MISHIMA LISA

Naomi slings her arm around her shoulders as they pass the school gates. "Lisa-chan," she begins casually enough, but Lisa's stomach drops all the same, "you wouldn't happen to know Arata-kun, would you?"

She blinks. "Who...?"

"Arata-kun," the girl hisses, and her arm tightens around her neck like a vice. Lisa grimaces but doesn't struggle. Knows better not to. "Kokonoe Arata. He's a grade higher than us. The one you bumped into the other day like an idiot."

So that's his name. Now that she thinks about it, the girls who had attached themselves to him — Naomi included — had called him Arata-kun then, too. It must have slipped her mind.

"I don't know him. I just bumped into him by mistake," Lisa tells her, and it's more or less the truth. She had first seen him that day when Hisami Touji had jumped in the pool, but he hadn't said anything to her. Just stared, his eyes as cold as they had been peering down at her in the school hallway that day.

Naomi isn't convinced, however. "Really? Because you two seemed pretty cozy walking together."

Satomi comes up on Lisa's other side, smiling, though it looks more like she's baring her teeth. "Naomi-chan filled me in. You said you 'eat lunch with other people', and he always leaves the classroom during lunch... weird, isn't it?"

"I-I don't eat lunch with him," she says, startled. The mere thought make her nauseous. And anyway, she doesn't eat lunch with anyone; she just said she did so she wouldn't be roped into eating with Satomi and her friends. If only she hadn't bumped into him...

Lips pursed, Satomi stares at her for a moment. "That's not what everyone's saying."

"Th-They're wrong." Lisa stares at her hands; her knuckles are white, nails sinking into the skin of her palms. "I don't know him. I don't."

"Be sure to keep it that way," Naomi says, and finally shoves her away. Lisa stumbles twice before falling to her knees, and the girls laugh as they walk into the school. Through the dark curtain of her hair, she can see passing students' gazes on her: amused, pitying, indifferent.

She gets up eventually, dusting her skirt off and following the girls inside. Her phone buzzes in her pocket, the first time that day but certainly not the last, and she doesn't have to check to know it's her mom.

The tight feeling in her chest grows.

A/N:

Plot's finally starting up now! Also, the previous chapter was edited because TheRoseShadow21 made a really valid point when she pointed out that Nine sounded colder in his thoughts than we knew him to be. Which is why I decided to tweak it up a little, so go ahead and read it again if you'd like.

Since I'm on vacation in Europe right now, I'm not sure how long it'll be until the next update, but I'll try my best. Fingers crossed.

Major thanks to IamMinia and TheRoseShadow21 for their reviews! Do keep on favouriting, following, and reviewing, guys!