"Are you sure?"
"Yeah I've heard she's now in Raven's Group."
"Isn't she a lucky one? I've heard that their group was looking for the 6th person but still was unable to find one. To think that they'd choose her."
'Why do people love gossiping so much? And to always be me as a topic.'
She sighed as she had this in mind, at times it felt tiring to always be the center of attraction.
"Ah, there you are. Eureka, come to my office now," coming from in front, Kaoru called for her.
"What do you need," upon entering the office Eureka asked what the headmaster needed.
The headmaster turned to look at her pouting reaching out his hand.
"The key, give me back the key. Karen said you took it back from them."
"No, why would I give it back to you?" Eureka turned around to leave.
"No you have to give it back that's school property," he complained as he stops her.
"School property? Then I'd return it once I'm out of the school," she said trying to leave once again.
"Noooooo you have to give it back. How am I suppose to check on you when you're sick or when you're injured?"
"No is a no. I won't give it back, not until graduation," she replied with a raised brow.
"You meanie," pouting while tears are forming on his eyes.
"You- Never mind. Don't you dare enter my room without asking any permission, do you understand?"
She tossed the key back to Kaoru, whose face lit up instantly catching it in the process.
"I'm going now if you have nothing else to discuss."
As she turns the knob, Kaoru spoke once again this time with a serious tone.
"Do you still not remember anything? Before 4 years ago?"
She turned around, faced him with a serious look and said "No, I already told you. My life, before 4 years ago does not exist. It was non existent."
This time, without waiting for him to speak, she left closing the door behind her.
"Does not exist."
Kaoru's eyes showed complicated emotions as he said these words.
*****
(Flashback)
5 years ago.
It was a rainy afternoon.
Kaoru, who was on his daily routine of walking around the forest near the academy, saw a girl standing in the middle of the rain, gravely wounded.
She looks like to be 12 or 13 years of age.
She was looking up at the sky, letting the rain wash the blood on her body.
"You stupid Zu," he heard her say before he got closer to her.
"Are you okay? You're gravely wounded. What are you doing standing here?" he asked as he tried to reach for her hand intending to bring her to the infirmary.
*SLAP*
In the end, she swatted it away.
"Who are you?" she asked with a frown on her face.
"I'm the headmaster of that school, Kaoru. So at least allow me to bring you to the infirmary or you might end up losing a lot of blood," he said as he tried to hold her again.
This time she didn't swat his hand away but instead, she started coughing blood and collapsing on the ground.
"Ah, geez that's what I'm talking about," he carried her and run towards the infirmary.
"Headmaster!! Who is she? What happened to her?" the head nurse asked as she helped him lay her on the bed and calling for the doctor.
"You stupid, why did you bring her here? Can't you see her wounds? You should have brought her to the hospital," the doctor lectured as he checks the girl's condition.
"Do you think I have the time? I just saw her standing in the middle of the forest and then she collapsed. Stop getting mad at me, Akito," he retorted as he frantically paced around the nurse and the doctor.
"Forest? Why would a gravely wounded girl be standing in the middle of the forest?" Akito frowned tending to her wounds.
"How would I know, I already told you I just saw her standing there as I take my afternoon stroll," Kaoru retorted with a panic in his voice.
"Why are you strolling on this heavy rain?" Akito looked at him weirdly after hearing what he had just said.
"It's already my routine whether it's raining or it's sunny," he retorted matter of factly and looked at Akito to make his point.
"So is she dying? Will she die? I was the last person who held her. Will I be accused of murder? But I swear I just met that girl I don't even know her name. I have no alibi as well. What should I do? What-" he abruptly stopped what he's saying when a syringe was pointed on his throat.
"Shut up and go sit in the corner. I am trying to help this girl right now and your chatter will distract me. Or do you want me to inject you right now to shut you up?"
Kaoru zipped his mouth and run to the sit in the corner of the room behaving himself like an obedient child.
Hours later.
"She's fine. We only need to wait for her to wake up before knowing what really happened," hearing these words Kaoru could finally sigh in relief.
"Prepare yourself Kaoru, you might end up in jail for assaulting a girl," Akito added before turning on his heel.
"Akito!! I already told you I just met her," he run after Akito, leaving the girl to rest.
After a week of watching over her.
"So, is anyone looking for a missing teenager?" Akito asked Kaoru as they entered the room where the girl sleeps.
"Nope, none at all. I tried searching for someone who knows a girl with silver hair and red eyes but to no avail. Could she be from another kingdom?"
"Who knows," he replied as he checks her condition.
"Hey Akito, why isn't she awake yet?"
"It's her body how would I know?" Akito replied with a raise brow.
"Geez, you're the doctor here."
"I don't know okay. Her body must still be healing itself, she'll wake up when the right time comes," just as he said this, the girl beside them opened her eyes.
"Oooh, you're awake. So how do you feel? What's your name? Where do you live? Why are you in the forest? What happened to you? Where's your –" once again he was stopped by a syringe in his throat.
He zipped his mouth and stood there obediently.
"How do you feel?" this time the one asking the question was Akito.
"Fine," the girl answered as her eyes moved from side to side.
"Do you know your name?"
"Eureka."
"Where do you live?"
"…"
"You're parents, where are they?"
"I don't know."
"Do you know why you ended up in the forest?"
"By the time I realized it, I was already there."
The two looked at each other.
"Do you remember anything from your past other than your name?" Kaoru finally asked seriously.
"My past...… does not exist," she answered before closing her eyes once again.
The two went to the door and spoke quietly.
"Amnesia?" Kaoru said worriedly to Akito.
"Might be. She didn't know her parents and by the time she realized it she was already in the forest." Akito replied.
"Ah," as if remembering something, Kaoru walked towards Eureka.
"How about 'Zu', do you remember that person? It was your last words before you fainted," he asked eagerly, trying to find at least a litlle lead.
Eureka opened her eyes but she didn't answer his question. Kaoru returned to where Akito is.
"Zu?" Akito asked.
"Yes before she fainted she said something, it was," he paused and thought back.
"That's right she said 'you stupid Zu'."
They looked back at her and this time she had her eyes closed again.
After a bit of silence.
"Anyway, while we still don't know who she is and where she came from. You will be her guardian."
"Okay I unders- GUARDIAN!!!" Kaoru looked at Akito incredulously.
"I can't and you know that I'm not good with kids or teenagers."
"You have no other choice, you are the first person who found her. Or do you want her to be interrogated over and over again by those in the quarter? Oh, how terrible would that be," Akito said knowing how soft-hearted Kaoru is.
Pondering over it Kaoru knows that the quarter will treat anyone, who suddenly appeared in the kingdom, with suspicion.
Will interrogate them nonstop to the point where they'd include torture. Thinking about that he shuddered.
"Fine, fine, fine. I'll take care of her. But you have to help me especially on her identity."
"Sure."
(End Of Flashback)
'And that's how I ended up being that girl's guardian. And yet, four years have passed but she still has no memory of her past.'
He was now standing by the window, watching the students on the ground.
'Doesn't exist and no recollection should be the same I suppose.'
Kaoru thought as he reminisces, that time was truly unexpected to him. Yet here he was, quite attached to that girl.
But compared to the first time, she spoke more now.
Back then she was more of a one word person.
It was truly difficult for him to have proper conversation with her.
Kaoru gave out another sigh.