Inside Your Mind

5 - Rin Miyahara

Miyahara Rin was angry. Maybe angry was a strong word, but she was definitely annoyed. Frustrated. And she was lacking just enough sleep to become very vocal about her frustrations.

Students started pouring into the college one after the other but she had not managed to get a single comment she could use. It wasn't her fault, she was here. The editor had sent her to the school to get some material, so she could throw together some trashy article on Toshinori Yagi's new career as a teacher at U.A. In her opinion, that wasn't worth an article but apparently newspapers didn't really care about quality journalism anymore and her bills wouldn't pay themselves.

What had really pissed her off was that one scruffy looking guy that had told them to stop harassing students. It wasn't her fault that this was her job and she wasn't harassing anyone. Why couldn't they just give her what she wanted? She'd be gone then, write that stupid article and be done with it. But they all just had to be difficult.

She turned around with a sigh to see if anyone else was coming in. There was a girl with black hair tied into a loose bun. She was wearing a short flowery dress and was followed by a slightly taller guy with messy purple hair. They seemed to be in a hurry. Maybe they'd let something slip, in order to get to class on time?

There was no time to waste. Miyahara Rin walked up to them and blocked off their way. The two of them didn't even seem to realize that they were getting cornered until they almost bumped into Miyahara. And they were training to become cops? They looked like they needed a good bit of sleep.

"Sorry, Ma'am, we'll have to get through here or we'll be late for class." the boy said. He didn't sound impressed with the wall of reporters in front of him. And that pissed Miyahara off even more.

"Well, you won't be getting through, unless you give us a comment on Yagi as a teacher. What's he like? Is he good at teaching?" she asked, her eyes getting a certain diabolical twinkle. The boy just looked at her slightly annoyed.

"Fucked if I know." he mumbled and tried pushing his way through the reporters. Miyahara wouldn't let him go that easily, however. She moved in front of him.

"What about your little girlfriend then? Sweetie, do you wanna give us a comment?" she wanted to know. The girl looked up with a confused look in her eyes. She looked just as tired as Miyahara felt, but she seemed to have given up on life already. Well, she might still be useful for Miyahara.

"Ew, what the hell? That's my little brother." she replied.

"I can't afford being late, let us through already! We have no damn comment for you." the boy growled and started trying to push through the crowd more aggressively. That was too bad for him, really, because it just meant the reporters would close around them. It seemed like the girl was aware of that.

"Toshi, don't do that! They'll put all this shit in the papers and then we're done for career-wise!" she said to him.

"I didn't stay up all fucking night to study just so I could be late for class." the boy protested. Miyahara grinned.

"Just one small comment on Yagi, that's all we want... Come on, kids, no need to be so aggressive..." she said to them.

"Mr. Aizawa!" the girl suddenly called out and put up her arm to wave at someone. The crowd of reporters started parting and someone from the campus came through. Miyahara tried to catch a glimpse at whoever it was coming through. Aizawa did ring a bell somewhere in the back of her head, but she couldn't think of any reason why.

"I swear, there are actual cops on-site that can arrest you right here and right now, if you don't let my students get to school undisturbed! What do you think you're doing?" she heard someone say and soon looked into the face of the scruffy man from earlier. Of course. Of course he'd be here to take away these two kids, just so she had to go to her editor and get berated for not being able to get anything. This day was just going great. For fuck's sake. If she wasn't on the job, she would have gone to the next bar for a double whiskey at this point.

"Come on, you two, get to class. I've been wondering where the hell you have been, Miss Shinsou." he said to the students, gently putting one arm around each of them and manoeuvering them through the crowds onto the campus.

"JUST GIVE US ONE FUCKING COMMENT AND WE'LL BE GONE!" Miyahara shouted angrily over the whispers around her. She sighed in frustration and turned to her cameraman, who looked at her with a shrug.

"Fuck." she swore under her breath.

"I mean, we can just go and call it a day. I doubt we're going to have so many late comers and you're not really in the right headspace to be talking to people. Let's have a coffee or something..." he suggested. Miyahara couldn't believe she was thinking of giving up. This was madness.

"Excuse me." she suddenly heard a voice say behind her. She turned around ready to blow up in the face of whoever was standing behind her, but she was surprised when she saw a young man who looked like he might be a student himself stand behind her. Except he looked somewhat scary. He had bright, almost white hair that was about shoulder-length. He seemed to be suffering from dry skin - his skin looked unhealthy in general. His eyes had a tormented look about them, but he was smiling. It was this quite unsettling smile that made Miyahara shut up.

"Uhm... yes?" she asked. The guy was wearing a black hoodie, the hood over his head. He was standing a little hunched over, hands in his pockets. He looked thin, almost as if he was surviving in a basement on one measly meal every other day. Miyahara would have felt sorry for him, if he didn't look so unsettling.

"I can help you get on campus. I think I might know a way for you to get in..." he said to her. His voice gave her serious goosebumps. It was breathy and high-pitched in weird places and it just sounded hounded. It broke with some words. Miyahara gulped. Trusting this kid was going against everything her gut was telling her, but...

Shit, she needed that fucking story. If she came back the editor would kill her. Or fire her. And at the moment she had no idea which was worse, because the market for young journalists was saturated and if she got fired she'd never be able to find another job. Not for months, anyway. It seemed like she had no choice.

"Alright, tell us what you know."