↳ CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:

CLUB ACTIVITY SHENANIGANS↲

FRIDAY, MAY 06| LUNCHTIME

A SMALL BUT NOTICEABLE FROWN DECORATED KAORI'S FACE AS SHE STARED AT THE VENDING MACHINE WINDOW.

It had run out of Strawberry milk, the only thing she was looking forward to every lunch period and it was simply taken from her. How could the universe be so cruel to her? To deny her of the extremely intoxicating and artificial strawberry flavouring? What did she do to deserve this?

The brunette let out a disappointed sigh and let her shoulder slump on her sides. She could probably go look for another vending machine, but she promised to meet up with the others and frankly she was too lazy.

"Watanabe-san?"

Kaori turned around with her small pastel pink coin purse in her hands, she was just about to leave but stopped at the sound of a familiar voice calling out her name. It was the current president of the newspaper club, Hitoka Yamada. Her black hair was tied up in a low hanging ponytail held together by a light blue scrunchie and her uniform was prim and proper with not one thing out of place.

Kaori straightened herself up upon the sight. "What can I do for you, Yamada-senpai?" She asked slightly surprised, as the third year stopped before her.

Hitoka chuckled lightly at Kaori's overly politeness. No matter how many times she told the girl to only call her Hitoka, she always continued to call her by her last name, apparently it was just a habit she couldn't drop.

"You look happy." The president noted with a small nod, making the brunette tilt her head to the side in confusion.

"I-I do?" She replied, "Because at the moment I feel extremely sad..."

Hitoka grimaced, and shook her head. "No, I mean in general," the third year explained, "Word has it you found yourself some new friends, besides the obvious fact of Kamoshida leaving the school, you must feel pretty content right about now."

Kaori's eyes wandered over to the nearby staircase, where Ryuji, Ann, Ren and presumably Morgana stayed. A small smile formed itself on her face, "I guess I am..." she replied, but then shook her head and looked back at Hitoka, "Is that all you wanted to talk about?"

The black haired girl suddenly snapped her fingers together, remembering the reason for coming to see her junior in the first place. "Right. I actually came to see you, because I wanted to apologise to you on behalf of the newspaper club."

Kaori scrunched her eyebrows together and stared at her senior, staying silent and waiting for her to continue.

"Now, that we know that you were right about Kamoshida we felt bad for expelling you from the club," Hitoka looked down on to the ground ashamed and curled her hands into fists, "We shouldn't have believed that you were lying and we shouldn't have sat idly by as you had problems with the school. You were one of us, we should have believed you."

Kaori's curious and confused expression softened.

She had already made peace with the fact that she was expelled from the club, it was always her own fault in her mind, but she never even began to consider about how the other members felt about it. They certainly weren't friends, but they did share enough time together to be considered something akin to that.

"Oh..." was all she said, making Hitoka look up again, "It's not a big deal really. There was nothing you could have done."

The tall third year shook her head, "No, it is a big deal," she spoke, guilt lacing her voice, "Which is why we have decided to let you join the club again, that is if you still want to of course. We totally understand if you don't though, we were awful."

Kaori stayed silent as Hitoka finished her monologue. She didn't know what to say, or what she wanted either.

At first she only joined the newspaper club after Riko begged her to join with her, but then she quickly began to enjoy the activity as well and had so much fun. But did she only have fun because of Riko? And how would she be able to be doing the phantom thief business and be in a school club at the same time. Although when her mother gets wind of it she'd surely make her join, she did always say that school clubs look good on the resume for university.

Kaori averted her eyes towards her small group of friends by the staircase and politely cleared her throat. "I need to go now, but I'll think about it."

She bowed before her senior and then quickly took her leave without another word before Hitoka could even reply.

At the staircase Ryuji sat on a step, whilst the remaining two stood around him. The blond boy had his eyes glued to his phone, constantly updating and scrolling through the Phantom Aficionado Website, looking for a new target.

Kaori arrived at the scene and came to stand next to Ren. The frizzy haired male noticed the lack of strawberry milk in her hands and quietly tapped her shoulder, making her look at him.

"Where is your milk?" He asked.

Kaori stayed silent for a moment, before answering, "...They ran out."

The brunette turned back to look at Ryuji, but Ren suddenly remembered something. He opened his bag, making Morgana gladly stick his head out, and reached inside and pulled out a small container of normal school milk.

He originally bought it for Morgana, him being a cat and all, but that ungrateful little thing didn't drink it.

"Here." He handed it to her.

Kaori blinked rapidly in surprise, but then took the small container with a polite smile. "Thanks." She ripped away the glued on straw and then punctured the small hole with it, before beginning to drink from it.

It was just normal milk without any flavour or sweetness, and Kaori didn't particularly like it, but it was given to her by someone she liked so it was impossible for her to turn it down.

The two turned their head and focused their attention back to the blond sitting on the stairs. "It ain't much, but we've been gettin' more postings on the Phantom Aficionado Website..." he said, before starting to read one of the posts out loud, "I want to make my friend apologise for not returning the stuff I lent him." He read out, before letting out a groan, "Ugh, deal with that yourself!"

"Hey, those girls..." Ann spoke up, gaining the attention from the remaining four. The blonde subtly pointed her head towards a classroom where two girls just exited from.

"You know that phantom thieves rumor about stealing Kamoshida's heart? I wonder if it's true."

"It's got to be made up. Do you seriously believe they exist?"

"But look what happens to Kamoshida."

"He probably just couldn't keep hiding it after that girl tried to kill herself."

"Yeah, you might be right. I guess there's no way they really exist."

"Most importantly, it seriously sucks that our school is gonna be known for stuff like this!"

"I wonder if it'll affect our college entrance..."

The two girls went on and continued down the hallway. Ryuji narrowed his eyes at them for a moment, but then relaxed and put his hands behind his head. "That's probably a normal reaction for now, but... they'll see soon enough!" He spoke excitedly, "If we can take care of one or two famous guys, people'll have to believe we exist."

"So about those big shots..." Ann began, "We don't have any leads yet, right? Plus there's that rumour about you three threatening Kamoshida too..." She added. The other three students looked down on to the floor dejected, as they were again reminded of their actions.

Morgana noticed from his place in Ren's bag and let out a quiet sigh. "Looks like you'll just have to live a normal, honest school life for a time being," he stated, making the four teens nod in agreement, "Still, make sure you stay prepared just in case anything comes up, all right?"

"I'll keep an eye out for info on any big shots that might be comin' around," Ryuji said.

Ann nodded her head next to him, "And I'll try to dig up some dirt online."

Other students around them already started heading back to their classrooms, signalling to the group of thieves that lunch was coming to an end.

Ryuji let out a loud sigh, "We went and formed the Phantom Thieves group, but we can't even find a target..."

"There, there..." Ann said to him, patting him on the shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.

"I guess sometimes things just don't go the way we want 'em to..."

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FRIDAY, MAY 06| AFTER SCHOOL

Never in her life was Kaori so anxious during class and was genuinely happy that she could go home.

The police showed up at the school and apparently talked to some teachers and students, at least according to Ryuji and Ann. The boys insisted that it was nothing to worry about, but Ann and Kaori shared some concerns about it regardless.

After class was over however Mishima came to talk to Ren and shared some things that didn't sit well with the petite brunette and the anxiety went right back up again. Her and the others were patiently waiting outside the empty classroom and eavesdropping on them, even though she mentioned to the two blondes that it was a major invasion of privacy.

Mishima eventually left, looking relatively happy and the trio entered the room again.

"We heard all that. Geez... It was a little awkward tryin' to walk over here," Ryuji said, rubbing the back of his neck, as they came in and walked over to where Ren and Morgana were.

"So that forum is Mishima-kun's..." Ann spoke up curiously.

"You think he figured out it was us?" Kaori next to her then asked, a clear hint of worry in her voice.

Ann simply waved her hand around in a carefree manner in reply, "Even so, I think it'll be fine. He seemed to be playing it cool."

"I guess we should have a little chat about this later."

"I will say though... a forum where people can post problems may prove unexpectedly useful," Morgana spoke up from his place on the desk.

Everyone vaguely nodded in the cat's direction, but didn't discuss it any further as Ryuji decided to speak up again. "Anyways, we gotta get lookin' for a new target."

Ann nodded, "And we need to stay sharp until we manage to find one," she added, "Once we do, we'll have to head into another palace, so we should prep our equipment and-"

"Wait, oh CRAP!"

Everyone looked at the blond boy in confusion as he suddenly interrupted Ann, carrying a very panicked look on his face.

"What's with you!?" Ann shouted at him in annoyance.

Ryuji's face paled even more, "D-D-Don't we have an exam comin' up!?" He asked with dread in his voice.

Ann and Kaori sighed, while Ren and Morgana stayed silent, not exactly knowing what was going on.

"...Judging by that reaction, I'd assume you're going to struggle this time too?" Ann said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I-It's not like you're any better!" Ryuji replied, "All you're good at is English!"

"I'd rather that than be bad at every subject!"

"Even your Japanese is questionable at best, Ryuji," Morgana added rudely, making the boy turn his attention to the cat.

"What's questionable is whether you're really even a human," he said in reply, then turning towards the two girls with a grin, "Good Comeback, huh?"

"Not really," Ren spoke up, but ended up getting ignored as the two males continued shouting at each other.

"Let's discuss this with our fists!"

"Bring it!"

"Will you two stop it!?" Ann shouted, while stepping between the two.

The cat and the blond stopped at that and everything calmed down, as the two now glared at each other instead of insulting each other.

Kaori shook her head with a sigh and went back to the topic at hand. "Don't worry I can help you study, Ryuji. You guys, too."

Ryuji's eyes lit up at that, him coming to stand besides her and throwing an arm over her shoulders. "Really!?Thanks a bunch, Ori-chan!" He said happily, "The number one student in the grade here to help us!"

The girl sighed at her friend's antics, her cheeks turning red in extrem embarrassment. "Why are you always bragging for me?" She asked, her eyes glued on the ground.

"Because you're too humble and self conscious."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?"

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Later on the four teens each left the classroom to pursuit their own interests.

Kaori wanted to leave school and go home, but the thing Yamada said to her earlier was still swirling in her mind and giving her no rest. So, with a heavy heart the petite brunette made a slight detour on her way home, passing the Newspaper club's room and coming to a stop once she heard the familiar voices inside of it arguing.

The door was opened just a smidge, but Kaori could already feel the wave of nostalgia hitting her in the face. She remembered the hours she spent in that room, researching and writing, talking, laughing...

"Are you going to enter or...?"

Kaori jumped at the sound of another voice and quickly turned around, only to see Ren standing behind her, Morgana presumably in his bag.

"Oh, it's just you," she softly said in relief. The girl straightened up again and then took another glance at the door before turning back to the frizzy haired male. "I'm thinking about it, but I don't think I can..."

Ren looked at the girl in confusion, "Why?"

Kaori let out a sigh, "It's just been so long since I've been in this room. It almost feels like another life, so much has happened since then..."

"Do you want me to go with you?"

Kaori blinked rapidly in surprise, "Huh?" She let out, before putting her hands up in front of her, waving them, "Oh, you don't have too, really! You're not interested in all of this journalism stuff, it would only bore you!" She spoke very quickly with a very embarrassed blush on her cheeks.

Ren pressed his lips tightly together, trying to suppress a laugh at the girl's flustered state, that he found just plain adorable. He put his hand up to his mouth and cleared his throat behind it. "Is there anything else I can do to help you?" He asked afterwards.

Kaori opened her mouth to say that she was fine and that he could go home, only to be interrupted.

"Oh, Watanabe-san you came!" A shrill voice shouted. Ren and Kaori turned their heads to see a small blonde first year running up to them with a huge grin.

The girl came to a stop before the pair and tightly gripped the straps of her backpack. "Who's your friend? Does he want to join too?" The easily excited girl rocked back and forth on her feet and eagerly awaited an answer.

Kaori and Ren shared a look, before turning back and both answering.

"No." "Yes."

Upon hearing the male's answer Kaori immediately turned her head to face her friend with a look of shock and confusion. In responds he simply smirked and shrugged, faking ignorance to the situation.

The first year didn't notice the exchange and clapped her hands together at the news, before grabbing on to Kaori's arm and starting to pull her into the club room. "Come on then, the meeting is about to start! President is going to be so happy to see you! Maybe with you here Takanashi-san comes back too!"

The brunette stopped in her tracks, "R-Riko left the club?"

"Not officially," the blonde replied not noticing the change in tone, "She just stopped showing up to meetings all of the sudden after you left. I-I mean you didn't leave, you were expelled, that's a huge difference," she let out a breath and rubbed the back of her neck in embarrassment, "Ah, sorry, I started rambling again, I'm just so excited that you're back!"

With that the first year quietly entered the club room, while Ren and Kaori remained outside watching her sit down in her seat.

"I thought you said you didn't have any friends?" Ren said, to which Kaori only sighed and readjusted the bag in her shoulder.

"She's not my friend, she's my junior. Her name is Kana Kozume and she's a first year, someone had to take her under their wing," Kaori explained.

Ren grinned at that, "I can see why you've felt the need to do that, she's like if you and Ryuji had a child."

Kaori didn't reply to that and only made her way into the room, while Ren followed suit with an amused grin on his face.

Upon seeing the Watanabe girl enter room, the club president jumped up from her seat and went to greet her with a warm smile, oblivious to her friend behind her.

"Watanabe-san you made it!" Hitoka said with a smile, that quickly turned into a frown as she saw the boy behind her. "...And you brought the transfer student, how lovely."

The frizzy haired boy easily picked up on the sarcasm in the girls voice, but shortly bowed before her nonetheless out of politeness and respect. "I'm Ren Amamiya, it's nice to meet you."

A forced tight lipped smile was on the president's face as she watched the boy introduce himself. "Likewise," she simply replied, before turning her attention back to Kaori next to him, "Please sit down, we're about to discuss next week's topics."

The pair nodded and then quickly and quietly sat down in two free seats that were next to each other. Slowly more students trickled into the room and the meeting began without any delay.

It was just as Kaori remembered.

Hitoka cleared her throat and called for everyone's attention, it was obvious that this wasn't her first time doing this. "Now obviously Mister Kamoshida's case and these phantom thieves are on everyone's mind-" she began to speak, but was quickly interrupted by Kana putting her arm up and yelling into the group.

"Miss president if I may-" She said.

Hitoka let out an exhausted sigh, already used to the girl's behaviour. "I told you to call me Hitoka."

The first year hastily nodded, "Right, Hitoka-senpai," she corrected herself, "I think that we should write an article about this! And I think that Watanabe-san should be the one to do it! It's only fair! The students of this school have the right to know all about what happened to everyone involved!"

Kaori's face paled at the thought of Kana's suggestion. She hasn't written anything serious in ages, besides she has a strong dislike about writing about things that indirectly and directly involved her. It was hard to be objective about and felt like she was writing a diary entry, even though she doesn't have a diary.

The room fell silent and the president let out another tired sigh. "If you would have let me finished, Kana. Then you'd know that I think that we should leave the issue be. The school doesn't need anymore of this, talk is big enough as is without us sticking our nose into it."

A quiet murmur fell over the room as multiple members started to agree and disagree with the idea, and get into arguments. Both Ren and Kaori glanced at Kana, who sat slumped in her chair with a sour expression, before sharing another look.

"But isn't she right?" Ren then let out, loud enough for the entire club to hear. Everyone went quiet and watched as the transfer student continued to talk, "People should know about what happened, about everything that happened, not just some pointless rumours. Isn't that the job of a journalist? To inform people?"

"And what do you know about journalism, newbie, huh?" A third year member replied with a glare, their arms crossed over their chest.

Ren fell silent.

Another member next to them nodded in agreement, "Yeah, that's big talk coming from the criminal transfer student that didn't even have to deal with all of this up until a few weeks ago."

"Which reminds me, isn't it weird that right after we get a new student Mr. Kamoshida confessed his crimes and resigned?" A second year spoke up this time, eyeing the duo suspiciously.

"Don't forget about the rumour of you two and Sakamoto threatening him," the same third year from before added, "I bet it was the three of you who made him confess-"

"Shut up. You don't know anything!"

The entire room fell silent and turned their eyes to the unexpected source of that outburst. Kaori stood by her place, hands on the table before her, an irritated look on her face.

The third year looked surprised, like everyone else, but then scoffed at the second year. "Oh, yeah? And do you know more? Riko did say she saw you being up to something, and it's clearly true since you're friends with him now." They pointed to Ren next to her, and both their faces fell.

Hitoka as the president slammed her hand down on to her desk, gaining everyone's attention again. "Everybody quiet down! This is not-"

But she couldn't even finish her sentence as she was interrupted by the door slamming shut and the two previously occupied seats now being empty.

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Ren jogged after Kaori, after she had stormed out of the club meeting without another word. The two exited the school and as they ran down the last few steps to the school, he finally managed to catch up with her.

"Hey, slow down. It's okay-" he started to say, reaching out to put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Kaori however turned around furiously, pushing his hand away with tears in the corners of her eyes. "It's not okay," she said, "I'm okay with whatever they say about me, about what I did. But they insulted you and accused you of doing horrible things. I mean, yeah we did change his heart, but wasn't it for the better? Why are we the bad guys now? They should be glade that we took care of him-"

Before she could continue the boy stepped closer to her and placed his hands on both her shoulders, looking deeply into her golden eyes.

"Kaori. Breath." He said calmly.

The petite brunette nodded slowly and closed her eyes as she took a deep and much needed breath. After a few seconds she opened her eyes again and wiped away some stray tears with the sleeve of her black cardigan.

"Better?" Ren asked as he saw her somewhat bettered state.

Kaori nodded, "Yeah. Thanks, I needed that. It still doesn't make me feel better though..."

"If it's about what they said, it's alright I got used to these things," he stated, "You don't have to worry."

She shook her head and hugged herself in a manner to comfort herself, "It's not just about that," she began, "I thought that everybody was happy about Kamoshida leaving, but they made it sound like we did something bad."

"They don't know it was us," he said to her with a confident tone, "They just tried to insult us and make fun of us."

"Still..." the small girl turned away from him and started to watch the busy street not far from them.

She was lost in thought, but Ren could tell what she was thinking at the moment, it wasn't exactly hard to figure out when you spend some time with the always worrying girl.

He stepped closer to her once more and came to stand besides her, "You're not having doubts, are you?" He asked carefully.

Kaori let out a barely audible sigh, knowing exactly what he was talking about, "Maybe..." she said, before shaking her head rapidly, changing her mind, "I don't know. It doesn't matter."

Ren shook his head. He liked Kaori, but the most infuriating trait about her must have been her always putting her own emotions aside for others. It was sweet, but probably also incredibly destructive and dangerous in the long run.

"Of course it matters," he said, making the girl look at him again, "You're a member of our team and our friend."

After that a momentary silence filled the air, as a soft breeze flew through it.

Kaori looked at Ren next to her, she thought about replying, but then shook her head again.

"I just want to go home after today," she said absentmindedly, "Thank you for coming with me, though."

Ren simply nodded his head in her direction, "You're welcome."

Kaori nodded back at him and started to slowly walk away from the school and make her way home. "Right, see you tomorrow then."

"Yeah. See you tomorrow."

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↳ A/N:

Hello! Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a lovely holiday season. I for one finally managed to finish this good forsake chapter and hope to get the next ones done relatively quickly until we finally meet our lovely art boi Yusuke.

My goal is to get the next one up until my birthday (January 28), I doubt I'll make it but we'll see.

Other than that I hate that title, but I couldn't think of anything else... So, make suggestions if you have any and I'll change it accordingly if I like it.

Also have this little meme thing.
Bye~