Poisoned Honey (Ayano x Budo)

Chapter 17

No One's POV-

Thursday, 1:15 pm, Lunchtime

Ayano lets out a sigh, closely examining the picture on her phone. She had taken a picture of a page from Oka's journal when she wasn't looking. 

'Even her handwriting is weird..' She scoffed, looking at the pointy, sharp letters on the page. 

She read the page out of curiosity, but didn't seem to understand much. It seemed like a spell of some sort.

"So it's not a sketchbook, not a journal but... a spellbook?" She paused,

"Strange..." She mumbled to herself. 

She took out a page and tried to replicate it the best she could, taking note of how she presented each letter. 

She spent the next 2 hours practicing so until she perfected it.

"Hm." She bit her lip and furrowed her brows in deep concentration, looking back and forth at Oka's handwriting and her copy. 

Her pink lips curved into a smile, her hands were aching and she went to her bed to take some rest. The girl recited her plan almost a million times in her head, making sure she wouldn't mess up her plan the next day. 

She was finally free for the next three hours, yet still all she could think about was making sure everything went according to plan.

'What if Oka doesn't go to the rooftop tomorrow?' She pondered. Now that she thought about it, was Oka really the type of person to keep a routine? 

Or what if there's other people? No, knowing her, she wouldn't want to stay in a crowded place. 

Ayano started to panic, realizing that she hadn't thought this through very well. Regardless, she went to sleep to clear her mind.

----x-----x------x-----

Mina laid down in her bed, unable to sleep. She was confused, and had a pit in her stomach. She picked off the dead skin from her lip and picked at the loose thread from her garment.

Ayano was a stalker? What was she following Oka for? Why did she join the martial arts club and leave so suddenly? It couldn't have only been because of her and Budo. 

She wanted to know more, but she had a bad feeling in her gut telling her to mind her own business. Sometimes it's better to stay blissfully unaware, right?

No, what if Ayano was up to something terrible? What if she wanted to hurt her? She needed to know. 

And what was it about Ayano that had Budo so enchanted? What did he see in her?

'Am I doing all of this just because I'm jealous of her? What if she's not a bad person and I'm just trying to see her that way because I don't want her to be with Budo?' She wondered.

Mina groaned, rubbing her eyes and realizing that she needed sleep. 

---The Next Day--

Ayano smirked as she saw Oka sitting on the same bench again, all alone and isolated. The edge of the wall blocked this area from the rest of the rooftop. 

She glanced at the false suicide note in her hands, which she handled with gloves, then looked back at Oka.

'I need her fingerprints on the note...' 

She watched Oka peacefully reading her spellbook, probably reciting whatever she wrote in it the other day.

Ayano scoffed, wondering how insane one would have to be to believe in such stuff. But then again, she also wasn't one to talk about insanity.

'Just do it...' Ayano breathed in and out, and then finally stepped forward out from behind the wall, causing Oka to notice her.

"C-can I h-help you?" Oka asked, looking at the girl in front of her, wondering why she was wearing gloves and had a note in her hand.

"Yeah, actually, I've recently joined the gardening club, I didn't want to get my hands messy so I got these gloves. My plants haven't been growing properly, I think they're dying. Uekiya-san will kick me out if I don't take good care of them. So, I did my research and found a nature spell to help me, but I don't know if it will work. Could you read it for me?" Ayano asked her, handing her the note.

"Oh! S-sure thing..." Oka replied, taking hold of the note. 

As she started reading it, she noticed it wasn't a spell.

"W-wait a minute, w-what the-" She felt a gloved hand on her mouth and her shoes being pulled off. The note got pulled out of her hands.

Before she could even react, she got pushed over the edge of the rail and let out a scream as she fell down.

Plop!

Blood splattered everywhere. Oka's eyes were devoid of any life as she laid there, surrounded by a pool of crimson.

Ayano smirked, then left the note where her shoes were kept. She then stared at Oka's spellbook, wondering what she should do with it. She decided to leave it there, as it is, since it wouldn't bring much suspicion. 

Proud of her work, ayano went down the stairways hurriedly. She disposed of her gloves at the incinerator and stared at Oka's corpse.

She couldn't help but feel a little bit of guilt for killing the poor girl, but what other choice did she have?

Ayano shrugged off the feeling and walked away.

------x-----x------x-----

Mina's POV

I stared in horror as I saw Aishi-Chan push Oka off the rooftop. The pit in my stomach got worse, I felt nauseous, terrified, so many things that I couldn't describe.

Tears welled up in my eyes, and I began to shake uncontrollably.

'It was Ayano all this time... How did I not notice earlier?' 

I saw Ayano walk away from the scene, I followed her for a bit before realizing that confronting her right now wouldn't be a good idea. 

I needed to tell someone, wait, no. Who's going to believe me? I don't have any evidence. I wiped off my tears and tried to calm myself down, heading back to the martial arts club, where Shima was sitting, eating peacefully.

'Where's everyone else?' 

"Mina, what's wrong? Your eyes are red." Shima asked, a concerned look showered on her face.

"It's just allergies, Shi." I lied, sniffling a bit, but knowing her, she'd probably see through my lie from a mile away.

"Since when did you have allergies?" Shima asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Just recently. Well it's fine, it's not that bad, it'll go away soon." I tried my best to convince her.

 She still didn't seem to believe me, and was about to say something else until Juku bursted in the door with a serious look on his face, something quite unlike him.

"Oka Ruto committed suicide. Her body is near the incinerator." He said in a low voice.

'No, she didn't. She was MURDERED.'  - was all I could think about. I shook my head.

I did my best to hide my anger, and faked a reaction.  I looked at Shima and saw her cover her mouth in shock, her brows wrinkled in a sorrowful expression.

I couldn't keep this up. I needed to do something.