Normal's POV

Hime can barely hear anything from her classmates. Her eyes are fixated on the spider lilies on the table. She is pretty sure that the girls are squealing about a secret admirer or something that goes along the line with it. A certain red head is glaring daggers at her from the entrance.

Who dares steal her away from me again?! Karma growls as he tries to keep his annoyance in check. He balls up his fist.

"What is this, Akabane? Are you annoyed?" Terasaka asks, wrapping his arm around Karma's shoulders. Karma scoffs a little and puts his left hand on his waist.

"I've always known you were stupid but not to this level, Terasaka." Karma smirks and unwraps the bulky arm around his shoulders. "After all, I'm not letting anyone take her away from me anymore." Karma mutters as he has his gaze locked on Hime. Karma notices how deep in thought she is and he has never thought how deep she is when she didn't respond to the girls' squeals nor did she realise a certain playboy's presence.

"Hime-chan," Maehara wraps his right arm around Hime's shoulders. "Looks like your admirers just grow and grow, huh?" He asks with a smirk. Hime's train of thoughts seems to have derailed a little the moment the said playboy wraps his arm around her shoulders. However, she's not completely in the real world since it didn't seem like she would do anything to shake the arm off her shoulder. Hime bites her lower lip.

I hope they're from an admirer too, Maehara.

"Hime-chan! How lucky!" Rio glomps her from behind. Maehara immediately pulls his hand towards himself. Okano glares at him which makes him sweatdrop instantly before her personality changes and congratulates Hime.

Hime shakes her head and smiles at both Rio and Okano. "Ne, Hime-chan. Looks like Karma got himself another rival, huh?" Rio smirks, poking her cheeks. Hime can feel blood rushing to her face the moment Rio says it. She immediately turns around and her eyes lock with Karma's unamused golden eyes. The moment they lock, her heartbeats are beginning to pick up the pace. She knows she's flustered and she feels herself being flustered. "Ohoho~ What's this, Hime-chan?" Rio teases.

"Shut up, Rio." Hime looks away from Karma as she tries to calm her erratic heartbeats. Watching her reaction makes the red haired smile a little. He has the sudden urge to tease her and make her flustered more.

So cute Karma thought, smirking to himself.

"Ew what's with that smirk, Akabane? Gross." Terasaka comments and the smirk on Karma's face disappear the moment it appears. Karma unzips his messenger bag as he looks behind his shoulder to see a curious Terasaka trying to have a peek on what Karma has in his bag. Karma suddenly smirks and Terasaka curses under his breath. He fell for the devil's tricks and now he has to pay. Karma's movements are fast and swift. He grabs the first thing his hand comes in contact with and stuck it in the bulky boy's nose. And sadly, they are tubes of wasabi. He presses the tubes and t went straight in the poor boy's nostrils as Karma laughs, enjoying Terasaka's pained screams.

The rest of the boys could only watch and sympathising Terasaka from afar.

"I hope his sense of smell still works after this." Nagisa lets out a nervous laugh.

"Shouldn't we help him?" Isogai asks

"He's too far gone." Maehara replies, patting his best friend's shoulder.

"A-Ano, everyone.." Ritsu suddenly voices out and it made everyone pause including Terasaka. "Red spider lilies or higanbana is actually a flower related to death." Everyone visually tenses except for the platinum blonde. Even Rio pulls herself away from Hime.

"What do you mean, Ritsu?" Nagisa asks, the first one to break the silence. Ritsu immediately shows the class what the flowers mean. "They are flowers you can easily find in graveyards. The bright and brilliant colour are said to guide souls to the afterlife." Hime could only stare at the AI beside her. She can feel everyone's stare on her that it's making her hard to breathe. "It also means departing lovers aside and lovers who are destined to never meet again." Ritsu said, returning the screen back to her face.

"H-Hime-san, I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make Ritsu-san search the meaning of those flowers. I was just curious." Okuda apologises as she bows rapidly to Hime. Hime sees the tears brimming on Okuda's lavender eyes.

"N-No, Okuda-san." Hime makes her way towards Okuda and pats her shoulders. Hime smiles at the shorter female and tilts her head to the left. "It's fine. A-And I'm sure the sender gave me these because they thought they're pretty and didn't think too much about the real meaning of those flowers." Hime smile as she assures everyone that the flowers didn't mean any of the above harm. Karma, however didn't look convinced. Flowers of death? Lovers who are destined to not see each other anymore? He didn't like both meanings.

"Hime-chan, are you sure? I can check the person who sent these to you." Ritsu said and Hime shakes her head.

"That's fine, Ritsu-chan. I'm sure the person will come sooner or later to either give me more flowers or take me away." Hime jokes.

"O-Okay, if you say so, Hime-chan." Kayano said, breaking the tension.

"Hime-chan is right. How would anyone have the time to properly search for the meaning of the flowers. He probably just picked out something that catches his eyes." Rio agrees.

"I wouldn't, thought." Maehara said, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably.

"And that's why you're the playboy." Okano teases.

"But I wouldn't either." Chiba mutters. "But Sakuragi-san does have a point. So maybe the sender doesn't mean any harm." He said as Hayami quietly agrees with him.

Soon the tension dies down and Hime puts the flowers down next to her messenger bag as she happily chats away with Rio and Kayano.

No matter what higanbanas mean. For me, they could only mean one thing; my time is up.

***

"Alright class, please hand in your biology homework tomorrow to Isogai-kun and Kataoka-san." Koro-sensei said before he rushes out the campus and takes off to Alaska to make his favourite shaved ice.

"Oi, Hime." Karma said turning his head to her. She hums as a reply while she continues writing down some notes before it slipped through her mind. "Let's go home together." Karma suggested. He notices her slight pause before she continues writing.

"Sure." She said before putting an exaggerated period to finish off her notes. She closes her book and clicks her ball pen once and keeps everything away in her bag.

"Should we pick Haru up?" Karma asks, slinging the messenger bag over his shoulder. Hime shakes her head and does the same to her bag.

"Haru's probably at home already." She said before turning to the girls whom bids her goodbye. "Bye guys!" She smiles and waves excitedly at them. Karma raises an eyebrow when he realises that Hime didn't pick up the flowers she left by her bag.

"You're not going to bring them home?" Karma asks and Hime shrugs.

"I don't think Haru would want them." Hime said, walking ahead of him. He watches her figure skips happily towards the shoes locker. Rio catches up with them half way and links hands with Hime. Kayano eventually joins the duo by linking hands with Hime's right.

"Hey, Karma-kun." Nagisa greets him. Karma shoves his hands in the pockets of his school pants and nods to the smaller male as a sign of acknowledgement. "Are you going home with Hime-chan?" Nagisa asks, watching the girls in front of them chattering and laughing away. A slight blush makes its way to his face when he sees Kayano's smiling face. Karma, unfortunately missed it as he, too is busy looking at Hime's smiling face. To him, there's nothing better than a euphoric Hime.

"Yeah." Karma replies, finally noticing the faint blush. "What about you? Going home with Kayano?" Karma asks, smirking.

"Nope. We're going to a café first. She wanted to try a new pudding flavour." Nagisa replies absentmindedly. When he realises what he had told the devil, Nagisa immediately turns his head to face his friend completely. Nagisa sweat drops when he sees his friend had grew horns and a tail.

"Ah, I see. So you're making that kind of progress, huh?" Karma smirks. "Good job, Nagisa!" Karma laughs excitedly as he pats the blue haired boy on the back.

"Oi, Karma! Come on!" Hime shouts from her shoe locker. "I still need to make lunch!"

"Mou Nagisa." Kayano whines. "If you're going to keep that pace up, the special pudding will sell out." Kayano blows air in her cheeks. Of course, this didn't go unnoticed by the mischievous blonde.

"What's this, Kayano-chan?" Rio smirks, placing her fingers of her right hand on her lips and pokes Kayano playfully with her left elbow. The poor green haired turns red almost immediately.

"R-Rio-chan, its best you stop. Kaede-chan has steam coming out of her." Hime sweatdrops. Somewhere along the way, Nagisa quickly makes his way towards his shoe locker and changes his footwear. He grabs Kayano by the hand and dashes out from the school building.

"Nagisa-kun has matured." Rio and Karma mumbles at the same time, wiping fake tears. Hime could only giggle at the two mischievous duo. All of a sudden a chirping sound is heard. "Oops. That's me." Rio smiles as she takes out her cell phone from her skirt. "See you both tomorrow!" Rio waves at both Hime and Karma before walking out the door.

"Alright, should we go?" Karma asks, closing his shoe locker. He easily slips in his shoes and turns around to face Hime. Hime nods and they walk out the door and down the hill. "Carnations, right?" Karma suddenly asks, making Hime stop in her tracks. She turns around and tilts her head to the side.

"Excuse me?"

"Carnations. You like them, don't you?" Hime can feel her face warms up. She nods hesitantly.

"So what of it?" Karma shrugs and continues walking.

"I just thought that if someone dares to like you, they should at least know what kind of flowers you like." Karma said, walking ahead of Hime. He's grateful that he doesn't have to face her or he will surely be teased. He can feel his face burning up and at times like these, he's not really thankful for vasodilation. Hime's heart wouldn't stop beating so hard and her stomach feels so heavy that it's getting harder to breathe. Karma was about to snap at her for the lack of response when he turns around and sees her with such an expression. She has the back of her left palm pressed against her lips as she looks away.

***

The journey home was quiet but it's a comfortable silence. Karma holds her hand the minute they step out from the forest. When Hime questions him about it, he just said that he feels like it as he tries to not make any eye contact with her. In the train, Karma kept holding her hand with one hand and his hand in the other playing Sonic Ninja while Hime had to distract herself from the calloused hand of her best friend which isn't doing her any good. Since all she could think of is the hospital scene. She hits her head on a nearby pole which scare the living soul out of everyone close.

"Oi, Hime. Are you okay?" Karma asks, sweatdropping. Is she crazy?

"I'm perfectly fine." She gives him a thumb up with her free hand although there's blood coming out from her forehead that says a completely different thing.

You're obviously not okay. Karma sighs and takes out a bandage from his bag and wraps it around her forehead with extreme force, it made her tear up. Seeing her crying a little makes him smile and exerts more force to it thus freaking everyone in the train more. "Stop causing a scene, you idiot. We might get banned from riding trains and how the hell are we supposed to go around then? If you just want more attention from me, all you have to do is ask." Karma said and Hime growls when he ties the bandage to keep it in position.

"Who would want attention from you, idiot?" Hime mumbles, rolling her eyes. As soon as she utters those words, the train finally arrives at their station. Karma tightens his grip around Hime's hand. They walk up the stairs and scan their card on the machine before walking towards Hime's apartment. Once Hime's apartment comes to view, Karma pulls her to a stop.

"Hime.. I've been thinking for a while, now." Karma said. Hime notices how his face holds a serious expression. "You knew didn't you? The meaning of those flowers. You should've been the most surprised one but you were so calm. You were so calm it's suspicious. You even went as far as to make everyone's uneasiness go away." Karma watches how Hime's face falters a little and how her eyes couldn't reflect anything but emptiness and sadness.

"I can't tell anyone that it bothers me, now can I?" Hime asks, furrowing her eyebrows.

"You're so bothersome." Karma clicks his tongue and pulls her into a hug. Hime's eyes widen in surprise as she tries to push him away but to no avail. Karma tightens his arms around her shoulders and places his chin on top of her head. "Can you please rely on me a little bit more?" He asks in a tone that Hime has never heard before. She bites her lower lip and wraps her arms around his waist. She nods hesitantly and tightens her grip.

I love him. I love him so much and this might be the last time I'll ever be this close to him in a long time.

"Karma, I lo-"

And suddenly the both of them are pried off each other by a man wearing a black suit with a kind of flower sewn onto it with silver thread.

"Ojichan!" Hime blushes when she realise what she was about to say to Karma and the fact that her uncle saw them hugging is mortifying. She just wanted to crawl under a rock and live her life with slugs and beetles. Karma clicks his tongue and frowns at the said man.

More importantly, what was she about to say?! Karma growls.

"Hime, I have something to talk about with you and your brother. Will you please go back home, now?" Ichiro asks, completely ignoring Karma.

While Hime stutters her reply, Karma notices a black car with a similar flower on it. Stepping out from the driver seat is another man wearing the same black suit and the same flower sewn on his blazer. Even though he is wearing a pair of black sunglasses, Karma knows he is staring directly at him.

"Thanks for sending my niece home." Ichiro said, patting Karma's shoulder once. "Kamakura can send you home." Karma looks up to the older male and smiles innocently. It runs a chill down both Ichiro and Hime.

"You don't have to do that. Besides, I want to see Haru." Karma said before shaking off Ichiro's hand on his shoulder. He ruffles Hime's hair and smiles at her. "I can do that much, right?" He asks.

"Ah.. Karma, I'm sorry but today's not possible." Hime looks away. It does make Karma extremely angry that Hime is hiding things from him and it annoyed him beyond words. Just a while ago, he told her to rely on him. He thought his feelings reached her but what's this? And what is it that's so confidential that Hime and Ichiro can't tell him? Nevertheless, he couldn't afford to lose his cool here.

"You have to continue what you were trying to say to me before this old man interrupted us tomorrow, alright?" Karma smiles once Hime starts stuttering incoherent words. "What? You will? Excellent. I'll be waiting tomorrow, Hime." Karma happily waves them goodbye. Once he walks past them, his smile immediately falters and his golden eyes shows maximum irritation it made Milo Kamakura shiver. Karma didn't even bother to acknowledge him as he makes his way across the park separating their apartments while biting his nail.

"Karma.. Akabane. Onee-san told me about how fearsome he is once he's annoyed or mad. But I would've never thought it would be this intense." Milo Kamakura mutters to himself. He looks over to his superior and the platinum blonde teen. He sighs and rubs the back of his neck before standing up straight.

"Why am I so irritated and anxious anyway?" He mutters to himself as he bites his thumb nail back to his apartment.

***