Persona 4: Eyes of Truth [Please Read New Ver.]

The Culprit

A/N: Ah, sorry for taking so long! I've been wrapped up in some musical stuff! ; v ; But, anyways! The long awaited chapter is here! I rushed through it a little bit to publish it before passing out, so I hope no one minds if it is lacking certain detail that I would have normally put in there > ~ <

Enjoy!

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Saturday, July 23 | After school...

A week had passed since my little drama show of being unknowingly bullied. I had felt my bond with the others grow deeper, our relationship of being simple friends had gone to being close friends and comrades. I was rather emotional for quite a bit that Sunday evening after receiving a call from Kou and Chou, who had found out about my bullying. They had apologized about not knowing about it before and not being of more help to me. Of course, I didn't hold it against them since I was aware of it either. Hearing them apologize brought me great happiness, for it proved that they cared...

But, alas, the feeling didn't last for long. With all that had happened during the few days prior, I hadn't been focusing on my studying. And with finals beginning the next day, I was put under a lot of pressure. Thankfully, Yukiko was able to take pictures of her notes which had helped a lot. She even color-coded them, which was surprisingly helpful. It motivated me to do the same after I had reviewed.

With only an hour of sleep, the first day of the finals came around. My pen seemed to have moved all on it's own while the other's even Yukiko, seemed to have trouble. As the days went by, Hanamura and Nise seemed to have struggled the most like during midterms. However, by some miracle, Yosuke managed to stay the final day instead of leaving.

Now, the tests were over and everyone seemed much more relaxed. The room was buzzing with excitement for the soon to come summer vacation as students left the classroom or packed their bag to head home for the day. Yukiko and Nise were reviewing their answers once again, Yosuke standing by my side with a dazed look.

"Finals are over at last...! It's allll over!" Hanamura groaned, rubbing his eyes. He suddenly yawned, leaving his mouth agape as he did so. "I'm sooo sleepy..."

"You haven't been getting much sleep?" I asked, concerned. Hanamura made a face that told me he had been sleeping well as usual- tests just make him tired.

"Yo! Don't yawn in our faces like that!" Nise snapped, flicking his hand in a dismissive manner. Hanamura clicked his tongue as he turned around and yawned once again.

Nise looked back at Yukiko and asked, "So hey, for the third question on the English test, which phrase did you choose?"

Yukiko thought for a moment, humming, before replying, "Um... I went with 'used to.'"

"Wrong again...?!" Nise sobbed in surprise, resting his head on his desk in defeat. I patted his back in sympathy.

"So much for Nise going abroad. Heck, why leave Inaba? You have so much right here!" Hanamura suggested with a teasing grin.

"Shut up, shithead" Nise snapped, gritting his teeth in an intimidating manner. I blinked in surprise by the information.

"You wanted to study abroad, Nise-kun?" I asked, surprised. This was the first I had heard of it... What did Nise even want to study? Let alone where he would study.

Nise looked up at me for a moment then looked away in slight confusion, muttering "Not exactly..." I blinked and tilted my head in confusion, wondering why he gave such a reply.

"Yo..." I heard a familiar voice sigh. Looking over my shoulder and saw Kanji and Ryo walk towards us with their heads down.

"No more encores..." Ryo sighed as he and Kanji stopped besides Hanamura. He lifted his head and blinked in surprise when our eyes locked. "I mean... Hi everyone!"