Hitlist

7- Lie

"Sakurai...?" A voice said from behind her.

The hands quickly flew off her back again. Samurai whipped around, to see an annoyed Ayano standing right behind her, and a slightly concerned looking Michiyo standing a bit further behind. Ayano glared secretly at Michiyo, as if she had interrupted something. 'What was Ayano planning to do? It felt like I was about to be pushed off... but that's just just stupid. It was only Ayano, not some serial killer for gods sake.' Thought Sakurai.

"Oh, hey Ayano. Hi Michiyo." Sakurai said, as Ayano stared at her blankly, squinting slightly.

"Hey! You were taking quite a while so I came up to here to be sure that you-" Michiyo paused, "well, you know... after what happened to Osana, I-" Michiyo stopped again, not wanting to remind Sakurai of what they saw. Ayano didn't say anything and left silently, giving Sakurai a quick nod to say hello. Ayano looked really annoyed as she walked away. What had irritated her so much? Maybe Michiyo interrupted something personal that Ayano wanted to talk about? Sakurai's head was filling with thoughts, but she decided to black it out for now. Sakurai assumed that it was in fact Ayano who left the note, so since Ayano had already left without saying anything, Sakurai left too.

At the cafe~

"What did Ayano want?" Michiyo asked, plucking at her cake with her fork.

"I'm not sure, she just left without saying anything." Sakurai replied.

"That's quite odd, don't you think? I also saw her really close up behind you, was she trying to scare you for a joke or something?"

"Who knows. She is quite, how do I say this nicely... weird? - she doesn't say anything and I haven't seen her with anyone else so I don't think she has any friends."

"I don't know but she gives me this weird vibe. I feel like she's silently judging us or something."

"Michiyo, don't be silly. Maybe we should be friends with her?"

Michiyo didn't want to say no, but she could feel her hands beginning to get clammy. She had a bad feeling about this.

The next day~

Michiyo had texted Sakurai out of the blue that she was sick and couldn't go in that day, so Sakurai walked by herself. In the distance, Sakurai saw a girl with a dark ponytail walking to school and she realised it was Ayano. Sakurai quickened her pace, to catch up with her.

"Hi Ayano." Sakurai said casually, as if the two of them were close. Sakurai was sure that she had accidentally startled Ayano a bit.

"Oh, hey." Ayano replied in her usual monotone voice. Sakurai quickly noticed that Taro was in front of them, almost as if Ayano had been trailing behind him.

"Hey, Taro!" Sakurai exclaimed, projecting her voice so he could hear her. He turned around and started walking towards them, wearing a smile. Sakurai noticed Ayano's eyes grow wider and her pupils were dilating. Ayano grew pale and hung her head, backing away slowly. As Sakurai started talking to Taro, Ayano started waking slower, to fall behind them.

"Ayano, what are you doing?" Sakurai asked, spotting Ayano in the corner of her eye.

Fiddling with her fingers, Ayano managed to say, "Dont worry about me, just uh walk on."

"Oh okay." Sakurai said, realising Ayano must be shy around new people, "this is Taro by the way!" Taro gave a polite wave to Ayano. Immediately, Ayano gasped and ran forward, way in front of Sakurai and Taro.

"Is she okay?" Taro questioned, worrying whether he had done something wrong.

"Yeah, I think so. I'm guessing she gets nervous with new people." Sakurai and Taro continued their journey to school. Ayano scowled at Sakurai, as she walked into school with Taro, as usual.

The school day seemed to go really slow, and Sakurai almost forgot that Michiyo wasn't in school. Sakurai sat with Kokona and her friends for lunch and at break, which was surprisingly fun. She would have rather had Michiyo there, though. 'I wonder if Michiyo is feeling any better.' Sakurai pulled out her phone after school and gave Michiyo a quick text. Sakurai wondered whether to go to Michiyo's house, but decided to let Michiyo rest. A good few hours had passed and Michiyo hadn't replied yet. It wasn't out of the ordinary, since Sakurai figured that Michiyo would probably be sleeping or something, however, she couldn't help but fear the worst. Just small things like not replying to her text made Sakurai tense up, because of all the past incidents. Sighing, Sakurai made her way to Michiyo's house.

Knock, knock, knock.
Sakurai waited patiently for the door to answer. After a few seconds, the door pulled open, revealing Michiyo's mum.

"Ah, hello Sakurai!" Michiyo's mum greeted Sakurai with a warm smile, which made her feel welcome.

"Hello! Do you know where Michiyo is? I was wondering if she felt better." Sakurai replied.

"What do you mean? Michiyo went to school."

Sakurai's heart dropped.

"I got a text from her this morning," Sakurai fumbled around in her bag for her phone, to show to her mum, "Michiyo said that she wasn't going to be at school today because she felt sick."

Michiyo's mums smile slowly turned to a frown, as she recalled her daughter leaving for school.

"But Michiyo was in her school uniform and everything... where is she now?" Michiyo's mum took her phone to call Michiyo.

"I need to look for her."

Sakurai was determined to find her, what if something bad had happened to her, too? No, she wouldn't let it.