"Before Souta says anything, I want to know one thing," Arisa said, her eyes locked onto her older sister.

  Yuki's gaze dropped slightly.

  "What the hell were you thinking?! Are you insane?! Going out in the middle of the night with a guy who's actively stalking you!" she shouted. For once, I could hear genuine anger in her voice.

  Yuki didn't respond as her gaze shifted from Arisa to me.

  "Please don't say anything bad?!" I thought to myself as I glanced at Yuki.

  For the first time in a while, she spoke. "I-I-it's because, ummm..." She began, her face turning redder as she struggled to find the words.

  "Spit it out!" Arisa shouted, stepping forward. "You didn't tell me, or any of us! After we had planned a way to catch this guy without putting you in that much danger. So what in the world made you think you should do it without us? You could have been seriously hurt or..." She paused, doing her best to calm down.

  After a brief silence, Yuki finally spoke. "I-I just didn't want to... burden him..." she said softly, now refusing to make eye contact with any of us.

  "Who?" Arisa asked, and I think everyone wondered the same thing.

  "S-s-Souta," she said my name, and of course, I blinked in complete confusion.

  "Me?" I blinked.

  Arisa's brow twitched. "For him? What do you mean?" she asked.

  Yuki paused for a moment, striving to articulate her thoughts. "I-it's because I felt guilty for slapping him, and I didn’t understand he was trying to protect us from."

  Arisa narrowed her eyes. "So I get that; fair enough. I kind of disagreed with slapping Souta. But what made you meet up with him alone, and how did you even end up meeting up?" she queried.

  "Well, um... I got the text message while I was waiting in our room for you guys. He just texted me saying he was happy about me being the princess or something like that, then he asked me to come with him and leave Souta."

  "Heheh, I'm just that guy."

  "Shut it, you," Arisa replied.

  "Sorry."

  "So I thought, since he was desperate enough to text me, I’d see if I could meet up and see his face."

  "But of course, that went horribly," Arisa finished the sentence for her.

  "Yeah..." Yuki muttered.

  And you know what? I felt somewhat happy that I was getting an apology for my slap... Would I have wanted her to go out of her way to meet up with this guy and try to finish the situation by herself? Of course not. This made my life ten times worse.

  "You can tell their sisters, Arisa sounds like Yuki", Shirori muttered slowly as she shifted forward on the edge of the bed.

  "Shut it, Shiroriri! I have to shout at my oh-so-smart sisters when they're not thinking about their own well-being!" Arisa shot back.

  "Shiroriri?" Shirori replied, looking down, clearly offended.

  Arisa let out another sigh as she finally calmed down. "Well, what's done is done. Just promise me you will never, I mean, even if Souta asks you, do that stunt ever again."

  Again, why me?

  Yuki finally let out a small smile. "Of course, and who actually cares about that guy's opinion?" she said, smiling at me.

  "Yep, that's me, Souta the punching bag!" I shouted in a sarcastic tone.

  "Hahahahaha!" Everyone laughed.

  Except me.

  After the girls finally stopped their laughter, we got to the main point.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  "Right… is it just me or did that guy's voice sound familiar?" I asked, breaking the silence.

  "I mean, I feel like I heard that voice before, but it sounds like he's changing his voice to make it deeper than it actually is," Yuki replied, moving to the edge of the bed.

  Now that I think about it, I think Yuki has a point... But honestly, my mind wasn't fixed on his voice, but I guess I couldn't help that, considering the situation.

  "Hmm, could be, I'm not sure to be honest though," I replied, scratching my chin.

  "Indeed, meaning that he knew if he used his real voice, then we would figure him out," Shirori said, now standing up.

  "Which means!" she continued, her voice slightly raised, slapping her hand against the door. "Our suspect is among our class!" she declared before the door opened.

  "OH! I'm SORRY!" Shirori shouted as she backed away from the door, revealing our teacher on the other side.

  "It's fine," the teacher replied with a smile, but her expression quickly turned serious. "That’s what we’ve been thinking too. From what we've gathered, that has to be the case. If the person is covering his face and his voice, he has to be someone we know... But of course, the pressing question is-"

  "Who?" we all said in unison.

  "Well, since there wasn't much we could gather, it was too dark. All I could really tell was that he was on the slimmer side, but beyond that... nothing," Yuki said, scratching her head.

  "Hmm, yeah, that does seem to be the case, which is unfortunate, considering nothing can be done as of now," the teacher replied, leaning against the wall.

  Damn, if only I had gotten one more second, I could have at least gotten a bit more out of it.

  We sat there for a few more minutes before it was eventually time to go back to our own rooms, and we decided it was safest to stay together in this room for the night.

  ***

  And for a moment, we just sat there in silence. I was sure Nao and Reina had things they wanted to discuss with Yuki, but since they weren't as blunt as Arisa, they kept it to themselves. Yuki, on the other hand, despite being a bit on the quiet side, seemed fine. It was strange; getting attacked by a crazy stalker surely must leave some scars. But from what I saw, as she began talking to her sisters, Yuki seemed like nothing had happened; her strong will is really something not to mess with.

  "Hey, you seem awfully happy for someone who just almost got abducted," Arisa said as she began laying out the futons.

  Yuki, who had been smiling, turned to Arisa, and her smile disappeared like a solar eclipse.

  "What? Why would I be happy?" she replied in a flat tone.

  Nao, who was already snuggling in her futon, sat up. "Maybe because Souta saved her, hehe," she giggled, attempting to lighten the mood.

  But Nao didn't realise she made it worse.

  "OF COURSE I DIDN'T! I COULDN'T CARE LESS IF HE SAVED ME! IN FACT, NO, HE MADE IT WORSE!" Yuki screamed, rolling over to the other side of the bed.

  I took a deep breath, ready to let everything out.

  "Hold on! I made it worse? It was your fault we were in that situation in the first place!" I shouted, standing on my futon and pointing my finger at Yuki.

  "Tsch," Yuki replied, still facing away from us.

  "That-" my words started, but I held them back.

  There was nothing more I wanted to do in that moment than hit Yuki with a Shoryuken, but alas, I was a man of restraint, so without further notice, I got back into my futon and closed my eyes.

  The lights had turned off, but someone’s mouth was still very much active.

  "Stupid, stupid, stupid Souta," was all I heard coming from the towering bed next to me.

  Hah! This woman actually wants me to lose it?

  "Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid Souta."

  "YUKI-" I began, but then I froze.

  Before I could even get up, I felt something. Something warm, shaped like a human. But not just any human. A female human. That’s a lot of humans.

  The softness of her body pressed against my back, and a gentle whisper entered my ear.

  "Souta, forget about her. I know it's me that you want," her tone was seductive and dangerous. Who else could it be but Arisa?

  "A-a-a-Arisa!" I shouted, but my voice quickly got muffled by a hand covering my mouth.

  "Shhh, you’re gonna get Yuki jealous," Arisa whispered, before forcibly turning me around to face her.

  My eyes widened as I saw the dangerously beautiful redhead staring into my soul, her fingers gently touching my lips.

  "Listen, you're out there giving everyone special treatment, even going out to save my sister, which I thank you for, by the way. But you've forgotten about little old me." She said this in a sweet whisper.

  "The Devil is speaking, the Devil is speaking," I repeated to myself as Arisa pulled in a bit closer.

  "So I'll tell you what: as a reward and also as an apology, all you have to do for me is close your eyes. Can you do that?" she said, a smile growing on her face.

  And you best believe I wanted to nod my head up and down like a dog. But of course, trying to keep my sanity, I gently shook my head no.

  "NGH!" I cried out as Arisa grabbed my head and forced me to nod. God, this woman has monster strength.

  "Did you just nod your head no there?" she asked, her tone still sweet but anger creeping into it.

  "Hmmm!" I nodded my head up and down this time, fearing for my life.

  "Good," she smiled. "Now close your eyes tight for me, Souty."

  Souty… That's another level there. Hearing that word, I felt like I was being petted like a dog. With little choice in the matter, I closed my eyes like the good Souty I was and waited.

  Well, until I felt a blinding pain in the side of my head.

  "OW!" I cried out as my ear was being yanked.

  "Arisa, it's time to sleep, not for you to be loose!" Yuki shouted, sending me back against the bed wall.

  "Hm! It seems you can't stand it when I have Souta all to myself… Typical you," Arisa huffed as she moved over to her futon.

  "Yeah, say whatever," Yuki replied before her eyes shot daggers into my soul.

  "And you stop falling for every little thing that she does! What? Are you a grade schooler getting excited over every little thing a woman does?"

  Yes.

  "No, it’s not even my fault!" I tried to protest, but of course, my words went in one ear and out the other.

  "Shut it, jerk," Yuki replied before going back to her bed and falling asleep.

  And just like that, it was me again, sitting in silence, wondering what the hell I had done in my past life to deserve this…

  DeadEndYuto