章 16: A Year Later
A black car parked outside the school gate, and a girl wearing black for everything walked out of the car. She had black hair, a black uniform with a black skirt and black blazer, black glasses, and black stockings.
It was Alina.
She passed through the school gate, then the hallway, and entered a classroom. The classroom was empty with only some students because it was still too early for the school session to start.
She walked to the desk beside the window and opened the window before sitting there. The chilly breeze swayed her hair and the curtains on the window. She looked outside and saw students passing the gate one after another.
SIGH~!
She took off her glasses and threw them in her bag, revealing her swollen eyes. However, it wasn't noticeable because she had applied makeup to hide it. She took out her phone and read the latest news on her feed.
After staring at the screen for a while, she opened the browser and searched, 'Mysterious Masked Man'. Several articles came up, and Alina read the headlines carefully. She scrolled down and opened the latest article.
It read, 'Once again, the mysterious masked man was seen at the crime scene. This time the vice president was attacked. The government had anticipated this attack, so they had set a trap to ambush and capture the mysterious masked man, but the government underestimated his powers. He killed all the officials, including the vice president but spared his 11 years old son. He also left a chip that contained some dirty secrets of the vice president. Now the citizens think that the mysterious masked man is some kind of hero who is trying to make this country a better place.'
Alina read through the articles and stumbled upon a video titled, 'Message by the mysterious masked man.'
Alina clicked on the video, and it started loading. It kept loading and loading. Alina found it strange since her internet was one of the best and exclusive connections. Alina tried to close the video, but it didn't work, and her phone had stopped responding.
"What's going on?" she muttered.
Alina tried to turn off her phone, but even the command keys weren't responding.
"Hey, Alina. You are early today," someone called out to Alina.
Alina looked on her left to see a girl standing in front of her.
"Virza!" Alina cheerily smiled and hugged the girl. "I thought you were in rehabilitation."
"Yeah, I was. But my condition started getting better, so I was allowed to come to attend the school today."
"Nice!" Alina walked to the projector board and pressed a key. A while later a chair appeared on the backside of the classroom.
Alina placed the chair beside her desk and said, "Here. You can sit with me for today."
"Thanks."
Alina sat on her chair and remembered her phone acting strange. She grabbed the phone from under the desk and tried to turn off the phone. And it turned off.
SIGH~
She sighed and looked at the ring finger of her right hand, which had a ring mark— as though she had recently taken her ring off.
Alina stopped wearing the ring Ziro gifted her because she was angry with Ziro.
It has been more than a year since Ziro disappeared from the world, and no one was able to find him. The search continued for over six months, and even the special forces tried to look for Ziro, but there was no sign of him anywhere.
Alina would always visit ZIro's house at least once a day and sometimes even three times a day. One before going to school, one after coming from the school, and one which she never missed— in the evening.
Every day, she would go and wait for Ziro in his room, hoping he would return to her. She never gave up on finding him. She kept surfing through the internet and every social media site she could find to keep track of everything.
Alina couldn't forget the last words Ziro whispered to her before he went missing.
'Forget about me and never take off this ring,' he had said.
There was no way Alina would ever forget about Ziro, no matter what happened. Even if ten years passed, Alina would have still waited for Ziro to come back to her.
She took off her ring last week since it was something Ziro specially warned her about. She thought if she did something Ziro didn't want, then maybe he would return to her.
She thought if her life was ever in danger, then maybe he would come and save her.
"What's wrong? Are you okay, Alina?" Virza patted on Alina's back.
"Yeah," Alina nodded and said, "I am fine."
Alina looked outside the window and saw a boy and a girl walking into the school. They were holding each other's hands, and it looked like they were having fun. It reminded Alina of Ziro and herself, and how they always came to school together— just like that.
Alina found it strange that even though the school time had already started and they were getting late, the couple was walking without any worry.
RING~
Alina's attention was diverted by the sudden ringing of the phone. She looked at Virza and said, "Your phone just rang."
Virza looked at Alina with a puzzled expression on her face and said, "It was yours."
"Huh?"
"Your phone just rang," Virza repeated.
Alina furrowed her brows since she had turned off her phone, and there was no way it would have rang.
She checked her phone, and it was on.
"Wh...at?"
Alina checked the message she had just received, and her eyes widened after seeing the sender's name.
It was Ziro.
Her heartbeats started rising as she choked on her breath and slowly moved her finger to tap on the message.
[Hey, I am almost done. Did class start yet? If yes, then back me up later.]
Alina froze as she read that message. It was similar to the last message she had received from Ziro when he went to the washroom before the class started.
'Is this some kind of bug?' she wondered to herself.
She checked the date, and it was last year's date.
"So it was a bug after all," she muttered.
Sad and disappointed, she put down her phone and looked outside the window again, but the couple was nowhere to be seen.
After a moment, someone shook Alina, and a voice followed, "Hey!"
Alina's head immediately turned to the voice, and her face turned pale, almost as though she had seen a ghost.
"Did you not get my message? Why didn't you reply?"
-- 贈り物
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