Alinea

Dojo, girls' sleeping quarters Wednesday afternoon…

The students were asked to take a rest and nap after lunch so they have the energy for the night performances. A famous kabuki troupe would be having a show that day.

In reality, the kabuki didn't have to start at night. They just made it so to give all the servants a chance to rest after all the commotion the night before - but of course, the students didn't have to know about that.

They just arranged for a night event for them.

Miharu, Rin, and Midori woke up from their nap finding Okada Koharu's futon empty. The rolled-up bed was not even made up, and was still warm, indicating that the girl had left not too long ago.

Seeing the sheets and the beddings haphazardly strewn, Rin scowled. Ever since she got irritated with Koharu the first day they came here, it never vanished. Instead, it only increased as days passed, most especially since the girl had started acting up on her own, leaving the group to wander off somewhere only to be caught and their quartet got scolded along with her.

"Where did that Koharu go again?"Rin didn't even bother using the suffix 'chan' in her name anymore. She was that miffed.

"Maybe she went to the restroom," Miharu suggested, although her eyes too were clouded over with something akin to annoyance.

Miharu was the real peacekeeper among the four of them, and the most patient, but her patience had been running thin after the consecutive scoldings her group received. Who wouldn't be irritated?

After Homura Ryuu didn't show up on the second day of their stay, Koharu started wandering outside on her own and even reached the forbidden area where the residents of the estate stayed. That was after dinner when they heard that the prince had worked so he had to stay in his quarters.

At first, nobody minded because it might have been truly a mistake on Koharu's part since she said she got lost trying to find the restroom. But, an hour after, when they were about to go back to their quarters, Koharu had wandered again, this time further into the private area, and she even had the gall to get angry at the staff who scolded her.

Because of the erratic behavior, the four of them got called and scolded by the principal.

"Well, I hope so because if that crazed girl wandered to the forbidden area just because she wanted to see the prince so badly I would scalp her – and no, don't try to play referee this time. Someone's gotta knock some sense into Koharu. She's getting crazier because we keep spoiling her."

Rin was scowling at Miharu all the time she was talking. Last night after they got scolded, Rin gave Koharu a piece of her mind, and they had another argument. Miharu stopped their squabble as always. But the other girl seemed to agree with her now, so she nodded. They all already did what they could, tried to talk some sense to Koharu, but if she still wouldn't listen then they should do something about it since they would be scolded if not.

"Well, her bed's still warm so she's still near. Let's try to find her," Miharu suggested, but Midori stopped them.

"What's wrong?"

"There's something weird," she said as she looked at her bag.

Her small luggage was open, and when Midori checked, her wallet was missing. "Oh no...my wallet with all my allowance this month's gone," she said as she looked frantically inside their quarters.

"Do you remember where you put it?"Rin and Miharu asked as they too started helping Midori search.

"It's just in my bag. I know because I put it there this morning," she said just as an idea hit her, and she looked at Rin.

"What's wrong?"

Midori placed her hands on Rin's shoulders before answering calmly. "No matter what happens, please know that I am aware it's not you," she told her.

"What do you mean Midori-chan?"Rin asked as Midori signaled to Miharu to open Rin's bag.

Surprise, surprise! Midori's pink wallet was there. The two girls were bewildered.

"Midori-chan I didn't do it, "Rin said.

"I know. I already told you," Midori assured her. She reckoned, Koharu did it this after lunch when they fell asleep to punish Rin for fighting with her last night to set her up.

"But who..."Rin's voice trailed off as she realized who the culprit was.

Even Miharu who just snapped out of her surprise realized what happened. "Oh God, how can Koharu-chan do this? You were just trying to make her realize she did wrong."

Rin closed her eyes as if to muster strength before opening them again just to glare. "Of course she can do this. She'd been setting people up for years and we were just too stupid to be blinded by her drama. Look at what she did to Ara-chan! She made the school believe she's the one bullying Midori-chan and she told us Ara-chan was crazy in love with Sonoda too. This little thing as putting Midori-chan's wallet in my bag so she'd think I stole it is child's play to her."

"Oh my God. She told us to suddenly visit Ara-chan at the hospital too and even pressured Miyahara-san and Uchida-san to come with us because she said Ara-chan was disfigured. But she told everyone we just happened to meet them so they asked to tag along."Miharu was the one who said it, her expression was apt for one who just discovered something awful.

"Let's go find her and ask her, "Rin said, her face grim, and all three of them went out.

But it didn't take long for them to find Okada Koharu. She was just near their sleeping quarter's entrance, blocked by several servants who were trying to talk to her. But it appeared as if Koharu was not happy with what they were telling her, and was arguing with them.

The three girls hurried to come over to find out what happened and confront her too before the school officials were alerted.

"What's going on?"Miharu asked as the three of them reached the commotion.

Koharu, on the other hand, shut up, her face totally dark upon seeing them arrived.

One of the servants, a kind-looking girl turned to them and explained. "We saw your friend sneaking off to the private living area again just a few minutes ago."

As soon as they heard this, all three girls' expressions darkened further as well, but nobody was as black as Rin's. She immediately pulled Koharu who was braced to bulldoze her way against the servants earlier and made her turn towards the three of them. For a petite, slightly chubby girl, she was surprisingly very strong. Okada who tried to pull away was not able to.

"What are you trying to do again? Didn't the principal already scold us last night because you kept wandering off? What were you planning to do, huh?"

Koharu, again, on the other hand, was so thick-skinned and unrepentant. "I woke up early and I wanted to look around, what's wrong with that?"

"What's wrong with that?"Rin was more indignant.

"Are you deliberately trying to sabotage our trip? We were told clearly what we can and can't do before coming here. You clearly didn't follow that so we got scolded and here you are doing it again? Are you stupid or are you being plain disgusting?"

Midori watched as Rin let out her anger, and was surprised because Miharu who always tried to break up fights didn't stop her this time.

"What are you saying? Didn't I just say I wanted to take a look?" Koharu snarled, her eyes glaring at them.

"And didn't I say you're either very stupid or plain disgusting? You're stupid if you truly can't understand instructions – but we all know that's not the case. Your grade would have been bad. So, you must be disgusting – a disgusting crazed stalker bitch because we know you've been sneaking around to see the prince."

Silence hung between all of them. Nobody ever expected Rin would say something like that out loud. But the servants agreed to her silently. They had been troubled by this sneaking girl who was obviously out to search for the Young Master since the night before.

Koharu on the other hand finally snapped out a bit from her crazed obsession and realized for the first time what she had done. "I-I… of course not," she denied as she combed her hair with her fingers.

The crazed look on her face vanished replaced by an innocence that would make people feel they had wronged her. Rin who had been so angry earlier almost apologized for yelling at her upon seeing her suddenly look like that, if she hadn't seen the servants look at Koharu like she was insane.

"I was just really curious. I didn't mean to trouble anyone," Koharu said dramatically, her eyes brimming with tears. One would really think she didn't mean to cause a ruckus when you looked at her.

"Is that so?" Miharu suddenly spoke that Rin quickly peered at her with a glare in case she started pitying Koharu again.

 "But regardless if you mean it or not, it's a fact that you did cause trouble – a lot of trouble ," Miharu continued without looking at Rin.

Her face and words though said that she wouldn't take Koharu's side this time, and so Rin relaxed and placed her attention back to Koharu, who had started crying audibly, with her small frame trembling like a leaf.

"That's right. You've caused us a lot of trouble," a singsong voice suddenly spoke, and all of them turned to see a very tall, handsome guy with a c.h.e.s.tnut hair and hazel eyes. He had on a colorful kimono and a pair of diamond studs in his ears. He looked so out of place in the palace-like traditional house, yet, at the same time, his manner and bearing said that he did and that he's also a prince.

A prince who came to exact justice...

"It's only natural that you should be punished, no?"