"Hmm, if you say so."
Mei still didn't look like she believed his words at all, but Haru wasn't entirely surprised either. He had seen this exact reaction from his old friends in his past life as well.
She sneaked a glance at him while he was devouring the cafeteria sandwich with relish, unable to help recalling the scene in the classroom a little while ago.
She had thought he would be surrounded by the students in their class since it was only the second day since his transfer; they should've gotten the courage to approach him by now, or so she thought.
However, there was a strange atmosphere around him that caused others to distance themselves and simply watch him from afar. Something about him seemed different today. She couldn't see it nor experience it herself, so she couldn't understand where they were coming from, but that was what her friends had told her.
Mei looked him up and down, but she still couldn't see any difference between the Haru of today and the Haru of yesterday. To her, he still looked the same, or rather, his striking red hair complemented his green pupils really well.
His strange habit of walking at night aside, he gave off the mature vibe one would expect from a salaryman who had been slaving away in an office. His jade-like orbs seemed to possess some kind of knowledge pertaining only to those who had faced the grueling reality known as adult society. At least, that was the impression she had of him.
"Hm? I can see that you're staring at me, you know, Raiden-san."
Despite receiving a strange gaze from a beautiful young girl like her, he didn't seem flustered at all. Mei wasn't egotistical enough to think she was the second coming of Yamato Nadeshiko, but she knew the exact expression boys wore when they looked her way.
If they were in his place right now, they wouldn't stop talking to her, desperately trying to gain her favor, or in this specific situation, her affection.
Ever since she started attending this academy, Mei had received plenty of love letters and confessions from both classmates and seniors.
Though, she had noticed that most of them seemed more interested in the fact that her father is the CEO of Raiden Corp. It was like they were looking at her not as a person, but as a tool to connect them to their real goal.
Deep down, she realized that her so-called friends from Chiba Academy rarely ever invited her out for anything unrelated to school matters. But she chose to overlook it because otherwise, she wouldn't know how to face them the next day when they greeted her as usual.
Akiharu however... they didn't seem to know how to interact with him, at least not in a way dictated by their parents. From what they knew of him, he was no doubt similar to them: a child from an influential family.
And yet, whenever someone actually took a deeper look into his background, they were immediately met with confidentiality warnings.
That was rare and surprising, to say the least. It had to be noted that even the children of political figures didn't have such protective measures shielding their backgrounds.
Maybe that was what her friends meant when they said he felt 'distant.'
"Um, Haru-san... are you—"
She was going to ask if his parents worked for the government on some kind of secretive operation, but he silenced her with a gesture.
"Shh."
His face suddenly grew serious, though it didn't seem like she had touched upon a sensitive topic for him. It was something else entirely. He pulled out a brand-new flip phone from his pocket, and his frown deepened.
She leaned over slightly until their shoulders touched, her face reddening a little. But when she saw the contents displayed on the small screen, her eyes widened visibly.
Judging by his changing expression, she had thought he was receiving a message from his parents or something similar. Instead, it was unexpectedly related to her.
Her eyes scanned the text all over again. Disbelief written all over her face, she couldn't process what she was looking at. It felt as though someone had suddenly told her she had been living inside a nightmare this entire time.
[Raiden Corp's CEO, Raiden Ryoma, has gone into hiding after being accused of embezzling funds and economic fraud! Anti-Entropy's CEO, Cocolia, claimed, "He must have felt guilty about his crimes, so now he's running away from it."]
"...What? Dad is...?"
"Don't believe it. It's just Anti-Entropy framing your father so they can take over his company."
Haru's calm and soothing voice shattered the growing darkness at the edge of her vision. It was only natural that Mei would struggle to believe a man like her father could commit such a severe crime.
From her perspective, Raiden Ryoma was often busy, but he never forgot to leave money on the dining table when he couldn't be home, along with extra funds to buy whatever she wanted. In her eyes, that was his way of showing her that she still mattered to him just as much as his deceased wife did.
A man like that embezzling company funds? It had to be a false accusation!
"...That's right. Dad would never do something like that. It's just impossible."
Even so, it didn't stop her hand from tightly clutching his shirt. What if it was all true? Deep down, that terrifying thought refused to be buried away like everything else.
If the media was already buzzing like this, what about her friends and classmates? What would the entire academy think of her now? At that thought, she shrank in on herself even more, as if that were even possible.
She knew in her heart that people don't often operate on logic. If abandoning their morals allowed them to keep their wealth and prosperity, they wouldn't hesitate to throw away their sanity like a tool meant to achieve an end.
Mei was very smart and observant, which was why she had never once lashed out in anger at her father. She understood that she didn't have any 'real' friends she could confide her secrets and insecurities in.
At least, not within the academy.
For the second time in her life, she felt utterly lost. It was the exact same feeling she had experienced while looking down at her mother's open casket. Her younger self had desperately wanted to knock on the wood, hoping it would wake her sleeping mother up.
But she couldn't bring herself to do it. Mei had known right then and there that her mom was never going to wake up. She would never again be greeted by the delicious smell of her favorite sweet honey pancakes.
After all, it was truly the end.