RED • MITSUKI

lii. TEXTS

***

"So, you're telling me that you got into a small fight with the opposing team and you started it?" Kaito questioned, his tea cup inches away from his lips.

"Yes sir," muttered Haruko, stirring her tea for the hundredth time. It was beginning to get cold.

The sensei sighed, taking a sip before placing it down onto the plate on his lap. "Haruko, you've been keeping a good job on not falling down to their level. I understand you have a deep history with them, but you have to control yourself."

"I didn't mean to punch her!" she protested, the spoon coming to a stop. "It just . . . my body reacted on its own. You're basically a therapist ninja, right? Help me here."

Kaito pointed to Haruko's tea cup. "You've been stirring that thing ever since I gave it to you. It means you either hate tea or you feel guilty of what happened."

"I don't feel gulity. I just feel ashamed."

"If you don't feel gulity, then why are you here? You would never snitch on yourself. You can't be ashamed and then spill it on your own sensei, who is going to punish you. You want be responsible for your action, which means you feel some sort of regret. That's guilt."

Haruko frowned. "Man, I wish you were stupid sometimes."

"I wish you could handle the truth sometimes."

"I am, but it hits too close to home." The girl finally took a sip of her tea, which tasted lukewarm. She immediately regretted not drinking it before. "The truth really hurts."

Kaito shrugged, "no one said it was going to be easy to accept everything. I would tell you to talk to her but then, she'll just attack you. How about trying to react everything she does in a positive way? She insults you and then you smile and say 'thank you' or something."

Haruko scoffed, "ew, that's the worst advice you've given me since the time I had problems with Mitsuki."

"I was drunk, okay?!" He fired back, almost slammimg his empty cup on the table. "Hurry up and eat your breadsticks before I do."

They were dining in one of the few restaurants they had in the village. Even though it wasn't high quality like the ones they've been in, it reminded Haruko of home. Back when she was younger, her mother was given the smallest ingredients to make food. Even with that restriction, she still made a buffet for her entire family to eat.

But the breadsticks she was given couldn't compete with her mother's cooking.

–•–

While they were preparing for the riot, the team went through their phones in secret. Kaito never allowed them to use phones during missions because it would "distract them", but they never touched their phones even during training. Ichiro called him a "baby boomer" for worrying so much.

Haruko heard whispering from the boys. "Hey, what're you looking at?"

Immediately, Eiji hid his phone. "Nothing!" he squeaked.

The girl gained suspicion. "If it's nothing, then why are you hiding it from me?"

"Because it's not important at all! I'll tell you after the mission," Ichiro protested, holding the worlds fakest and biggest smile on his face.