(Un)Fortunately the Yandere is Not After Me

Music to my Ears

"Erina... Where are you?" Arata was stuck looking for her. Not that intensely though, partially because he wasn't sure of what was going to happen when he saw her. From the way she was acting, he would've thought he caught her doing some heinous act.

He might not have been putting his best effort towards finding her, but it definitely appeared like he was looking for something, which led to a certain pair of people showing up.

"Did you lose something?" Misao asked him. She was with Misei as well, the both of them wearing very elegant, and definitely expensive, kimonos.

"I didn't lose anything." He answered. "I was just looking for Erina."

"I see."

"Actually, since we're seeing you now." Misei added in. "We ran into Yogi earlier, and he was with another girl. Your sister, specifically. Why weren't you with them?"

"I just needed to talk with Erina about some things." That was the truth. "But then we got separated by all these crowds." That was the lie.

"Shame, but I'm sure we'll run into her sooner or later." Misao didn't seem to concerned about it. If anything, this was to her advantage.

"I guess we can look for the others." There was going to be a fireworks showing at the end of this whole event. Even though he had never been to this before, Arata knew about it. You could hear the noise from his house.

"So, how's your family?" Misao started up some small talk. She was going to try and get some conversation between the pairing she was working with.

"They're fine, my sister made a bit of a surprise visit. So I'm glad about that." He didn't want to mention what his parents were doing. Mostly because he didn't know, nor did he want to find out. "And yours?"

"Mine are actually working a stand around here." Misao answered. She nudged Misei, who was remaining quiet between the two of them.

"My parents are on a business trip, so they couldn't make it."

"Really? That's a shame." Arata was glad his father was able to take time off for this event. Even if he was only going to see him for a little bit tonight.

"It's okay." She responded. At this point in her life, she was used to it. "You shouldn't pity me."

"I just remembered something." Now that she got the girl talking. It was time to enact the only other step in her plan. The exit. "I need to get going and help out at my family's stand." That wasn't a lie, though they weren't expecting her for a little later than this. "Don't worry, I'll be back before the fireworks start. So we can watch them together." With that, she dipped out on the two of them.

"Well..." This was awkward for him. It wasn't like the two of them didn't spend time alone together. Just that most of the time, it wasn't leisurely. There wasn't that many topics that he could think of to converse with her. "Where did you get your kimono? It looks very elegant."

"This?" She never really thought much about it. However most people would be dazzled with its sophisticated design and warm colors. "My family got a personal tailor to create it for the event."

"Wow." That was impressive to him. "That must've been very expensive." Even renting one was hard for a highschooler to cover, so having it personally made must've taken a lot out of the purse.

"It was... I think it was 500,000 yen?" She pondered the value. Hearing that number floored Arata.

"Half a million yen!" All he had was a hand-me-down in comparison.