Akane spent her Sunday either in the library or in 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, pondering about what occurred last night, in her room. Did his eyes really change? How did he do it? Something was hurting him, what was it? These thoughts and others like them had coursed through her mind all night and day since finding her attacker had vanished from her room.
Akane was intelligent, bright, so why couldn't her mind fathom what had happened? She brought her hand to the spot on her neck where Aido had scraped something sharp across her skin. His fangs? They hadn't cut her, but they'd left red marks that still hadn't faded fully by the time she got up for breakfast. Ridiculous! She dismissed the bizarre thoughts the word 'fangs' stirred up in her mind.
"Completely ridiculous!" she concluded and ate the rest of her food, vowing to never think about last night, or Aido Hanabusa, again.
Similarly, Aido had stayed in his room until Sunday afternoon, also trying desperately to rid himself of the memory of the smell of Akane's blood. He'd taken his tablets as soon as he'd arrived back at The Moon Dorms, and thankfully, was subjected to little inquiry as to his whereabouts. He'd got away with saying, he'd been in the school library and just lost track of time when asked. Knowing he'd evaded punishment for such a violation gave him a very potent buzz, and he wondered if he could study the Unfortunate, after all.
"Well, Miss Nakamura, this is an honour, please, come in," Mrs Hara greeted Akane sarcastically as she entered the Music room on Monday morning. Mrs Hara was a tall, lean woman in her early forties. She had a long and thin and incredibly attractive face, but the sour expression she usually wore took much away from her natural beauty. Her jet-black hair was pulled into a tight and prim bun, perched on the top of her head. She wore a black, knee-length, pencil skirt, paired with a white, long-sleeved blouse, always tucked neatly into her skirt and methodically ironed.
She had 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, in her old school, Musical Studies had been optional. However, Cross Academy was for children from wealthier, more prestigious 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 watched her student with a stern glare. 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 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, which 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 and stood before Akane while the class watched with varying degrees of interest.
"Can you sing, Miss Nakamura?" Now, 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 intoned as she handed Akane the papers, then turned to address 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'd never learnt how to read music but thankfully, when reading the lyrics, she found she had heard the song and 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 face her classmates with an apprehensive breath, spotting Miu who gave a sympathetic wave while others looked on in anticipation and amusement.
Akane took another deep breath, feeling her pale cheeks redden and her heart rate double. She concentrated on the paper in her shaking hands and began to sing, quietly at first but louder after Mrs Hara gestured for Akane to 'turn up the volume'. She peeked a glance or two 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 scuttling to her seat with her head bowed and not meeting anyone's eyes as she passed her classmates on the way to her seat. She spent the rest of the lesson with her head held in her hands, receiving reassuring pats on the back from Miu.