"Asahi, what do you think about this?" Evelyn pushed a picture towards him.

"Why are you choosing me for this? I'm not exactly a detective."

"Just give it a shot,"

Asahi had a look at the painting, and it was the flower he'd seen the other day.

This clearly sends a message, but I'm not sure what it means. The connotation of a rose is rather cliche: love. The bleeding of the flower might mean that it was overflowing, perhaps?

He took another look at the picture and noticed that the red was darker at the stem.

Wait, darker at the ends: that means it was painted from down up, or perhaps wasn't received in a correct way. Sexual assault? That seems a little farfetched.

"I'm not too sure, Evelyn. I can make up some random guesses, but art is a tricky concept. The only thing I can certainly say is that it's a desperate cry for help."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, it's just some guesswork. Firstly, the person who requested the painting was desperate: I mean, she slept with a high school girl. Secondly, there was no need at all to make the picture so complex: it means her murder would have been all the more difficult. She's clearly trying to make some statement."

"Fair enough. In fact, that's pretty much all the deduction the investigators could get on the case."

Really? There was definitely a lot more to unpack than that...

"Anyways, Evelyn, how long are you back for?"

"Only for today - I'm going back tomorrow,"

"Oh... right. Well, enjoy yourself."

"Yeah, I'll talk to you later."

She started to walk away, but she stopped. She looked at Asahi with melancholic eyes and stared at him. After a while, she ran up to him and kissed him, and left seconds later.

On what basis would a person choose to hide their state or circumstance? Generally, it is the fear that other people will react negatively to something the person is aligned with, and is a mechanism to undermine that possibility. The ideology of being unknown in a chasm of normality is something that appeals to all humans to some extent. The inherent adaptability and pliability of their consciences mean they move as a flowing unit, rather than discrete particles. To avoid the disruption of turbulence, a person must align themselves with the flow, if they want to be carried through by that current. Unfortunately, it is nigh impossible to predict the outcome of the water flow, but the volume of agreement will strike a chord, and permeate through a population. It is particularly difficult to negate the gravitation of flow within a close-knit household. Nevertheless, that is not the core issue. The core issue is reputation. The strong feeling of egoism gives a person the invigoration to achieve what they want to, and to feel blessed within a group. It dictates nearly all human interaction, though it is often a hidden variable. It is due to an abundance of pride that humans work hard. It is due to a severe deficit of pride that humans become depressed. The idea of being ostracised from a population is a terrifying prospect, even to a divine being. What I felt in that void was... painful. My fleeting thoughts, my emotional state - completely neglected. Those words are lost to the heavens, and I will never be able to render those feelings again. The human ability to create radial connections with other people without any restriction or repercussion is therefore completely overlooked. With such great opportunities, then, why is it that humans are so afraid of short-term deficits?

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Asahi walked back into the classroom and returned to his seat. He quickly read ahead of his book, learnt the material, and took a map. Miss Locke didn't wake him.

Their next lesson was mathematics, and Asahi was seated with Leigh to his left and Nishita to his right. As the girls talked over him about their shopping adventures and their frisky dates, he started drawing the flower he saw on the X-day.

"Hey, what are you drawing?"

A pair of eyes looked at him from the left.

"That looks quite nice, actually. What flower is it?" Nishita responded.

"I think it's a rose, but I'm not too sure."

"Are you planning to give this to a girl?" Leigh teased.

"Oo, how romantic!"

"No, I, er-"

He couldn't come up with a reason, so he blurted the first thing that came to his head.

"I'm making it for my sister, it's nearly her birthday."

That was true. Her birthday was today, the 7th of September, and this might make a good, effortless present, he thought.

"Oh, how old is she turning?"

"She'll be 15 in a few days,"

"Oh wait, what's her name? My younger brother is actually going to be 15 soon, too," Nishita asked.

"She's called Ayana. If your brother is around her age, you've probably heard of her before."

"Ayana? You mean the prodigy in the lower school?"

"Oh, didn't she get an international award for her performances in the violin? I heard about it on the news." Leigh replied.

"Yeah, that's her. She is quite brilliant, but she struggles with making friends. I thought I'd make her this confusing picture to keep her mind engaged."

"Wow, that's surprisingly thoughtful. I would have just given her some sweets or something." Nishita remarked.

"Oh y-yeah, fair enough,"

He tucked away the sweets he'd bought for her into his bag. It would be embarrassing if he was caught out like that.

"Anyways, Asahi, what do you think the best kind of gift to receive is?" She asked.

"Well, I'm not sure. I mean, it depends on the person, right?"

"Yeah, fair enough but, what about a generalisation?"

The two girls awaited his response. He was supposedly the most intelligent person in the year, after all.

"For one, I think it has to be something that lasts. If you get food, or something else expendable, I think it sends the connotation that you don't really care too much,"

"But I like sweets!" They replied in unison.

"Yeah, maybe but, once you've eaten them, will you remember the gift at all?"

"Well, probably not,"

"Exactly. The person might as well have never given you the gift at all."

He sighed as he realised how much of a hypocrite he was.