Zaizen didn't bother getting his stuff from Kenya's place and returned to his own home instead. His parents were surprised to see their son back; they thought he was going to stay at Kenya's until Chinami was adopted by Osamu but they just assumed he missed home so they didn't question him.
Chinami was feeling very bad. She can't believe she landed a hit on Zaizen's cheek. She needed to apologize as soon as she saw him. Sure, she's angry that he brought her Father up when she didn't want to think about it, but losing Zaizen will make her very upset.
"Chinami, dinner is ready." Chitose walked into her room. From the sound of her sigh, he can tell something was up. "What's wrong?"
"Chitose-senpai..."
"Is this something to do with Zaizen?" Zaizen only told the other three that he had family business but seeing Chinami like this made Chitose suspect there's more to it than that. "You can tell me anything."
"Okay." She told Chitose from start to finish of the problem she was having. When she finished telling him, Chitose just smiled and nodded.
"I'm sure an apology will fix everything. Don't worry about it." Chitose said to her.
"Just that?" Chinami asked him, "I really messed up..."
"If it is you, I am sure he will accept your apology. Don't be so upset about it."
"I really didn't mean it..." Chinami cried a little bit. "I didn't want to hit him..."
"It's okay. If you feel you did something you don't feel it's right, apologizing is the next best thing." Chitose patted her on the head, "Be strong, okay? If it is you, I am sure Zaizen won't be angry."
"I hope that is true..."
"Chinami, can you excuse me for one second?" Chitose got up and left her room. When he went outside, he heard footsteps hurriedly made its way down the stairs. He walked to the living room to see Shiraishi and Kenya trying to hold their laughter in. "Guys, come on. Let's be mature about this."
"Chinami slapped Zaizen! He finally got hit!" Instead of sympathy for the 2nd year, Kenya really found it funny; the kid was not hit by a paper fan but her hand! Just when the 2nd year thought he's on a roll, he's finally taken down!
"Okay, okay, Chinami is upset about it so we shouldn't laugh about it." Shiraishi tried to say that without laughing but Kenya's face made him laugh so he lost it in the very end. "Kenya, stop it!"
"What? You're the one laughing! Hahaha!"
"...I wonder if Zaizen will come to school with a hand print on his face." When Chitose asked that, all three of them broke into a huge laughter, so loud that even Chinami can hear them.
"I wonder what they're laughing at downstairs..." She wondered if they have finally snapped. She came down the stairs to see them still laughing. "What are you laughing at?"
"Chinami! Uh...we're just laughing at some funny stuff on TV!" Shiraishi was quick to throw in an excuse for Chinami to take in. Looking at her face, it looked like she's taking it in.
"Was it that funny?"
"It is."
"Come on, let's have dinner. We'll tell you about it soon." Kenya lightly pushed her to the dining room, laughing lightly. "I just want to say, you are powerful."
"Huh?"
"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. You are cute but deadly, Chinami." Chitose concluded.
"I don't get what this is about but okay."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chinami waited outside of her classroom for Zaizen. She thought the apology would be more meaningful if she were to say it first thing in the morning. She was angry he brought her Father up but she will be angrier at herself if she caused them to fall out.
'Hikaru...' She was a little nervous but she took deep breaths to make the nerves go away. "Ah..." There he was, walking up the hall without a care in the world. "Hika-" The moment she tried to speak to him, Zaizen walked past her like everyone else. Chinami watched him go into class and sit down at his own desk.
Zaizen saw her sitting next to him. He looked at her once but he resumed on the activity on his phone, finding it more interesting than her.
"Hikaru? C-can we talk?"
"No." When Chinami heard that, she looked down with a nervous look on her face; he's still angry at her...
"And don't call me by my given name. Now that I think about it, why did I let you call me by my given name?" Zaizen's words were stabbing at her with intent to hurt.
"Eh...?"
"Why are you looking at me like that? I am always like this. Why? Did you think you were special in my eyes? You're just an eyesore like everyone else, Sakurahime." The moment he called her by her family name, Chinami felt very hurt.
The classmates watched Zaizen and Chinami, finding this very interesting to watch; Zaizen was a dick to everyone but he always treated Chinami like she's his very important princess. Today, he's treating her much lower than a peasant.
"I'm sorry..." Chinami apologized to him, "I-"
"I don't care about that anymore. I don't care about you."
Chinami sadly looked away. He couldn't see her eyes properly because her long strands just covered her eyes from his view.
"I still care about you..." He was not able to see it but he can tell by her voice that she was crying.
Zaizen chose to ignore her completely. He decided Chinami's not worth his time anymore and he has better things to do than to care about her.
"Hikaru-"
"Sakurahime-san, there you are! We have some stuff we'd like to talk to you about~! Let's go to the toilet and talk!"
It was the girls again. It seems like the wind has got out that Zaizen and Chinami has fallen out. They were hesitant on finding Chinami again in case Zaizen was there but the moment they saw Zaizen walk away without a care in the world, they decided to go for it after all.
Chinami looked over the girls' shoulders to see Zaizen walk away. Seeing his back becoming smaller and smaller made her heart fall into a million pieces. He really decided he won't care about her anymore.
'No...no...no!' She couldn't breathe! What's this feeling? She's scared!
You're going to lose everyone.
It's your fault.
You're no longer the Chinami everyone came to know and love. You have no values. Why do you think they are walking away from you? They look like they care about you but they don't, they are all looking for a way to abandon you.
Did you really think you were 'rescued'?
Zaizen was busy playing a singles game against Kenya while Shiraishi and Chitose wathed from the side. Zaizen was not being put off by Kenya asking him about the slap Chinami gave because he kept telling himself that he did not care for Chinami and that she meant nothing to him.
"Tch, you won."
"Kenya-san, stop talking about useless stuff when we're playing."
"Useless? Don't say that, it's about Chinami."
"That's why I said it was useless."
"Don't say that about Chinami."
"I say whatever I like."
"And I am telling you, as a senpai, not to say stuff like that. It's hurtful." The joking air was gone and replaced by tension between the Speed Star and Tensai. "I don't mind if you badmouth anyone else, but don't you mouth off about Chinami like that." Kenya then looked around the club, "Where is that girl anyway?"
"I saw her before." Zaizen answered.
"Why didn't you get her?"
"I didn't feel like it."
"Kurarin~!" A distressed looking Koharu ran over to Shiraishi, "I-I don't know how to explain but..."
Shiraishi, Kenya, Zaizen, and Chitose looked at where Yuuji and kintarou was to see Chinami was with them and they were horrified to see her looking very disheveled. Her hair was very wet along with her uniform, her cheeks were decorated with a painful red mark, and she's got 'attention-seeker' written on her arm with a board pen.
"Who did this to you?!" Shiraishi was sent into full on rage without hesitation. It scared Chinami to feel Shiraishi's wrath and she went to Kenya's side for protection.
"Shiraishi, you're scaring her..." Kenya hugged Chinami lightly, calming her down.
"Kin-chan and I were told Apple-chan was being bullied in the toilets so he saved her." Yuuji explained.
"They were picking on Nee-chan! I fought them away with a mop!" Kintarou earned himself detention for entering the girls' toilet but it was worth it if it meant protecting Chinami.
"Good job, Kin-chan!" Chitose was very proud of the 1st year. He always thought Kintarou was special not only in tennis!
Kenya then gently moved Chinami away. He suddenly punched Zaizen on the same cheek Chinami slapped.
"Kenya!" Shiraishi quickly refrained Kenya before he landed another hit.
"You...!" The usually calm Zaizen wanted to return the hit to Kenya but Chinami stopped him, pushing against him in the form of a hug.
"Don't fight! Stop!" Chinami forgot about herself being hurt in the very first place; she can't have Zaizen and Kenya fighting no matter what. "Please don't fight!"
"You saw Chinami! You could have saved her!" Kenya shouted at Zaizen, "You're just as bad as those girls!"
"And why would I rescue her? Only idiots would do that." He looked at Chinami and pushed her away from him. "Let's just face it, she is not the Chinami I know, why would I care what happens to her?"
"Are you stupid?! She has went through a lot!" Shiraishi was equally angry like Kenya.
This time, Gin and Koishikawa were the ones to stop both the Bible and Speed Star.
"Stop it!" Koishikawa shouted, "No one should be fighting!"
"Yeah! Let's rumble and then make friends!" Kintarou had no idea he was spreading oil to the fire. From his experience from reading manga, people become better friends after fighting it out and getting it out of their system.
"Kin-chan, don't do that!" Chitose shouted at him.
"Hikaru..." Chinami felt very heartbroken and she cried silent tears with closed eyes as Zaizen's words stabbed at her without refrain. He's right, she's no longer the Chinami they knew and she's nothing more than an empty shell of who she used to be. "I'm sorry...please don't be angry...please..."
Seeing her like this, Zaizen felt heartbroken too. He wanted to hold her close and apologize for spouting out horrible lies. Just when he was about to say something, Kenya stepped in Chinami's defense, pulling her back and standing before Zaizen.
"Why are you being such a dick to her, can't you see she has suffered a lot?!" Kenya shouted, sick and tired of Zaizen hurting others with words. "If you have nothing nice to say, shut up and remove yourself from here!"
Zaizen doesn't like being snapped at. It was a matter of self pride and he chose to leave without apologizing to her.
"I don't need this."
"Hikaru!" No matter how many times she was hurt by him, she still refused to accept he's telling her the truth.
'Don't hurt her anymore than you have!' "And I certainly don't need you, Sakurahime!"
Chinami watched as Zaizen walked away.
"Hikaru...come back...uwaahhh!" She's losing her light. She's losing her very first friend and she couldn't prevent it. She cried into her hands and Kenya hugged her, keeping her protected from everything that's hurting her.
"Don't go...Hikaru, don't go...come back, come back...!" There's a nasty voice behind the back of her mind, taunting her that she's so hated now that even Zaizen wanted nothing to do with her. "No! No!" Chinami continued to cry, finding the loss of Zaizen too much to bear. "Don't...leave me..." Chinami suddenly passed out in Kenya's hold, shocking him and everyone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chinami woke up in the nurse's office. She was greeted by Shiraishi's worried face.
"Chinami, you okay?"
"It's not a dream..." She covered her eyes with the back of her right hand, feeling tears coming. "I am the worst."
"No, don't think that."
"Then why did I lose Hikaru? I lost him...I-"
Shiraishi took her left hand with both of his, "You still have me, Chinami. If you feel like you are losing the whole world, I'll stay by your side."
"...really?"
"Hey, don't doubt me. I really care about you, I don't want to see you cry." She wanted to believe in him but the voice was telling her Shiraishi will be the next to leave him.
"Buchou, I'm really scared...I-I want to go home."
"I'll walk you home."
"Hm..."
Chinami still felt very sad. Today has been nothing but an ordeal for her.
"Buchou, can I hold your hand?"
"Sure." Shiraishi always wanted to hold her hand while walking home. He's happy he got to hold hands with her. "Don't worry about anything. I promised you happiness and that's what I am doing."
Chinami smiled a little after hearing his words to her. "Ah! There's that beautiful smile!"
On their way to Kenya's place, he did his best to make her laugh. For him, seeing that sweet smile on her face was enough for him. No matter how much Chinami has changed, he will cherish her like before. There's nothing more for him to do other than promising her happiness.
Chinami laughed at his poorly made joked, it's funny to see Shiraishi try to turn an unfunny joke into a funny one. It's always like this. Shiraishi always go out of his way to make her happy but there's hardly she can do for him and anyone. Why do they keep telling her that as long as she was happy, it was enough? She noticed Shiraishi, Kenya, and Chitose were the same...as did Zaizen in the past. She would never say it out loud but the four of them will always be her favorite club members.
"We're home." Shiraishi was expecting Kenya to be in but it seemed like he wasn't.
"Kenya...where's Kenya-senpai?!" Seeing that he wasn't here, Chinami was sent on a different panic.
"Chinami, calm down. I'm sure he is just late-"
"Why would he be late? Why is he always late? Is he running away from me too...? I don't want that..."
"Chi...nami?" Shiraishi was starting to fear that the girl in front of him was different from the Chinami he cherished.