Danial was slowly approaching the computer lab. He looked around, to ensure no one was following him, and walked to the back of the lab.

He saw Sharmila was standing alone. Her arms crossed over her chest.

"You're late," said Sharmila, giving Danial a glaring stare.

"I'm sorry, the additional mathematics question was really hard," bluffed Danial.

Sharmila squinted her eyes. She could feel that his friend was lying. But she didn't want to interrogate him.

Sharmila was a very slender girl. Her neck was long and slim. She had an oval face shape. Her hair was curly, but she liked to straighten it to make it wavy. She tied it in a ponytail. Her brown skin was flawless. She had nicely curved eyebrows. Her eyelashes were long and flowy. Her nose was distinctively straight. She was wearing a light blue pinafore, covering her knees. The armour-shaped Tengku Simpulan Intan was sewn at the right side of her pinafore.

"Why did the headmistress want to meet you?" asked Sharmila.

"She wanted me to join the choir team," confessed Danial.

Sharmila hit Danial's left arm with her left palm.

"Sharmila!" screamed Danial. "Stop harassing me. First the pull-in to the class line during the assembly. Now my arm is being hit. Auw, it hurts." Danial rubbed his left arm with his right palm.

"How on earth Madam Dayang suddenly wanted you to join the choir team? Oh, it must be that national anthem singing of yours. I told you to tone it down a bit. The school's assembly is not a concert."

"I have my rights to practise patriotism in my own country, thank you," said Danial truthfully. "And I'm not in the choir team to sing. Madam Dayang wanted me to play the violin for the choir team."

Sharmila showed a confused face. "I thought only a pianist is needed in the choir team?"

"Madam Dayang wanted to experiment something new. She thinks having a violin as the instrument instead of a piano would be a standout in the choir competition."

Sharmila paused from rebutting Danial's answer. She took a breath before continuing, "Remember Deepavali celebration at my house last year?"

"Yes?" responded Danial, unsure where Sharmila was heading to in her point of asking.

"Your mother met my mother..."

"Yes, I remember."

"Your mother ordered me to monitor your school activities..."

"Your point is?" asked Danial, starting to feel impatient.

"I'm holding your mother's words. To check on you to ensure you're not putting too much on your plate with too many extracurricular activities."

"Said the lady, who agreed to be Lady Tremaine in Joash Law's English drama," joked Danial.

"Danial Izzani Bin Nazim Zainal, don't change the topic!"

"You entered the English drama because Zane Lim is also in the English drama, isn't it?" Danial smiled cynically.

Sharmila opened her mouth to reply but no vocal amplified from her lips. She turned away from staring at Danial's face.

"I knew it," pressed Danial. "Sharmila Priya Mohan, the ship has sailed, the train has left. Zane Lim is Anne Hernandez's property now. Move on. This is unhealthy."

Sharmila threw back Danial's words to him. "Said the man, who is still stalking Zane Lim on Facebook."

"That's different," said Danial.

"How is that different?" asked Sharmila strongly. "Wait, stop! I'm not calling you to talk at an isolated place like this, to discuss about Zane Lim. Pause! Rewind! I thought you care about your forum team? Now you left Felisa, Nora, and Anastasia alone so you can play violin for the choir team?"

"No, I'm doing both. Madam Rogayah is not allowed to say no. Madam Dayang's orders. Don't you worry. I'm joining only the choir and the forum. Madam Dayang herself told me she would kick me out from the forum team, if I sign up for the English drama too."

Sharmila looked back at Danial with a non-satisfied side-eye. "If you say so," concluded Sharmila. "But I dunno. I sensed something fishy here."

Danial looked down to the ground. He could choose to lie to Sharmila. But with her, he couldn't. Their friendship was based on honesty, and honesty made their friendship stronger.

"I joined the choir team because... because..." Danial was looking nervously at Sharmila.

"Because of what?" shouted Sharmila. "Spit it out, sir!"

"Because Raisa Natalia volunteered to be the choir conductor," answered Danial in one single breath. He closed his eyes.

"I knew it," said Sharmila, smiling with triumph. "I know there must be a catalyst for you to join the choir team. Don't you dare to tease me again for joining the English drama because of Zane Lim. You are on the other side of the same coin."

Danial continued to look down. He was pinching his own thumb.

"What are you trying to achieve here, Danial?" asked Sharmila.

"Trying my luck to get closer to Raisa. And, you know..."

Sharmila scoffed.

"At least I'm chasing someone single," rebutted Danial, looking back at Sharmila's face. "You are chasing a pail that already belongs to a well."

"How sure are you that Raisa is single?"

Sharmila's rhetorical question stabbed Danial's heart. It never occurred to Danial that maybe Raisa already had a boyfriend. Danial shook his head to throw that thought to the back of his brain.

"Can we jump straight to business on why you want to meet me sneakily here?" questioned Danial. "Oh, God! We have created enough scandal around the school. You and I."

Sharmila casted a puzzled look at Danial.

"You might not realise it, because you are not as narcissistic as Felisa, Nora, and Anastasia. But all of the guys in Tengku Simpulan Intan are simping at you because you are pretty. And I'm the closest to you. We are friends. But the guys think we are more than that," explained Danial.

"Ewww," disgusted Sharmila.

"I know right," said Danial while rolling his eyes. And then he transformed his face to be serious. "And yet, we are meeting like this. Even Ash thought we were an item this morning, when we were discussing your role in being Lady Tremaine in the English drama."

Sharmila chuckled. "Stop considering all connotations by Joash Law to be literal. I hope you denied his false prediction?"

"Of course I did," answered Danial quickly.

"Good."

"And why do you need to meet me secretly here?" asked Danial again.

Sharmila raised her hands and looked at her pinafore's pockets. "I need to show you something by using my smartphone. I can't show it to you publicly as I don't want to get it confiscated."

Sharmila took out her phone. Tapped its screens for a few seconds, and paused. She read something on it, followed by taking a deep breath. She then transferred her eye contact from her phone screen to Danial's eyes.

"I hope you are ready to read this."

Sharmila showed her phone screen to Danial's face.

Female teenager found dead outside of Mahkota Puri Palace

Danial frowned. "Why is this news relevant?

Sharmila took her phone away from Danial's face and kept it back into her pinafore's pocket.

"The dead teenager is Clarissa Ching," answered Sharmila.

Both Danial and Sharmila were silent for thirty seconds or so. They could only hear each other's breath and the sound of the rustling trees.

When Sharmila's lips moved to pronounce the name of the dead girl teenager, his feeling was empty. Matter of fact, he felt a slight sense of relief. He knew that he should not think it that way because of someone's death, but that was what he felt. And then suddenly, a stream of dark sadness filled his brain. It shocked Danial, causing him to stare blankly to the front, not to Sharmila's face.

"Danial, Danial Izzani," asked Sharmila softly, while snapping her fingers. "I know the news of her death is a shock, but are you okay?"

Sharmila's facial expression was no longer fierce and authoritative. It turned to be worried and concerned.

Danial held his stomach. He gulped. "Actually, I'm not okay, Sharmila. I need to sit down." There was no bench for Danial to sit down behind the computer lab. So, he was just leaning on the wall of the computer lab.

"Clarissa Ching is dead?" asked Danial with disbelief, not hoping for Sharmila to answer it. He looked at Sharmila. And then he looked away.

Sharmila asked Danial anxiously, "You have nothing to do with Clarissa's death, right?"

Danial looked back at Sharmila. He answered her calmly and softly, "I told you this morning, I didn't have the time to read the news. I don't even know how she died."

"Carbon monoxide poisoning," said Sharmila shortly. "She was found in an abandoned car, outside of the Mahkota Puri Palace, in Dirgantara."

"I don't even drive, Sharmila," commented Danial.

"Right, right, right," nodded Sharmila.

Danial's eyes started to be watery. Eventually, a few droplets of water dripped to his cheeks. He released his breath to control his weep.

"I'm not okay, not because she's dead, Sharmila," said Danial with a husky sobbed voice. "I'm not okay because I feel relieved."

Danial paused.

"I feel like a bad person, Sharmila, ohhhhhhh!"

"No, no, no, no," said Sharmila, trying to comfort Danial. She took out a tissue paper from her pocket, took Danial's spectacles from his face, and dabbed his cheeks with her tissue.

Sharmila's facial expression was a mix of sadness and anger. "You are not bad to feel relieved, Danial Izzani. She was the one that had done bad things to you!"

Danial looked at Sharmila, while she was dabbing his cheeks. When his cheeks dried, Sharmila put back his spectacles to his face.

Sharmila stepped back a few steps away from Danial, and raised her chin up. "You are right to feel relieved, Danial."

Danial looked at Sharmila's face with sorrowful moist eyes. Sharmila pursed her lips with repulsed eyes.

She continued, "As she's dead, she can now bury the scout's scandal deep inside her grave."