling that something bad would have happened.

It made him want to protect her even more.

[name] didn't fail to capture his reaction. In order to relax his facial muscles, she forced to lift the corner of her lips, dare she say it.

As a child, she has been starved with affection from her mother. As a clueless teen, she realized that she received naught but material love. At a ripe age, she met Shion who she thought would always pick her side. At fifteen, she met someone worthy of her love and sacrifices.

"When I was still in first-year, Baji-san and I beat Mandala up. They might have some grudge towards me because they almost disbanded after that—a lot of their members left, too. Although I don't know much 'bout them now."

Toman can wipe them out, but only if Mandala declares an attack first. Who knows, maybe that member is a deserter, throwing dirt to their spurned name? Mikey would never agree oppress the weak.

It's just [name] won't always be with Chifuyu nor Toman. Yes, she can hire guards at that, but that beats her goal to live a normal life. To camouflage her identity with a mask on would be meaningless if guards follow her around.

Even if that might be the only solution, Chifuyu didn't want to take her freedom as a normal citizen away from her. He knows how important it is to [name] and he'd do anything to make it stay that way.

So, is Mandala gang really after him, or her?