Under the Rain [Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS]

S1-8✩ "Happily Ever After" Only Occurs in Fiction, After All

It had been two weeks since Aoi got discharged from the hospital. Her health clearly was getting better, but her older brother obviously was still harboring some doubts. As soon as they returned to their home, he programmed their robot maid to stop Aoi from approaching the front door. He also told her to stay inside no matter what, even during school days, and locked their home for safety.

Aoi didn't say anything against his overprotective act, since she fully understood his concern. But as days turned into weeks, she was getting frustrated. She might not be a big fan of going to school, but she was also not a fan of being cooped up in her home and do nothing. She admitted she didn't really like interacting with other people, but she's technically still a human being; someone who needed to socialize with another other than her brother. She had planned to speak about this with him when they had breakfast this morning, but before she could do so, he eagerly told her someone would visit them today, even though he probably wouldn't be home when they came. This left Aoi no choice but to promise him she would take care of their visitor in his place.

The doorbell suddenly rang, snapping her out of her train of thoughts. That must be the visitor that Akira mentioned. Apparently this visitor was a dear friend of his, so although she herself didn't know who this dear friend her brother was speaking of, for that reason she was dressing up today. Instead of wearing her favorite white tee and blue pants, for this occasion she wore white cardigan over light blue dress that reached her shin. She also applied thin make up to perfect her appearance. Now she looked like her alter-ego, Blue Angel, save for her blue pigtails and lacy dress.

Aoi made her way towards the door and made a small triumphant smile when she passed the robot maid that always shooed her away. For this day only, her brother shut down its new-installed program so she could invite their visitor in. As the brunette put her hand around the doorknob, anxiety started growing within her. Repeatedly, she shook her head and thought to herself once this was over, she could convince Akira into letting her go outside. She took another deep breath, wore her smile in the sweetest way possible, and finally twisted the doorknob open.

As the door slowly opened to the silhouette of her visitor, Aoi greeted warmly, "Good day, my brother told me you would be coming--"

Aoi stopped herself from talking as a pair of familiar ruby-like eyes curiously stared back into her amber orbs. There was a mix of joy and surprise in those sparkling eyes, in contrast to Aoi's horrified eyes. Her entire body stiffened as she quickly realized to whom those bright eyes belong.

"Class Rep?" Aoi shakily spelled out the red-eyed girl's nickname in class as she kept locking her eyes with hers. "What are you doing... here?"

"Ah," the girl with the nickname, Tsubaki, blinked her ruby red eyes once again before innocently flashing a wide smile for the trembling girl. "Good day to you too, Aoi-chan! I came to see you!"

Instead of replying with words, Aoi reflexively took a wide step back and slammed the door shut right at Tsubaki's face. The brunette curled into a ball, all the while covering her entire face behind her sweaty palms while poor Tsubaki only stood there, dumbfounded. Though, she was quickly snapped back into her senses when she heard Aoi's shout from the other side of the now closed door,

"Why are you here? Where is the dear friend my brother spoke of?"

"...I-I don't know? But I told Akira-san I wanted to see you, and he said I could come today... am I coming at the wrong time?"

Aoi was bewildered, but not because of what Tsubaki asked; it was actually because of something entirely different. She didn't even care about their 'dear friend' anymore; now she only cared about two things that she managed to absorb from Tsubaki's dubious answer. Her voice was still shaking when she asked, "Why did you address him using his first name? How did you get in touch with him in the first place, anyway?"