Mask (1)

In the middle of June, I, Hina Akiyama, found myself standing in front of the sink in an empty school bathroom. The day was unbearably hot, so I decided to splash cold water on my face. As the drops dripped down, my long pink hair slung over my shoulder became slightly damp.

When I looked in the mirror, the reflection looked back at me, yet my mind was elsewhere.

Ah, my knight, my knight! Finally the love confession I've been waiting for. I thought I would have to wait forever.

My lips curved into a smile as I contemplated my next move. How should I approach this? How do I take the mask off? Hmm, well, maybe I should just ask them. Especially since Akane, in my opinion, was pretty good at romance as well.

With determination, I shared this in a group chat with four of my closest friends.

And I didn't have to wait long for an answer: "Really? Knight?" Akane asked almost immediately.

This girl checked her phone almost constantly. You could call her an addict.

When we first met, I didn't think highly of her. She seemed fake to me. Sometimes, observing her behavior, I thought she was exaggerating her persona.

I remember the first time I met her, when she approached Hana and me. She looked confident, even bossy, maybe a little arrogant. She had the aura of someone who would soon be at the top of the class and the school in terms of popularity. Naturally, we wanted to have a good relationship with her, so we decided to play along.

But as I got to know her better, I felt ashamed of myself for doubting her behind her back.

In almost two months, I've grown close to her and realized that she's a very good friend.

"Why?" I asked.

However, since we hadn't known each other that long, she didn't know much about me. She didn't often see the part of me that was obsessed with romance.

"I didn't expect that from you," she said.

"Isn't it romantic?" I asked again, sending a heart emoji.

"More like cheesy a little lol," she texted, sending a laugh emoji.

"Lol, you're one to talk."

She's always been like that.

Sometimes I thought she was the only one who could understand me, but she always dismissed such things as "cringe".

I wondered why.

I was about to ask her, but was interrupted by the text that appeared on the screen, "Hana typing..."

"Knight?" her message said.

Finally!

The movements of my fingers on the screen accelerated, "Yes! And I'm going to find them!"

The first to respond was Akane. She sent a surprised sticker and then texted, "Wow, you're really serious about this."

"What's so surprising about that? Weren't you the one who was looking for that love letter?" I asked.

"This is different! I just wanted to find out who wrote the letter so I could reject them and destroy all their illusions," she replied immediately.

This girl...

"Sure, sure," I replied sarcastically.

Probably because I was chatting with Akane, Hana had time to read the message history, "Um... Do you think that's a good idea?" she finally asked.

"Of course," I replied immediately.

"I don't know... He didn't want you to see his face, did he? Maybe he's really shy," she insisted.

"Oh Hana, you're always like that. If they were so shy, why did they confess at all? You know, if they wanted to say those words to me, they should have said them to my face."

Hana fell silent.

If I really want the knight to say it to my face, I have to leave them no choice.

So, what should I do?

I had an idea.

I needed to destroy every shadow the knight could hide in.

Come to think of it, the knight was helping the drama club, they should have known who it was, right? I could easily go and ask them who was hiding under the mask.

But going there alone would be boring. I'd get the answer too quickly. And it wouldn't help me to get them to confess.

As if she could read my mind, Akane wrote first: "So what are you going to do? Are you going to ask the drama club?" she asked.

Thanks Akane! I love you, hehehe.

She probably had no idea that she was helping me with those words.

"Sh*t... Going to the drama club by myself and asking is kind of embarrassing."

Yeah. If I cut off all the knight's escape routes, they might have to confess. I should leave them no choice but to confess.

"I can go," Akane suggested.

No no, Akane, hold your horses. I can't let you go there. Oh, well, I guess I'll have to come up with an excuse.

"But the guy you turned down is a member of that club, isn't he?" I asked.

"So what?"

Huh? Doesn't that embarrass her? Well, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. It's Akane, after all.

However, I couldn't let her go there. "No, it's gonna be awkward," I said.

After a short pause, Hana sent a text message, "Wait, Hina, what if it was the same person who confessed to Akane?"

What an idiotic thing to say.

However, Akane agreed with her, saying, "That's really true."

"No, no, the knight had a different voice."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes, I'm sure. But again, I'm not sure I want to go there myself…"

Come on, why don't you offer to go with me or in my place?

"Oh, you know what? I have someone who can help! If you don't mind sharing this story with them."

Akane's suggestion caught me off guard, but then I had an idea. Wait a second... I think this game could be even more exciting if I… Yeah… Maybe I should play some more.

"Who can help?" I asked.

"Yes, yes!" Even from her text you could tell how excited she was.

Maybe she was talking about the club where she sometimes hung out?

"Do you trust them?"

"Izumi is one of them, and I trust him," she replied.

"Oh, that guy?"

Izumi, huh? I'd seen him with Akane and Akari, but our interaction was limited to greetings. I didn't mind getting to know him better since I had heard Akane talking about him.

"It'll be fun!" Akane added.

"Okay, but Hana is coming with us," I said.

"Of course! Hana will come with us!"

I agreed to Akane's suggestion and decided to play this little cat and mouse game to the end. It should be fun.

I smiled at myself in the mirror and put my smartphone to my lips. My smile was a bit devilish. I have to hide this smile for a while so no one will notice.

Later, after class, Akane led Hana and me to a door with a "Mystery Club" sign.

"Mystery Club..." I muttered thoughtfully.

"Don't worry, I know how it sounds. But they can help." Saying that, Akane boldly opened the door.

It was a small room, and there were already three students inside. Izumi was there, along with a boy and a girl I didn't know.

Izumi's eyes fell first on Akane, then on us, and then back on Akane. "Oh," he said, "You again?"

Akane looked at him unhappily. "Yeah, are you sick of me already?"

"No, you can come whenever you want. It's boring here anyway."

To his response, Akane just smiled contentedly.

Now it was the other girl's turn to be annoyed. "Hey, I didn't force you to join the club if you find it boring," she retorted.

Looking at her closer, I noticed her rather beautiful long black hair, partially hidden by a ridiculous hat, as well as her deep, mysterious eyes and pale skin. I'd say she was pretty cute.

Realizing I hadn't properly introduced myself, I spoke up, "Hi, my name is Hina Akiyama."

The girl with the black hair turned to me, "Hi, I'm Rei Asano."

"I'm Hana Hayashida."

"And I'm Tatsuya Iwasaki," the guy sitting at the table introduced himself as well.

Izumi and Akane didn't need any introductions; they already knew everyone in the room.

Without hesitation, Akane got straight to the point. "We need you to find the knight," she said with a mysterious look on her face as she sat down at the table and crossed her legs.

I hadn't expected her to be so intrigued by something like that.

Hana and I followed suit and took our seats at the table.

Fortunately, there were several spare chairs against the wall, which I quickly pulled up to the table.

On one side of the table were me, Hana and Akane, across from us were Izumi, Iwasaki and Asano.

"The knight?" Asano asked in surprise. "Are you sure you came to the right place? This is no fairy tale."

I sighed inwardly. Unenlightened.

"I don't mean a knight in the literal sense. Someone in a helmet and a knight's costume confessed to me. And then ran away..." I explained.

"Ran away?" Iwasaki asked.

Before I could answer, Asano just sighed slightly. "Another love story... Man, why doesn't anyone come with normal missions?" She took off her hat and placed it on the table, a hint of disappointment on her face. "Okay... So where did you meet this knight?"

She shook her head, adjusting her long hair, and prepared to listen.