"What do you want now?" Chloe asked me as I caught her in the rose garden where I met Sapphire.
"At least hear me out!" I beg her. "I was really happy to see you again. I don't want you to never talk to me without explaining myself first."
"Agh! Just spit it out already; I'm listening..." she tells me, her face flushed.
I finally got the chance to explain to her about the gangs coming after me. But, to literally nobody's surprise, she reacted coldly.
"Are you kidding me? You were bad at making excuses in the headmistress' office, and you're bad at making them now."
"It's not an excuse that I'm making up-"
"No matter how dangerous they are, why would they go after someone who had nothing to do with you?"
"That's just how dangerous they are," I make my case. "They came after me plenty of times about my father's debt."
"A son is not the same as a son's friend. I can't imagine they'd come after me to collect on your father's debt." …That is true.
"But... you know how dangerous they are, don't you...?"
"Huh?" She glared at me as if I was stupid. "Why would I know anything about the mafia?" She's spitting straight facts. I can't refute her at all. "I don't think you really know, either. Honestly... I just think you're making things up."
"No... I really do know..." I meekly whimper in defeat.
"Now let me go," she demanded. It wasn't until she said that that I realized I was holding onto her wrist. As soon as I let her go, she turned on her heel and... well, you know. Ran. At least I didn't get slapped.
"...So that's how it turned out." I sat in the recreation room with Painmangeur, Sol and Sapphire and told them about what had happened. Sol exhaled deeply through her nose.
"Hmm... that is troubling," she says. "Although at a glance, it does seem like an unbelievable story..."
"Last night, I speculated that it was Vincennes that had affected her," Sapphire says. "But it appears the lack of communication from you may have exacerbated the issue. After all, Chloe doesn't know the details of the situation."
It was all true. I have no one to blame but my poor communication skills for the rift in our relationship. In my mind, I had nothing but the best of intentions for Chloe. But that was it; it was all in my mind. I couldn't make her understand it, and it was foolish of me to expect her to. Chloe isn't omniscient. She has no way of knowing my thoughts or my circumstances, and not knowing only made it worse. If I could just convey my feelings with my words properly, we wouldn't be having this conflict. But I can't. The conversation had stalled.
"I have an idea..." Sol awkwardly breaks the silence, still trying to translate her thoughts into words. "Seraph's concerns proved correct in the end... which means... what if we simply demonstrated it to her? The danger of the Goons, that is. They came up to me because they saw us together in that restaurant. So what if the same thing happened with Chloe in my place?"
I slowly turn to Sol and plainly state my case. "That's dangerous," I plainly state my case.
"What do you mean?" Sol was genuinely confused. "You're excellent in a fight."
"No. I'm not."
"Well then, they simply must be poor fighters." Oh, come on, that... might actually be the case. I haven't had a day's worth of actual training in my life, yet I still managed to fight them off. But my point still stands.
"It's too reckless," I tell her.
"By that, you mean..." Sapphire chimes in. "If we could mitigate any possibility of danger, it would be acceptable? If that is the case, what if I ask my father to assign a bodyguard?"
"What..." I stare at her blankly. "You can just do that?"
Sapphire nodded. "When I am at home, he always assigns me one when I go outside."
"That's a good idea," Sol says in support of Sapphire's plan. "As time is of the essence, we should begin tomorrow if we can."
"Yes," Sapphire agrees. "I will make the request to my father. Please, wait a moment." She takes out her cell phone and leaves the room.
"If you have a professional bodyguard, there should be nothing to fear," Sol reassures me. "Am I correct?" Meanwhile, I'm still dumbfounded.
"...You can just do that?" I stupidly ask again.
"The bodyguard?" Sol asks, unsure of what I'm talking about.
"Yeah... You can just do that?" I stupidly ask again.
"The students who attend Vincennes starting in Primary Course are all from wealthy families. But Sapphire's family is extraordinary. They are the Kay Conglomerate, after all."
Hm? The Kay Conglomerate? As in 'KAY,' one of, if not the most prominent multinational conglomerate corporations that operate in the field of industry, technology and consumer goods? Just the mere fact that I'm in the very vicinity of Sapphire is nothing short of a miracle.
"Sapphire is an honest-to-goodness 'hothouse flower,'" Sol says. She may have been an active person, but she was still a proper lady. I don't know if that gave her statement extra conviction or completely nullified it. It did something, though.
"Umm..." Sapphire came back into the room with Painmangeur hanging from her shoulder, like always.
"You look rather upset," Sol noticed. "Did they refuse?"
"He didn't refuse, but..." Sapphire explained that the suddenness of the request meant that their usual bodyguards were already fully scheduled elsewhere. "If it were someone I knew, I could recommend them with confidence, but in this case..." She trailed off, thoughtful. "It's a company, so they do have several hundred available... We can still get one for tomorrow."
"Let's do it, then," Sol says. "The sooner, the better."
"Very well." Sapphire fiddled with her cell phone and took it off hold. "Father? I will take one, after all. Yes, tomorrow..."
From there, the two of them worked out the finer points of the plan. I'm still hesitant to go through with this, but the girls seem to think it's a good idea, and I'd rather trust them than myself. I guess we're doing this, then.
"Hey, Sapphire, can we really leave school grounds?" I ask her.
"Yes," she tells me plainly. It's a little surprising. I know there are people who left school grounds now and again, but I never would have thought that Sapphire was the type. "Chloe. Are you hungry?" she asks me.
"Oh, yeah. Now that you mention it, I haven't had dinner."
"I'm glad to hear it. I've heard the food at the Pappatore Moon Rock is simply delicious."
"Is this your first time going there?"
"Ah, well... the truth is, I leave the campus so rarely..."
"That's true. So today is your first time."
"Yes," she admits.
"But why so suddenly?" I ask her. "Did something happen?"
"Yes, something wonderful," she tells me, a smile spreading across her face. "That is why I wished to celebrate today."
"I see..." I didn't know what it was, but Sapphire was the first and dearest friend I made at Vincennes, so I'm going to celebrate with all my heart.
"If I may," Sapphire says, changing topics. "You have been friends with Seraph since years back, have you not?"
"Ah..." Why is she bringing HIM up? "Well, yeah..."
"I wish that you had told me."
"Ah... well... it's just..." Why am I speaking right now!?
"Just what?" Sapphire asks, intrigued.
"I was a little embarrassed, I guess?"
"Is that so?" she says, sceptical of my answer.
"W-Well, you know... yeah. It was my first time seeing him in years. He was so much shorter than me the last time I saw him, and now it's the other way around?"
"I see..." Sapphire fell into thought. "All of my childhood friends are still here with me, after all... I cannot imagine what it would be like to have a male childhood friend. To be honest, I'm envious of you."
"...I don't... think it's very enviable," I tell her.
"Is that so?" She waits a little for my response, but I don't speak. "But when I first questioned you about the subject, you told me that Seraph was not a bad person."
"Ah... haha... y-you remembered that, I guess..." Of course she would remember that.
"I have since realized that that is how you truly feel, despite your current behaviour towards him." She got it in one.
"Ah, look!" I say, directing the conversation towards anything else. "We're at the school gate. How do we get out?"
Sapphire checked the time on her wristwatch. "It should open soon," she casually states. Before I could even think about what she meant, the iron gate slowly swung open with a heavy sound.
"Wh... what? Why..." I utter, stupefied. Sapphire chuckles, seeing my reaction.
"Now, Chloe," she says to me. Let us depart. After you."
"R-Right..." Still confused, I walked through the gates, not realizing Sapphire's footsteps were slowing down behind me, eventually coming to a halt. Suspicious, I turn back around. Sapphire was still standing within the school walls, smiling at me. "Sapphire," I call out to her dubiously. "What's wrong?"
Her only response was a slight chuckle and a wider, closed-lipped smile. "Good luck," she says, waving her hand.
Good luck with what? Before I could even think about it, the gate started closing. From this distance, I could still make it past the gates back onto school grounds if I ran. But as I was about to, someone from behind grabbed tight onto my wrist, preventing me from moving. I turn around, panic-stricken. But I had no reason to be. My fear was instantly replaced with complete bewilderment.
"Seraph!?"
"...Yep..." he said after clicking his tongue. I wasn't disappointed in the slightest, but it sounded like he was immensely disappointed on my behalf.
Thanks for the chapter.