Mina brought Callisto and her friends right in front of the building for 7th and 8th grade students, a place where Hinata and Elesis would most likely not see them. Once they halted, the gold-haired girl turned to the silver-haired one.
"We should be all right here," said Mina as she and Callisto were greeted by a passing group of young students who immediately recognised them. "Those young students are so cute. It really makes you want to become someone they can rely on and take inspiration from."
"You're right."
Callisto found herself agreeing with Mina's words, but her voice seemed to lack any conviction. Mina turned to her with a soft smile, asking,
"So, what's going on between you three, if you don't mind me asking, of course."
Callisto looked down, avoiding eye contact. A look of melancholy etched in her face as she gave her senior an answer.
"Sorry. You can ask Hinata about it if you're curious, but I don't really want to talk about it."
"I see."
Mina's three friends looked at each other, silently wondering what went down between the silver-haired girl before them, the redhead, and Hinata.
"Well, I get it. I won't force you to speak. But if you have some concerns, you're more than welcome to tell me about it. I want to be your friend, Callisto. Can I?"
Callisto lifted her head, finally facing the 11th-grade student, a glint of hesitation in her sky-blue eyes. Mina offered to be Callisto's friend, but she couldn't get the words out of her mouth.
Luckily for the young lady, Novelyn, her teacher, happened to pass by while carrying a bag containing all of the stuff she used for work and saw Callisto.
"Calli," Novelyn called. "Are you busy?"
Callisto, Mina and the others greeted the teacher good morning.
"Not really. What's up, Ms. Nalicia?"
"Could you please take my bag to my desk in the classroom? I need to head to the faculty room to talk to the teachers for a bit."
"Ah, of course."
Callisto received the bag from her classroom teacher.
"Thank you, Calli! You're a big help! I'll see you there in a bit."
"Yes."
Novelyn waved her hand gently at Callisto's back until her student disappeared into the distance. Then, she turned towards Mina. As their eyes met one another, tension seemed to creep into the air around them, silent yet unmistakeable.
"You guys should head to your class as well," said Novelyn, wearing a professional smile on her face. "Classes will start soon."
Mina smirked. She looked at the teacher as if she was looking down at an ant on the ground before crushing it with the sole of her shoe. But instead of crushing Novelyn, Mina simply walked past her.
"You're right. Let's go, girls."
The golden-haired girl's friends followed her without hesitation, leaving Novelyn's feet stuck on the ground alone as her gaze followed their silhouette until they disappeared from her view. Only then did she let out a sigh that sounded as if she was relieved that those four students were finally gone.
A troubled look washed over the teacher's face for a second, thinking deeply to herself, before recomposing herself once again. Novelyn started walking, not towards the faculty room like she told Callisto and the others earlier, but towards her class.
* * *
Time went by in a blur of lessons and discussions. Break time was almost over. And yet, Elesis sat on her chair all by her lonesome. Her friends tried to invite her to have lunch with them the same way they tried to invite Callisto.
Both of them refused, but one of them wasn't in the classroom. She looked at the empty chair her friend sat during class longingly, then returned her gaze back at her own desk.
Elesis had tried to talk to Callisto since this morning. From when she came to class carrying the teacher's belongings, till the bell signalling the start of the break sounded. Unfortunately, Callisto never gave her an opportunity to do so. Elesis tried to follow her friend outside, but it almost as if Callisto disappeared with the wind.
How could she have disappeared so fast like that?
"Calli... does she really..."
The thought that crossed the redhead's mind was so dark and it made her feel so much pain in her heart that she couldn't even complete her sentence. She shook her head, trying to get those dark thoughts away.
Then, she received a message from Hinata on her smartphone.
"I couldn't find her," he said.
"Same."
"It can't be helped. We'll just have to intercept her in PE."
Elesis let her smartpone plopped softly against the desk's surface. Her face followed suit with a deep sigh escaping her lips.
* * *
Meanwhile, atop the building for the 11th grade students, there was Callisto, sitting on one of the benches.
She was not alone.
There were 11th-grade students around her, trying to mind their own business as a group or in solitary even as they could not seem to help themselves from glancing at the silver-haired girl. Next to the young lady was Mina Minana, eating her own lunch in a graceful manner while her three friends were on the other bench not too far from them.
From time to time, as Callisto was munching on her food, she would glance at the door leading back inside the building. Students had been coming in and going out of the same door, yet she couldn't help but wonder if Hinata would be the next person to twist the doorknob and find her.
"Don't worry," Mina said reassuringly, cutting through Callisto's train of thought as she turned to her. "Hinata won't come here to look for you."
"I see."
Callisto looked at her food, but her hand holding the spoon had stopped moving. She knew that Elesis and Hinata would try to talk to her again, so she left the classroom and looked for somewhere she could hide as soon as the bell rang and found Mina and her friends on the way, who invited her to have lunch with them in the grade 11's building rooftop.
Callisto was grateful for Mina Minana, even as she still couldn't answer her senior's request to be friends. And yet, even with her senior's assurance, Callisto couldn't help but look at the door.
"Why..." she asked herself in her thought. "Why am I hoping to see him through that door?"
As if the heaven heard her thoughts, the door opened while she was looking at it. Her sky-blue eyes followed suit, her mouth agape in shock.
The young man who came out of the door, basking in the heat of the sun as he seemed to look around his surroundings, was none other than Hinata.
There was no doubting it. It was indeed Hinata. Callisto could feel her heartbeat seemingly spiking, and yet she couldn't tell exactly if it was because Hinata appeared and she had to hide herself or she was glad to see him.
Hinata looked and walked around, searching for someone with that recognisable, unique silver hair. A small sigh escaped his lips; his expression looked that of someone who had already tried every solution they could think of to answer the problem, but none of them worked. But then, he turned towards one of the benches, and his shoes came to a stop, his mouth agape.
Hinata's and Callisto's eyes met, leaving both of them stunned.
"Ah."
"Hina..."