7 Entry #7: Simon Tejeros

“September 28, 20XX. S.T. walked me home."

I put down Angel's diary after reading that particular entry I wanted Nick to learn. He touched his chin as if in deep thought.

"The last entries in the diary are mostly about this S.T.," Nick stated the obvious.

"I suppose whoever S.T. is, he plays an important role in this mystery," I added. "He only falls under two possibilities. Either he's the killer or the one who knows everything."

I looked around the library, cautious that someone else might be listening.

"I don’t get it." Nick went through the last entry again. "Hello, killer! If you're reading this, that only means you found my diary. But I hope not. I hope someone else is reading this."

He stared at me with confused eyes. "Why did Angel write this? And when? Did she know someone was going to kill her?"

I was wondering about the same thing. As this case got more fascinating, we discovered more questions than answers.

I sighed. "For now, we don’t know anything."

We both fell silent.

"Are you sure we're really doing this?" Nick asked me with a meaningful gaze.

It got darker as we dug deeper into the mystery. However, we couldn't stop. I mean, I couldn't stop.

The uncertainty was boggling. I was afraid we might unearth something we shouldn't.

"Will you feel at ease if we stop right here?" I asked him instead.

Rather than answering, he stared down at the diary.

"First, let's find the similarities between Ruby, Almira, and Angel, then let’s judge if they are the same case. And if you're saying the culprit is in this school, then there are too many people. Let's crush out some."

I smiled triumphantly. I could hear trumpets and drums in my head.

Filter the list of suspects... he said. I was lucky I happened to have an intelligent partner.

At that moment, I knew there was no turning back.

--

On my way to our classroom, I crashed into someone. His books got scattered on the floor.

"I'm sorry!" I immediately apologized.

"S-Sorry…"

The guy was wearing rimmed eyeglasses, and he looked socially awkward. He sheepishly picked up the things he dropped. I helped him pick his books up and gave them to him.

His notebook lay open on the floor, so I picked it up. There was an illustration of an angel—a pretty angel with large wings and a halo over her head.

He drew excellently. I jerked when he snatched his notebook from my hands as if he didn't want me to see his drawing.

While he busily organized his things again, I came to stare at his nametag.

Simon Tejeros…

Without saying goodbye, he left in a haste.

Why did he appear to be so suspicious? And wait, Simon Tejeros? Could it be…

He had a sketch of an angel… why did that interest me? An angel! Angel?

'Oh my god! I gotta tell Nick about this!'

I scurried away toward our room to find Nickle. I saw him hanging out with some boys, so I called him.

"Nick! Hey! Come here! There's something I have to tell you!"

I rummaged through my bag. When I found it, I nervously paced towards the far-end corner of the room, and as soon as Nick came, I leaned in closer to whisper.

"Can you still remember that letter?" I asked.

"What letter?"

"That letter we found in the storage room!" I showed him the letter. "This!"

Nick looked clueless.

“S.T.," I mumbled.

"What? What about it?"

"On my way here, I bumped into someone, then, then in his notebook was a drawing of an angel! Do you get what I'm saying? Angel! And he looked suspicious when I saw his drawing and… and…"

Nick held both of my shoulders. "Hey, calm down and talk slowly, so I can understand. No one's chasing you."

I realized I wasn't breathing for the last couple of seconds. I took a deep breath and calmed my nerves before speaking again.

I could be talking nonsense. Even I found my quick judgment unreliable.

"So, I bumped into him, and I saw his nametag. His name is Simon Tejeros."

"Simon Tejeros?" Nick repeated.

We stared at each other and blurted out simultaneously, “S.T.!”

Nick hustled to his seat and opened his bag. He came back to me, bringing a piece of pastel-colored paper.

"I actually found this in the storage room and completely forgot about it. Look…"

It was a note that said,

"Hi, Angel. Please meet me after the exam. Simon T."

My upper body moved on its own. My spine erected, and my chest throbbed like crazy.

"Ah!" I shrieked when Nick flicked my forehead.

"It's inappropriate to look that excited. This isn't something to be excited about."

Right...

I voided my face from any excitement. Only my inner being should know how thrilled I was to finally have a name to investigate.

--

I ordered Nick to gather some information about Simon Tejeros. The grump was so pissed off, as his ego couldn't believe I was ordering him around.

When the next day came, Nick and I agreed to meet under the mango tree to discuss what he had found out about Simon Tejeros without anyone else hearing it.

"Are you guys dating now?"

"I knew it! I saw this coming!"

"Way to go lovebirds!"

I rolled my eyes. There they were again, headed by Carmela. Because Nick and I were always together, rumors had been going around that the two of us were dating.

'I mean, y'all must be kidding me!'

"What the hell," Nick hissed in disgust. "If I would have a dating rumor, why does it have to be with you?"

I glared at him. "Huh! I'm the one who has the lower hand in this situation!"

"What? How come? I'm handsome, smart, and tall. In what sense would you have the lower hand? It should be the other way around!"

"What?!" I exclaimed.

'So is he saying I'm ugly—'

"What I'm saying is, I think your gut feeling about Simon is not entirely right but not entirely wrong too. I doubt he is a killer, but now we have something pointing at him."

My frustration was violently banging at my door. It wanted to come out so it could smack Nick.

"I'm telling you, Nick. Simon Tejeros is S.T.!"

"He COULD be, okay? We don't have proof yet," he argued. "Remember that the police didn't even consider the possibility of murder. There's no way that it's this easy for us to find the perpetrator."

Fine...

He continued, "From what I learned, Simon was known in their class as Angel's admirer. He had a crush on her for a long time. During the day of the exam, they said he brought flowers for her. He was going to confess."

"So, it's true! He's really S.T.!"

His eyes drooped lifelessly at me. "How is admiring Angel equal to being a murderer? Might as well believe I'm S.T.!"

Well, good point.

'I got too excited, so I'm sorry I guess? Duh!'

I was ready to deliver my counterargument, but someone caught my eye.

"Wait here, Nick!"

I sprinted away and secretly followed Simon Tejeros from behind.

He carried a lot of books. He appeared like a nerd to me. Possibly, a dangerous one.

I tailed him towards the general bulletin board near the school gate. He was looking intently at something on the board.

I stealthily walked behind him. I took two steps backward, appalled when he suddenly turned around to face me.

“W-What are you d-doing? Why are y-you following me?”

I gazed at him carefully. Honestly, he didn't look like the kind of person who could hurt even a mosquito.

But who knew what kind of demon was hiding behind a perfectly innocent face?

I averted my gaze to the bulletin board. When I realized what he was looking at, my chest drummed heavily.

"Do you know Angel?" I asked him.

Instead of answering, he avoided my eyes and tried fixing how he wore his eyeglasses although they didn't need fixing. He showed extreme nervousness.

Our eyes met once again.

Simon Tejeros...

'Are you Angel’s killer?'