Reticent | Nakahara Chūya; AU [✔]

t e n |

"Sir, let's resume the recording next week. My daughter is more important."

That was Chuuya talking to his manager, Mr. Sasaki. As much as he is afraid to disappoint his fans to finally release his new album as soon as possible, Chuuya was more concerned of his daughter, hating to see her suffer with injustice.

He skipped the alcohol intake for that night, wanting to wake up looking more decent by tomorrow. He also didn't want to wake up after Orianna; he must make sure that he wakes up on or before his daughter's actual wake up time.

Chuuya went to check on Orianna in her room, revealing her in her usual place -- in front of her six-monitored personal computer. She was trying to rush her research out of the fear and stress of not wanting to repeat two more years of high school. She does not deserve any of that.

"Ori, dear," Chuuya called out, startling his daughter. "Please don't stay up all night just to finish that."

"But dad--" Orianna protested, wanting to tell her father if he didn't understand anything she said a while ago; that her research is due tomorrow and it needs to be done.

"No buts; just do as I say. Go to sleep."

Orianna had no choice but to follow his orders; she must have stressed her father over the fact that she had to repeat senior high or take summer classes just for one subject. She didn't want to make the situation worse, therefore forcing her to turn off her computer and get ready for bed.

Her stressed out self sighed in defeat, getting up from her spin chair. "Do you just want me to repeat the whole two years or take summer class?"

"Why would I want that?" Chuuya retorted, leaning his back against the door frame with his arms crossed. "I'm just going to have a nice and formal conversation with your professor, that's all."

The way that her father had said it scared her more than when she imagines herself being in the situation of The 0619 Case. Orianna knows her father too well for that 'nice' and 'formal' tone.

"A-Alright then..." she swallowed a lump, trying not to overthink about it. "I hope that's not how I imagine it to be. Good night, dad."

She approached her father to give him a hug, in which Chuuya had returned with the same sincerity. He left his daughter to sleep, while Orianna grabbed her phone and jumped to her soft and bouncy cushion, reading a bit more about the case.

∞

All of them decided to stay on the second floor, since most of the murder occurred somewhere near that floor. The stairs to the third floor will always be their meeting place, so that it is easier to find and detain the killer if ever that they see it.

One group is unconsciously labeled as the Superior Group, due to the reason that they are composed of the most honorable students of batch twenty-nine -- namely Dazai, Nakahara, and Oda along with Montgomery and Sakagami.

On the other hand, the other group is more of the Creative Group, wherein wits are not as dominant but imagination is more evident. Excluding Akutagawa from that description, the rest of them had colorful minds -- Kunikida, Nakajima, and the Tanizaki siblings.

Each member of both groups were scattered all over the room, making sure that they are never alone to be a vulnerable target of the killer. In addition, they made sure that the strong ones are heavily kept an eye on. They assumed that the killer would take the ones with the greater threat or potential first, since that is what happened for the past three deaths.