At some point in the night, all of the noise stopped, so Hayate and Mio were able to fall asleep. Although in the morning, when Hayate woke up, he noticed his sister was staring blankly into space. This happened quite often, Mio had always been a quiet girl, kind of a. . . Daydreamer? No, that wouldn't be the right word to describe it. She spaced out a lot, with no expression on her face. As if she were some sort of porcelain doll. It always made Hayate feel a little uneasy. A little scared, even.

"Mio, are you okay?" Hayate reached a hand out to the girl, gently placing it on her shoulder.

She flinched.

"I can hear them," Mio muttered, continuing to zone out for a moment longer before she looked back at her brother. "Eomma and that man. You hear them too, right?" She looked at him with her innocent round eyes, catching Hayate off guard. The boy paused, trying to listen as hard as he could, but. . . He couldn't hear a thing.

"I- I don't hear anything." Hayate tripped over his own words. "What are they saying?"

"She said that-" Mio came to a halt, then looked down at her hands in her lap. "She's saying that she doesn't love us."

Hayate furrowed his brows and instantly hugged her close to his chest. Once he did so, Mio began to quietly sob again. Still, he couldn't hear a thing.

"It's okay. It's okay if she doesn't love us. I love you, Jin loves you, and Matsuda loves you. I'll take good care of you, Mio. I'll protect you." Hayate knew he couldn't always protect her, but that wouldn't stop him from trying more than his absolute hardest. He would do everything in his power, and more, to look after this little girl. When she hugged him back, he gave her a very gentle squeeze.

She was everything to him.

"Mio, why didn't your mother come to the parent and teacher interview? Everyone else's parents came, you were the only one who didn't." The elementary school teacher wasn't scolding the little girl. The woman was simply concerned for her student. The teacher brought Mio aside so they could speak privately because young kids could be brutal. Especially at school.

Mio just shook her head.

"Did you give your mother the letter?"

Mio shook her head again.

"Why not?" The teacher frowned.

For as long as Mio had been in school, Sayuri had never shown up. Not to pick her up, not to meet her teachers, not for any reason at all. It was almost as if Mio had no parents. She'd never even met her father. Not even once. As for any other relatives, her godmother Hyuna was always too busy and there was no one else in the family that Mio knew of. Sayuri kept her kids away from everyone, and for what reason?

"Give your mother the letter, okay? She must know about how you're doing in school." The woman explained, but even she felt like she was talking to a brick wall.

Mio gave absolutely no responses. The teacher patted her on the head and allowed her to go play with the rest of the students, although, Mio had no friends. She was always on her own, either reading a book, or drawing something at her desk. So obviously, she went to her desk to draw a picture.

"Mio! Why are you always drawing by yourself?" One of the kids had approached her, and as soon as they did so, Mio covered her drawing.

"I like being alone," Mio responded quietly, avoiding eye contact at all costs.

"Let me see, let me see!" Another one of the kids snatched the drawing from her.

For a six-year-old, the drawing was quite good, but no other six-year-old would be able to appreciate it. It was a little girl - probably Mio - sitting at the bottom middle of the page, and surrounding her were rugged black scribbles. The two kids stared at the page with a grimace.

"Ew, what is this?" They tossed it back at her. Mio quickly took the drawing and stuffed it into her desk.

"You're so weird, no wonder your mom doesn't ever show up." They sneered at her.

"Leave me alone." Mio sunk in her seat.

The students had stopped teasing her, but for some reason, she could still hear their voices. Making fun of her, taunting her, jeering her.

"Leave me alone-" again, the young girl repeated.

"Your mom doesn't love you."

"You're useless."

"We all hate you."

"Jump off a bridge."

The voices wouldn't stop. Terrified, Mio's eyes darted from each of the kids to the other. In a desperate attempt to get it all to stop, Mio grabbed her head and screamed.

While in class, Hayate's phone started buzzing. He'd muted the ringer, but kept it on vibrate. The only reason Sayuri bought him that phone was to harass him to do chores for her, and it worked. Hayate was grateful she gave him a phone, even if it were for a selfish reason. This way he could text and call his friends. It wasn't a fancy phone, but it was good enough. Hayate was good at settling for things.

The boy didn't recognize the number, but he grabbed the phone and raced out of the classroom to answer it. Jin and Matsuda watched him leave. Before exiting, Hayate made sure to excuse himself. The teacher loved him, they had no problem with him leaving the class like that. It made Jin narrow his eyes at the man who was writing on the blackboard.

"Hello?" Hayate answered the phone.

"Hello, is this Park Hayate?"

"Yes, that's me."

"We're calling from your younger sister - Park Mio's - elementary school. She suddenly screamed during break time and began hyperventilating. We have her in the office right now, and she's still crying. We tried to call your mother, but not only did Mio react badly to that, but your mother also didn't pick up the phone. Mio gave us your phone number, and we decided to call you. Is it possible for you to come to pick her up?" The principal spoke nicely, but for some reason, Hayate had hated them for this.

"I'm coming right away. Thank you for calling me." Hayate wouldn't waste another second. After hanging up, he entered the class again and gestured for Jin and Matsuda to come out as well. They both did so.

"What's going on? Was that your mom?" Matsuda asked. The hallway was completely empty.

"No, that was Mio's school. They said she had some sort of breakdown. I'm leaving class to take her home. I just wanted to let you guys know before I left." Hayate was just about to start running out of the school, but Jin stopped him.

"I'm coming too." The raven had a serious look in his eyes.

"Me too. Something's fucked up about that. Remember how she was yesterday?" Matsuda pointed out.

". . . Fine." Hayate didn't want to waste any time arguing. Without even bothering to tell the teacher, the three teenagers raced out of the school.

Schools had a no running in the halls policy, but right now that didn't apply. Hayate, Jin, and Matsuda turned into the school office, where they found Mio sitting with her teacher. When the door opened, the young girl looked over to who had entered, and she jolted out of her seat to go over to the boys.

"Mio. . ." Hayate pulled her into a hug. "Are you okay?"

"I'm scared." She mumbled in response.

"What exactly happened?" Hayate turned to the teacher, that had stood up. The woman had a somber expression on her face.

"She said some of the students were saying terrible things to her. Then she screamed. I quickly went over to her, she was wailing and breathing heavily, so I brought her to the office where it was much quieter." She explained, feeling a little intimidated under the glares of the three boys.

"So you let those kids bully her?" Matsuda crossed his arms. He was absolutely getting at those kids later.

"I had no idea they were bullying her and when I asked them about it, they all denied it." The teacher replied.

"Obviously they're gonna deny it." Jin spat. "Those little brats don't want to get in trouble."

"I'll talk to them later today. I take these things very seriously, I promise you." The woman bowed her head. "You're free to take Mio home, I'll allow her to go home early today."

"Yeah, I'll take her home." Hayate nodded. He gingerly took Mio's hand, and lead her out of the school.

Mio and Hayate didn't attend school for a week after that.