"Kai…kun… Hello..."
The way she said his name wasn't cute. It wasn't sweet.
It was lethal.
A cold sweat broke down the back of Kai's neck.
He'd heard her yell threaten, cry, hurting, slapping... anything.
But this was worse.
This wasn't Hina furious.
This was Hina smiling while being furiously filled with the painful feeling of jealousy.
Deep down, Kai knew that her way of acting was just part of the plan, but in that moment, Kai seriously felt fear for his life.
"Ah—Hina, hey," Kai said, his voice rising just slightly in pitch as he straightened up in his seat.
He noticed Lala's fingers had vanished completely from under the table.
Her confident expression had vanished too.
What was left was something unreadable.
Quiet.
Calculating.
Lala tried to mantain her composure , but her demeanor was betraying her real feeligs.
She nervously rubbed her fingers together and she played with her hair for some instants.
Naomi looked toward Hina, her posture polite but tense. She didn't say anything, just offered a nod and a soft smile.
Haruka tilted her head. "Oh… Hina-chan! You're here? Do you want to pet this cat? It's soooo soft—"
Nobody answered her.
The cat meowed.
No one cared.
Hina's boots clicked softly on the café floor as she made her way to the table.
Step by step. No rush.
Kai stood up automatically, half out of instinct, half out of fear.
"Hina, I didn't expect you to—" He tried to say, trying to find a way out of that situation.
"Clearly," she cut in, still smiling. "I didn't expect you to be holding hands under the table, either."
"Eh? No, wait—" Kai stammered.
Lala immediately waved her hands in front of her, her voice suddenly as innocent as possible.
"Oh! No no no, you got the wrong idea, Hina-chan! I was just joking around—he looked a little down, so I tried to cheer him up, that's all!"
"Hina-chan?" Hina repeated slowly, that deadly smile disappeared, replaced by a cold expression filled with an invisible disgust. "We're close now? I think that we've never been something like that, didn't we~?"
Lala remained silent and looked down on the floor.
Kai couldn't tell if she was really scared or not, but he knew for sure that Hina already knew who this new transfer student was.
Naomi let out a small, nervous laugh. "Let's all just calm down, maybe sit and—"
"Not you," Hina said, barely sparing Naomi a glance.
The temperature in the room dropped several degrees.
Everyone in the cafeteria looked at the "hilarious" scene.
Some voices mumbled things like "Oh... look... someone has been caught cheating-" "Oh boy, I don't wanna be in his situation."
Kai raised his hands slightly, like a hostage negotiating with a bomb.
"Hina, seriously, it's nothing. Lala was just—she's new. She doesn't know how things are yet." Kai tried to say.
Hina's eyes widened.
"Did he just call her... Lala...?" Hina repeated in her mind, trying to mantain her composure.
Lala looked between Kai and Hina, her face slipping back into that mask of polite calm.
But the tremor in her fingers as she reached for her drink betrayed her.
This wasn't part of the plan. She hadn't expected Hina to show up this fast.
Or for Kai to look genuinely nervous.
Maybe Hina was really having a bad moment with her boyfriend.
And above all—she hadn't expected that she would be the one feeling intimidated.
Because now that Hina was standing there, that unsettling energy… it wasn't just teenage jealousy.
There was something deeper. Darker.
Even Kai felt it.
That murderous instinct.
"You're not answering the question," Hina said quietly, turning her gaze back to him.
Her eyes narrowed. "Why was she touching you? Are you cheating on me?"
Kai swallowed hard.
He couldn't blow his cover—not in front of Lala.
Not if what Emi said was true.
"Because she tried to cheer me up, nothing more." Kai said, locking eyes with Hina. "There's nothing to worry about, Hina."
That one sentence was loaded.
And it worked.
For a second, something flickered in Hina's eyes. Like a confirmation.
"Holding hands with another girl under the table is now considered "cheering up"?" Hina replied, with a a deadly voice.
Then, to everyone's surprise, she laughed. Not loudly. Just a short, cold breath of amusement.
"Well... Yes. She's not from here, so I think it's normal for foreigners to behave like this...?" Kai said, in an embarassed voice.
Then, Lala interruped.
"O-Okay, I'm sorry, Hin-" Lala tried to speak, but Hina moved her eyes towards hers, giving her a deadly and piercing glance.
"Don't call me by my name, please. We're strangers. Totally strangers." Hina interrutped her, with a cold tone of voice.
"S-Sorry, Ishikawa-San. It won't happen again. I won't get close to Kai like this again." Lala said, while rubbing her fingers together and looking on the floor.
Hina's lips curved into a small but malicious grin.
"I see," she said. "Well then... I'll just have to make sure no one elsetries to get close, either."
Kai didn't know what she meant by that.
Lala, on the other hand, tensed visibly.
"Is that a threat?" Lala asked, trying to sound amused.
"Who said I was talking to you?" Hina replied without missing a beat.
But her eyes never left Lala's.
Then, with calm precision, Hina walked over and stood right behind Kai. She reached up and placed her hands on his shoulders, almost gently.
And whispered something close to his ear.
"You're lucky I got here when I did. I must talk to you, so come with me." Hina said.
Kai blinked. "Huh?"
She leaned in closer, just enough for him to hear.
"She's not what she seems. I must tell you everything about her."
Before he could ask anything, she stepped back and gave a small, polite bow to the table.
"Well, I think I've seen enough," she said. "Kai? Let's go."
Kai turned toward Lala, who smiled tightly.
"You don't have to leave, you know," she said, her voice syrupy again, but it didn't quite land the same way.
Kai hesitated.
Then he stood up fully.
"No offense… but I think I've had enough of being the center of everyone's rumors for one day."
He looked at Naomi, who offered a tiny nod of understanding.
He didn't look back at Lala.
As he and Hina exited the café, the door closing behind them, Naomi finally exhaled.
Haruka looked up from the cat. "Wait… was something going on?"
~~~~Outside the café
"Kai," Hina said as soon as they were out of earshot.
"Yeah?" He replied.
"We need to talk. Properly. But not here. Not now."
"…Why not now?"
"Because," she said, looking around carefully, "there are still too many eyes on you."
Kai frowned. "Like… who?"
She stared at him for a moment, then said:
"You really don't remember anything… do you?"
Kai blinked.
"I'm starting to think everyone knows more about me than I do."
Hina looked away, lips pressed in a firm line.
"Let's go somewhere safe. Akira's waiting."
"Wait—so she is nearby?"
"Yes," she said. "And so are they."
Kai stopped walking.
"…Who's 'they'?"
Hina looked over her shoulder, her eyes narrowing slightly.
And for just a second, Kai could've sworn he saw someone watching from across the street.
Someone… familiar.