A Firefly's Glow

Chapter Seventeen: Part Four

Kasumi felt slightly ashamed that she was following Hanabusa-sama through the hallways with Hanabusa-sama being completely clueless about being followed. She silently apologized to Hanabusa-sama as she trailed after him, hiding behind large vases and statues that they happened to pass along the way.

Kasumi had been innocently cleaning the hallways, dusting the floors and exchanging any dim light bulbs with brand new ones. But when she heard footsteps coming her way, she quickly ducked behind a vase. She raised her head over the top of the vase to see Hanabusa-sama quietly and calmly walking down the maze of hallways. His hands were stuffed into the pockets of his dress pants. His face was molded into his usual, constant expression.

Kasumi beamed at the sight of him. She wanted to appear from behind the vase in order to walk alongside him and start a conversation. However, when she heard the loud stomping that followed after Hanabusa-sama, she ducked further behind the vase, and her face bent into an expression of disgust.

“Keita!” the loud, shrieking voice of the red-headed girl called as her loud, tromping stomps grew louder and more obnoxious.

Surely this red-headed girl was not addressing Hanabusa-sama with the name “Keita”. Perhaps “Keita” was some sort of alien chant that aliens would randomly say.

With the way the girl’s hair was colored, Kasumi was positive that she was an alien. Either she was an alien, or she was crazy for dying her hair such an obnoxious color. Or perhaps she was both crazy and an alien.

“Keita! Wait! You’re walking too fast!”

How dare this girl address Hanabusa-sama with such an informal name! Kasumi was sure that she would have hopped out from behind the vase in order to throw violent, karate kicks at the girl as punishment, but she would never do such a thing in front of Hanabusa-sama. The fact that she was also wearing a dress did not help at all.

“You’re being too loud,” Hanabusa-sama calmly murmured, continuing to walk down the hallway. Kasumi’s cheeks began to redden when he began to approach the vase. “Why are you following me?”

“I can’t find my room. If I try to look for it myself, I know I’ll get lost.”

“Well, how do you know that I’m not lost, too?”

“Because this is your house.”

“So?”

“So? If you bought this house, you should know your way around it!”

“I didn’t buy this house.”

“Huh? You didn’t?”

“No.”

“Then how are you living here?”

“Why should I tell you?”

“Because if you’re telling me that you don’t know the way around the hallway because you don’t live here, it means we’re really lost and we’ll never be rescued!”

“I didn’t say I didn’t live here, dummy.”

“But you’re telling me that you’re lost and I thought following you up here would prevent me getting lost. We’ll never get out now! We’re trapped!”

Kasumi rolled her eyes at the red-headed girl’s response. This was absolutely selfish of her. She only seemed to care if she was lost or not.

“We’re not lost,” he didn’t turn around to look at the red-headed girl. He simply continued to walk and murmur in a low voice that was no where as loud as hers was.