Sokudo: Villains Always Win (ᴠᴏʟᴜᴍᴇ ᴛᴡᴏ)

Chapter four│red head

School was exhausting, Chieko knew that, but she had forgotten just how exhausting it was.

She had only been through two classes, and yet she already feels the dire need to go home and rest. Her summer holidays were over, and it would be ages until she gets a break like that again. She hadn't realized just how lucky she was to have some many days off, then again, she couldn't do much with it ─ not after being thrown into the sudden mess of "heroes and villains" which took up all, or most of her time. And for sure, it'll take up most of her after school time as well, whether she liked it or not ─ but don't get her wrong, she loved training with Minji, it just... there were other things she wanted to do, too.

Ugh, who was she kidding? Before she started training with Minji, she spent her time either helping her mother out with some chores, or visiting the bookstore, or reading a book in her room. So what was she missing out on? Nothing. She'd so much rather be training with Minji at this instant, instead of... well, nothing, actually, since class had just finished and she was actually given a break. It wasn't going to last for too long, though, so she had to make the most of it.

Letting out a sigh, she currently stood alone in the hallway, wondering what she was supposed to do. If she just had a phone, and a pair of headphones, then she'd be listening to music and wandering the school until it was time for class to resume. But of course, she didn't have earphones, she didn't even have a phone.

She simply wandered around the school until coming across the cafeteria, which was of course, filled with people, whether they were waiting in line or just sitting around and chatting with friends. She looked around at the crowd, wondering where she should go next.

"Who should we torment next? Hey, hey ─ how about that scrawny lil' kid?"

She was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard an oddly familiar sounding voice, but she couldn't remember where she had heard it before. Searching the crowd, she tried to spot out anyone she recognized, it didn't take long before she found three people. They weren't exactly friends.

Her throat suddenly went dry and her chest tightened up. A group of girls who weren't in her class, but she used to see them every day. One, the leader, happened to the red head who she had almost bumped into earlier, but luckily avoided. Standing beside her were her two friends, who also enjoyed tormenting her. She didn't know any of their names, what was the point? It was much easier to just address them by the colour of their hair, red, black and blonde.

You've got to be kidding me... Of course, she had been expecting to bump into these three sooner or later, but it was still a shock to see them just a few feet ahead of her. None of them had spotted her yet through the crowd, they seemed to be too focused on something else at the moment, which made it a perfect opportunity to make her escape. She would definitely confront them sooner or later, that was certain, but if she had the chance to avoid them ─ she'll do just that.

Just as she started to leave the crowd and make her way out of the cafeteria, she felt like someone was staring at her, and so she turned her head to look back, and what she saw immediately made her heart stop. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to leave undetected, the red head had spotted her at the last second, and the two made direct eye-contact. Which lasted longer than either of them wanted.

She had been spotted, and now, she had nothing else to do but make a run for it. "What─hey!" The red head called out, alerting her "friends".

Out of all the places she had to bump into them, it had to be the cafeteria. It was difficult to push past all the people, but it was also an advantage to getting ahead. "Hey! You, get back here!" Hearing her voice only made her run faster, she wanted to look back to see just how close the girls were, but she didn't dare. Judging by her voice, she was already too close.