The photography club at the end of a busy day, especially on Fridays was great.

Being surrounded by people who shared the same interests as her, enjoying the simpler things in life and some relaxation was more than she could ask for.

Her sister and her would never see eye to eye on things like this, her sister liked flashy, lavish and luxurious stuff like: handbags, outfits and the latest phones. Of course Y/n likes things like that as well but she's not as superficial and materialistic as her sister.

She and her sister, were two sides of the same coin. The only thing they shared was one last name.

They were both brought up differently as well.

Y/n was often locked in her room, left a crying mess, with snot running down her nose, with knuckles with skin chipped off due to her pounding the wooden door over and over.

Her father had been lost without her mother and he felt Musume was a memory that needed to be preserved and cherished.

Y/n had never heard the words 'I love you' before, not even from her own father, maybe that's why she lashed out and spat harshly toxic words out like Musume did.

She hated being alone, she considered it the worst thing in the world.

Things changed when she met that purple headed girl.

Kokona.

A sweet girl that taught her how to care, something Y/n's father was firmly against as his business profited of exploiting the poor and innocent.

She'd known Kokona for ages, and soon Saki came along as well.

Sometimes, Y/n thought, maybe she wouldn't have had to wait for Kokona to be the first nice person in her life if her father was there for her in the beginning.

It was a burning feeling, being unwanted and being trapped in a bubble.

How she sees it is, being unwanted is when you and the person you desperately wished cared for you in they cared for anyone but you and you were both separated by a gap.

The gap isn't deep, it isn't impossible for one person on the other side to jump over to reach you ; the gap was a simple thin line in the earth.

A gap that could be easily reached over to get to you, but they wouldn't, simply because it was you on the other side.

She wished things could be different.

He loved Musume.

Why?

Simply, because she was not Y/n.

Simply, because Y/n could only wish that she was like Musume.

Y/n use to, when she was younger, it was adoration for her older sister that turned to hatred.

She's just thankful that Kokona and Saki cared about her.



They changed her.

People really do help molding you into the person you'll become.

She was stood outside the photography club, her hand shook like a leaf as she reached to push the door aside when a boy with short, polyester blond hair with a fringe parted to the right stumbled out. She took a step back to give him some space and only then did she notice the pastel blue neckerchief and his noticably grayish blue eyes.

"Sorry I didn't know you were gonna open the door when I was trying to get in." Y/n chuckled dryly, she seemed to have done the right thing because he smiled back at her.

"Well, hello! Welcome to our little getaway, haha!" He chuckled, leaning his back against the club room door with his legs crossed along with his arms.

"I'm interested in some clubs and the ones I've been to so far haven't really spoke to me. Could you tell me more about the photography club?" Y/n asked, his demeanour changed and he stood up straight still holding that same smile on his face that she's grown so familiar with.

"Look, I'll be honest: we don't actually do any photography here. We just...eat snacks, read manga, and goof around. If you're okay with that, you're totally welcome to join the club and hang out with us! But, if you're, like, actually looking for a real club about Photography...this isn't actually the right place. I'm sorry!" He spoke, scratching the back of his head and looking anywhere but at her, he seemed almost embarrassed but she liked the idea of that.

" I'd love to join! Seems fun." Y/n beamed, she followed him into the club. In the clubroom, the ceiling and front wall are gray while the floor, back wall, and side walls are white. There's a shooting set with a stool, a white backdrop, various lights, and a black Saikou camera as most of the electronics are from this company.

At the front of the room, there is a small section that acts as a little "hideout" for the club members to hang out. The walls are made of whiteboards, and there are two curtains on either side acting as a shield. Inside there are two wooden tables pushed together, and there are six folding chairs for each member, now their are seven.

It was a wonderful experience, she was even given her own camera to put around her neck and she immediately used the camera to take funny pictures with the members. She still had those photos ones with their tongues sticking out, holding up peace signs and overall them golfing around.

It had never felt better to talk to other people who shared similar interests to her.

She decided to stop pondering through memory lane and woke up.

Her eyelids were weights and she was barely managed to keep them open and she was quite frankly ready to give up now. She was in a trance, her eyes locked onto her screen as she scrolled through the ocean of texts between students, group chats and drama starters till she received a notification from Fureddo about an unknown user.

Normally, she would brush it off and think someone new had joined her website, Kaobook, due to the default profile picture and the bland user name -which was Ackedmi_123- but this person was different. Their activity was unlike any other, all they did was skim through the public chats everyone had access to and come off their account.

She didn't know why it made her gut twist slightly or maybe it was because of the message she had received hours before.

Today

???

Hey

???

I have noticed that you wish to be a detective

???

I want to give you some information, about a crime.

Y/n

A crime? Your best option is the police

Info-kun

The crime I am referring to has not taken place yet.

Info-kun

I would be happy if you could find the murderer, if you are the right person to do so.

Y/n

Who even are you? What kind of prank is this?

Info-kun

I am the person nicknamed "Info-kun" at school. The rumours are true. I assure you, this is no prank.

Info-kun

If you want my help, text me. If you don't care, ignore me.

Info-kun

I've installed an app on your phone. Take a look.

Y/n

How did you even do that ? And what does it do?

Info-kun

If you do a few small favors for me, I can offer a wide variety of services that should help you.

Info-kun

You have ten weeks until your precious father is exposed and your "business" is aswell. I hope you do the right thing.

Now, she was stuck looking at someone's account with fear that it might be info-kun trying to collect blackmail to use against her, and it's even worse that she can't even delete the account.

Who would possibly know making a website and practically having blackmail against everyone could backfire on you.

No one knew she made the website except Kokona, Saki and Budo. Could they have possibly baited her out? What is wrong with her? She's really going after her own friends now (most of the time murders are the people close to you).

She loudly sips her carbonated drink, to give her a boost of energy but all she wants to do is sleep.

Maybe she'll just close her eyes for a second...

"Oh. My. God. You snore like a PIG, SHUT UP Y/n!" Musume screams from the room next to hears, Y/n jolts awake and scrunches up her nose at the drool on her table.

She quickly pops into the bathroom and then uses a wipe to dispose of the evidence of her drool and continues looking on her computer.

Literally, how did this happen, she's helped her customers for crying out loud, she leaves her business card in people lockers and they message her and she does tasks for them in exchange for money. Like, that one time Riku Soma wanted a picture of the kitten that is on school grounds for some reason and she sent it to him.

Sometimes, she's a matchmaker and gives people a push into the right direction, knowing she'll never find the one for her and she could of been bitter about it and made their crush hate them.

So, what has she done that's so terrible? Other than maybe looking over juicy drama in people's group chats.

Ding.

What?

Ackedmi_123 has sent you a video.

She drags her mouse to click onto the link, she hopes this isn't some virus but she can only pray. Osano? She watches the clip with her headphones in, and a scene was playing before her. The cherry tree that has some dumb rumour about confessing to the one you love on Friday will make them love you? Some nonsense myth.

Taeko ran up the hill, clearly out of breath from the way she was panting and holding her knees till she was breathing somewhat normally, then Osano emerged from behind the tree with a letter in hand, and a cute red heart stamp in the middle.

Blossoms fell around the pair and it felt like she was watching a predictable romance but what happens next is shocking.

"O... Osano?" Taeko questioned, still trying to greedily inhale some fresh air.

"You kept me waiting you dummy!" He spoke, staring at the flower that stood between them.

"Listen... up okay? Because...I have something.. really important to say!" Osano blurts out, and it only takes an idiot like Taeko to not realize what's going on.

What can she compare this to.

Some horrible romance you hate so much yet you can't stop watching.

"You know a lot of people ask me to go out with them... But I always turn them down..." Osano spoke, "I just didn't feel like dating anyone... except for one person"

"Who?" Taeko asks, acting like an idiot, no she is an idiot when it comes to love.

"Someone who's always been there right next to me. Up until now, I always thought of you as a childhood friend, no I was just trying to tell myself that because I was afraid to admit my feelings" Osano continues.

"But I realized I can't keep lying to myself and lying to you. I have to be honest with my feelings, this is so embarrassing but I can't stand being just friends anymore..." Osano speaks, Y/n needs to right some of these lines down for the next time she asks someone out, wait no when someone asks her out, yes no way she would ever confess to anyone.

"Listen up, okay, because this takes a lot of courage to say this!" Osano rants, blushing so hard with her letter in hand.

"I-I love you idiot iloveyoumorethananythingelseintheworld!" Osano chokes out, Y/n nods her head slightly because it was so obvious that he truly does love Taeko and she hopes this ends well.

"Osano to tell you the truth..." Taeko trails on, omg its happening this feels like the ending everyone has been waiting for and she shoves more popcorn in her mouth as she watches.

"I'm very sorry but I don't think we are right for eachother..." Taeko continues, staring into Osano's eyes and breaking him even more. Y/n's jaw is about to drop off it's so wide open, she's mortified that he got rejected by his childhood best frien. No, no that is so awkward and someone has recorded that.

"Wh...what?" Osano barely responds, tears not only well up in his eyes but Y/n's eyes as well. She almost forgot she's not watching and show and these are actual people she's seen around school.

"Is this because of the way I treated you?" Osano asks desperately, Y/n sniffles as she eats more flavoured popcorn to quiet down her cries but atleast her tears add extra flavour to her popcorn.

"Not its not that." Taeko replies, then what is it? Just tell him, "Its more than that." What is Taeko on about? What that horrendously disgusting bento that Osano made? I'm sure Osano not being able to cook isn't a good enough reason to reject him.

"I-I can change! I can, I can, stop I can!" Osana stutters, you don't need to change for her Y/n mumbles (she always does this during shows knowing damn well they can't hear her).

"Osano, please don't. It's just not going to work. I'm sorry, goodbye." Taeko turns to walk, refusing to even look him in the eyes one last time.

"No, Senpai...please wait!" Osano pleads with desperation in his voice as tears pour down his face and his tears blur his vision, they trailed down his face as he watches his childhood friend turn her back to him.

Taeko walks down the hill, disappearing out of sight.

Well that surely put him off ever confessing to someone.

Suddenly the video starts to glitch.

You've got to be kidding me. __________________ |. . | |Virus detected! | |. . | --------------------------

I mentally face palmed.

I'll deal with that later.

The video went viral and it has been shared and liked so many times Y/n thought she was hallucinating those numbers due to lack of sleep. She saw comments like, "Did you know he use to write fanfics about him x anime boys?"

"He's got an account called the ginger underscore ninja" and then her sister commented "Lol exposed." Typical.

She couldn't even image the stress Osano was under right now, how do you get rejected and get all your darkest secrets revealed?

Hold on.

This could be that murderer's doing, well hopefully not soon to be murderer's doing.

So now she has a lead, find the person who posted the video and the person who exposed her secrets.

Did info chan have something to do with it?

Nevertheless, she invited her friends over to play a videogames "I wonder why someone would do that to Osano Kun?" Kokona asks "Well he was so rude to Taeko..." Saki adds, they all nod to that. "He's so loud as well and a bit too overwhelming..." Kokona remembers, they all nod again, seeing a lot of reasons why someone would do this. "And he's a brat too." Y/n says, the room falls silent and they laugh.

"Now, it sounds like that person did have a reason to do that to Osano, but no one deserves all that embarrassment." Kokona responded and everyone agrees, silence falls over the room and all that can be heard are the taps of the game controllers till Saki begins, "Have you all seen that boy?" Y/n shrugs not really focusing on her words and using the fact that Saki is distracted to get her character to K.O hers off the platform making her receive a light hit from Saki's controller, "Hey! That's cheating Y/n-"

"Y/n, I just paused that stop unpausing it you sore loser!" Kokona says, hitting Y/n gently with hers too. "Well, you can't pause an actual fight and oop it looks like I just won." The game screen flashes with 'Player 1 wins!'. Kokona and Saki groan and throw the plushies Kokona won from the arcade and gave to Y/n at her making her put her hands in front her face. "Who are we talking about?" Y/n questions, finally getting into the conversation.

"He's in a your class Y/n." Kokona answered and Saki nods at her words, "He's nice, he held the door open for me and he practically talks to everyone... I've never seen someone get popular so fast. He always goes up to people and does favours for them, like this morning in the cooking club he helped clean up all the mess the members made." Saki chuckles recollecting the state the room was in and how spotless it was when he cleaned it up.

"You are all painting a completely different picture of the person I think your talking about. He bumped into Taeko like some clutz and then looked up at her like some love sick puppy. Hold on, what if he was the one who did the video-." Y/n is immediately attacked by her own pillows, how is she getting attacked in her own house? "I'm joking, I'm joking!" Y/n laughs through shaky breaths as she's barely getting time to breathe and now she feels like she's choking and now she's getting a bit concerned for her life.

The harassment stops and kokona is the first to stop assaulting her with a pillow and starts, by saying "Come on Y/n, I'm sure he's not a bad person. Taeko is um a bit bland- I mean average and there's nothing wrong about that. She's always been able to get... People's attention."

"It's always the ones you don't expect." Y/n replies and is smacked by pillows over and over again, "I'm kidding-" Y/n chokes out and they stop, "Now, I have no partner in class since Osano's gone so if anything it's an inconvenience, who's gonna be my partner now?"

"Maybe it will be Ayato, he doesn't have a partner since miss gave him some delinquent boy who barely attends class." Saki says, Y/n sighs.

I hope not, Y/n thinks.

They are in their room, a picture off Taeko and Osano are on the corkboard. They grab a pen scribbling out Osano, as this week is complete and they have gotten rid of a rival yet they notice someone in the background off the photo. Y/n Ronshaku, a person in their class and they grab their pen to cross another person out the photo only for the pen to stop working.

Why did this pen suddenly stop working?

No matter the countless times they tried a different pen they stopped working when they tried crossing her out, they sighed, deciding to leave Y/n in the picture they had off Taeko.

Y/n Ronshaku... They've seen her before, maybe she can be a potential ally in the future and this is just a sign off that.

E