小嫂子的味道

Zero\'s match had ended a long time ago but he was still not back in his seat. Anya had noticed this so she was a little worried but since she knew what he was capable of, she didn\'t worry too much.

But the time passed, and two more matches happened but there was no sign of Zero. Finally, her patience gave up; she left her seat and went to search for him. She first looked into the area around the stadium and then went toward where the food stalls were; since she knew he liked food.

Though he was nowhere to be found…She went to the main academy building, the dorm buildings and checked his room, and lastly to the café too but only found disappointment.

Tension was getting the best of her now. Her heart was beating fast as she searched in every place she knew but wasn\'t able to find Zero. Worried and panicking, she came back to the stadium.

Her mind was filled was bad things now and one of them was, \'What if that letter wasn\'t a prank, after all.\'

Zero had told her that the letter was a prank and she shouldn\'t care about it too much, that\'s why she begin to slowly distance herself from Leon. She hadn\'t taken a big step yet—there were still on talking terms and can be identified as friends, but what if the one who sent that letter saw Anya\'s real intentions?

They realized that she wasn\'t going to obey them that\'s why they did what they did.

[I am keeping an eye on you and if you ignored my instructions then it won\'t be good for your brother. He will die] was the last line of the letter and the line that flashed in Anya\'s mind.

\'D-Did…something happened to him because of me?\' she thought. If yes then she was about to die with guilt.

She wasn\'t in the favour of ignoring the letter in the first place but Zero forced her to, she doesn\'t know how but he somehow convinced her. That time it didn\'t it seem plausible to her but now she was heavily regretting her decision.

There was only one hope left for her; Zero\'s homeroom teacher Ryfin. Maybe he would\'ve seen him or known where he is.

She desperately searched for him, the teachers were watching the match from a different room so it took her time to find it—she went on asking where he is with the staff member and other students.

Then she finally found him. He was not in the teachers\' room but was coming back with a glass of red wine in his hand. Anya hurriedly walked over to him and explained the situation.

He first listened calmly and then said, "So you say he\'s missing, huh? I see I see. How much time has passed since then?"

"I don\'t know precisely but I think about an hour," Anya replied.

"An hour…did he say anything to you? Like, he will be going somewhere or anything like that?"

"No, he didn\'t! And I searched for him in the whole academy but he was nowhere to be found."

"Is that so…tell me one thing though, why are you so worried about him? Are you his girlfriend by any chance?" Ryfin asked as he sipped his wine. For a teacher whose student went missing, he was way too calm.

"W-What?! No! I\'m…I mean he is my brother!" said Anya, flustered from Ryfin\'s nonsensical question.

"Ah, sorry about that then, I didn\'t know you two are siblings," this was a lie. Ryfin knew from the start that the two students were brothers and sisters. After all, he had done a good amount of research on Zero.

At this point, Anya was looking down at the ground. Her face was darkened and her eyes looked like she was just about to cry. Seeing this Ryfin tried to console her.

"Hey you, don\'t worry about it too much. Go back to where your class is right now. Now that you\'ve told me about him I\'ll try my best to find him. Maybe he\'s chilling on the rooftop or in the academy office, I\'ll let you know if I find him, okay?" he said.

Honestly, Anya wanted to stay but the possibility of Ryfin allowing that was low. That\'s why she thanked him and then went back.

Ryfin watched her leave as he drank his wine, but instead of going to search for Zero he entered the teachers\' room and continued to watch the rest of the matches.

***

After returning Anya went to her seat, she looked her to Zero\'s seat but he was still not back. She unwillingly sat on her seat and waited and waited and waited and just waited.

Her facial expression was not good and she was not at all watching the matches which were going on in the arena. All that just didn\'t matter to her now, finding Zero was the most important thing for her right now.

She was looking down and thinking about all the possibilities, where he could\'ve gone? Did he just vanish by himself? Or did something happen to him? Her face was pale and she her back was dripped in a cold sweat with her heart.

"What happened?" someone said beside her. The voice was so unexpected that she almost jumped in surprise.

When she looked to her side she saw that Leon was sitting on the seat next to her, he had a concerned look on his face and was looking at her.

"Are you okay? I mean, you don\'t look that way," he said.

"Well…yeah, I\'m fine," Anya replied.

She didn\'t know how she should react to Leon now. If Zero went missing because she tried to distance herself from Leon then should she try to get close to him again? Or is it already too late and she should just stick to what Zero told her?

She was confused and didn\'t know what to do.