บท 7: I see her

"Ding! Ding! You got the Yandere System!" The boy, Ilia, lifted the mop he used to point at the ceiling. For a moment, he looked like a dashing knight but also so silly.

"Huh? What are you talking about Ilia?" Roy blinks as he looks at the whim of his childhood friend, Ilia. Not only him, the other three students who also did the class assignment with them looking at that weird boy.

Roy wasn't surprised by the bizarre thing Ilia did, he just couldn't believe that Ilia could do it openly. How could Ilia be so shameless!? He also thought about this question many times.

"You see, I'm looking for ideas for my new novel." Ilia lowered the mop and used it properly to clean the dirty floor. "This is what came up, what do you think?"

"Tell me more about this Yandere System you're talking about." Roy stepped a little away to clean up the dirt on the other part of the floor, not to avoid his weird childhood friends.

"It's the sort of power that will make someone who has it will meet girls who are crazy to that someone."

"Then?" Ask Roy with a little attention. He was more focused on his duty to mop the floor than to hear Ilia's rambling.

Ilia stopped to rest his chin on the top of the mop stick he hold. "The owner of the system will try to get one of the girls. He tries to give the girl love but the girl who is crazy to him has greater love. Everything was fine at the beginning but it became scary as their journey to be a perfect couple went on. In the end, they died together."

"Okay, now, what do you mean by a girl who is crazy to you?"

"...the girl only saw you, want to do anything for you, and they will kill anyone too close to you either romantically or not. She does those things in the name of love."

"It was dark and practically a slavering act. Now... Is there someone out there who wants a crazy girl to love him?"

"If that crazy girl is beautiful and sexy?"

"Of course, I will accept her without question." Roy made a strong nod. A moment later he sighed. "I will accept her but, I prefer normal girls and also normal relationships. Don't you want to have a perfect relationship like them?"

Realizing Roy was looking out of the window, Ilia take a few steps closer to that frame with a layer of glass. Moving his head and eyes, down there, he finds Jeanne and Roman sitting on a bench in the school park.

Rumor has it they're the best couple at the school given how compatible they are. However, Ilia had other thoughts.

"Isn't there something strange between them?"

"Explain that question to me."

"You know, Roman is happy and everything but Jeanne, doesn't she look sadder and being forced?"

"Seriously, what are you talking about, she looks fine to me. Isn't she always smiling every time she is with him? And look!" Roy pointed the pair with his chin. "There's no way she's sad when she laughs happily like that, right?"

Ilia didn't say yes or agree with that question. For the past two days, he's realized that Jeanne is doing things out of her habits, different from everyone who sticks to their habits. Okay, some people act out of their habits but, their changes aren't as drastic as Jeanne's.

Knowing that made him uncomfortable. And he didn't know, why he have that feeling. After all, he doesn't have a close relationship with her. Especially after the girl rejected his love.

"Even if you say that, I still feel like there's something wrong with her," Ilia said with worry as he looked at Jeanne.

Roy shook his head and went back to his job. He left Ilia who is silent thinking of something.

---[+]---

The next day came.

Ilia's guess about something was wrong with Jeanne getting stronger when he saw the girl in a locker room. She looked sad and haggard, more than the previous day.

He wants to know what happened, he wants to comfort the girl but no...

Ilia shook his head to dispel those ideas.

Thinking too much about other people's wife-ahem! Girlfriends are not good and healthy things to do.

Maybe there's something wrong with their relationship, maybe Jeanne is upset about something, or maybe Roman isn't paying attention to his girlfriend. There are a lot of problems that can come their way but that... that is not Ilia's place to interfere.

"I hope their relationship gets better," Ilia said of something he never thought he would do.

This virgin boy prayed for a pair of lovers to have a good relationship. Realizing what he had just done, his determination to ignore Jeanne became even stronger.

The girl affected him too much.

"Did this happen because she rejected me? Am I being crazy and obsessive for her?" Ilia paused for a moment to think. Then he said, "No! No! No! I'm neither crazy nor obsessive! I'm normal, just overthinking about it "

With that, Ilia left his locker to face the day.

In the first and second classes, Ilia still stole a peek at Jeanne. He intended to forget about the girl but he couldn't do it easily. He could only slightly ignore and forget about her after the fourth class had passed. And in the end, he managed to forget about her after school.

Now, as he clean up the chemistry lab - because he was asked by a sexy female teacher - there was no more thought about Jeanne or a worry about things that were happening to her.

He was free from Jeanne.

"Wow~ everything is clean," praised Mrs. Klara the sexy teacher.

The woman was impressed with the results of Ilia's work. Dirty rooms become clean, equipment that was once messy is now neatly arranged in their respective places, and other problems? All was gone thanks to that student's efforts.

Satisfied, Mrs. Klara handed Ilia a transparent plastic bag. Two cups of vanilla-flavored ice cream, that's what Ilia saw in it.

"That's your wage," said Mrs. Klara who then kissed Ilia's left cheek. After she did it, she uttered, "and this is a bonus."

Ilia does not consider adult women as his targets of romance. But, still, getting a kiss from a sexy adult woman makes his face blush.

"Don't fall in love with me, okay?" Mrs. Klara said seductively before they split up.

Leaving the chemistry lab, Ilia goes to the basketball club to fulfill his duty. He didn't want his ice cream to melt so he intends to entrust it to Mr. Waldo who was a security guard. He wants to make use of the small refrigerator in the guard room.

He never expected, his decision to take a detour to visit the guard room made him accidentally see Jeanne. In the distance, the girl threw something into the trash can before walking away.

Ilia approached the place where Jeanne had just because he had to cross that place to reach the guard room.

Curiosity comes to Ilia's heart, he wants to know what Jeanne throws away. As he looked into the trash can, he found a pair of silver cross earrings, the favorite earrings of the girl who threw them away.

Without thinking, Ilia picked up the earrings.

There was a diamond in those earrings and he knew, this wasn't an item that could just be thrown away recklessly. He promised himself to return the earrings tomorrow. He might be regarded as a disgusting person for picking up someone else's trash after he hand over the earrings but he would still do it.

He did it for his satisfaction and maybe, for Jeanne?