[1] Smile Magic (UtaPri - Ittoki Otoya Fanfic)

Chapter Eleven: Dropping Out

C H A P T E R 11 :

☆ Local Daycare ☆

"Meet the student from Saotome Academy, Akahana Mae-chan!"

The entire group of eyes were practically bulging, and Mae's face paled at a fast rate.

You were kidding her, right?!

There was no way... There was no way this could be happening!

"Akahana..." Otoya began, his mouth dropped in utmost shock. Mae's heart jumped at his voice and she looked up at him apprehensively.

"Ittoki-kun..."

"You're from Saotome Academy...?" he started again, prickling the teen with unmeasurable amount of fear. Usually he wore more accepting smiles but now he looked more towards disbelief rather than awe.

At least, that was what she thought. But she couldn't have been too sure because after one more glance to the disbelief coated expressions of everyone else standing around him, she had run off.

"Wait!" Otoya's voice yelled after her. "Akahana-!"

.

.

.

The bazaar had started, but Mae was nowhere to be found.

After she had run off, people started piling in to the point where they were too busy to have the thought of going out to look for her.

Though, Otoya was extremely worried. The expression of vulnerability she wore was constantly popping up in his head, distracting him from what he was supposed to.

Why didn't she tell him she went to Saotome Academy? No, why wouldn't she?

Akahana seemed like the type to tell him, considering she told him about her dreams of going to the very academy.

But wait, if she did attend it, why didn't she live at the dorms? Saotome Academy had dorms the students had to stay in... But then why was she constantly hanging around the city?

"-toya, stop spacing out."

The redhead snapped back to reality, blinking rapidly. "Huh...?"

A hand waved in front of his face and Otoya looked up to see Ichinose Tokiya. He sighed at his discord, flopping into the chair in the daycare.

"Tokiya, you're on your break too?" Otoya asked, puzzled to see him in the back.

Tokiya spared him a glance. "No, I came to get you actually. Your break was over ten minutes ago but you were too out of it to realize."

Otoya flinched and quickly headed to the doorway. "Oh, sorry! I'll hurry up and go-"

"Wait." Otoya stopped in place and peered over his shoulder to where Tokiya was staring him down hard.

Otoya felt uncomfortable under his stare, mostly because he felt like he saw through him, as usual. A few seconds later, Tokiya exhaled a breath.

"It was unexpected huh?" he said. "Akahana being a student in the academy."

Otoya's lips instantly downturned at the mention of earlier today. Silence lapsed through the room, until he decided to break it. "...Why do you think Akahana didn't tell us?"

Tokiya frowned, looking away. "Who knows. In the first place, she's not required to tell us anything. And besides, we're still practically strangers to her too."

Otoya pouted at the reasoning. "Yeah, but..." His eyes lit up with a vigorous emotion. "I thought we were closer than strangers! We...had good times together after all."