We Are Similar

Mulling

Niara walked into the conference room with a pissed expression. She wanted to get it over with already. She looked at each of their faces one at a time. They were all silent, minding their own business.

She cleared her throat before yelling at them. "Well?!" They all jumped in surprise. Some turned to her before ignoring her again, others refused to look up at all. She shook her head. "No. Things are not going to drag out like this! We are not going to pretend none of this ever happened! And you all, especially you Jin, are not going to just ignore Eva and leave her be! You guys will go talk to her, this. Mother. Effing. SECOND!"

"Well, what do you expect us to say?" Ran retorted. "Forgive her? Apologize to her for going against all this? I think not!"

"Ran, that's a bit harsh..." Yuuya said, trying to calm her down.

"But it is true." Ban muttered, earning surprised glances for the rest. "It's true that we shouldn't ignore her, but we can't forgive her either. Just like Detector..."

"This is different from that." Kazuya interjeced. "Professor Yamano did that because he had no choice. Eva had a choice and she choose to do the wrong thing."

"But when you think about how Eva must've felt," Ami started. "You can't help but feel bad..."

"But that just makes us go back to the question," Hiro said, looking down. "What are we supposed to say to her?"

"Hiro, don't think about that too much. Niara's biased towards Eva." Gouda stated rather bluntly.

Sendou, noticing Niara's dark aura, glared at Gouda. "Idiot! Don't say things like that! Especially when the person is in the room-"

"I expect. You all. To get mad at her." She said slowly, her breathing getting uneven. "And THEN. You SUPPORT HER. TO DO. THE RIGHT. THING. LIKE A REAL FRIEND WOULD." With that, she stormed out, but not before facing Jin and darkly stating, "I expected better from someone who claims to be her best friend."

The whole room turned silent. They didn't expect an outburst like that from Niara of all people. They exchanged glances with each other, before frowning and continue to do whatever it is they were doing earlier.

~~~~~

Olivia sighed as she put her phone back into the pocket. She had just called her mom to tell her that she was going to stay at Niara's place instead. Her mom wasn't sceptical about a single thing. After all, she was clueless to the inside war they were having.

She was currently in another room with Izayoi and Team LCW. They too, were silent and minding their own business. After a moment of debating, she opened her mouth. "We were all part of the neutral party, right?"

Thr four looked up at her and glanced at each other before nodding one at a time. Izayoi frowned. "But in the end, we chose to fight for the Seekers. You chose to fight for Mizel."

"I fought for Eva." The brunette corrected. After another moment of silence, she started again. "So what are your opinions on everything that has happened?"

Philicia, Lillian and Susan glanced at each other once again, before Philicia turned back to Olivia. "Mizel isn't a bad person. He was just misguided. But that doesn't justify his actions."

Susan nodded. "I think things would've gone better if we didn't help back then."

"But Mizel is Eva's brother." Lillian muttered. "I couldn't say 'no' to that."

"Though now," Izayoi continued. "Eva's real brother is alive, so doesn't that mean that it's alright to get rid of Mizel? Theoretically, speaking."

"If we're only looking fron that side, yeah, we should get rid of Mizel." Olivia said, choosing her words carefully. "But if it was emotionally speaking, Mizel should stay, right?"

They went silent after that. None of them need to say anything more as they all had no answer to that same question inside their heads.

~~~~~

Kirito stopped walking when he heard sobbing. He sighed. "I know that whimper anywhere." He turned on his heels to find Eva shaking, knees hugged to her chest.

He walked over and patted her head when he passed her, gaining her attention. Then he sat across her, leaning back on the wall. "Everyone here is absorbed in their own feelings, but you're the one who's been suffering the most, is that right?"

She didn't answer. Instead, she rubbed her eyes and frowned as she faced him. "Kirito... Why did you help me?"

"Is that all you want to know?" It was uncalled for, but he couldn't help but to let out a smirk.

She swallowed. "You only wanted to come because you had to... take care of the Amy-android... After that, you could've left and joined Jin and the others to go against me. Niara could too. But you didn't... Why?"

Turning serious again, he looked down. "You're a lot like her. Like Amy."

This came as a surprise. "Am I really?"

He shrugged. "Kind hearted and forgiving. Every time we scheduled a date, I'd always be late, but she never once got mad." He couldn't surpress the sad little laugh. "I know I'm not the best person in the world, but she saw past that. You did too. Even after all the times I got in your way of stopping Detector and Omega Dain, you still decided to help me get off that satelite, instead of leaving me behind like the rest of them did. I owed you, so really, all I did was repay the debt."

"I didn't... I never meant to-"

"Lev's a whole other story though." He continued, his demanor changing dramatically from before. "She never, and I mean never, hesitate to speak her mind. To call me all those nasty things." He groaned. "I hate to admit it, but that's part of why I started liking her. Goodie-two-shoes and innocent people like you all are always looking past all that. On the other hand, Levanov saw everything and was able to accept it. I don't have to act in any way and she'd be a hundred percent cool with it."

Eva couldn't hold back a smile. "She's really straight forward."

"No kidding. It's exhausting just to breathe next to her." He replied, shaking his head. Turning back to her  he kept a straight face on. "And what about you? What do you plan on doing next?"

She frowned again. "Honestly... I don't know. I... I think for now, I just... I want to not worry about anything... and after that... Um..."

"Find out whatever it was that was inside you?" He suggested.

She nodded. "Yeah, that's an option." She stood up, dusting herself off. "Thanks for cheering me up, Kirito. I think I'll be fine now."

"Sure thing." He replied. "Thanks for listening to all that crap I had to say too."

They exchanged smiles and went on their seperate ways, not noticing the black and white haired boy at the back, clenching his fist in frustration.

~~~~~~~~~~

GO. TALK. TO HER. JIN.

WHY. ARE YOU. SO. EMOTIONALLY. COMPLICATED??

Also, a new cover for the book :)