Chapter Three: Is
(Author's Note: My apologies for the delay. Work has been crazy, but now I'm back for this chapter and the upcoming final chapter)
Azusa Chan's Classroom
1 Hour Ago
1st Period: 5/60 Minutes
A tiny, chewed-up pencil drops onto the wooden floor. The crowd pauses, shifting its focus to the culprit: Azusa Nakano. Her fingertips are chapped from scratching, the eyes are sullen, and the face is bare naked without any effort at makeup.
"I got it, Azusa-chan," A female student replies. She leans across her desk and sets the pencil on Azusa's desk. Azusa refuses to make eye contact with her, let alone any of the other girls in class (not even Ui and Jun).
"Let's refresh our Japanese," the teacher explains to the native speakers. She writes a few Katakana letters. "Azusa-chan. What does that say and what does it mean?"
Despite the stiffness in her neck, Azusa stares up at the chalkboard. "Bocchi," she reads faintly, "It means the state of being alone." Then her head immediately bows into her desk.
The teacher nods and writes Neko in Japanese. "Jun-chan, what does Neko mean in English?".
The girl behind Azusa-chan unzips her backpack. Quietly chuckling to herself, she grabs a pair of cat ears and shoves them onto Azusa's skull. "OW!" Azusa yells as the headband digs into her hair.
"It means cat!" The girl chuckles. The class bursts into laughter, except for the teacher and Azusa and friends.
Hallways
Immediately After
1st Period: 7/60 Minutes
"Azusa-chan!" Ui and Jun collectively scream. They trail behind a spring Azusa - who is as fast as a certain blue hedgehog. The hallway films the incident on their flip phones.
Band Club Room
Immediately After
Azusa rips the door open and sprints inward. She slips butt-first onto the wooden flooring.
Ui and Jun-chan sprint in the hallway, 30 or so meters away from the club entrance. Azusa groans in pain and sprints towards the door. LOCKED. Relieved, she slides her back against the door and pants. The pants slow, but not the tears on her face. They stream down her face like there's no tomorrow.
"Azusa-chan!" Ui and Jun-chan scream, pounding on the door: "Please open the door! Azusa-chan!"
Inside Club Room
1 Hour Later
2nd Period: 7/60 Minutes
"Azusa!" Mio bangs on the door from outside. As Azusa's older sister figure, the gang hoped that Mio would do the trick. Alas, nothing but silence from inside.
Azusa frantically digs through a cardboard box. She's looking for something, but what? After she wrestles with the spam contents, Azusa finds a headband with glued-on cat ears. The kouhai sniffles and squeezes her palms inwards. The cat headband in her hand starts to bend.
"Azusa!" Yui screams from the other side of the locked doors. Azusa trembles. For the first time in forever, Yui used her real name.
"Azusa-chan?" Azusa whispers to herself, her voice trembling. A beat later, the area grows silent.
"Azua-chan?" Yui asks with a begging voice.
With a glare in her drowning eyes, Azusa drops her cat ear headband. She kneels to fetch her accessory.
"Nakano!" Ritsu-sampai says, kicking on the door.
"Don't ruin the door!" Mio yells, her fist meeting skull.
"OW!" Ritsu-sempai yells.
Azusa's tears drip from face to floor. "Azusa-chan?," she mumbles to herself. Her breaths shrink, her whimpers fasten, and her soul feels disowned.
"Sawa-chan, over here!" Yui-sempai yells, "Azu-ny-
Just hearing that loosens a knot in Azusa's throat. A tiny smile grows across her face.
"-I mean Azusa-chan locked herself in the club room!"
Azusa's smile vaporizes. A mental tug of war rages in her head: Why does she miss a nickname that has caused her so much humiliation? The door springs open. The other girls and Sawa-chan stand at the door, head down. Not even Yui-senpai can look her #1 kouhai in the eye.
"Azusa-chan," Yui mumbles with a trembling voice, "Mugi-chan is on it…We'll catch the cyberbullies."
The knot tightens again in Azusa's throat. A sense of relief, but also a sense of bereavement towards her nickname.
"Azusa-chan?" Yui says, holding back tears. "I'll never call you that nickname again; I promise"
The rest of the group remains stoic. It's like watching a break-up. One that is cathartic yet ultimately undesirable. Azusa-chan turns around to wipe her tears, a poor camouflage of her emotions.
"Yui-senpai…" Azusa responds, taking a breather to properly bottle up her emotion. "I appreciate that."
A longer silence. Azusa visibly shakes. The other girls can tell that she's hiding something. Yui tries to maintain eye contact with Azusa, but she refuses.
"Azusa-chan," Mio intervenes, "Is there something you want to get off your chest?"
That million yen question suffocates the room. Azusa glances at a despondent Yui. Yui hangs her head low, holding in her tears. Azusa's breath trembles. She clenches her trembling fists.
"No," Azusa lies and scuffles towards the door, her head hung low. The girls move out of her way, except for Ritsu. Ritsu blocks the kouhai. Azusa-chan shrinks back.
"Yui!" Ritsu yells at the terrified girl. Yui has never seen Ritsu this angry before. "Talk to Nakano!" she begs her, "You know she's hiding something."
Azusa refuses Yui-senpai a glance. Sweat beads develop over her pale forehead. Ritsu glares at Sawa-chan. "You're an adult, talk to her!".
"Let's take a breather," Sawa-chan suggested: "Trust me on this one; I was a teenager too."
Azusa looks stoic. She plays with her fingers and replies, "Okay." Then she scampers towards the door. This time, nobody stops her.
Ritsu and Sawa-chan stare down at Yui. "I'm going home," she mumbles and turns away. Yui limps down the empty hallway. Her heart beat bleeds into her hearing. Her vision flashes and she feels nauseous.
Azusa's Bedroom
A Few Hours Later: Noon
6th Period
Azusa-chan lies on her side and clutches her stomach. Her shoulders and throat are sore from all the heavy breathing.
"BEEP! BEEP!" The cell phone vibrates. Azusa lies in her bed. Her eyes creak open. She extends her arm to its limit and grabs her phone.
"Be home in 10 minutes" - Mom
"We'll catch that cyberbully" - Dad
A tiny smile crops across her face. Not even her friends can replace the love and comfort of a parent.
Something catches Azusa's eyes. Across from her, a photo hangs on the wall; it's from her 1st summer at Mugi-senpai's beach house: It's a selfie that Yui and Azusa took as they practiced alone in the music room. It was taken on a flip phone, so the quality is terrible. The frame is crooked. So with her legs feeling like pencils, the kouhai stumbles towards the frame and straightens it. Then she pushes a red button on the frame's corner.
"Aaaaazu-nyan!" Yui's voice plays from a speaker installed inside the frame. The knot in Azusa's throat loosens. She hits plays again. "Aaaaazu-nyan!".
Azusa sniffles and plays it repeatedly. Tears of joy stroll down her face, as if she's hearing a dead relative after years of separation. Then she curls up against the bed and mumbles to herself, "Azu-nyan..Azu-Nyan…Azu-nyan…" A reticent smile emerges across her face.
"RING, RING, RING."
"Azu-nyan…Azu-nyan…Azu-nyan"
"RING, RING, RING"
Azusa snaps out of it and stretches her arm at the bed, sight unseen. She lies against the bed and answers.
"Hello?"
"Azusa-chan, it's Mio-senpai."
A pause. Azusa-chan wipes her face and calms her breathing.
"Azusa-chan. Mugi found the cyberbully."
"Oh?" Azusa replies; her voice is tense. "Who is it?"
"We don't know yet, but the police are headed to the IP address' location. If I text you the address, can you be there soon?-"
"-Yes!" Azusa replies with no hesitation. "My parents will be home soon; they can drive me there."
"Great" Mio replies with a tense voice. "Okay, see you there-"
"-Wait!" Azusa yells, her voice on edge. "Is Yui-senpai coming?"
A beat. Azusa's teeth clatter from nervousness. Her hands tremble and threaten to drop her phone.
"She's coming"
Her heart races, her breaths shrink, and her head throbs. This continues for several seconds as the kouhai struggles to pace her breaths. The more she thinks about it, the harder it gets.
"Azusa-chan, what's the matter?"
…
"Azusa-chan?"
…
"Are you okay?"
…
Azusa winces as she holds her ear to the speaker; the panic attack makes it feel like she's holding a dumbbell. Azusa takes heavy breaths into the phone.
"Azusa-chan, calm down!" Mio begs over the phone. Azusa drops her phone and clutches her chest. Despite her attempts at calmness, the pain remains.
"I'm calling an ambulance to your house!" Mio yells through the phone. Azusa feels a burning sensation in her blood vessels. Her vision flickers and so does her heart rate. Everything cuts to black.
To be continued