"W-What the hell is this?" Tooru uttered, shocked at the sight before him.
"Oh my god…" Kanade placed a hand over her mouth stunned by the display, her eyes scanning every inch of the room.
The moment they slid the door open to the Home Economics room, an enormous amount of flowers littered the floor. Their costumes, worn or not, were haphazardly thrown across the makeshift bed of roses. The colors yellow, pink and white adorned bouquets that seemed gingerly placed near each costume, one for each princess. The light blue drapes covered every ounce of light that showed through the window, leaving the display with a sinister aura.
"W-Who could have done this…?" Mikoto's eyes were growing wider by the minute. The more he scanned the room, the more unnerved he became.
"Those are our costumes!" Yuujirou interjected, taking a daring step into the scene.
"Wait! Don't go in!" Akira shouted, moving his arm to block Yuujirou from taking another step inside.
The princesses were startled by their friend's sudden outburst, the Akira they knew was always calm and collected. Their attention turned from the room before them to the serious expression on his face.
"We have to preserve the scene! It might be dangerous to go inside. Let's stay together and notify Arisada-kaichou." Firm on his decision, Akira looked over his shoulder to calculate the best route to the student council.
"Oh, no wonder you're the candidate for the next president!" Yuujirou said sharply.
"No wonder," Mikoto agreed, feeling a bit relieved.
Arisada stood pondering in the middle of the Home Economics room, as the light blue curtains were drawn back and the other members of the student council were tidying up the scene. The four princesses plus Akira still never set foot inside the room, per orders of President Arisada, they remained spectating from outside the open door.
"It seems there's no one here Arisada," the vice president Koshino Masayuki said. "Nothing out of the ordinary in the conjoining classroom either."
Turning his attention away from the costumes and now to the mannequins, the secretary Tadasu Takahiro also reported. "There's no problem with the princesses' clothes either... not even a stain."
"Even so, all these roses…" the treasurer Harue Wataru noticed, "must've been very expensive." Noting the excellent quality of the roses, thorns trimmed, fresh petals, zero signs of any wilting.
"Informing us immediately was a good judgement call, Sakamoto-sama" Arisada praised his protégé. "If the other students found out about this, it would've become a big issue and could've easily gotten out of hand."
"Actually, we didn't really know what to do," Akira said, rubbing the back of his head clearly embarrassed.
The four princesses smirked as they side-eyed Akira, who was reluctant to take the praise. Akira's attention switched from Arisada to the princess beside him, tilting his head.
"Hm?"
"Nothing~" the four chimed.
Interrupting the moment between Akira and princesses, Arisada cleared his throat "all the other members of the Home Economics club are on vacation, but where is Natashou-senpai?"
"I didn't see him today," Takahiro, the student council secretary, replied shaking his head.
"If that's the case, it must've been somebody from the outside then," Masayuki the vice president conjectured.
The treasurer, Wataru stepped out from behind the mannequins, "do you think there's a bad intention behind this, Arisada?"
Arisada stayed quiet for a moment before answering, "could it be a stalker?"
An eruption of voices echoed in the Home Economics room, all caught off guard by the president.
"A stalker?!" The four princesses exclaimed.
"It's only speculation," Arisada assured. "Well, for now, just leave the rest to us. Please continue your work today princesses."
"But!" Mikoto whined.
"Mikoto!" Yuujirou intervened.
"What? We're the ones who're being stalked!"
"Staying here isn't going to help! So work, work!"
"As I thought… back then someone was watching us," Tooru said, connecting the dots from the previous situation.
That statement caught the concerns of the student council, their gazes narrowed in on Tooru.
"What happened?" Arisada demanded.
"A moment ago, I felt someone watching us from outside the school. But, no one was there when we looked out the window" Tooru said, turning his head to Kanade, recalling the memory.
"I thought I saw something weird too..." Kanade chimed in.
This was new news, Akira and other princesses only knew about the instance Tooru had, but Kanade too?
She continued, "after Tooru waved it off, he went to catch up with Akira, Yuujirou and Mikoto who were further ahead of us. Tooru went ahead of me, and before I knew it I saw a flash of light out of my peripheral vision. I stopped and looked out the window again, still no one was there… now that I think about it, it seemed similar to a flash produced by a camera."
"Eh? And you didn't tell us Kanade?" Yuujirou questioned.
Kanade shrugged her shoulders, "well yeah. Tooru brushed off his instance, so naturally I did with mine. Plus you were telling us to hurry up, so that didn't help either" she eyed Yuujirou steadily.
"Stop today's work," Arisada ordered. "Go back to the dorms first and wait for orders, Sakamoto-sama, could you please go to the dorms with them?"
"Huh?" Mikoto's jaw dropped.
Akira nodded his head, "y-yeah."
"First, we need to contact the members of the Home Economics club, and then search the inside of the school," Arisada commanded.
"Right!" The student council members acknowledged.
As the student council shuffled out of the Home Economics room, Akira led the concerned princesses back to the safety of the dorms. Like Arisada ordered, they stayed there until further notice.
Later that evening like Arisada ordered, the four princesses stayed there until further notice. Yet no word had come from Arisada still. Tooru and Yuujirou were in their dorm room discussing different possibilities of the incident.
"Hey, what do you think about what happened today?" Yuujirou asked.
"Hm… maybe they were just presents from someone," Tooru simply answered.
Yuujirou shook his head, "that's impossible."
"What makes you so sure?" Tooru inquired. "The princesses are people's idols, right? It'd be normal to receive presents."
"You're right, but giving personal presents to princesses is not permitted," Yuujirou replied.
"Huh? Why not?" Tooru said.
"If not, this room would already be buried in presents."
A sigh slipped from Tooru's mouth, "ah, you're right. But if that's the case though…"
"As we suspected, it's the guy who you saw during the day then."
"I only felt that someone was there… but Kanade was the one to—"
A knock at the door startled the two princesses, who were just going over the unsettling occurrences. Their heads turned to the door, only a few students were in the dorms during the summer. They stayed silent for a moment until Yuujirou had the courage to speak up.
"Who is it?" He called out.
"It's me! Kanade."
"Oh, speak of the devil" Tooru said, relieved it was only his friend. "C'mon in! It's open."
The door popped open, and the boys watched her shuffle in. With a pillow under one arm and a blanket in the other, they stared at her for a brief moment.
She cracked a timid smile, "can I spend the night? I'm feeling a bit anxious, I'll even sleep on the floor. So... please?" The tone of her voice spiked at the end of her sentence, posing a question, yet partial persuasion.
Tooru noticed the way she gripped her blanket. Just like them, she was in distress too, her white knuckles were there to prove it. Tooru turned his attention back to Yuujirou, both sharing a curt nod in agreement.
"I have no problem with it, but I'm sure a bed is more comfortable," Tooru said, choosing his words carefully. "Isn't that right Yuujirou?" Glancing back at his friend, raising his eyebrows out of Kanade's view.
"Righhht." Yuujirou replied, catching on quickly to Tooru's wingman suggestion. He cleared his throat, piecing together in his head exactly what Kanade would say as her reaction, she was much too accommodating for her own good. "You can use my bed Kana-chan, really I don't mind."
"What?" She blinked at the sudden suggestion. "N-No, Yuujirou I couldn't do that." She said, dropping the pillow and blanket out of her grasp. She waved her hands and shook her head disagreeing with the idea. "Besides… where would you sleep?"
Playing it off coolly, Yuujirou shook his head at her denial. "But the dorm floors really aren't that comfortable Kana-chan, I doubt you'd be able to fall asleep."
Articulating her pet name again, he watched her squirm uneasily. Her eyes glistened, cheeks pinkening, Yuujirou had no idea what the full effects of that name had on her. Especially coming from his lips, that were sweet like honey, but with a darker intention behind it.
"He has a point, Kanade. If not the anxiety, then it's the hard, uncomfortable floor." Tooru stated matter-of-factly, adding to their conspiracy.
Yuujirou had already left his seat, to grab the pillow and blanket that she had dropped.
Kanade thought for a moment, really, Tooru did have a valid point. The whole reason she asked in the first place was to feel reassured about their situation. Not to remain uncomfortable in any way.
"Then… if you don't mind?" Kanade mumbled, rubbing the back of her flushed neck.
"Not at all," the two boys said in unison catching each other's side glances.
"Thanks guys," Kanade smiled to herself knowing she had found a good group of friends.
Friends… a thought popped into her head.
"Hey... have any of you seen Mikoto?" She questioned.
The boys looked at each other and honestly couldn't say they have.
A/N: Hi guys! Hope you are doing well and staying safe, I wanted to apologize that the whole updating schedule became thrown out of whack, right when I was doing so well. But, that's life for you. To be honest I can't say when I will update this story again, I have a half written chapter in the works already but it's finding the time to finish it and upload it. If you have been wondering where I've been, nursing school has been a pain in my ass. No time for myself or other people, and definitely not for writing... but I hope you understand, and I'll try to crank out the next chapter during my spring break in late March. Thanks for being patient and wishing you all good health for the new year.