Chapter 4
Min glanced at the time, as she did yesterday. She’s been watching over Teruko for two days. Normally, she’s sit beside her and read textbooks, but now she was getting worried. The release of motives was yesterday, but MonoTV oddly insisted on waiting for Teruko to wake up.
Teruko suddenly shifted in her bed, mumbling. Suddenly, she sat up screaming.
“E-eh, you’re awake?!” Min flinched, startled.
Teruko doubled over, clutching her stomach. “Ow, ow, ow! My abdomen hurts! I feel like I’ve been stabbed… I’m… in the infirmary?”
Min set aside her textbook with a worried expression as Teruko muttered questions like, ‘what time is it,’ and ‘what’s going on’. “Teruko, calm down—“
“Ah! I was with Xander! Xander was… Xander was—!”
“Please, take some deep breaths!”
“I need to leave right now!” Teruko yelled, standing up and running out the door. It’s a wonder she didn’t immediately double over and scream when her feet hit the floor.
“Wait, you’re not fully healed yet! Come back!” Min shouted pointlessly, running after her. She followed her to the computer lab, passing by Eden and Hu Jing in the halls. Bursting through the lab doors, she found that the room was… empty. And by empty, that meant there was no sign of the attempted murder ever happening. It made Teruko wonder if it was all just a dream, but the pain in her abdomen said otherwise.
“Huff… huff… Teruko… you run so… fast…” Min caught up, hunched over her knees as she caught her breath.
Teruko turned to Min, a dark expression on her face. “Min, where is he.”
“X-Xander?… He’s in the cafeteria with the others— Teruko?!” Teruko ran once more, determined to confront Xander about what just happened.
The sight she was met with once she burst into the cafeteria… angered her. Xander was there, laughing with David and Whit, a flustered Charles by his side and smiling Veronika behind them. It was a sweet sight… and it made Teruko so, so frustrated. How dare Xander… laugh and smile, pretend like nothing ever happened?!
Her extra entrance inevitably caught their attention, a pained expression crossing over Xander’s face as he met eyes with the lucky student. Teruko ran over, punching him square in the face, clutching over her wound as the swift action caused her wound to act up. Her abdomen hurt so bad, but Teruko grit her teeth and looked up at Xander with fire in her eyes.
“…You…” Teruko managed the utter, glaring at the rebel. Worst of all, Xander was silent, unable to look at her eyes in shame. He had the guts to feel ashamed? Seeing his look of yielding, she clenched her fists, punching him one more time on the other cheek, just to make it even.
Meanwhile, Veronika’s and Whit’s jaws just dropped, David looked terrified, Charles’ eyes widened, not quite sure what to think of the situation, and MonoTV was munching on popcorn.
Wait, MonoTV?
Munching on— how does that even work?!
“Get lost, MonoTV.” Xander finally spoke, “Don’t you have anything better to do? Like the motives?”
Everyone looked at him like he was crazy. Xander had just reminded the robot cat-dog thing about motives of all things, a reason to kill. Luckily, MonoTV looked way more nervous than any of them combined.
“M-Motives! Right! Um… they’re just right… uh…” it stuttered.
“…You lost them, didn’t you?”
MonoTV and Xander shared looks. Well, Xander expected something to happen to the motives. MonoTV dragged on the reveal of the motives for way too long for no reason. Of course, that fact alone shouldn’t have been enough to deduce such a thing, so it was more of a gamble.
Teruko looked at the robot, bewildered. “You lost the motives? Seriously?”
“Well… just this set! I have more! You’d just have to wait!” MonoTV clarified nervously.
“Are you kidding me?…” she wasn’t sure why she was upset about this. After everything that’s happened, she was just so easily triggered. “You… are such… an irresponsible—… thing!!”
“Hey! That’s offensive!”
“You’re holding us in a killing game, for fucks sake!” she shot Xander a sharper glare, “I almost died!”
“And unfortunately, you didn’t. How boring!”
“Boring?! You- you—… Ughh!!” she yelled in a frustrated manner, stomping off. Teruko ran to her room, shoving Min by the shoulder on the way. She didn’t know what to do with her frustration. Punching Xander in the face twice wouldn’t make her feel better if she knew Xander would only let it happen because he was guilty.
This always happens. She trusts someone and gets stabbed in the back, or in her case, the abdomen. It was a product of her horrible luck, and it was painful. There in that computer lab, she realized something.
She shouldn’t ever trust anyone again.
Right. Teruko’s decided now. From now on, she is going to distance herself from everyone else. She’s in a killing game, for fuck’s sake. All that matters now isn’t her relationship with others, it’s her wellbeing.
As for Xander… She didn’t know what to do. Of course, Teruko’s going to be twice as far from him as she is with the others, but she isn’t going to waste her time on petty revenge. Xander was wallowing in guilt, to her dismay, and so for now Teruko decided to let Xander torture himself.
Meanwhile, back in the kitchen.
“Damn, I think she hates you now.” Whit mused, hands placed on the back of his head.
“You think?” Charles glared, telling him that now's not the time.
“That’s wack.”
Xander quietly stared at the ground, holding his forehead as if he had a headache. David noticed this and patted him on the back, smiling weakly. “Xander, why don’t you go rest in your room?”
Xander stayed silent, before letting out a deep sigh. “…It’s no use, I can’t sleep.”
“Ah… I see… How about the infirmary? Ah… no, that’s one of the places Ms. Teruko should be in…” David scratched his cheek bashfully, trying to come up with something else to do to get the rebel’s mind off things. Instead, Xander gave him a strained smile, still hurt by the events, but appreciative of David’s efforts.
It’s silly… David didn’t even try to inspire him as a motivational speaker this time, Xander just felt fluttery on his own. It really is nice to have a friend by your side when you’re going through stuff. Right now, Xander feels motivated knowing David still trusted him.
Motivational speakers, am I right?