"I don't think he was depressed," Kido said.
"He seemed pretty satisfied with his life," Seto said.
"Maybe he was drunk," Kano got elbowed in the stomach.
"This is no time to joke!" Kido raised her fist as Kano held his stomach in pain.
"I-I was just trying to lighten up the mood!"
"He doesn't have a reason to kill himself, huh?" Ayano said.
Shintaro, what are you trying to accomplish?!
"We should probably focus on where Shintaro's body is-" Seto was interrupted by Momo who ran behind them in a panic, "Guys! Onii-chan went missing!"
"First..." he sweated a bit.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T FIND HIM?!"
"We're dearly and truly sorry, but we just can't-" "DON'T GIVE ME THAT CRAP!"
Ayano could hear Mrs. Kisaragi yelling over the phone at the doctors because they couldn't find Shintaro as she walked over to the refrigerator. She could have explained it to her but, at this age and such a thing she saw, how would she believe Ayano?
Even if I was an adult, she'd probably think I'm drunk or got a really bad concussion.
She opened it and scanned for drinks and spotted a gallon a fruit punch so she grabbed it and poured a cup for everyone. Afterwards, she put it back and before closing she noticed something. An unopened box of soda.
Shintaro really liked his soda, huh? I wonder why he didn't open the box yet then she looked at the box to check the expiration date. August 15. This expired a long time ago- eh? Ayano realized the date.
"I'm getting a bit impatient here, will someone tell us?"
Ayano could hear Hibiya but everyone else in the living room was quiet, even though they were quiet since they got here.
"I got some drinks for everyone!" she called from the kitchen as she put the cups on a tray and entered the room.
"Hibiya, I'm impatient too, but..." Hiyori looked down, "Everyone doesn't seem like they want to talk, you know?"
She handed everyone a cup of fruit punch, everyone murmured or whispered a thank you.
"I know that, but, when we were here before we went back to the countryside everyone was talkative and rowdy, but now, it's like they're acting as though," Hibiya soon murmured, "Someone just died..."
Takane abruptly got up from the couch and everyone looked at her as she walked over to Hibiya. He and Hiyori looked at her oddly since they didn't know her.
"What-"
She gripped tightly onto her cup and threw the fruit punch at Hibiya's head.
"Hey! What was that-"
"LIKE YOU WOULD KNOW!"
Hibiya paused.
"HOW OBLIVIOUS CAN YOU BE?! CAN'T YOU SEE WITH YOUR OWN EYES HOW HURT EVERYONE IS BECAUSE OF THAT STUPID JERK?! WHY DON'T YOU SEE HIM AND TELL ME HOW YOU FEEL!" tears started to fall down.
"OH WAIT, YOU CAN'T SEE HIM ANYMORE! BECAUSE HE...!" she backed off and started crying more, "Because he...!"
"Takane..." Ayano hugged Takane.
Everyone heard footsteps coming down the stairs and looked over to see Kido.
"How's Momo doing?" Mary went up to Kido. She shook her head 'no'.
"She says she wants to be alone for a bit, but I could hear her softly crying," Kido said quietly, then took out a towel she was holding onto, "I also brought a towel because I heard a splash and thought someone spilled something."
"Then I'll go check on Momo," Mary said, then went upstairs.
Kido turned to Hibiya, "Catch." Kido threw the towel over to Hibiya, "I could tell you if you want, of what happened."
'Kido are you sure?" Seto looked worriedly at Kido.
"Yeah," she went to sit at the couch.
"M-Momo?" Mary asked softly.
There was no answer. She pressed her ears against the door and she could hear Momo softly crying, like Kido said.
"H-How are you doing?"
"... Fine."
"Can I come in?"
Mary backed off and it took awhile but Momo opened the door.
She was happy that she could do something, so she smiled and entered.
Something about that smile made her smile slightly too.
"Ayano-nee, Takane, and Haruka were going to study at Kisaragi's house together with Shintaro and we couldn't stay at home by ourselves so we came along and Seto brought Mary along too. We met Momo at the front door and she rang the doorbell but the weird thing was, no one came to open and the curtains in Shintaro's room were closed. Soon enough Momo brought out the keys and opened the door," she took a sip of her fruit punch.
"When everyone entered we heard something big fall onto a bed from upstairs. We went upstairs to Shintaro's room but when Momo tried to open it it was locked. So I tried it and took a bobby pin out of my hair, inserted it into the keyhole, twisted it around a bit, opened it, and-" an unwanted image appeared in Kido's mind and she immediately covered her mouth with both of her hands and widened her eyes.
Seto patted Kido's back, "Don't push yourself."
"As you can tell, once Kido saw what was inside she fell backwards and covered her mouth and started crying." Haruka spoke, "We all entered to see what happened and the sight was terrible. On the bed laid Shintaro, there was a pair of red scissors in his throat, and it was long enough to be partially sticking out of the back of his neck." Hibiya widened his eyes while Hiyori gasped.
"Immediately everyone broke down, but I didn't want to believe that he was dead, so I checked and he was cold. I laid back when I felt him softly breathing so I told everyone and Kido called 119 and we went to the infirmary only to have the doctor apologize for our lost," he looked down and smiled sadly, "Sorry, I didn't mean to get our hopes up that he's alive only to have the doctor tell us that."
"No way..." Hiyori took off her earrings and tears dropped onto the earrings. "No way!" she held her earrings close to her chest and started crying.
"Why would he just... do that to himself...?!" Hibiya gripped tightly onto the carpet.
Ayano slowly lets go of Takane and got up.
"Ayano...? What are you..."
"I'm going to check on Mary and Momo, 'kay?" she left and went upstairs.
Of course that was a lie.