Alinea

"Can someone tell me how is she poor in direction? She clearly knows where she wanted to go, doesn't she?"

Kazehaya Gin's inquiry rang in the room, which was rendered silent as everyone stared accusingly at Koharu. The girl in question, on the other hand, was not able to say anything since the evidence was solid. She couldn't lie her way out of this. Her actions recorded in the surveillance were conspicuous.

She looked ashen, her eyes glazed as her fingers fiddled nervously on her l.a.p. There was a hundred percent certainty those hands were cold and clammy. In all the years this sly female had been using and fooling people, she had never been caught – or even if she was, she'd never been put on the spot since she could always worm her way out of any situation by pretending to be either innocent or ignorant.

Caught her? She'd say she didn't know it was wrong. Caught her again? She'd say she forgot – and the cycle went on and on until people around her had learned to dismiss what should have been serious offenses.

She had never been condemned as someone who deliberately broke the rules or directly caused someone harm. With her, everything always ended up as a misunderstanding, and the victims always ended up being the villain if they put up a fuss and didn't let her off.

What a total injustice! But today, she would pay tenfold.

"Okada, explain!" The principal's voice boomed, making everyone from his school flinch in fear.

This incident had put the school's reputation in a bad light. The ignominy Okada Koharu's action brought to all of them needed to be addressed right here, right now, else their situation would get worse – most especially since Kazehaya Gin, Homura International's CEO himself found out. There was no question that the news would reach Koutaishidenka, and who knew what would happen to all of them.

They were guests invited in good faith – but they repaid the rare experience with something like this.

"Okada!"The principal prompted again, his face totally livid, the angry veins in his neck popped out.

Even both the teachers and the school counselor didn't feel pity towards her. What she did was inexcusable.

For a mere girl, facing this amount of disapproval was already awful. But Kazehaya Gin wasn't finished yet.

"Actually, there's another thing I want to show you," the c.h.e.s.tnut prince informed them as he clicked another file on the laptop.

Soon, another clip was shown. This time, it was a surveillance recording from the sleeping quarters of the girls. The school officials had already been informed about the strict security of the place and were not surprised that the sleeping area was under watch as well. But what astounded them was what they were seeing in the video.

The clip showed them how Okada Koharu rose from her futon and crept slowly towards Midori's bag, and rummaged inside for something. Then, they all saw how she took out something from there, and deliberately placed it into another bag, that made Rin gasp.

"She really did it!"Rin exclaimed in shock.

When the a.d.u.l.ts looked at them, Midori explained.

"When I saw my bag earlier, I thought there was something weird because it was not in the same way I remembered I left it this morning. When I checked, I realized that my bag has been moved and rummaged through this afternoon when we woke up from our nap. When I searched, my wallet was missing and we tried to look for it and found it in Rin's bag."

"And you didn't confront Rin?"Kazehaya asked. It was strange that the girls didn't cause a commotion. Usually, when they caught someone red-handed like that, there would be drama.

The girls shook their heads.

"We already realized it was someone else who did it and not Rin," Miharu explained as she turned a sharp gaze at Koharu. "Now we're sure that our speculation was right."

"Y-You…"The principal sputtered as he lunged at Koharu, not really able to control his anger.

The a.d.u.l.ts, however, caught the old man and prevented him from reaching the frozen girl.

"You vile creature! How can you do that to your friends? How dare you tarnish our school's name like this? I already warned all of you before coming here not to do anything stupid!"

The old man berated Koharu loudly as he pointed his finger at her.

Kazehaya Gin watched as the principal continued to yell at the girl. He felt a sense of satisfaction seeing her cower on her seat as everyone looked at her real, ugly self. Okada Koharu's serene damsel in distress mask broke on her face and fell onto the cold floor, shattering into pieces with a BANG.

He cleared his throat and the principal stopped and turned his attention back to the CEO.

"How can you coddle such an awful pretentious snake?" Kazehaya asked, his face showing antipathy.

The girl was not the only person good at dramatics in this room. He'd push more buttons to make sure Okada had no way out and would be dealt with properly. "She's clearly poison to the other students. I hope the principal will do something about this. If not, Homura House will file a case against that girl, and your school will be implicated."

"O-Of course, Kazehaya-sama. We will do our utmost best to deal with this errant student accordingly."

"I want her out of the Cedar Palace right now. She's no longer welcome here, and will never be again in the future."

Kazehaya's words rang with finality – like a judge giving his verdict, and only then did Okada Koharu give a huge reaction. She stood up from her seat, her eyes wild in panic.

"You can't do this! You can't take me out! You can't make me!" she screeched like a banshee, lunging at Kazehaya, but was stopped by everyone – though she continued to fight.

"I can't? I just did," Kazehaya told her with a smirk, as he signaled his servants to take the girl away.

Okada Koharu didn't care about her appearance as she fought and screamed as she was dragged outside. Even the people in the room looked on dumbfounded.

"Asahi-san," Kazehaya called the principal who turned his attention back to him. "I had a car ready for you to take that girl back home with another teacher. Please make sure to let her parents know what happened," he said, and everyone agreed.

The servants then ushered all the a.d.u.l.ts out, leaving the students who were unsure of what to do behind.

He then turned to the girls. "As for you three," he said, and he nearly laughed when the three almost jumped from their seats. They were probably thinking he would scold them as well.

"We apologize for not noticing this matter sooner. We should have had that girl removed from the premises the first time she broke the rules. You've been troubled a lot because of our neglect."

"Ah – no, no, no – We don't really mind. She's our friend – was our friend, and she's our classmate. We should have made her listen to us more. We were the ones who caused trouble after you invited us."

With this Kazehaya grinned, flashing his even pearly whites at the mesmerized girls. "But you're all Ara-chan's friends. We should have taken good care of you guys more," he said, rendering the girls speechless.

Ara-chan?