It was lunchtime.
I slowly made my way towards the cafeteria, with the intention of having some vegetable soup for lunch. Some days I brought convenience store food for lunch as it was marginally cheaper, but I haven't been bothered recently, vegetable soup was always a safe option in the cafeteria, though generally, the quality of food is pretty high.
There wasn't the usual lunch rush that happened at other high schools, the school itself didn't have that many students, you were also allowed to leave the classroom building and have lunch outside, so the cafeteria had never been really that busy.
On my way, I bumped into a familiar face.
She looked over at me awkwardly. Before she'd probably rush towards me, greeting me openly, but ever since that day, she's been a lot more reserved.
I didn't have any business with her so I decided to just walk by without saying anything.
Eventually, I made my way to the cafeteria.
It seemed even more scarcely populated than usual. Only a few of the hundreds of seats were occupied, the workers were chatting idly, with no one in line.
I made my way to the counter.
"Vegetable soup as usual?" The cafeteria lady asked me.
"Yes."
She gestured towards the EFTPOS machine and walked back towards the kitchen to inform the chefs of my order.
I tapped my phone on the machine confirming my payment.
In seemingly no time, she held a container with my vegetable soup inside.
Quietly, I ate my meal on an empty couch.
"This is for you."
A girl, someone who I've never met called out to me, holding an envelope in her hand. I already knew exactly what was going on.
I guess she's really into letters.
She handed me the envelope. After that, without any warning, she walked away. I decided to unwrap the envelope and look at its contents.
"Hey, it's me again,
I thought the previous mission was a little unfair towards you. I don't really want you to resort to measures like let's say, killing me, in order to complete the mission, that would be no fun.
I would also like to let you keep this peaceful school life of yours, if possible that is.
So here's the deal, if you manage to find me and do a wall-slam maneuver on me within three days from today, I'll count the mission as complete for you. Oh yeah, by the way, if you don't manage to do this, I'll release something very embarrassing of yours to the whole school."
What is wrong with her...
Not only do I have to find her, but I also have to perform a wall-slam on her...?
This could get very awkward on the off chance it's not Sayuri.
I finished off my vegetable soup and disposed of the container in the nearby bin.
*
It was the end of classes for the day. Ever since the new student council announcement, a lot more students have been studying after class. A decently sized wave of people made their way towards the library with piles of books in hand.
I wasn't going to do anything like that so I decided to take a quick trip to the convenience store to get some shampoo.
Now that I look at it, the campus was actually quite empty most of the time. Lots of the students were all grouped up in the library or in their dorms studying so the courtyard and rest of the school was generally pretty quiet, aside from a few gardeners and cleaners.
As I made my way towards the convenience store, I suddenly saw a girl crouched down covering her eyes. She didn't even get off the footpath, she was just squatting there, completely separated from the outside world.
What in the world...
I decided to speak to her since she was quite overtly crying in the middle of the footpath.
"What's wrong."
She ignored me. This situation was quite similar to one I experienced in the past...
What am I even supposed to do if they don't respond...?
I decided that this situation was more work than it was worth and began walking past her towards the convenience store.
"Wait!"
The girl suddenly called out to me.
It's always when I start ignoring them when they finally decide to speak...
Still, I just wanted to get some shampoo and go back to my room. If she had the energy to call out to me then she'd be fine.
"Hey! Are you really just going to leave me after that weak excuse of an attempt to console me?"
What is wrong with her...
I decided that this really was not worth my time.
I quickened my walking pace in the hopes of evading this situation.
"Why are you walking away faster!"
Suddenly she started sprinting towards me like a maniac.
I decided to turn around in order to stop escalating this unwelcome interaction.
Her eyes were red and there was still some residue of tear streaks on her face. She was a relatively short girl, with messy hair like she'd just waken up from bed.
"Where are you going?" She asked.
"To the convenience store."
She seemed to have no problem starting a conversation with me, so I assumed that she was pretty sociable.
"I can't believe you would leave a crying girl who was crying in the middle of the footpath!"
She continued walking beside me as if we were best friends.
"I just need someone to talk to." She explained.
I was not all that interested in listening to her problems but I then again it's not like it really was that big of a deal.
Without even waiting for a reply she continued talking.
"So I asked out this boy who I've liked for a long time and then he said that he liked someone else."
That was really all it was...
I kind of guessed that was the case as she seemed to still have plenty of energy despite acting like her life was going to end a few moments ago.
"What should I do?"
I was not really a very good person to query about this type of issue.
"I guess you could just get over it?" I said assuming it was common knowledge.
She looked at me shocked as if I had just said something extremely profound.
"But I liked him so much!"
She fell onto her knees like a ragdoll.
How did someone like this manage to get into this school... I guess you can't judge a book by its cover?
Eventually, we reached the convenience store.
I hoped she would leave me after that but she continued following me into the store.