Part 1

"So who are you? Why are you tailin' us?" Ryuji asked the stalker hoping to get answers out of him.

"Damn, it's a teen. I was expecting a pedo." The white-haired said, eyeing the figure in front of them.

However, the stalker seemed to be preoccupied and didn't bother answering the question thrown at him. His pupils were fixed on the blonde-haired girl as her beautiful face reflected to his eye.

"Beautiful."

A word escaped the stalker's mouth as he stared at the girl. Whether he means harm or not, he's being a creep at the moment.

"Huh?!"

Astonished, Ann's eyes widened as a faint blush crept onto her face. The blonde boy stole a glance at the girl who seemed to be touched by the stalker's compliment. He gritted his teeth in anger, as he turned his head to the stalker sending glares to the teen.

"Never mind that, just answer me!"

The blonde's tone was dripping in anger, his eyebrows furrowed. He was definitely getting impatient and uncomfortable at the sight of the stalker staring at the blonde girl.

"I'm Yusuke Kitagawa, a second-year at Kosei High's fine-arts division. I'm a pupil of and reside with the painter Ichiryusai Madarame. I'm striving to become an artist." The stalker introduced himself to the teens in front of him.

"A painter?" Ryuji asked, as if he couldn't believe what he heard.

"Ever since I first saw her days ago, I couldn't take my eyes off her. She stole my heart."

The teen who introduced himself as Yusuke said so passionately that the blonde was almost carried away by his sincerity. He only caused confusion to the girl, and filled her mind with different thoughts.

"Eh?" The girl was taken aback. She couldn't bring herself to ask, and the level of tension was rising.

'I stole his heart? Is he confessing? Is he serious?'

"You're the women I've been searching for all this time! I feel a passion from you unlike anyone else. I beg you! Please be my-" The teen trailed, which only caused Ann to be even more tensed up and panicked.

"Are you for real?" The troublemaker clicked his tongue in annoyance and disbelief.

"Dude, chill! Junior's waking up!" The white-haired teen teased in a serious way.

"Wait, you're doing this here?" The blonde, rather embarrassed, couldn't help but blush madly.

"My..." The blue-haired teen's face was tensed, as his lids fell close and clenched his hand into his fist before stretching it to thin air. "Model for my next art piece!"

"Huh?"

Part 2

One morning at Shujin Academy, Class 2-D.

It was the students' midterms. Everyone was taking their time of life answering every question carefully, as no one would like to see failing scores. Such a promising time it was.

At the front was their homeroom teacher who appeared to be in a deep slumber. Her eyes were at peace as she peacefully snored. It appears as though, from the sight of her dark eyebags, that she was having busy days recently.

Clang clang clang!

The sound of the bell ringing signified the end of time allotted for their examinations. It also served as a cue for Ms. Kawakami to open her eyes.

"Okay, pass your answer sheets to the front." Ms. Kawakami announced. The reactions of the students varied, from silent obedience, to heavy sigh of relief and whispers of complaints on how hard the tests was.

Each of the students began to walk towards their teacher, lending their own answer sheets.

Part 3

At the rooftop, the five had regrouped after class.

There, Ann was sitting on the table beside Morgana while Ryuji was sitting on a nearby chair as well as the white-haired. Ren was standing in front of a pot with healthy plants. All of them had a can of soft drink on their hand, except for the cat of course.

"The tests are over! The sense of freedom tastes so great!" Ryuji chirped in celebration with a laugh after drinking his soft drink.

"Hey, let's go somewhere fun!" The blonde continued. "Or are you in the mood for a little phantom thievery?"

"Idiot." The cat told the troublemaker which the troublemaker gasp in response. "Have you forgotten about Akechi? Our hands will be on the chopping block if we make a careless move."

"We don't even have a target yet." Ann added.

"Remember, it has to be unanimous." Morgana reminded the group.

"I know! I was just throwin' it out there." Defending himself, Ryuji yelled. "Right?"

The blonde looked at Ren in a need of an ally. However, the savage black-haired teen only to disregarded the pleas of the blonde idiot by drinking his drink and leaving a sigh after.

"You listenin'?" The blonde asked the raven-haired feeling worrisome.

"That aside, what are we gonna do about this?" Ann asked while she took out four tickets from her pocket given by a certain guy.

"Oh, what that guy gave you?"

Yesterday

"Madarame-sensei's art exhibition starts this weekend. I'll be helping him on the first day, so why don't I give you the details then?" Yusuke offered the tickets in an odd position.

Present

"I ain't goin'. No interest whatsoever." The blonde was clearly uninterested as he wore an amused look.

"I can't go." Surprisingly, the white-haired seemed to not care.

On a side note, the blonde troublemaker mischievously smiled. "You pissed 'im good yesterday."

Yesterday

"How unbecoming of a lady!" The stalker, with a frown, complained at Kyoko's behavior. "I never felt this insulted in my life,"

"Meh~ so what? You're mad at me for teasing your boner?" The girl said, unamused, before smirking. "Ho boy, you're gonna see one hell of a lady at the exhibit,"

Present

"I'm not ready to be a lady." The girl sighed problematically.

"Can you even become a lady? Pfft...!" The blonde troublemaker teased, pretending to hold back his laughter. Before Kyoko could insult him back-

"Maybe I'll go." Ann said, with a faint smile on her face as she gazed on the ground, causing shock to the two troublemakers.

"Seriously?!" Both the blonde and the white-haired stood from their seats, shocked.

"Lady Ann, don't tell me you've fallen for that Yusuke at first sight?!"

Morgana who appeared to be very shocked as well, spoke. A part of him was worried— will he ever be able to become a human to steal the girl's heart, or is it going to be too late when that time comes?

"It's not like that. But he did give me free tickets and doesn't 'going to an art exhibit' sounds kinda mature?" The blonde-haired girl expressed her thoughts with a small smile, shifting into a big one as excitement overwhelmed her. "And besides, Ichiryusai Madarame is a totally famous painter who was recently on Good Morning Japan!"

"Poser!" The troublemaker mocked the girl.

"Shut up!" As a reply, the girl yelled at him, pissed.

"Madarame..." The ravenette muttered to himself, deep in thoughts. What caught his attention the most was the familiar name he heard somewhere.

From a... shadow?

"That's right... Madarame... He stole everything from me but you're letting him off the hook?!"

However, his thoughts came to an interruption when the sound of door creaking was heard. Lifting their gazes, what their eyes met was—

"What are you doing up here?" The same brown-haired female student who was at the principal's office walked up the roof, thus Morgana jumped down to hide.

"What do you want?" Ryuji asked with a delinquent like approach, as he frowned at the sight of the girl. As if making her feel not welcomed in every way.

"I just thought the four of you make an interesting combination."

'What the hell is she trying to imply?' The white-haired thought cautiously.

"The troublemaker, girl of rumor, the infamous transfer student..." The president trailed as she gazed around the rooftop. The moment her eyes laid upon a certain white-haired girl, she furrowed her brows before continuing on, " ...and the so-called assassin."

"Plus you all had a history with Mr. Kamoshida, huh?" The brown-haired asked in a doubting manner, as she made her way to the group.

"Somethin' you want?" Rather impatient, the troublemaker asked.

"The roof is off limit due to the incident. Follow the rules and keep out from now on, all right?" The president explained.

"Yeah, yeah..." Ryuji stood up, then walked towards the door. "Let's go."

Her words seemed to cause the white-haired to laugh as a snicker escaped her mouth, capturing the attention of he others. She walked towards the brown-haired until she was just right in front of her.

Meanwhile, the others were preparing to leave as they stood from their seats and made their way to the door. Seeing the white-haired's actions, they stopped midway in confusion as to why she stood in front of the president, a smug grin plastered on her face.

There, the president couldn't help but to look up to meet the white-haired's gaze. Kyoko was a lot taller than her, with or without the heels of her boots.

"Did you actually thought we were going to jump?" Kyoko said in a teasing manner. "But oh well, it won't be that bad to obey the president..."

The girl walked past the brown-haired, a mischievous smile present on her face. Whispering in her ear, she said—

"Or rather, a marionette?"

The girl left the president as she followed the others who proceeded to go, not too long ago. The door creaking was the last sound her in the rooftop, as silence enveloped the area.

The wind's gentle touch were not enough to wake the girl up from her deep thoughts, completely stunned by the white-haired's words.

"She thinks... I'm just being a puppet?"

Part 4

"Now we can't use the roof anymore." The troublemaker, along with the group, walked down the stairs.

"Should we find another place to meet?" The blonde-haired girl asked out of curiosity.

"Be cautious of that girl. She seems rather sharp." Morgana whispered to Ren.

Part 5

In a certain building that appears to be a gallery, workers seemed to be in a rush. Some were placing paintings in grand frames on the walls, while the other were directing them on where to place it. So far, the arrangement were aesthetically pleasing.

"Come on, shake a leg! We're on a schedule here! Not much time left!" A worker exclaimed as he climbed down the iron ladder.

"A little to the right with that! Yes, right here! Okay!" One directed those workers under him. It was a common view, as it was the same with the other parts of the building.

The workers proceeded to their job, crowds of people working together to finish the task as soon as possible. They wouldn't want to mess up, after all, it is the exhibit of a distinguished artist.

Among the crowds was the same person as the stalker the Phantoms met. There, he stood in front of a certain painting, his gaze locked at it. You couldn't tell what he was feeling just by looking at his expression.

The painting didn't have a definite shape and was composed of melange of different colors. He then shifted his gaze to the painting beside it, which was a painting of a sunset. Such a beautiful sight it was.

However, what the expression in the boy's face wasn't near wonderment nor happiness, but was...a dark one. He looked down as his bangs shadowed his face, gritting his teeth subtly.

"When... will this end?"

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A/N: ey, it's been a while! ^^ this chapter came out rather unexpectedly, huh? or maybe no one was expecting me to update. Here's a short chapter for y'all to read!

Don't forget to leave your thoughts~ i missed reading them. ^^

xoxo,
Eth.