Alinea

The classrooms were almost empty just as expected. It's University Fair Day so most of the tertiary schools were entertaining future students in their place. Most of the seniors had taken the morning off to go visit their future alma maters and their school allowed it.

Ara spend most morning talking to Aki who had arranged for her entrance to an art school almost immediately. So, she came to school later than she first planned – not that she had anything important to do anyway.

She was still unsure about her university before as she just talked about it with her brother. But now that's settled, she would just have to visit her university some other time. It's not as if she cared about which school she attended, as long as she could take up arts.

It's eleven in the morning, an hour before lunch break. She placed her sketchbook on her desk and was planning to draw during the free time. She hadn't started yet however when Rin and Miharu entered the classroom together, and rushed to her side.

"Ara-chan!"They called, and in no time the two were standing by her desk.

"What's up?"Ara asked. She wondered what made these two quiet girls rush out and be loud at this time of day.

"It's horrible!" Miharu exclaimed. "Did Koharu-chan call you yesterday?"

Ah. Come to think of it, she totally forgot about Koharu.

"Yeah. She called me last night but we had visitors until late in the evening so I was not able to see her calls. Then she called again around three in the morning but I was already sleeping. I tried calling her many times but her phone's always out of coverage area."

"Well, she and her family are in a pinch!" Rin looked totally worried, and Ara wondered what drama Koharu started again. She remained silent and let the two feed her information.

"Yesterday at the baking club, Koharu-chan got a message from her mom. It seems there was an accident at her parents' workplace, and they were blamed and fired because of it."

Rin sat next to her. "But what's weird is that her uncle, the chief of police suddenly lost his job too."

Miharu typed down something on her phone and showed her news from the internet showing how a chief of police and his men were caught taking bribes and were sacked from their jobs.

Ara read the headlines with a frown. The said police chief was from the precinct which handled her accident and erased traces of her car being tampered with. It was Okada Koharu's maternal uncle and his men.

"Ah and Koharu-chan said they asked their relatives for help, but all of them were suddenly having problems with their own finances. Such bad luck."

Yeah, such bad luck indeed, Ara agreed.

"Poor Koharu-chan. She's having a totally hard time. Ara-chan could you help her out? Your family maybe can do something."

Of course it's possible – IF it's not her family who was doing all these in the first place.

Ara pinched her chin as she thought about what Aki said earlier after dropping her off.

"Stay away from trouble. Most especially that girl," Aki told her earlier.

Could it be?

The nagging suspicion in her mind grew. Her brother really might have already found out the truth and had exacted revenge on Koharu and her family.

Tsk!

Ara felt irritated, most especially since her classmates who were there in the room overheard their conversation and started chatting by themselves, phones in their hands as they discussed Koharu's plight.

"Poor Okada-san. Such a sweet girl to be so unfortunate."

"Isn't it weird? Why would suddenly something bad happen to Okada-san's family as if they were targeted?"

"What are you talking about?"

"But didn't it start since we found out it was Okada-san who started the misunderstanding about Suzuki-san? Maybe her family's being taught a lesson."

"Ah, finally it's scary to cross someone so rich."

"That's right. They can always ask someone to silence you if you make them angry."

All these rumors started flying again, as people kept giving them sly glances.

Hearing the last words, Ara snapped from her thoughts and smiled at both Rin and Miharu.

"Can you tell the teacher I need to go and see my brother after all? I want to check if he can do something about Koharu's situation."

Rin and Miharu looked relieved.

"That will be great Ara-chan. Even if we want to do something, we came from normal families so we can't help Koharu-chan," they said.

"Okay. I'll go now,"Ara said as she picked her things up, and left the room.

Another round of chitchat buzzed as soon as she left, but the two, Rin and Miharu turned to glare at them.

"You guys, stop dissing Ara-chan. If she's the one who did it, she wouldn't offer to help Koharu-chan. If you're all so capable then help Koharu-chan yourselves. Stop badmouthing people just because she's rich. It's not like she asked to be born that way – although we all know you're all just jealous."

Ara who was not in the mood was able to hear that and stopped. Then, a grateful smile spread on her face.

Humans – they really had hearts as fickle as the weather, as demonstrated by her classmates who didn't hesitate to hate her or love her depending on the news. Still, some people have hearts that were sturdy as a shield, ready to defend others they really cared about.

"Thanks Rin, thanks Miharu," she whispered as she strode off towards the exit.

She quickly hailed a cab and told the diver to go to Suzuki Raiden Group's building.

On the way, Ara couldn't help but feel awful. If it was really Aki who did it, in the name of revenge, she would be very angry.

Why?

Because, in spite of Okada Koharu's suffering now, in the eyes of everyone, she's still the damsel – the tragic heroine who was oppressed by the villain, which was Ara again.

This was wrong. If Koharu should fall, Ara wanted her to fall with her pitiful mask stripped off her face so the world could see her true self. She would never ever let anyone get in between her and her real revenge, Ara thought as the cab arrived in Aki's work place.

The image of her brother popped in her head and she scowled.

"If you're going to be a villain oniichan, be a proper one."