The Golden Pear [YA - Featured]

♫~Notes 131~♫

He took his phone once more, calling Nihil's number.

His partner in crime picked the call after the third beep. "Yo, What's app? Any new anti-Ueno request I can juice out?"

His choice of words made Rigaku chuckle. "Hai, in a way, but I'm afraid I may disappoint you." He left the room to make the call in privacy in case Ueno returned.

The girl finished washing her hands, feeling relieved. The toilet dash would earn her laughs in the school.

The Great Queen couldn't keep it.

The Great Queen had fallen.

The Great Queen that.

The Great Queen this.

"I'm sick of this!"

Watching her every step to provide the best image tired her. Approaching the living room that turned into a mass bedroom, she had caught a familiar ringtone which she hated to the last note.

Her mother called, checking on her. As of late, she had called way too often. Usually, it was a call or two per semester, if any. Annoyed, Ueno picked the phone that laid next to the cat's bed. It had to slip out of her pocket earlier.

Before she could say a word, her mother chirped, "Hello, sweetie."

The sandwiches in her stomach roared, turning into a stampede as they tried to force their way through her throat.

"S-Sweetie?" Ueno repeated, and the word gave her almost a cavity.

"Yes, can't a mother call her dear daughter this way?" Her voice filled with honey until it poisoned her.

"How dare you?" Ueno burst. "How could you send that guy to ra... ra..." She gagged on her words.

"I do not understand what you are talking about. There has to be a misunderstanding. I just wanted to call my beautiful daughter to wish her a great day."

Ueno didn't wait for more words, smashing the phone against the floor. The shards of the display spread around it as the body bounced, landing on the back.

"You lying witch!" Tears spurt out of her eyes as she had fallen on her knees.

Her mother's recent behavior made sense now. She plotted this encounter. This way, her daughter would turn into a woman, and who knew what else she had in store for Ueno.

Her stomach struggled, throwing a tantrum and punching matches with her lungs. She needed every bit of her will to keep those sandwiches inside. She had barely eaten and throwing everything out would be wasting.

Her heartbeat skyrocketed, and her throat contracted that she couldn't breathe. Tightening her eyes didn't help her a bit. She couldn't scream for help. There was nobody who would help this rotten girl.

A burning point on her neck lit her entire body, surging life into her sore limbs. Opening her eyes with a gag, she could finally breathe.

"In and out."

Listening to the voice calmed her down. When she turned her head, she had seen Rigaku kneeling next to her, his fingers onto her neck.

"Do you feel better?"

"Y-Yeah. What you did?"

His lips curled upward. "I only pressed a point on your neck to calm you down. It's one of the pressure points that positively energize the body."

He helped her to stand up, walking her back to the sofa. He pushed up his glasses. "I didn't mean to, but I've heard you shouting."

She jerked, squeezing her elbows. "Nothing to worry about. Just a family business."

"Normally, I wouldn't care, but there seems to be inside you something that made Freya-chan change her mind about you."

He took down his glasses, cleaning them despite there was no need for it. "So, I will not let this go, but I shall not try to pry it out of you. We all have a right to have privacy." A pang reminded him. He had poked his nose into his youngest brother's affairs, almost forcing his way in.

"Just know I'm available if you would feel the need to talk with somebody."

"This is so weird," she said. "All of this is upside down. You, my sworn enemy, are offering me help? Why? What makes you think I deserve it?" Her spread arms couldn't measure to the sofa.