"Ni- Nico? Why didn't you tell us sooner?"

"I- I need some time to think this through..."

"S- someone please save..."

These comments filled the clubroom, all directed at Nico. What they didn't notice was that her eyes began to water from the criticism. She began to sulk.

"Everyone! Calm down," Maki shouted, causing the room to go silent. "Nico, are you alright?" She tried to comfort Nico's sorrow.

The next thing you knew, Nico ran out of the club room, crying along the way.

"Don't you think we went too far?" Kotori stood up to reprimand the others.

"You're right," Rin commented, "we've never seen this side of Nico before. And I don't think we ever wanted to. I don't think it's that big a problem, so I thought she'd just brush it off."

"I- I think I'm at fault too..." Hanayo sheepishly muttered in guilt.

"That's just it!" An idea whizzed past Honoka's head, "we should pay a visit to her house again later! Say, what was the problem again?"

"You really weren't listening, Honoka," Umi sighed.

XXXXXXXXX

Earlier on...

"H- hey! Hanayo! Calm down!" Nico dashed out of the toilet and ran across the corridors, chasing Hanayo.

"O- o- o-" was all Hanayo could say on occasion as she was being chased.

Hanayo pounced onto Rin the minute she saw her.

"What's the matter, Kayo-chin? Nico, what did you do to her?"

"I saw her... I saw her... I saw her... help me..." Hanayo could only speak these words in fear.

"It- it's not what it looks like!"

"Then what is it, Nicocchi?" a voice spoke before Nico felt her empty chest being groped. Nico knew it was Nozomi with a grin on her face. Nozomi's hands reached down to Nico's lower body.

"No, no, not there..."

Nozomi's face turned red as she felt something, before turning back. "S- sorry about that."

"Otokonoko..." Hanayo muttered softly, "Nico... She, no, he... he's actually a boy..."

"Nico, is that true?" Rin questioned with a rather concerned look.

"Yes," Nico responded with her head hung low, "yes I am."

When she looked up, the other eight members of Muse were before her- or rather, him.

XXXXXXXXX

"You're back early, Nico-nii," Nico's little sisters, Cocoro and Cocoa, greeted him as he returned home.

"Yes I am," Nico's face was full of dull emotion and her soul, emptied of happiness. Her eyes were red, redder than usual, that is.

"Are you alright, Nico-nii?" they both asked in unison.

"I'll be good, I'll be good."

In reality, Nico was sobbing in his room, brimming with emotional pain.

"I have failed you, Papa. I wanted to make everyone smile. They're all really mad at me now."