Sorry for the spotty updates, gang. Please know that no matter how long it's been, a new chapter is always coming!
Enjoy!
12/5
It was Haru's eighteenth birthday.
It was a Monday, a school day. Her homework remained unfinished - never even touched actually - buried within the confines of her messenger bag she had thrown into the corner of the master bedroom the previous evening.
Sugimura was already off somewhere by the time she woke up. She was grateful for his absence, though it was rather depressing to go through her entire morning routine without a single birthday greeting from anyone. Though, I'm not sure Sugimura even remembers it's my birthday, anyway…
Haru dabbed some concealer over the discolored, bruised flesh of her cheekbones. She winced at the touch, her skin still quite sore. They were green now, yellowing at the edges. By Friday they would be gone only if new ones didn't replace them in time.
Her fiance told her that he didn't hit her for pleasure, only when she disobeyed. She wondered if that justification comforted him. It would be easier if she was quiet, more pliant, and she knew that well. Sometimes silence burned the inside of her throat all the way through and words slipped out from between her lips, causing him to raise his hand to strike her.
At school, nobody paid very much attention to her. After her father passed away, she had stayed at home for nearly two weeks. Some of her teachers even contacted her asking if she planned on returning to school. She didn't have a lot of say in the matter, actually. There were a lot of business forms to sign, financial papers she had to look over. She had to settle in to Sugimura's penthouse. Interviews she had to decline, phone numbers from reporters that she inevitably had to block. It was a very long two weeks, to say the least.
Walking through the hallways, Haru imagined she was a ghost. She wandered aimlessly from class to class, her feet hardly brushing against the ground as they dragged along. There was nobody for her to talk to. Nobody to share smiles with, nobody to eat lunch with, nobody to giggle at during class time. She had always been alone, but now it was different. Now that she had bitten into the fruit of friendship and experienced actual companionship, nothing was the same. Now she was truly lonely.
She hadn't heard from Akechi since… the incident. She mulled over it many times in her cramped little head, still unable to make sense of his rambling nearly two months later. He had tried contacting her a few times since that day, but she never responded. She wouldn't know what to say, anyways. She wondered if she would ever see him again at all.
"Okumura-san!" a voice called out from somewhere behind Haru. She turned around and blinked, surveying the area warily. Her unfocused gaze wandered as she tried to determine where the voice had come from. She heard it again. "Okumura-san."
Haru forced a smile at the sight of the student council president. "Um, hello, Nijiima-san. How can I help you?"
"I need to speak with you, actually," Makoto Nijiima had a pleasant, pressed expression on her face. "Follow me to the student council room?"
Haru's eyebrows furrowed, but her head bobbed in a nod nonetheless as she trailed behind her classmate. She followed Makoto down a flight of stairs and into a section of rooms near the Principal's office, where they walked into the student council room. Makoto flipped the light switch on as she closed the door behind her.
"Please, make yourself comfortable," said Makoto, motioning to a chair perched at the end of a table. Haru took the seat rather nervously, glancing around the room.
"Um…" Haru heard the waver in her voice, and immediately cursed herself for ever speaking at all. But already Makoto's intense crimson-colored eyes were on her, so she continued. "I… am I in any trouble?"
"Trouble?" the student council president repeated, shaking her head. "No, nothing like that. I just wanted to speak with you about a few things." Makoto took the seat across from her, primly smoothing her skirt down as she sat.
"Like... what?" Haru asked.
"Well, it's your birthday today, isn't it?" Makoto said, speaking as if it were obvious. She was smiling, though it still looked rather forced. "That's exciting, isn't it?"
Truthfully, Haru did not feel any differently than a normal day. "Yes… it is… exciting." she almost cringed at the lack of enthusiasm evident in her voice.
"Okumura-san, I know that things might be… difficult, with the recent loss of your father," Makoto looked away as she spoke. "I actually lost my father, too. If you ever need someone to talk to, I mean… I am the student council president for a reason."
Haru's heart warmed at the realization that Makoto was simply trying to be kind. She was just trying to be nice to the weird orphaned classmate who spent her eighteenth birthday on mute. Haru's gaze lifted to the ceiling, willing the tears back into her eyes, trying to keep from from scattering down her cheeks.
"Thank you, Niijima-san. That's very kind of you to say." Formalities were all she had when caught off guard.
"Of course. Um, do you happen to live alone, now, or…?"
Haru bit the inside of her cheek as she struggled to find the appropriate words to describe her situation. "No, after my father… I actually moved in with my fiance."
Makoto's eyes widened. "Oh! I had no idea you were engaged. It must be nice... to be in love."
Haru could almost laugh. The bubble rose up in her throat, dangerously close to spilling out until she bit down on her lip. But then the tears came, too. Within seconds Haru could feel the dampness sliding down her cheeks, doubling or tripling in quantity each time she wiped them away with her hands. She could hear Makoto's concerned voice in the back of her ears, but she was in an entirely different place. I wish I was in love, she thought. Everyone else is free to find the person they want to be with. They're not trapped in a marriage bed made of contracts and paperwork and promises of wealth and fame, not like me…
"Okumura-san?" Makoto's voice suddenly rang out loudly, snapping Haru out of her state.
Haru took a deep breath, her eyes closed. She hastily rubbed away some loose tears falling from her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Niijima-san. You were just trying to be nice and all I've done is waste your time. I truly - is something the matter?"
Makoto was staring at her with a strange expression upon her face, eyes wide and brows inverted like she was taking a sharp breath. Her gaze raked over the entirety of Haru's face before meeting her eyes. "Where are those bruises from, Okumura-san?"
Haru's mouth fell open in a tiny o, mind spinning in frantic circles as she assessed the situation. How did she know? How can she see them? I covered them with… She internally cursed herself. The concealer. The same concealer she had just brushed away with the moist palms of her hands; they had removed the makeup completely.
"I-I… I don't… I don't know." Haru finally admitted, quite lamely. Her head hung low shamefully. She dared not to look up, knowing that one glance at Makoto's expression would tell her what she didn't want to know: I don't believe you.
Haru had never had to lie about the source of her injuries before, quite frankly because nobody had ever asked. There was a horrible guilt in the pit of her stomach, not even wanting to fathom what Sugimura would do if he realized people at her school were questioning his character. Tarnishing his reputation, and all because of her…
"Is someone hurting you?" Makoto asked.
Haru still couldn't look at her.
"Is it your fiance? Or someone else?"
"I have to leave," Haru rose, hastily gathering up her things. She turned on her heel, dashing for the exit. "Thank you, Niijima-san, for… this, but I have to go now. Goodbye."
"Okumura-san, wait - ''
But she didn't. She couldn't. She was too embarrassed, too humiliated at the tragic, stupid turns her life had taken. Solitude was her only solace, it always had been...
Haru kept her head low as she navigated through the halls at a pace quicker than she'd ever done before. Her fingers flew across her phone screen as she opened different apps, random photos or messages, trying to trick her mind into thinking about anything other than the incident in the student council room.
And of course, just her luck, she bumped right into someone, which sent her flying forward as her bookbag snapped off her shoulder. Stray papers soared through the air as Haru's chin met the hard pavement, emitting no sound from her but a rather unladylike grunt purely from the rough impact.
"Shit! Are you okay?" a crass voice apparated from somewhere above. Haru rolled over, still in a substantial amount of pain but managing to just barely open her eyes. A vulgar-looking boy with bleached yellow hair offered his hand to help her up. Haru accepted, but was unprepared for the force in which he used to pull her. She stumbled around a bit and he used his arms to steady her - as if their current situation wasn't already awkward enough.
The boy's eyebrows furrowed. "Can you talk? Are you okay?"
Haru nodded listlessly, keeping her head down. She didn't want him to see her bruises. "I - yes, thank you. I'm so sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going and - ''
"No, it was totally my fault," the boy rubbed at the back of his neck sheepishly. "I'm really sorry. I was on my phone and y'know…"
Haru bobbed her head up and down, not quite paying attention. She felt quite dizzy and was still reeling from Makoto's confrontation, her hands mindlessly flittering over her pockets whilst searching for her phone. I need to go home. I need the driver to pick me up early. I need… her eyes grazed over the sidewalk, stopping at the shattered cell phone that lay uselessly at her feet.
"Hey, are you looking for something? You need help?" the boy asked obliviously, looking around in confusion before his gaze eventually followed the path hers had taken.
Haru's breathing hitched. My phone is broken. How am I going to call? Where do I get a new one? Is Sugimura going to be angry? She had felt so… unhinged recently. Too many things were happening at once, and especially on her birthday… Why is this happening to me?
"Shit! Is that yours?" the boy interrupted her frantic thoughts loudly, pointing to the broken cell phone. "God, I'm such a dumbass! Shit. Uh, okay, here… if you give me your number I can let you know when I've got enough money to pay you back for it."
"No, it's okay. You don't have to pay for anything." Haru spoke softly, biting her lip anxiously. "Could I just... use your phone for a minute, please?"
The guy seemed confused that she had refused money from him, but obliged nonetheless. "Oh yeah, sure. Here, lemme get it…"
Haru's head rose steadily, and she took in the sight of the student's arm outstretched with his phone in hand, offering it to her. She slowly accepted it, clicking out a certain sequence of numbers on the keypad and waiting as it rang. Somehow she thought back to her first encounter with Akechi, when she had needed to borrow his phone, so similar to now… her eyebrows furrowed at the unwelcome memory.
"Hey, seriously, do you need to go to the nurse or something? I think that the fall might've, uh…" the boy hesitated. "Busted your face up, a little."
Haru simply shook her head, flinching as the phone finally picked up and she heard that familiar voice in her ear. "This is Rin Sugimura."
"Sugimura-san…" she was quiet, a horrible sense of lingering fear still beating rapidly inside her heart. "It's Haru. Um, my cell phone broke, and I - ''
"You broke your cell phone? How? And how are you calling me right now?"
The boy stood awkwardly off to the side. Haru internally cringed, praying that he couldn't hear their conversation with all of her fiance's loud shouting.
"I just… tripped," she said, which was not an outright lie. "It's fine. Someone lent me theirs. Can you please send a car?"
"You're clumsy," Sugimura accused her. There was a moment of silence, as if he wished for her to defend herself. "When do you need the car by?"
"As soon as possible," she responded, a little too quickly and a little too eagerly. "Please."
Sugimura sighed, the sound of his thin fingers tapping across his screen filling Haru's ears among the static silence. "It's done. Go wait at the front entrance until they arrive." the line clicked, signalling that he had hung up.
Haru handed the phone back to the boy, not making eye contact as she released a shallow breath. "Thank you for lending me this. I apologize for getting in your way."
"Nah, don't worry about it. You, uh, get home safe," the boy said, a little awkwardly. "I'm Ryuji, by the way."
Haru took a few seconds to realize that he expected her to reciprocate the introduction. "I'm Haru Okumura."
The guy - Ryuji - nodded, as if this was information he was already aware of. "Yeah. Well, see you around." and with that, he spun around, heading back into the school hallway.
Haru then did exactly as she had been instructed, sitting at the steps of the front entrance with her chin cupped in her hands rather glumly. She had heard Sugimura's voice over the phone, and he was clearly angry… she didn't want to go home. She didn't feel safe there. But then again, school wasn't any better, especially not after what happened with the Student Council President…
Haru sighed. Sometimes, she just wanted - no, needed - everything to stop. But it wouldn't. It just kept going, and going, and going. And it was getting worse.
MAKOTO: I've gathered some new information on Haru Okumura.
RYUJI: Whoa, you too?!
FUTABA: Her phone went dead. Did she find the bug?
RYUJI: No. It broke, actually.
RYUJI: Kind of a long story. I think we'd better meet up after school today.
ANN: Is it serious?
AKIRA: We need to make sure we're not wasting our time looking into this when we still have Shido to take care of.
MAKOTO: We're not wasting our time on anything. That info Mishima picked up from the PhanSite was completely legitimate.
ANN: Crap. Is she okay?
RYUJI: We'll talk about it at the meeting!
"She's a nice girl…" Morgana said, a troubled expression coating his furry face as he read the messages. "You think she's alright?"
Akira sighed, rubbing a hand to his temple. "Better off without Akechi, I'm sure."
"Yeah, probably, but… you don't ever think we might have messed up with her?"
It feels like we ruined her life, Akira thought to himself bitterly. But he bit his tongue. "I don't know, Morgana. Seriously, be quiet down there. I'm still in class, you know…"
Morgana burrowed further into the desk, curling in on himself as his mind flurried nervously around the thought of Haru Okumura.