"What the fuck was that?" Karma turned to Natsumi as she headed to the restroom. He stood there in silence- confused by Natsumi's cold attitude toward him. Did he do something wrong? He pondered as he walked back to their table.
"Hey, Natsumi's here."
"Oh yeah, shall we go up and greet her?" Meg suggested,
"Yup, but it seems like she's angry at me. She acted kind of... cold?" Karma rested his elbow on the table and swirled the straw in his beverage.
"Even you?" Rio looked at him with disbelief; everybody knew how close Karma and Natsumi were; even Asano himself knew about their close bond. So for Natsumi to act coldly towards Karma is a big deal.
"Why do you mean by 'Even you'?" Nagisa perked up, "Ah well, remember when Nakamura and I went to the vending machine? We saw Tsu-chan there with a girl from her class, and it looked like she was avoiding us."
"Maybe she misses us? or that she's tired? we know how lifeless she can be whenever she's tired." Nagisa suggested,
Everyone glanced at Natsumi, who walked past their table- completely ignoring them. Their table was near theirs, giving them a good view of Natsumi and her friends. But looking at them shattered Nagisa's theory that Natsumi was tired. She was her usual bubbly and cheerful self.
"Maybe because she's with them, that's why she's been acting like that?"
"Impossible, she's friends with Asano himself! Even when the five are all together. There are countless interactions with them whenever she's with us, and this never happens." Kaede said and glanced at Natsumi's table. Everyone fell silent at first, and somehow, they concluded that she might be on her period hence her odd behavior.
"Say, Tsum, your friends at the other table keep looking at you; why don't you say hi?" Akane offered, unlike the others in their class- no, the main building, specifically, Natsumi's group of friends, aside from the Big 5, aren't as judgemental as the rest. However, there are some occasions when they would look at them with pity in their eyes.
"Nah, I'll pass on this one; I'm sure they're busy." Natsumi chuckled, changing the topic right away as she talked about how good their strawberry shake was.
The following day, the faculty called everyone to the auditorium for their morning assembly. Every student must be there, and Class 3-E was no exemption.
The typical thing happened until it came time for Asano's address as student council president.
He scanned the crowd looking for Natsumi as he spoke. Once Gakushu had found her, he gave a sinister smile. "Tsukishima-san, how does it feel to be back in Class-A?" " he inquired.
That was Natsumi's cue for her to walk up on stage and start her speech. Her speech would energize the central building students to not fall back into the miserable class of 3-E.
Natsumi took a deep sigh and walked up to the stage. She frowned at Gakushu before taking the podium to herself. She looked at everyone before focusing on the long line of end-class students. She gave them a half-smile and took another deep breath.
"Some of you may or may not be aware, but I was moved to Class E for several reasons, primarily due to my absences. In this class, I met the most chaotic, undisciplined, eccentric, and dangerous students I've ever met in my whole life as a student." She hesitated to speak further, glancing at her former classmates, vividly hurt from the words coming out of her mouth, but she continued nonetheless.
"But they were also the most caring, charismatic, and hardworking individuals I've ever met. Honestly, they deserve a better facility to cultivate their talents rather than being in a system that makes us robots. Besides, you guys don't know how heavy the responsibilities are." With that, she smiled and stepped away from the podium. Many staff tried to stop her, but both Asano mainly had a soft spot for the blonde, so nothing and nobody could stop her from saying or doing whatever she wanted.
"Natsumi's brave, huh" Kaede commented, "We all know about that, besides she's not wrong about the first part of her speech," Nagisa, who stood right next to her, replied with a faint smile on his face as they both stared at Natsumi who's arms was wrapped around Gakushu as they went down the flight of stairs of the stage.
Several days passed, and this game of cat and mouse never ceased. Natsumi tried her best to distance herself from 3-E while the other party tried to catch her. Nagisa's theory was crushed; It is evident that Natsumi tried to cut every string she had with them, and they couldn't find the answer to why she wanted to cut ties.
But someone knew why and yet he stayed silent.
Karma already figured out why she was doing such things; everyone, and I mean, EVERYONE, knew how much this class meant to Natsumi, and the fact that she was going to such lengths to ignore them could only be because of her illness.
"Let's see how long this game of cat and mouse will last."
YOU ARE READING
Strawberry Milk | EDITING
FanfictionShe was the flower he never wanted to pick from the garden She was the sun that shined upon him in his darkest days * * * Natsumi, a girl, was dubbed the sixth member of the famous Five Virtuoso. She had the wits and brains enabling her to face them...
