HER GAMER'S GUIDE. karma akabane

→CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Another pause from the young Akiyama. "Is my 4 PM available?"

"Yes. It is. Shall I set a schedule?" Genevieve asked.

Riku nodded, smiling up at her secretary. "Please do."

Genevieve's eyebrows furrowed as she cleared her throat. "You have another e-mail..." The secretary was hesitant, trailing off unsurely before going back to her professional voice. "From a," A tilt of her head. "Yuma Iso--Isogai?"

Riku felt her hands come to a full stop. 

Genevieve, being a foreigner, had a hard time pronouncing the name of Riku's middle school class representative. Riku could not blame her, Genevieve and Riku had a strict business relationship after all. Aside from what is required in the resume and the skill sets the two had observed from each other, Riku knew nothing else about her secretary. 

Riku learned from experience that knowing too much could be deadly for you after all.

"What does it say?"

Sensing how her boss became stern from her slightly laid-back attitude from earlier, Genevieve couldn't help but gulp slightly in nervousness. Thinking that this Yuma Isogai person may be a bad memory from Riku Akiyama's past.

Skimming through the e-mail quickly, Genevieve gave out the summary. "He seems to be inviting you to a reunion, miss. A class reunion."

It didn't take much of Riku's overload of brain cells (that she should actually share with the author because the author needs it, fr fr.) to immediately understand. Well -- no, understand might not be the right term.

Rather than understand -- the phrase hard to forget is a better use.

Because what happened years ago was something that is certainly hard to forget.

Riku leaned back into her seat, her arms resting on the armrests as she stared ahead. 

She has not made any effort to contact or stay in touch with any of her End Class classmates and teachers after they had all graduated from middle school. From middle school and from, well...the assassination of their homeroom teacher.

After all that had happened, Riku kept her promise by being completely immersed in making and getting herself better. And that meant sacrificing her connections with everyone from that school, especially of Class 3E and...

A certain red-haired sadist.

Seven years, was it?

Riku nearly scoffed out loud due to the thought.

I wonder how everyone is doing.

How he...

"Miss Akiyama?"

Genevieve's voice managed to draw Riku out of her train of thought.

"Will you be accepting the invitation?" Her secretary asked politely.

Will I? Riku put her chin on the palm of her hand, thinking. Am I ready?

A glint caught her eye, and by instinct, Riku turned to see her huge mirror with a meticulously designed silver frame hung on the wall. Where she could see her reflection perfectly.