Minako was so furious in the library that she almost forgot herself and made a scene . Her day at the library started off innocently enough , until a student came barging into the library furiously , with her eyes darting around all over the place .
" Saori ?! Where are ?!! " she screamed
" shh ! This is a library ! " Minako hissed at her as she approached her with Saori
" I'm Saori , cam I help you ? "
" you want to help me , huh ?! Well start be helping me shove every book in this library up your—!!! "
" for the last time , this IS A LIBRARY !!! " Minako interrupted her " get a hold of yourself or I'm calling a teacher ! "
" you shut up ! " the student shoved Minako , who stared at her with eyes widened with shock , but the student immediately turned to Saori " and you desperate bitch ! Who the hell do you think you are , flirting with my boyfriend ?!! The whole Paulownia mall debacle , you even went out to karaoke together ... KARAOKE !!! "
" I ... I'm sorry ... " Saori lowered her head apologetically
" no she's not ! " Minako interfered " it was your so-called ' boyfriend ' who came to Saori and asked her to go out with him ! "
" oh yeah ?! Prove it !!! "
" oh I'll prove it , alright ! I have eyewitnesses , every member of the library committee saw whom you call your boyfriend simping on her ! " but when Minako turned at the other members , none of them bother to interfere , and she furiously demanded " what's wrong with you all ?! You clearly saw what happened ! "
" you're so full of shit ! I'll teach you to go after other girls' boyfriends ! "
The girl slapped Saori across the face , in front of everyone in the room . The sound of the slap echoed in the library , but the students all chose to turn their eyes away from her . The girl shout a few more threats and insults to Saori before walking away . Minako silently walked toward her , before forcefully pulling her by the wrist .
" what the hell are YOU doing ?! " the girl yelled at her "
" BE QUIET !!! " Minako furiously shushed her " you just slapped a member of the library committee while she was working , we'll see how the faculty office would respond to that ! "
" fa—faculty... office ?! "
" you're coming with me , sister ! And I'll teach you to behave in the library , if they don't expel you from school , that is ! " Minako pulled her forcefully toward the door
After some time , Minako returned to the library . There , she caught up to Saori just as she was leaving . Minako was still fuming , and what made her even more furious was that Saori actually believed what that girl said and that it was her own fault .
" I did have some ulterior motive "
" no , you didn't ! You're just trying to convince yourself that it's your fault , but it's not ! Stop being so submissive ! " Minako fervently denied , before asking " or do you actually have feelings for him ? "
" I ... I don't ... The person I'm in love with ... isn't him ... "
" you have someone on your mind ? "
" well ... yes ... " tears began filling Saori's eyes" he was involved in a car accident , an he's lost his memory "
" that's horrible ... I'm so sorry " Minako tried to cheer her up " but I'm sure he'll recover his memories soon "
" do you ... do you really believe that ... "
" you know , I also have someone I love , and he's been in a coma for weeks now . You may remember him , his name is Shinjiro Aragaki "
" oh ... yes , I don't know him . People used to think badly of him , but I met him and I don't think he's all that bad "
" see ? And I still believe he'll wake up , because he promised me ! So I'm sure your boyfriend will not forget you , either ! "
" right ... thank you ... " Saori wiped her eyes with a bittersweet smile on her face
After that , Minako made her way back to the dorm . Boarding the monorail , her minded wandered back to Saori . Nothing that was happening to her was her fault , and yet she continued to blame herself for other people's mistakes , even as she continued to get hurt by it all .
" so are you going to be dancing in the moonlight tonight ? "
" yes ... of course ... " Minako mumbled , before she realized what the question was " what the ... ?! No ! You know I can't dance , bro bro ! "
" I just wanted to make sure you haven't fainted while sitting up " Minato sighed " I've been talking about my day in the programming club , and you were just answering on autopilot with a yes and a nod ! Were you listening at all ?! "
" of course ! The programming club ! Keisuke , he welcomed you now that the controversy of the photos was over ! "
" thought so , you weren't listening " Minato sighed " I actually talked about my day in the student council "
" cheap " Minako glared at him
" and there was this girl who slapped someone in the library , whom I had to sign on her suspension for three days "
" just three days ?! You were suspended for two weeks for what you did in the library back in Sevens ! "
" a slap isn't like a fist fight " Minato replied " so I take it something happened in the library ? Was it you who got slapped ? "
" Saori " Minako sighed
" ouch ... " Minato winced " do you want to talk about it ? "
" it's just ... well ... I feel really guilt about our days in Sevens ... if I had known you were ... well ... "
" I regret nothing of that time , if that's what you were thinking "
" what should I do ? I can't stand how people are taking advantage of her and going unpunished "
" you just got a student suspended as a punishment, so don't think too much about her being oppressed " Minato stood up as he saw they were approaching their station " instead you need to teach her the meaning of 'no ' .... why don't you try to spend more time with her ? "
" I ... I think I'll try that ... "
———
The next day , Saori and Minako were working in the library . Minako wanted to take this opportunity to try and have Saori refuse a request , but it was much easier said than done . Apparently , Saori had probably never refused a request from anyone . Their attempts were halted by the Mr. Ekoda who walked into the classroom with the unfinished school newspaper draft , asking them to work on it and finish it by the end of the day .
" ooh ! Can we add a section for video games and music ?! " Minako exclaimed excitedly " there are a couple ones I've been dying to write a review about ! "
" dying to write a review on one of those ' VHS games ' , huh ?! Why don't you die for real then !!! "
" I'm sorry , what ? "
" this is prideful school , we want this newspaper to encourage our students to try their best in their studies , and you want to distract them with such trifle matters ?! "
" it's for such ideologies that we don't sell many papers in school " Minako sighed
" quiet ! This is the best school newspaper in Japan by the unanimous decision of guardians of Japanese students , and I swear if you made them change their look toward our papers , then ... ! "
" of course ! Of course ! " Minako laughed nervously , trying to calm the angry teacher down because other students in the library were beginning to look irate " I was stupid to think that was an appropriate topic for a school newspaper , so then what should we write about ?"
" fill it with love troubles or something , love letters from students talking about troubles with their significant other is really common among the youth these days "
" of course ... " Minako sighed " because that's definitely appropriate ... "
" what was that ?! "
" ack ! " Minako realized the teacher was still here " I said it's definitely appropriate and there was nothing wrong with it ! "
" but Mr. Ekoda , we don't have any letters ... " Saori asked
" make up a couple , and make them believable ... and above all ... stop wasting my time !!! " the teacher stormed out of the library
" well I can tell you one thing, no one in the library is believing this , not after they heard him shout it like an angry gorilla .... " Minako sighed , before she turned to Saori with a smile " no worries , let's do our best writing it . It's not like we were ever scolded for unsold copies "
However , as the two sat down to write this , they didn't know what to write about . While they were both in a relationship with someone , the problems they were facing in those relationships weren't common , not to mention they both felt embarrassed to write about them . However , Saori didn't seem to do very well when it came to make up lover quarrels , as she wasn't that sociable to begin with , and so she asked Minako to handle the writing while she would deal with the layout and decoration .
" I'm sorry I shoved the whole thing on you , Minako , but my social skills aren't worth jackshit here ! "
" Oh ! Um ... Okay ? " Minako was surprised to hear Saori , a gentle and composed student curse
" Oh ... Sorry , I just wanted to try swearing for once ... Was this bad ? "
" Absolutely not " Minako smiled , feeling glad that Saori is trying to change " in fact , it was badass ! "
" Badass ! It wasn't bad , it was badass ! " Saori laughed slightly " I feel like a weight has been lifted off my chest ! "
" Hey , tell you what , let's go to the arcade after we finish this stupid newspaper "
" That would be great ! "
***********************
Okay , I'm going to stop this here before this part gets way too long . I know it's too short now , I'm sorry , but I wanted to leave this on a satisfying conclusion at the moment because there's a lot of drama left with this poor girl .
Also , I forgot to mention that in the previous part , so I'll repeat it twice here for good measure :
Remember to comment your opinion on Shinjiro's fate
Remember to comment your opinion on Shinjiro's fate
Okay ... that's about it . I want to make the next part the last one dedicated to social links . That's right , once we help Saori out of her social conflict , it's back into the Dark Hour , and suffice to say that Akihiko's catchphrase doesn't even begin to describe my enthusiasm for that . Until then , I hope you enjoyed this part , and stay safe .