𝖂𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖎𝖋 𝕲𝖊𝖙𝖔 𝕴𝖘 𝖄𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝕸𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗 (𝖝 𝕱𝖊𝖒 𝕽𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖊𝖗)

2-1: 𝔔𝔲𝔦𝔢𝔱 𝔖𝔦𝔩𝔢𝔫𝔠𝔢 (𝔓𝔞𝔯𝔱 1)

❤︎ 𝚃𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚐𝚎𝚛 𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐: 𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝚍𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐.
❤︎ 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚜 𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚣𝚎𝚍, 𝚞𝚗𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚌, 𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚖𝚏𝚞𝚕, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚘𝚡𝚒𝚌 𝚍𝚎𝚙𝚒𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚊 (𝙱𝙳𝚂𝙼) 𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚙.
❤︎ 𝙷𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚏𝚞𝚕 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚞𝚜𝚎𝚛 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚍. 𝙸 𝚘𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚊. 𝙽𝚘 𝚜𝚙𝚘𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚛𝚜!
❤︎ 𝚂𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚘𝚞𝚝 @𝚖𝚊𝚍𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚞𝚖𝚋𝚕𝚛 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚊.
❤︎ 1267 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚜, 5 𝚖𝚒𝚗 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎

═══════════════

I leave the hospital, lit cigarette in hand. Finally, I can breathe.

A simple Google search reveals the location of Geto's Group.

I also learn he's been doing consulting work for civilians with "intractable problems, mysterious ailments, unsolvable vexations, and spiritual troubles"–whatever the hell that means. Sounds like a cult to me. I only care that he seems extremely well-off–a sound reasoning from the golden facade with adorning dragons, phoenixes, and tigers, of his temple. It's an hour and a half away from here.

I enter the train and find a quiet corner next to a window. It's late afternoon, right before rush hour.

My peripheral registers a group of high schoolers on the other side: two girls and four boys. One girl has a boyish build, short black hair, and incredibly large brown eyes. She's skittish and remains on the outskirts of the group, occasionally laughing way too hard at one of the boys' jokes.

She reminds me of myself, even now. I lean on the window and close my eyes. Finally, sunset is nearing.

That year, as April cascaded into early Summer, I found myself slowly adapting to TJH. I got used to my two boy classmates with polar opposite personalities. I even got close to one of them–Haibara Yū. Yū never forgot to greet me in class–I was apprehensive at first but soon realized there was no agenda behind his bright smile. Sometimes I'd have lunch with him and he never once asked me about my discounted convenience store buys. Yū liked animals and I do, too–though he's more of a dog person. Yet, we both have a fascination for goats. We even both had a younger sibling.

Things seemed better.

In June, the second years decided it was time for the long overdue welcome party for us newbies. They finished a hard mission and were in a celebratory mood. We all lived on campus. The boys had their building and the girls had ours. Since we had more boys than girls, the party will be in the lounge of the boys', for convenience.

I recognized the imperative to dress up. Hence, when I opened up my closet to be confronted with nothing but hand-me-downs, I decided to take my brother downtown to splurge a little with my stipends. I bought a tight spaghetti top, a black skirt that cropped right above my knees, and even some drugstore makeup. I didn't tell anybody, but, at that time, I wanted to look older. I thought that maybe if I wore something revealing, Geto Suguru might notice me.