Heart-Less

Chapter 9

"Ada."

Hearing Amiko's voice, Ada froze up and slowly turned around.

"Is something the matter?"Ada asked, a bright tone in her voice. Amiko's heart seemed perturbed. Or at least, Ada had never seen it in such an interesting mix of emerald jealousy and orange annoyance.

That was evidently the wrong question. Amiko started droning on about how Ada should not have voiced her questions during the meeting, and how she had caused several people to be late for other appointments and had inconvenienced them. She seemed to be oblivious to the fact that Ada had somewhere she wanted to go, and she needed to get there before the lunch period was over.

"... and from now on, I want you to settle everything beforehand, like a civilised person," Amiko concluded.

"But Amiko, I didn't have time to do anything beforehand," Ada said, trying to sound petulant. "I found out about the council just before it started."

At least her heart had the grace to look embarrassed. "Nonetheless," she said, "I don't want you making any more mistakes like that. Do you have any questions?"

"Just one," Ada said, reaching up and twirling her ponytail. "Does Hiroto have a girlfriend?"

Amiko's mouth dropped opened and her heart turned a bright pink, then a gaudy red. "I don't think so," she said faintly. She wobbled a little.

Ada quickly reached out and grabbed her arm. "Are you alright?"

"I'm just a bit faint."

Or more likely, the emotion's getting to you, Ada thought. This was definitely interesting. It might be worth making Hiroto her next target just to see what would happen to Amiko's heart.

"That's good," Ada said, stepping back and letting go. "Do you need to go to the nurse? If you don't, I have to go now."

"No," Amiko said. "I'll be fine. What are you in such a rush to get to?"

"I'm meeting Hiroto," Ada said as cheerfully as he could. "He saw the thread on the Network, and I think he's freaking out. He said he wanted my opinion on something."

Ada stayed just long enough to see Amiko's heart turn the colours of the rainbow. A neon rainbow, in fact. She almost wished she had her heart with her, just to see what sort of reaction she would get. Would she be pleased, or would she be as weak as she once was and feel guilty? She would know the truth at home, but she almost wanted to know it know.

Almost. Her head told her that her heart would want to know, but her heart could not tell her anything.

*******

Hiroto looked up from the book he was reading as he heard Ada approach.

"You're late," he said, frowning.

Ada made sure to blush a little. "I'm sorry," she said, "I wanted to leave early, but I had class, and you know how things are, and I'm so sorry about this." She glanced at the book as she gushed. So it was a textbook. How conventional.

"Stop that," Hiroto said as he held up a hand. "I mean," his expression softened awkwardly, "there's no need to explain yourself. You probably don't know this, but if you explain to the teacher that you have council business, you'll be allowed to leave class five minutes early."

Ada bowed her head, "I'll do that next time." Why didn't anyone tell her that? It would have come in handy so many times. She made a note to tell Nic that — tips on how to trick the system were always popular. At least that's what the data said.