It was finally time for the final confrontation, as Amy opened her lunchbox happily, the dark aura of death surrounding it.

" Gulp..."

It felt like getting closer and closer to death.

" Just so you know, I have no intention of eating that."

Those words alone turned her joyful expression into the pit of darkness and anger. Her hands trembling so much she was making move the box of food.

" A-Amy?"

" You know, I took my time to do this crap..."

"( Sigh, I guess I'm not winning here.)"

" I woke up at 5 am, put on a lovely apron and made this crap..."

She clenched her fists, a flashback of the whole kitchen sequence playing in the back of her head. As if thsordeal wasn't riddiculous enough.

" ( Of course it was a lovely apron...What more?)"

" Then I put my crappy pan on the fire, made those delicious eggs. For what?!"

She angrily pointed at the part she called "eggs" in the box. Pointing to a comfusing mixture similar in color to green vomit.

" ( Eggs? This green liquid?) Right, right."

" Then, I have no idea what else to put in there so I took all the crap in the fridge and put it in there. And you're telling me so much effort is worth crap!?"

Do I really have to explain to her how she was wrong ? She can so dense at times like these. However, my single hesitation got completely blown away the moment I saw what I could discern was pieces of cake in there.

" Well, from my perspective, you're trying to poison me. Also that was a lot of crappy stuff."

" Shut the hell up and eat up !Maybe you're willing to waste all my efforts? I guess a Mime never changes."

" This has nothing to with this.Get this the hell away from me."

This was the exact reason I wanted to avoid the situation, it happened once before ,letting me learn back then that she couldn't be reasoned with when it came to making people taste what she cooked.

As she pursued me relentlessly with her lunchbox across the whole roof, the door opened, revealing Maya. Her shining attidue burning brightly even when she hadn't said a single word yet.

" Oh, it's you guys. What's up?"

She said, raising her hand to salute us with complete joy, noticing immediately a crazed eye Amy running after me with a weird mixture.

" Are you guys playing tag?"

Maya announced with incredible excitement, ready to jump at the opportunity if we dared to propose so.

We stopped in their tracks and looked at Maya, a look of disappointment resting on our face.

" Maya...",started Amy

" We're fifteen. Why would we play tag?", I finished.

Maya looked to the side,as if embarrassed by something and quieted down.  Forcing me to stop running around and direct myself to her. This single act being entirely uncharacteristic of her character.

" Is everything okay, Maya?"

" D-don't worry about me! Just keep doing what you were doing."

She precipitated out of the roof, the feeling of being ashamed almost completely overtaking her whole mind and body.

" What's up with her?

" Well, I'm not in her mind, I wouldn't know."

Amy fixated her eyes on me, never ever leaving the mixture in her hands. Her evil machinations knowing no bounds.

" Still tough, maybe we shouldn't have said that."

" What is she, a kid that can't take criticism?"

" Harsh..."

Amy expression took a completely dark tone. Suddenly, she pointed the fork in the box at him.

" Don't you ever say that I'm harsh. You don't have that right."

" ..."

"Besides, that's not how the world works. You'll achieve nothing by getting consumed by your own weakness. When people let it overtake them, they become like you. "

" What do you mean?"

" Playing idiot can only work so much but in the end, the only personn you're fooling is yourself."

Amy said to me with dead eyes, emphasising her point.

Breathing in and out, she managed to relax back, wich led to sigh torugh relaxation. The single moment his mouth opened to let out the sound, she profited to stuff her witchcraft in my mouth, taking me by surprise.

As expected,the result was immediate, a violent stomachache consuming my insides.The pain so great I rolled around on the ground,touching the area.

" Huh? Was it that bad?"

" I kept telling you. Do me a favor and never approach a kitchen again."

While these two were arguing on the other side of the door, Maya was lost in her own tought. Unable to cope with the single comment she received. Walking down aimlessly trough the stairs that led her to the roof door.

"  Maybe those guys were right all along, I'm weird."

Passing the same step as her pensive self, a figure she never crossed path with in the school addressed to her.

" I don't think so, Sakurasagi."

The stranger addressed her by name as naturally as breathing air.

" You heard that?"

" Well, you were speaking out loud. I guess it has to do with your luscious attitude."

" Lu-what?"

" You know what, nevermind that."

As the girl released her hair, she took a box of cigarettes out of her pockets. As she lighted it and puffed out a smoke, she buttoned her shirt around her exposed belly.

" ( She's kinda familiar,weird.)"

" It gets tiring to mime this character all day. Similarly,  it gets tiring also being yourself."

Maya was quite confused, a complete stranger going all philosophic on her all of a sudden.

" Hm, who are you?"

" Tis' doesn't matter."

" Tis'?...You just sounded like someone I know right now. Kinda creeping me out."

"Oh, did I? ( Crap, I'm lucky this is Sakurasagi. I slipped up.)"

The mysterious girl lighted the cigarette she just took out of the pack, puffing it in one precise movement.

" Aniway, what's exactly the shame in being yourself? Look at me, I hate who I am so I hide behind a made up persona."

" (Seriously, who the hell is this girl?)Well..."

" People will hate me if I try to be myself? Thta's how it is, right?"

" It's scary how you can see trough me."

" I told you, I live trough a persona. I'm not someone you can fool with the sunshine act."

" It's not an act!"

Maya emphasized, raising her voice.

" Not an act in the sense that you use it to fool others. First and foremost, the only personn you're trying to conive is yourself."

Maya smile that she wore throughout started to broke, little by little. Cutting away the facade step by step.

" The truth is that we hate ourself, both of us. We hate how we're only capable of only a single thing without ever breaking the cliché."

As the door of the roof started to slightly open, the intriguing girl took her leave. Only leaving behind the strong odor of tobacco. Slowly disappearing into the black void of Maya's toughts.

" Hey, Boobies. Can you help me get him to the infirmary?", called out Amy, holding an Eiel in pain.She was startled but she responded even so.

" Who are you calling Boobies, you dwarf."

" How dare you go there, you cow!"

" Still better than being a dwarf", Maya cut back with a grin.

" Of course you would speak big words with those huge lump of fat."

" Maybe if you'll eat a lot of proteins like me, you would have those knockers."

" That's it, Boobies. Shut the hell up."

" Pff...."

Maya let out a laugh, a little bit relaxed by her usual banter with Amy.

" I think you're starting to lose it", said Amy confused by what Maya found funny in what she said.

" Says the one who call such weird crap a meal."

" W-what matters if how much heart you put into it!"

The noise managed to make Eiel consciousness go back. Noticing Maya was helping Amy carrying him.

" Maya?"

His nose couldn't help but be taken aback by the odor her body emanated.

" Weird, why do you smell like smoke?"

" Come on, do you seriously think that dummy would smoke? I bet she doesn't even know what's the name of the place where you buy these."

Maya was surprised Amy was taking a stance for her for once, even if it was in a convoluted way.

" I mean, obviously. It's not in her nature. It's just kinda weird."

As they approached the infirmary, they were stopped by a wild Kaede. The three of them sighed in unison, not wanting a single word to come out of her mouth.

" If that ain't my lil juniors in their nature norm habitat"

They were taken aback by the fact she managed to sound somewhat coherent this time.

" Nature what habitat?"

" She probably means natural habitat or something weird like that."

As much as he was beaten up by Amy's cooking skills, Eiel could smell a faint smell emanating from Kaede. Leading him to ask a question that paralyzed her in place.

" Do you smoke, Kaede-senpai?"

" C-come on, gud ol' pal', an authentik countree gal ain't puffin."

" (Is it me or did her accent just randomly became weird again?)"

Several days after the incident with Amy food happened, Eiel crossed path with the mysterious girl Maya met outside while doing his groceries.

Curiosity taking the better of him and a feeling of déjà-vu establishing in his mind, he confronted the girl.

" You...You're Kaede-senpai, right?"

She was in utter shock, having been discovered that easily. Besides, it was by someone she never talked much with.

" You have the wrong personn."

Unlike Maya, he couldn't be fooled so easily as tricking a baby.

" I don't think so. First of all, you two smell exactly the same . Besides, all of your physical characteristics perfectly match."

" Come on, that girl talk like some crazy ass personn, we can't be related."

As she tried to leave the crime scene as fast as possible,he interrupted her attempt to escape with a single sentence.

" Did you really think that D class acting had convinced me?"

" D class?!"

" Well, to be honest. I'm pretty good at getting a read on people."

Kaede contained her laugh, completely sure he was actually completely oblivious to some obvious acts, like for example how Maya and Amy acts around him. Wich didn't manage to slip past Eiel.

" Come again? You really think I'll buy that when you..."

" Oh you mean, Maya and Amy. I've known Amy for long enough to know she's the "tsundere" type and Maya red face,even tough she may think so, isn't actually invisible."

She couldn't believe this guy, saying those things so naturally without making a single expression.

" Tough, I can completely read Amy like a novel you went trought ten thousand time, it's more complicated to get an analysis on Maya's behavior. She doesn't exactly function on logic per se."

" Aren't you like kinda deviating. Tough, I guess I could have never fooled you. What gave me away ?"

" To be fair, that whole speech routine always felt kinda forced to me. Like you were spouting random words you tought were in character."

" Were they not?"

" ...No?"

" Don't worry, tough, I won't ask why you're trying to play a role in school."

" Aren't you like interested in why in the slightest?"

" I don't really care. From my perspective, everyone does what you do in a certain way. When it gets unbearable, we put on a mask to cope with our own inabilities. "

" In the end, you understand her way more than you may think."

" Hm?"

" Could you do me a favor, take it as a favor to your senior."

" What is the favor exactly?"

Kaede smiled, pensive. Wondering if she had the right to step into her business like this.

" Sakurasagi, take care of her. She's a good kid. "

" You sound like a mother proposing her child in marriage..."

" Idiot. I'm not saying you have to answer to her romantic feelings. Taking care of someone isn't forcibly correlated with romantic love."

" ...I'll think about it."

As they both finished buying everything they needed for their home, the rain falled down as soon as they tried to take a step outside.

" I forgot my umbrella..."

He proposed to share his, without the dead expression on his face ever changing.

" This is kinda awkward."

"I guess I should also come clean."

She wondered what he wanted so much to come clean about.

" If Amy or Maya explicitly stated a desire for us to date, I would reject them."

She first tought it may have been a matter of not actually liking one or the other.

" It would be the same for any other girl."

Until that line sent a chill down her spine.

" Wouldn't there be a girl you would actually like among those?"

" I don't think so."

The more he spoke, the more she was starting to get creeped out.

" I don't trust in the idea of bonds, they're too fragile. Just like you put an act on who you are, I use of one myself to conceals the fact I am unable to feel romantic attachment. Well, there did was an exception at some point but even then,  I was unable to cope with the fact I had fallen. Never again would I make that mistake."

Even tough was he was saying was kind of resonating with Kaede, she couldn't agree.

" If you want my honest opinion, I think you're a coward. Sure, I may also be one by creating a persona to hide myself but I don't do it at the detriment of others. You on the contrary seems to have no regard for people's hearts."

Kaede wore a pained smile and looked at him.

" You know, I heard from Amy. About how you don't trust people when they claim to be your friends, how sad this is. In the end, you're only afraid of yourself and nothing else."

She striked his elbow with hers, wanting to make a message come across.

" Besides, I think you're lying to yourself."

" I do think you have feelings for someone. You're just not realizing them."

"Who could you be talking about?"

" It's not fun If I tell you. Plus, you wouldn't believe me."

" Let's make a deal. If you spent this whole year of highschool rejecting everything single girl that comes your way, then I accept your ideology , never bother you again and never tells youa bout those secret romantic feelings. While, if you fall for even one girl, with the intention of dating her, you have to accept that your way of thinking is flawed, only then will I reveal to you who you have fallen for."

" Well, if that makes you happy. I accept. Not that I have the intention to change. Why tough?"

" I told you, I believe your way of thinking is wrong and i'll prove it. Even if I have to resort to underhanded tactics."

They shook hands to assure of the full acceptance of the deal, trough relunctance of both parties.