Monarch 1: Perseverance

8 - Rekka and Haruna

The next day, Tsukasa was released from the hospital. The hospital allowed Rekka and Kazuyuki to sleep in Tsukasa's room using futons, so they could get rest while being monitored. Jace said he was confident they would be fine, but he still wanted to be safe.

Isake ensured that while Souske was in Tsukasa's apartment, he only took what belonged to him. Anything that Souske tried to take that Isake thought actually belonged to Tsukasa or Haruna, Isake made him leave until Tsukasa could confirm if it was or was not theirs. After everything of his was removed, Tsukasa and Haruna returned home. Rekka accompanied them on Tsukasa's request for dinner the day after Tsukasa woke up and was released from the hospital.

"You'll have to excuse the mess..." Haruna said as they approached. "Souske wasn't exactly a clean freak. And since I had soccer and school work going, I wasn't able to keep up with the slob."

"He never picked up any of the housework?" Rekka asked.

Haruna shook her head. "He didn't even pick his plate up from the table after he ate... He made me do everything."

"Horrid man..." Tsukasa scowled. "Well... Let's see what state he left our home in..."

The trio arrived at the Shozaki apartment and entered. Rekka was expecting the apartment to be in a bad state... But it was surprisingly tidy. Sure, there was clutter here and there. But overall it was clean.

"Wow!" Tsukasa stepped in and slipped her shoes off. "Haruna, you really kept up with him, didn't you?"

"He didn't give me much choice..." Haruna sighed as she and Rekka slipped their shoes off.

"Moving on." Rekka knew where Haruna was going and wanted to change the subject for the sake of her own temper. Rekka had plenty of pent-up anger that she needed to vent. But she was going to find a way to do that later (rest in peace, multiple soccer balls). "But all in all, it still looks nice!"

The Shozaki apartment was a fairly good-sized home. Maybe slightly smaller than Rekka's only because there were two rooms instead of four. The entry hallway had doors to the bedrooms. At the end of the hallway were the kitchen and living room.

"Home sweet home..." Tsukasa stepped in. She looked back at Haruna. "Why don't you change, sweetie? You've been in your school uniform since yesterday."

"Uh..." Tsukasa and Rekka immediately picked up that Haruna was troubled. Haruna's face was dark, and it almost looked sunk in.

"What's wrong, Haruna?" Rekka rested her hand on Haruna's shoulder.

"I... Uh..." A tear dropped from Haruna's face. "I don't have anything... Appropriate..."

"What do you mean?" Tsukasa asked.

In a sort of trance, Haruna walked to the first door on the left in the entry hallway. She entered her room while Tsukasa followed. Rekka stayed at the door, but was able to see Haruna's room. It was decently sized. Haruna's soccer uniform hung on a closet door on the far wall. There was a small desk to the left and a small table in the center of the room. Haruna walked to the dresser on the far wall next to the closet. She opened the middle drawer and pulled out a small spaghetti strap tank top. It almost looked a size too small for Haruna, Rekka thought. Then she pulled out some incredibly short shorts from a top drawer.

"These are all I have..." Haruna laid them out on her bed. "Souske... Threw out the rest of my clothes..."

"He what?!"

Tsukasa's shout was immediately cut short by the sound of Rekka taking a deep breath... Tsukasa and Haruna looked back and saw Rekka's head bowed while taking deep breaths. Each time she did, the air temperature fluctuated.