On Sunday, Akane spent the day either in the library or her room. Her appetite being lost until after 8 p.m. Now, she sat in The Sun Dorms breakfast room with a simple bowl of cereal, contemplating what had happened the night before. Why did his eyes change? How did he do that, and what was wrong with him? These thoughts and others like them had coursed through her mind all night and day since she'd come back to her room to find the boy gone.
She was intelligent, bright, so why couldn't her mind fathom what had happened? She brought her hand to the spot on her neck, where Aidou had scraped something sharp across her skin. His fangs? They hadn't cut her but had left red marks that took some time to fade. That's ridiculous! She decided and dismissed the thoughts that the word fangs suggested.
"Completely ridiculous!" she concluded as she ate the rest of her food.
Aidou had stayed in his room until Sunday afternoon also, trying desperately to get the memory of Akane's blood out of his mind. He'd taken his blood tablets as soon as he'd got back, and thankfully, was subjected to little inquiry as to his whereabouts that evening. He got away with saying, he'd been in the school library and lost track of time, whenever he was asked. But knowing he'd got away with such a violation gave him a very potent buzz, and he wondered. Can I study this Unfortunate, after all?
"Well, Miss Nakamura, we're honoured, please do come in," Mrs Hara greeted sarcastically as Akane walked into the Music room on Monday morning. Mrs Hara was a tall, lean woman in her early forties with a long and thin face and was very attractive, but the sour expression she usually wore took away from her beauty. Her jet-black hair was in a tight and prim bun perched on the top of her head, without so much as a hint of grey. She wore a black, knee-length pencil skirt paired with a white, long-sleeved blouse, always tucked into her skirt, and methodically ironed.
She had a good reason for her tone towards Akane. Since entering the academy, Akane hadn't been present for a single music lesson, mainly because she couldn't play an instrument, but also because in her old school, Musical Studies had been optional. However, Cross Academy was for children from wealthier backgrounds (as Akane had been reminded by many of her teachers), who believed music was an essential part of higher class education.
Akane nodded sheepishly in greeting, as the middle-aged woman observed her student with a stern look. Akane bowed to her tutor to apologise for her repeated absence, but Mrs Hara had already come up with a suitable punishment and spoke before Akane could even take a breath to fuel her belated apology.
"Do you play an instrument?" Akane shook her head, surprised when her tutor gave a sweet smile before she walked around her desk and took hold of some papers, that lay innocently on the surface.
Akane and her classmates watched as Mrs Hara flipped through the papers quietly, discarding many and laying them back on the desk, until she found what she'd been searching for. She walked back to the front of the class and stood before Akane, while the class watched with varying degrees of interest.
"Can you sing, Miss Nakamura?" Now, however, all the students were sitting up, giving their tutor, and their unlucky classmate, their undivided attention.
Akane stared nervously at her music teacher and then at her classmates, and back again.
"I can hold a tune, I think," she admitted quietly.
"Then you can play an instrument, Miss Nakamura," her tutor said as she handed Akane the papers, then addressed the rest of the class. "The voice, when mastered, is a powerful instrument. If you cannot play the flute, the violin, piano and so forth, then the voice is something that even the inept can turn to."
Akane stared wide-eyed at the sheet music in her hands. She never learnt how to read music but thankfully, when reading the words, she found she had heard the song once or twice and could vaguely remember the tune.
"To the chorus, if you please," Mrs Hara urged. She stood impassively next to Akane, her arms folded across her modest chest. Akane turned to the class with an apprehensive breath and spotted Miu, watching her sympathetically, while others stared with looks of anticipation.
Akane took another deep breath, feeling her pale cheeks redden and her heart rate double in speed. She concentrated on the paper in her shaking hands then began to sing, quietly at first but louder after Mrs Hara gestured with her hand for Akane to 'turn up the volume'. She quickly glanced up at her classmates, all staring at her as she went through her own personal hell until finally, it was over.
Once she was done, Mrs Hara held her hand out for the song sheet and smiled pleasantly.
"Thank you, Miss Nakamura, you may now take your seat next to Miss Hayashi. I trust you won't be skipping my classes again?" Akane shook her heavily blushing head before walking quickly to her seat. Her head down and her eyes averted from the students she passed. She spent the rest of the lesson with her head hung low and receiving reassuring pats on the back from Miu.