"W-What are you talking about?"

"Oh, so you're still going to play coy?"

Asahi stood closer to him, with his cutting glare meeting Micah dead in the eyes.

"I-I'd never do anything like that!"

"I'm not saying you would. I'm saying you already have."

"I really haven-"

"You display strong signs of deep regret, and it's evident through your interactions with other girls,"

Micah started gnawing at his fingernails.

"What do you mean?"

His voice sounded raspy.

"You constantly degrade yourself in front of them. No matter who it is, if it's a girl, you want them to look down on you. It's a rather peculiar way of harboring regret, I must say. It's also completely pathetic."

Asahi noticed that he was being hypocritical, but he didn't seem to care.

"I-I'm just awkward, man, stop reading so much into it!"

Clear blue started forming in the wells of his eye bags.

Perfect, he's broken.

"It's like you want them to think you're a piece of shit, because that's how you made her feel."

"S-Shut up..."

He held his chest, tightly, and exhaled so hard that fog was forming, despite the sun beating down with strong density. Micah's sweat trailed down his nose, and his hair was beginning to drench.

"Oh no, I get it, Micah. When I'm feeling lazy, I like to garden. It's a similar thing to what you're doing. You're trying to lay off your sense of disapproval. I'm not happy that I'm so lethargic, and you're not happy that you're... well... a criminal."

"Can you stop talking now..."

His eyes were cold and empty, and starkly contrasted with his flushed cheeks.

"It's quite amazing, actually. Most criminals don't feel all too much regret when they do things like that, but you... I think the pain you inflicted on her isn't nearly so bad compared to what you've done to yourself. Karma really is a loyal agent."

"Why... why do you think that? Why are you asking me all these questions?"

"God, I swear I told you already."

"It wasn't very s-specific..."

"Specific? Alright then. Why did you break down crying during your match?"

"I just really like sports."

"No. It's because everyone was taking pity on you. Taking pity on a lowly criminal. That hurts, doesn't it? The feeling of being undermined by the people you're trying to reconcile with. It's like someone's choked out your purpose. Bathe in that pain. It'll make you a more interesting person."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

With this, Micah started crying. I'm not too sure what happened in the past, but I'm interested. Asahi wasn't originally convinced of his conclusion, but Micah's reactions made it evident he was correct.

Hm... if that's how he reacts under pressure, I'm positive he has nothing to do with the flower...

Asahi left in disappointment and left Micah on the floor.

8.2

He headed to his next class, which was mathematics. The faces of all the prior students who had excelled at the subject were posted across the walls.

Why is the school taking credit for the brilliance of a student? It's not like their tuition made them that good.

He stepped into the classroom, and was met by the faces of around twenty students, gathered from different classes. He'd seen this same view many times before, but for some reason, he seemed to be taking it all in today. While Leigh had been recruited for a national sports tournament and thus wasn't at the lesson today, Nishita was still there to keep Asahi company. The lesson commenced, and Miss Locke wasn't slow to call up for him to answer a question.

"Asahi, could you please explain what the area factor is?"

He stopped staring out the window.

"Erm, alright. If you multiply a set of coordinates with a matrix, the area those mapped points cover is equal to the determinant of the matrix, multiplied by the area of the prior points."

"Smarty pants~", Nishita whispered into his ear.

"Did everyone get that? It's time to do some problems from the book."

Mathematics was the only class in which Miss Locke taught Asahi, and ever since his solution to the first test, he seemed to be her favorite. He didn't particularly mind this, though - he felt being asked questions like that kept his mind sharp.

"Do you do anything else besides studying?", Nishita queried.

"Well, of course. I'm a very well-balanced person."

"Oh really? What's your favorite hobby?"

"I, erm..."

He was a little embarrassed to say he liked reading romance novels.

"I-I'm really into cars!"

His lie was not at all deceptive.

"Come on, are you embarrassed or something? It probably isn't as bad as watching anime or, like, reading romance novels."

His face made it obvious she was correct.

"Hahaha, no way! That's so adorable! I think my babysitter reads that kind of stuff to my kid brother!"

"H-Hey! The plots can be really good, you know,"

"Aw, is someone getting defensive?"

She giggled as he sat in embarrassment.

"I'm just joking. If you enjoy doing stuff like that, I can't blame you for it."

"W-Well what do you like doing?"

"Me? I like all sorts. Going shopping, gambling, driving... the list goes on,"

He stayed silent, in awe.

"You're quite reckless, aren't you?"

"Well, life's too short to be careful. We have to make the most of it,"

"You need to teach me how to be that confident. I literally can't even ask to get milk from a milk store,"

"That’s… kinda sad,"

She laughed again. As she did so, she ripped out some pages of her maths book, crumpled them up, and tried to toss them into the bin.

"Hey, wait, don't waste so much paper,"

"What's wrong with you? It's just a book."

She carried on ripping the pages, and the cracking of the sheets left plumes of smoke around the classroom.

"Hey, Nishita, you're setting off an array of coughs,"

"Aha, I see what you did there. Matrix, Array… Very funny!"

"No- I'm being serious…"

She finally stopped when Miss Locke gave her an earful.

"What a bitch, right?"

"Oh- y-yeah!"

He followed his instincts of being a chameleon.

"Hey, Nishita?"

"What is it?"

"Have you ever, er, been in a relationship?"