That Blonde Guy

Chapter 44.1

The soothing hum of the car engine filled Ayana's ear as she leaned against the seat of the Taxi. The girl breathed a gentle yawn, feeling the desire for an afternoon sleep creeping up.

She had just gone to the mall, taking advantage of the school-free day to purchase office supplies for the Book Lovers Club. She and Kita went together, even enjoying a snack in a nearby diner before parting ways. The past weeks, she found herself becoming more open to her BLC clubmates, especially with Kita, discovering something new about herself that she didn't know before. It had been quite fun, she thought. It was nice to be around people where you feel belonged, after all.

Ayana leaned her head against the car window, fixing her eyes to the trees outside, head empty as she fantasize about having a long nap in the softness of her bed. Her drowsiness, however, faded when she spotted a familiar female figure turning just to the adjacent street. It made her lean forward, trying to make sure.

And it was indeed her. The girl.

Ayana couldn't forget her face. It was the girl that she saw from the convenience store that distant day, the same girl that Manjiro Sano introduced to everyone that morning in the shrine as his girlfriend.

She turned to the driver. "Can we follow her?"

It's been a long time since that fateful day that she confessed to the guy, and she thought she was already over it, until she saw the girl that afternoon. Ayana didn't know why she decided to follow her, though. Curiousity, perhaps. Maybe she just wanted to get a closer look of the lucky girl who now owned Mikey's heart.

She stared intently through the glass of the car window, realizing that the girl led them to the river, the side of the city that Ayana had never been before. The car stopped in a decent distance, hiding behind a tall bush of Itadori. Ayana slid down the car's tinted window, trying to get a better view of the girl as she made her way off the road to the riverside where a wave of green grass freely grew.

Ayana felt a sudden sinking in her chest upon seeing that Mikey was there. It's not like she wouldn't see him in the class, they were classmates after all, it just seemed different seeing him outside, specially with the girl. The sight made her push the glasses up her nose, fixed her eyes to the blonde guy and the girl sitting together, talking. For a moment she sat inside the car and watched them play with a small black-and-white kitten.

It sent a pang of pain, yet it caused a small smile on her lips. 'At least he's happy.'

Finally, she instructed the driver to go, but her eyes caught something by the trees in the distance. It was a group of guys wearing identical orange clothing, staring at the same direction-to Mikey's and the girl's.

"Wait," she said, once again making the car stop. Her eyebrows furrowed seeing another group gathered behind another tree in the far distance. She saw that more of the guys were arriving from the corner of the street meters and meters ahead, pushing their bikes with the engine off, as if silently sneaking. They would hide in the bushes and trees, like a pack of wolves watching their prey, eyes straight on the same direction to the grassy slope of the river.

Ayana immediately pulled the window up, observing the guys in orange clothing through the tinted glass.

'What is happening?'

* * *

The afternoon sunlight danced on the gently flowing river.