H I S
O D D I T Y

"Scram."

The small group of middle schoolers dispersed under her scrutinizing gaze. Breathing out a faint sigh of relief, her aristocratic features appearing somewhat tired of the whole ordeal. Tucking her loose grey locks, she looked extremely disappointed. Seeing people take advantage of their own strength was something that always caught her on edge. Cursing, she turned to the trembling figure behind her, still seeming to shield himself from those who were bullying him a while ago before she intervened.

"Get to your feet." As there was no response but more blubbering, she pursed her lips with masked frustration and held him by the arm, "Stop wailing like a fucking girl and stand up."

Albeit there was no anger traced in her voice, the boy winced. Finally there was a movement from the boy other than struggling and sobbing. Slowly and shuddering still, he stood. It was evident that he was trying hard to keep his composure, proof of it being his wobbly legs.

"Sorry."

She blinked and parted her lips slightly.

"Kid, I think 'thank you' would fit better in this equation," She shrugged, "Though you did delay me from my part-time job. That geezer would make me work extra hours again."

He flinched, "A-Ah.. sorry for, um, that.."

She eyed him with slight incredulity as he uttered that phrase. Really, was sorry all he had to say? Deciding quickly, she strode forward.

"Fix your uniform and come with me," She halted her steps to look back at him, "no questions asked."

To her favor, he did what he was told. Turning her nonchalant gaze forward, she was contemplating about what she have done. It wasn't her choice to save this boy from whatever trouble he managed to get himself into, but when she saw him begging for them to let him go, he suddenly reminded her of someone she knew. And she hated how that made her feel.

She stopped directly in front of a bookstore's entrance and hastily entered. She nodded an acknowledgement towards the guard by the door, and put her bag on the counter to be taken care of.

The boy from earlier was still behind her, thankfully.

"Tenshi-san, I'll just treat his wounds a bit, I'll start my shift right after." She informed the guard, and he gave her a warm smile and a nod of approval. Muttering a thanks, she headed towards the backdoor of the employees. Beside the door was a small shelf, and a certain book caught her attention. Pondering a bit, she took it from the shelf and handed it to the boy.

He stared at it; confused. A dictionary?

"Sorry seems to be the only thing in your vocabulary, maybe that could help you expand it."

- - -

After treating the boy's wounds as much as she possibly can, she sneaked out of the employee room, making sure no customer saw her. The reasoning behind her forced stealth attempt was actually very simple.

She was a civilian guard for the bookstore.

With an age of sixteen and a height of 5"9, she was nowhere near intimidating. As a stubborn young high schooler, though, and her knowledge on the martial arts - something she took several classes on as a child - she got the job. She was doing quite well with her job, mind you. It was a plus factor that not much shoplifting or other inappropriate things circled around the vicinity.

The work she was doing itself was fun as well, she had to admit. Just sneakily throwing glances on passerbys in an air conditioned room full of books and the like while earning money? Who'd reject the opportunity?

Considering there were only a few customers, she took her time looking for a book worth the read. She held no interest with romance books as of late and it was odd, she had tons of them stacked under her bed. But recently, her liking towards the thriller genre was surfacing. Beside her stack of romance and drama books was her rising count of thriller ones.

Deciding against finding another one to save money, she took the thriller book that she hid under the shelf. The title of it was, 'The Tame Blossom Voices' by Ikagari Daiki.

Her eyes bored on the name for a while.

Ikagari Daiki.. Ikagari Dai - oh.

It resembled the name of a classmate and neighbor of hers, Aomine Daiki. She didn't know much about him nor was she curious; after all, the first time she saw him, he seemed just like everybody else. His height and demeanor aside, that is. Why would he be any different? She was human, he was human, everybody was. So after all the books she have read about romance, she couldn't help but think how they come to like someone that's much like everyone. They were all just the same - on an endless endeavor, some just being less enthusiastic about it. How could they know that someone was 'the one' when they haven't even met half of the fish in the sea? The concept of to love and to be loved was intriguingly complicated.

Albeit, there was something about Aomine that made her think twice. His voice. It was gruff and low, but every time she hears it, it seemed oddly comforting. They haven't spoken even once, but it wasn't much of a hassle to listen to his and Sakurai's conversations. Eavesdropping came naturally to someone like her, someone who just listens.

That was all there was to it, though. She pushed her glasses upwards and tapped the surface of the book one last time before deciding to buy it. Her ears caught a sound of flipping pages, however, and she snapped her gaze towards the source.

She squinted her vivid golden orbs, taking a closer look. Was that Aomine Daiki himself, flipping through a magazine of gravure idols?

Well, what do you know.

"Flipping through a closed book or magazine is prohibited, sir. I suggest you put it back."

Aomine turned to her with a bewildered look, but he never did put the magazine back to it's shelf.

"I'm gonna buy it anyway, so what's the point?" At his reply, she pursed her lips. His behavior was just as she expected.

"We wouldn't know that, would we?" He cocked a brow at her question, but he wasn't given much time to protest when pale hands took the magazine from his grip and carefully put it back to its rightful place.

"Do refrain from doing this incident again. Rest assured, you won't get reported."

She turned on her heel and stalked away from the scene. She'd have to be extra careful and elusive with him now. She didn't like to be known, if he remembers any of this occurrence then seeing her next door as his neighbor and in school as his classmate, surely even if he ignores her, it would be hard not to steal even a small glance.

"Who are you?"

This question from him made her halt. Who was she? What kind of question was that? Did he even take notice of her at Tōō to think he was supposed to know who she was? She turned to look at him with a blank expression, masking a slither of confusion.

"You just look kinda familiar, a tad bit. So yeah? Who're you?"

His passing expression as if his question wasn't of pure curiosity but was just for the sake of boredom nagged her a little. Still not receiving an answer from her, Aomine grunted and furrowed his eyebrows.

"Oi, you, it would be really great to have an answer right now."

She reluctantly replied.

"Mel."

After that exchange, she hastily left. One thing was stuck at the back of her head, though.

His voice really was odd. In a good way.