The Muse

Eleventh Melody

Knock, knock. The knocking of the door was loud and clear and the members of Quartet Night looked at each questioningly. Who could it be at this time? they thought to themselves. Reiji decided to get up and unlock the door. Standing in front of the door were Ringo, Ryuya, and Tomochika. 

"What are you guys doing here? Come in!" Reiji said as he opened the door wider and motioned them to come inside. They sat down on the couches as Ranmaru got up to make room for them. Ryuya alone was standing. They didn't notice it before but now that they got to look at the three people's faces clearly, they were grim. 

"I believe that you guys had come here to talk about something important", Camus said, noting the obvious. 

They nodded. 

"Well state your business then", Reiji said. 

They glanced to each other. Ringo decided to speak up first. 

"You guys all know about the incident three months ago, right? The one involving Haruka." They immediately stiffened. That incident had tormented them for a long time. They always hung out with Haruka and loved her dearly yet...if they had been there, things wouldn't have turned out like they were now. She was missing. Not even a single clue as to where she might be. 

"We had wanted to tell you this quite a long time ago actually..." Ryuya started saying. "We met Haruka after a few days after the incident."

Everyone widened their eyes and Ranmaru stood up, almost knocking the tea on the table over. 

"What did you just say?! You met her?!" Ranmaru began walking towards Ryuya and fisted the front of his shirt. "You saw her and you didn't tell us?!"

"Calm down, Ran-chan!" Ringo cried out. 

Ranmaru clicked his tongue and let go of Ryuya. Ryuya being the composed guy he is, straightened out his shirt without minding the sudden outburst of Ranmaru. He had expected this reaction from him. 

"Rin-chan...why didn't you tell us earlier? You know how much we care for her. She's like a precious little sister to us. Maybe even more. During these three months, do you know how much effort we've spent trying to look for her everyday?" Reiji said, his voice rising with each sentence. 

Ringo, Ryuya, and Tomochika looked down towards the floor. They felt guilty. They should've been told. After all, Haruka had also cared a lot about them. Seeing the guilty look on their faces, Reiji decided to stop pestering them. It was not their fault that the whole incident had happened in the first place. He had no right to get angry at them. He sighed and leaned back in his seat. 

"Sorry about that", he said apologetically.

Tomochika shook her head. "We should be the one that should apologize. If we've only told you sooner..." 

The room was an awkward silence. 

"So, what happened when you met Haruka?" Ai said returning back to topic. "That's what you guys came here for, right? Instead of constantly apologizing, just tell us the whole story."

They looked to him and after a while, they nodded. 

"There was a small news on the newspaper that we happened to find when we were skimming through masses of paper. It didn't have her name on it but the timing the incident was reported seemed to match the time that Haruka had disappeared so we decided to check it out. We went to the nearest hospital at the destination and we found out that Haruka was indeed there", Ringo said. 

"But the room she was in was heavily guarded. No one was allowed into the room and it wasn't a normal room. It was a VIP room", Ryuya said. 

"VIP?!" Reiji said almost falling out from his seat. "Kouhai-chan is just a composer. Even for us idols it's hard to get VIP rooms in hospital rooms. They're only allowed for the elite of elites!"