4. Chapter 4 (1/2)

next morning, she is so preoccupied with ways to return the card to a certain delinquent that when she is back to earth, she is already standing at the school's gate.

unfortunately, the thought doesn't leave her alone in class, either. she can go to third-year section and ask for misaka mikoto, there's no one at school that doesn't know her. however, that girl has a reputation of skipping almost every class. she isn't sure if she'll be there, and she wants to return the card directly.

honestly, why does she go to school in the first place….

or, she can go to where mikoto is usually at. she has caught mikoto enough time to know her usual place.

on the roof. lunch

eak. that's it.

"shirai-kun?"

she is too busy cele

ating her own small victory to notice her surroundings.

"shirai-kun!"

"y-yes?"

she looks up to a very furious teacher.

"answer the question, shirai-kun."

she stands up and looks at her book blankly. which one?

after watching her fiddling around with the book for 5 minutes or so, the teacher sighs.

"pay attention next time."

she lowers her head in shame and the snickering of other students.

"u~i~ha~ru!"

as usual, next comes the legendary skirt flipping. however, this time the victim doesn't react. she doesn't blush or yell or hit saten, much to the culprit's surprise. she just continues to walk and acts like nothing happened, ignoring all the stares from the boys.

this is unlike her at all.

saten soon catches up with her and asks hesitantly.

"uiharu, are you okay?"

it takes the other girl a while to answer.

"i'm fine, saten-san."

it is against saten's nature not to pry, but there's something in that sulky expression on uiharu's face that prevents her.

i wonder what happened…

in class, uiharu doesn't really pay attention; she seems to just write down whatever the teacher has written on the board. which is also very unusual. other classmates have noticed as well, for some of them ask her if she knows the reason behind uiharu's odd behavior.

as her best friend, saten has the duty to cheer her up. and she's determined to do just that, if not more.

time flies. she devours the bento in record time and heads to her destination, the roof. she doesn't know if it's because of anxiety or not, but the way to the roof feels extremely long today. sometimes she just wishes she had teleportation. finally reaching the door to the roof, she swallows up her anxiety and opens the door.

the familiar back turns around at the sound of door opening and she is met with a cheeky grin.

"you need something, president?"

"well, no, not exactly. i just want to return something…." kuroko holds out the student card.

"so that's where it is! i've been looking for it since yesterday!" the older girl is flooded with relief.

"it fell out near the bench."

"thanks a lot." responds mikoto with a genuine smile. all the previous playfulness has, much to kuroko's surprise, disappeared completely.

"it's nothing. um…i was wondering, do you want to go get a drink after school? it's on me, to thank for saving me yesterday." kuroko offers, trying not to show her nervousness clearly (she doesn't understand why she's nervous, though).

mikoto looks surprised, as if she has never expected kuroko to do something like that.

"sounds good to me. i'll meet you at the gate after school?"

"okay."

the bell then soon cuts off the silence after that.

soon comes lunch

eak. saten sits across from uiharu, her bento on the table, untouched. instead, she asks.

"okay, what's wrong?"

uiharu's eyes widen a little, startled.

"what-what do you mean by that? everything's fine." her eyes avert to the side nervously.

"you do know that you are a very bad liar, right?" responds saten. "come on. tell me, what's wrong?"

"shirai-san got hurt on her patrol yesterday." the flower girl answers, her voice low.

"is she okay? what happened?" worry shows all over her face.

"she was attacked by some thugs. her ribs are

uised, no more serious injuries, though."

saten lets out a relieved sigh, all the tension leaving her body. she says a few encouraging things before opening her bento and eating.

although she is relieved, she feels like there's more to that.

the bell rings, marking the end of school. the last drop of rain falls when the long-haired girl catches up with the short-haired one.

"hey! wanna do some chasing?" saten beams.

"chasing? chasing what?" uiharu turns to saten, looking confused.