“Go right ahead.” Ninka took a step back and allowed her two friends to walk inside before her. She did this so that she would be in a great position to look at both of them at the same time. She had no plans, but now she felt it was a good idea to confront them over their indiscretion behind her back.

Would she punish them? Maybe, but a part of her wanted to hold back since Shiuka was still someone she considered one of her best friends growing up. Meanwhile with Hakuta, it wasn’t like she just dumped all her feelings for him away. If anything, because she liked him so much, it hurt her to think that he’d do something so horrible to her.

So regardless of her anger, she wasn’t pushed far enough to be so irrational that she’d straight up ruin the holiday for everyone at school. Ninka knew she needed to be more mature than that…

But, she only felt that way because she knew Hakuta would rather she act with discretion rather than emotion. So even now she wanted to try and show him she could be someone he’d want to date. Despite doing actions to expose his supposed lies.

“You going to come in, Ninka?” He said when the boy realized they were hanging around the entrance for too long. “It doesn’t look that scary if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I’m sure she can handle pretty much anything.” Shiuka pointed out. “Is there something wrong?” She had known her for too long to not notice the subtle differences when it came to a normal day and one where there was internal strife.

“Of course nothing’s wrong.” Ninka laughed it off. “I just hope this isn’t some disappointment, even though I know our classroom was totally the best.”

“I don’t think you need to inflate our egos that much.” He commented, beckoning her inside as the trio entered to see what was in store for them. Right behind them were the pair of Rouko and Iruka, who were still hot on their trail.

“Do you mind telling me why you think there’s going to be drama?” Iruka asked as they entered the room. “I didn’t think Ninka would get mad just because Shiuka’s there.”

“Like I said, you’re totally innocent.” Rouko replied. “She just won’t admit it, but I know Shiuka’s totally into him too.” This revelation shocked Iruka, who just couldn’t believe this to be the truth. “Now that I think about it, I don’t know why he gets anyone’s attention at all. Hakuta’s a giant nerd.”

“Hakuta’s plenty cool.” She couldn’t help but defend him from such slander. “I hang out with him all the time. There’s nothing wrong with being geeky.”

“Great, now next you’ll tell me you’re in love with him too.” Her snide response got Iruka to get all red in the face and instantly deny such feelings. Which only served to make Rouko believe that was the case after all. “I hope you’re not the kind to get scared easily.”

“Me, scared?” Iruka put on a brave face, but she was entirely terrified of the room they entered. It seemed the students in this classroom had caught the zombie bug and themed their room after the other famous video game franchise which spawned multiple games, movies, and other tie-ins, ‘House Bad’.

With the trio ahead, Shiuka had predictable reactions when they hit their first jumpscare. It was a student who had put on a spooky mask which looked like a zombie whose head was falling off.

“Ahh!” She screamed out loud and immediately reached for someone to hold for a sense of safety. This ended up being Hakuta, who wasn’t as scared about it as he had developed an immunity to these kind of frights after watching too many gamers online play horror games.

“Maybe it really isn’t an act.” He commented on their apparent overacting whenever they would see those scares when he saw Shiuka’s reaction. “Are you sure you’ll be all right?”

“Y-yeah, I’ll be fine.” She got a bit flustered when she realized how it might’ve looked when she held him so tightly.

“Hmpf.” Ninka couldn’t help but pout from the sight of it. She wished so much she could be the girl getting his attention. But she couldn’t pretend to be scared, and even if she did, he’d probably say something to the effect of her not needing to hold him. Life was so unfair from him. “You two are pretty close, aren’t you?”

“I guess?” He had heard those words before. It was from the last time she was upset with him and now Hakuta worried it had happened again. Though he didn’t know why now she’d be jealous of Shiuka. “It’s nothing special, we just hang out a lot.”

“I’m sure you do.” She added in just enough inflection for Shiuka to realize there was a level of passive aggressiveness coming from her.

“Ninka, are you sure there’s nothing wrong?” She stopped their walking to ask. “You’ve been acting strange today. Did something happen?”

“It’s whatever.” She brushed off their concerns and attempted to usher them forward. “Let’s just go.” In the background, the other pair were able to listen in their conversation. Rouko didn’t know why Ninka was the one acting like this. It seemed she was affected by something else she couldn’t even imagine, yet it still related to Hakuta.

“Why is she so mad?” Asked Iruka quietly as they waited for the ones ahead to move forward so they could continue to follow.

“Wish I knew…” For once, she had no idea what was going on. “Anyway, let’s go.” They saw them move and that was their cue to continue on. Iruka was thankful that they were following their friends for a different reason compared to Rouko. That being they’d trigger all the jumpscares so she could prepare herself mentally for when they’d have to hit them as well.

“Ninka, you know you’re free to tell me anything.” Hakuta spoke to her quietly as they continued on. “You don’t have to be worried about me making fun of you or anything.” He attempted to encourage her, but it only succeeded in making her more upset with him.

“You’ve got some real nerve, you know that.” She turned away from him when he got close.

“Actually, can we just finish this after we’re done here.” Shiuka attempted to remind them they were still in the middle of a haunted room she hated to be in. The girl’s body was shaking, which made her words come out odd to them. “Pl-please?”

“Sure, I can hardly stand being with you two right now.”

“Now I know something’s really wrong now.” Said Hakuta. “Come on, what did I do this time?”

“How can you two act like there’s nothing going on right now?” She turned to face the pair, her repressed anger began to surface. “I saw him walking out of your house this morning, what was that all about?”

Her revealing this information to the pair got them to both gasp. The same went for Rouko and Iruka who were in the back. They nearly gave away their position from how shocked they were to hear that Ninka was so close to the truth now. “Ha I knew it!” She took their surprise as evidence that there was trickery afoot. “You’ve been hiding this away from me for who knows how long!”

“Ninka please calm down.” Hakuta attempted to get her to quiet down. They were in a public area and had no idea where the other students were hiding. Those hidden figures were likely to be able to hear and his secret might be exposed for the world to hear. “We have a perfectly reasonable explanation for this.”

“I don’t want to hear it.” She didn’t take his advice in the slightest. “You two have been lying to me this whole time. I thought I could trust you, but Shiuka, how could you do this to me?”

“Ninka, I haven’t done anything wrong.” She responded, also trying just as Hakuta did before her to calm the girl down. “I would never-”

“J-just shut up!” Ninka couldn’t take it anymore. Her attempts of being rational had failed after holding in her emotions for so long. “I look like such an idiot because of you. To think that everything I did and said to him, you just went around and went with her.” Tears streamed down her face as she no longer held back her feelings on the matter. “I don’t want to see either of you ever again.”

Ninka made a strong declaration and ran off from the pair. A person who was sitting around the corner didn’t hear what had happened and attempted to scare her. She simply pushed them off to the side as she made her way to the exit in tears.

“This is really bad.” Hakuta commented. While there was the obvious about their secret life, he was more concerned about Ninka’s well-being. He truly hated that what they had been hiding would hurt her so painfully.