KOF School

The Nanakase house

Kay and the entire family, aside from Seirah, busily prepared for her birthday. She still had no idea what they were trying to do, not even aware of the hushed discussions and sudden silence as soon as she enters the scene.
But there was one other thing that bothered Kay, and that was a dark figure that he had seen prowling around the area of the apartment complex they were staying in. He never saw them inside the compound, not even at the visiors' parking lot, so maybe it wasn't that big of a problem.
For all he knew, it actually might be this newly arrived vigilante. After all, they might just be trying to protect the area around him. It wasn't even every day did he see the prowler. Maybe it wasn't even something he should worry about.
What he had to worry about now was Seirah's birthday. The hair accessories kit that he ordered online had yet to arrive though his sister's birthday was due in only two days. He had to find the time to wrap it and hide it as well. Hiding it wasn't exactly a big problem since she would rarely visit his room anyway, seeing how they usually hung out in the living room for the most part.
Kay nervously checked the tracking of parcel to see if it was near. Luckily, it was at the nearest courier hub, a sign that it might come in the next day. There would still be enough time for him to wrap it into a nice gift and hide it somewhere in his room.
And then there was Krizalid's birthday two weeks later too. It was a good thing that he already got him a bottle of strong cologne, nicely wrapped and hidden in Seirah's room. It even seemed like a nice little revenge for hinting that Seirah's smelly by giving her perfume. Same idea, same kind of gift.

Yashiro was getting sick of his mother. What more did she want? He was a champion at Swimming, president of the Swim club, a great musician, good at academics, and he tried to please her as much as he could.
But what she gives him in return is nagging, always finding something to pick at.
"An eighty-five in English?" Yashira spat, staring at her son's results in surprise. "What's this? You call this an A?"
"But it is," Yashiro pointed out. "I actually scored one of the highest in my class."
"Who's the highest, then?" Yashira asked.
"Another boy named... named Robert," Yashiro said.
"What did he get?"
"Nine- Ninety-two..."
"Why couldn't you score just as well?" Yashira threw the papers at him. "You're giving me this stupid result and calling yourself smart."
What made it worse was the fact that she completely ignored the gold trophy cradled in his grasp. He had just returned after acing another swim tournament, still in his swim robe over the wetsuit, and this was her reaction. Yashiro simply collected his things and made his way to his room. What else was there left for him to do? It wasn't like she was going to allow him to argue at all.
Yashiro sighed and leaned against the door as soon as he shut the door behind him. He really wished that his father was back. Yoshiro left for work three months ago and was yet to return. Yashiro never really bothered to contact him frequently, seeing how he was a military officer. He knew that a soldier's work was tough, and knew that his father was safe through his seldom texts. At least, he managed to keep some contact with him.
That was the only thing that kept him going.

***

Zayn was seeing Isolde a lot more often now, even finishing all three of the books that he borrowed. He especially looked forward to Choir practices since Isolde was there too. The fact that he was the lead singer was a big flex too.
And he could just about feel that Isolde was falling for him just as much as he was falling for her, judging by her dreamy expression whenever he stepped forward to sing any of the solo lyrics. Zayn pretended to not notice the change in her face but inwardly celebrated nonetheless.
"Do you have Instagram?" Zayn finally decided to ask her when Chizuru gave the choir a few minutes of break. "Just wanna keep in touch to talk about books."
Isolde smiled and took her phone out. "I do. What's your username?"
Zayn told her and his phone instantly vibrated with a notification. He smiled to himself and followed her back. "Thanks."
"I really like your singing," Isolde shyly said. "I didn't know you had such a great singing voice."
"My own brother didn't believe me when I told him about it," Zayn admitted with a chuckle. "I guess life's full of surprises, isn't it?"
Isolde smiled. "Yeah. Anyway, how's Kula?"
"She's fine," Zayn nodded and took a sip of water before speaking again. "By the way, you're not missing a sister or anything, right?"
"What do you mean?" Isolde asked, confused.
"Because we've been trying to find Kula's family for a very long time now," Zayn explained. "Don't get me wrong, we all love her, but she sometimes feels out of place. She asks for her family, but we just don't know anything about her real family. And she kinda has some resemblance with you, though you're a lot more beautiful, might I add."
Isolde smiled, her cheeks growing rosy. "I'll check around. Maybe you can put a picture of her up on the Internet?"
"We don't wanna deal with whackos falsely claiming to be her family. You know that stuff exists, right?"
"I do..." Isolde nodded regretfully. "Kula would be terrified if the wrong person claims themselves to be her family."
"I know... she shivered even at the thought of detention," Zayn admitted. "You know, my brother actually got himself into trouble just to accompany her on detention? Because there was this weirdo junior, his name is Chris and he's also that Shermie's bestie, in Basketball that threw the ball at my friend just because we won and his team lost. Best part was, my friend didn't even do anything to him. AND HE WAS A SENIOR!"
Isolde shook her head in surprise. "Wow..."
"But the fun part was... the fact that he's besties with Kula," Zayn shrugged. "And she ended up helping him with Maths homework and ended up making his friend apologise to her afterwards."
"Shermie actually apologised to Kula?" Isolde gasped.
Zayn nodded. "Yep. He apologised to my friend too."
"This is wild..." Isolde chuckled. "But at least they apologised."
"Yeah," Zayn nodded. "Also, any new book recommendations? The previous ones were actually really good."
Isolde frowned for a moment. "How about you come to the library tomorrow? I'll give you a few. How's that?"
"That sounds lovely," Zayn smiled. "Thank you for this."
"Oh come on, it's fun talking to you as well," Isolde smiled. "I like relating about books with others."
Zayn tried really hard to keep composure on the outside while he was doing cartwheels on the inside.