Sour Cherry (Makoto)

Oh, I lose control when I hear your body move And I’m dying to break through To the next room

tags: Makoto Kaede - wc: 540 Fukui was so much more pleasant with no one around. That was how Svetlana felt anyway. She walked quietly through the halls of the main building, her school bag filled with everything but textbooks tucked under her arm. It was much more quiet in peaceful with pretty much all of the chatty girls absent. On the other hand, there was still the sounds of teachers socializing or working, but that always faded quickly once she passed certain doors. Only the sound of her feet shuffling could be heard once she made her way down a flight of stairs. Svetlana hated school. Every one of her teachers knew that. All of her peers knew, if they had even seen her before. However, there was something enjoyable about hanging around after hours. That, of course, was accessible everything ones. There were no students to bump into in the halls, and every room in the main building was pretty much empty aside from a few teachers or after school clubs here and there. That meant finding treasure was always way too easy, and today she was eager to get her hand on whatever she could find. A little ways down the hall, Svetlana began hearing the sound of a rustling door knob, which startled her and compelled her to duck behind a stack of boxes placed outside of one of the other classrooms. She didn’t want to be seen, in case her presence made anyone suspicious. It was most likely a teacher leaving for the day… Perfect target, she thought. With her hands placed on the floor on each side of her to keep herself steady, she stealthily peered around the end of the cardboard boxes to get a good look at what would be her new victim. A man…? She furrowed her eyebrows and squinted to get a good look at the person. Yes, it was definitely a man. Someone she had never seen before, so she couldn’t have had a class with him. What a poor sap, she thought, being stuck working at Fukui. Either he must have been some loser who couldn’t find a job elsewhere, or worse. He was some sick pervert who got off on being around young girls. Whatever the case was, she wouldn’t feel bad about targeting the guy. Svet pressed her back against the wall and remained quiet once she heard the jingling of his keys stop. Soon after, his footsteps gradually faded. She listened in silence as he descended the stairs, and after counting to sixty, she stood up and tiptoed her way over to his door. It was funny how people these days still used locks for things. Lock picking was one of the easiest things she had ever learned in her life. Before doing anything, she waited a few seconds outside of the door, looking up and down the halls and listening one last time to be sure that no one was coming. Of course there was no one. All of the smart people left this hellhole hours ago. Svetlana then retrieved a few tools from the side pocket of her bag, and in seconds, she silently jimmied the lock and slipped inside unnoticed, being sure to close the door behind her.

Made by Siren of GS and THQ

“Phew.” A sigh of relief sounded from a single, diligent instructor as he finally placed his pen atop the desk. Though it was only his second day on the job, the work had already begun to accumulate, resulting in a late stay within these nearly abandoned halls. Makoto didn’t mind too much however. After all, staying after hours in order to finish some extra work wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling for him. At the very least, he’d finished his work at around 5:30 PM instead of the 11 PM he was accustomed to. On top of that, some of his peers still lingered about. It was a much better alternative to standing quietly and alone in a pharmacy after hours, all for the sake of preparing for the upcoming day.

His work now finished, the young man’s chair would roll back easily, allowing him to stretch as he slowly stood up. Arms extended into the air, a muffled yawn quietly sounded within the room as he’d revert back to a normal posture. Makoto’s hands then neatly gathered together the papers he was working on, stacking them up evenly before storing the entire lot away in a manila folder he had labeled within the confines of his desk drawer. Satisfied with the day’s work, he’d give the classroom a final sweep before wrapping things up.

The room was rather bland in comparison to his colleagues’. Having just settled in, it sorely lacked decorations and only a few things of note resided. Atop the desk rest a school provided PC which had been securely logged out of. Running from the PC’s speakers, a long, thin and dangly wire extended, leading directly into an old MP3 player rather than the computer itself. If one listened closely, the words softly echoing in the background were definitely English. To those a bit more familiar with American music, the song appeared to be “Say it ain’t so” by an artist going off the name Weezer. Another item of note included a rather heavy mortar and pestle set that appeared to be made of marble. Its gloss was still ever present, an indication of its owner’s care. Upon closer inspection, several words were etched onto the outer rim of the mortar in Japanese. “Nothing ever lasts.” This particular item sat off to one side of the desk, placing it safely away from the edge while leaving room to work. Other than that, the rest included properly organized papers of no importance. Oh, and all of the drawers were left unlocked except for a single cabinet in the top left of the desk.

After confirming that all was well within his classroom, he’d crack a smile at the notion. His classroom. It had a nice ring to it despite the thought never crossing his mind even once prior to accepting this job. Makoto then proceeded swiftly towards the exit, leaving without much delay while securely locking the door behind him. Quietly humming remnants of the song to himself, he’d check the door once, confirming its locked state before finally departing. All that remained on the lad’s mind was today’s dinner plan. Having recently moved into his new home, the fridge remained embarrassingly barren. Perhaps he’d explore the local eateries for now? A convenience store seemed most likely.

Svetlana Malakhov

GREY!

Oh, I lose control when I hear your body move And I’m dying to break through To the next room

tags: Makoto Kaede - wc: 817 Typical boring classroom, only a little worse. The room was mostly empty, aside from the basics. What a disappointment, Svetlana thought. Of all of the rooms she could have picked, she picked the emptiest one. Her eyes scanned the room as she quietly made her way towards the back end of it. There were cabinets there, but upon examining them, they were mostly filled with useless school junk. What kind of classroom was this? Svetlana cursed under her breath, unsatisfied with her findings already. As she walked slowly through the rows of desks, she leaned over to peer inside of each one. Empty. Empty. Empty. Oh look, some gum. The girl huffed, standing in the middle of the desks, her hand angrily clenching the end of one of them. This was pointless. She wouldn’t be wrong to totally trash this room after it proving to be so worthless to her. Not a single student had left anything of value behind, which was somewhat surprising. And of course, the bastard whose room it was didn’t seem to keep a decent classroom to begin with. It was probably in her best interest to not completely lose it just yet. Her eyes fixed on the teacher’s desk, some ways away from the row where she stood. Jackpot. The girl almost cracked a small smile. That was where she needed to be looking. At her old school, teachers kept all kinds of things in their desk, things that they needed to lock away. On one occasion, she had found a desk drawer filled with confiscated items, like cellphones and MP3 players. That was what was really valuable… However, she was willing to take even small items, like treats or cash. Or even better, something that she could blackmail the guy with. She snickered quietly as she walked over to his desk, carelessly flopping down into his chair and dropping her bag down on the floor beside her. There was no doubt that someone like him would have something secret hidden inside of his desk. She started at the bottom right drawer, slowly pulling it to reveal what was inside. Papers. Just neatly filed papers. She pulled a small stack out and began flipping through them. They were hard to understand for her, but from what she could read, it just seemed like a bunch of pointless files written with teacher jargon. She dropped page by page onto the floor as she flipped through them until every single sheet from the small stack was scattered on the floor to her right. Garbage. Svetlana clenched her teeth, flipping through the manila folders to be sure that nothing was hiding in the bottom of the drawer. This wasn’t a good start, but there were still more drawers to go. Svetlana pulled the top right draw out and looked inside. More papers and then some random things like paper clips and pens. Less paper than the other one, but she could tell that it was trash just by looking at them. The bottom left drawer, much to her dismay, had nothing of importance inside either. The top left drawer… Well, it was locked. She could have easily picked it, but the chance of her breaking something on it was high, and a picked and broken desk lock would have raised too much suspicion. The girl could feel her face heat up with anger. What a waste of her time. This teacher was worthless like the rest of them. If he was going to be a pervert lurking around in a place like this, he could have at least been an interesting pervert. But no, that wasn’t the case. Svetlana scoffed, pushing the papers around on top of the desk in a last effort to find something interesting. There was a laptop, but everyone had one these days, and the model present was nowhere near the best. Plus there were too many annoying wires attached to it. She would at least have to take something that would inconvenience him since she was already there. In her sloppy search, her hand bumped the pestle and mortar on top of his desk, nearly knocking it off. If it hadn’t been for her reflexes, if would have fell to the floor, but fortunately her fingers wrapped around it just in time. Wait… she thought, examining the item now in her hands. This is perfect. She stood from the seat, lifting the item as she did. She had seen similar items like this. Her father and mother even had one for decoration back at home. However, none were as nice as this one. She looked closer at the item, reading the writing on it. How ironic would it be to take something that had such an etching? Even though the pervert would notice that it was gone, everyone would probably blame the janitors anyway. Yeah, this will have to do.

Made by Siren of GS and THQ

Half way out of the front lot, Makoto would pause suddenly, his steps grinding to a halt as a sudden realization had hit him. In his eagerness to depart, the young man had foolishly left his MP3 player back in the classroom. Now typically this wouldn’t be a problem, however if memory him served correctly, it was left on. Unwilling to allow the battery to run dry, let alone endure tomorrow’s post-class paperwork grind without even the slightest hint of music, he’d swing back on a whim, returning into the academy.

-x-

Meanwhile in within the room, unbeknownst to our inexperienced instructor, a young she-devil of a delinquent had gone rummaging through his desk. Papers scattered about in a cruel fashion that’d leave Makoto in grief rather than annoyance due to his OCD, the sight was a nightmare to say the least. With everything left in tatters, mortar and pestle misplaced, only thing seemed left untouched. The old but well taken care of MP3 player left on the corner of his desk continued to play music, slowly switching tracks after a sufficient amount of time had lapsed. By this point the chorus of the song began echoing within the room. She’s a runner, rebel and a stunner – On her merry way sayin’ baby what you gonna?...[Click me!] Softly filtering out into the halls, the familiar tune could be made out by Makoto as he strode toward his destination.

As he approached and the words became more discernable, his voice would begin to sing along with the lyrics. Pausing briefly in front of the door, a skeptical look was given as his hand twisted slowly on the knob. Strange. I could’ve sworn I locked it… Out of hesitance, he’d gaze up at the name plate, quickly confirming the room number before sliding the door open curiously. By this point, the fluffy black hair of the man peaked through the opening, followed by a pair of sharp, almond shaped eyes colored a deep hazel. On the man's face, metal frames sat atop his nose. His eyes swept once across the room prior to the door sliding fully open.  What awaited the young Kaede?

Svetlana Malakhov

GREY!

Oh, I lose control when I hear your body move And I’m dying to break through To the next room

tags: Makoto Kaede - wc: 481 Svetlana flopped back down in the chair, a satisfied smirk on her face as she observed her finding closely. It was nice and all, but she was sure that there was more to get out of rummaging this room. Items like this one were always great to take, simply because the reaction once they went “missing” were like no other. This kind of cliché garbage is what people valued, typically. No one cared that much for the things that actually had conspicuous monetary value. For example, wherever the sound of music was coming from… Svet looked around the room, squinting her eyes slightly. At first, she figured that it was coming from somewhere else, another room in this hall. This was an art school after all, and there was always someone playing music somewhere, especially during the hours after school. However, from where she sat, the music sounded louder. Her eyes followed the sound of the music to the left side of the desk. Ah, she thought to herself, That must be where it’s hidden, and the reason it’s locked… The student shoved her hand into the side pocket oh her bag, pulling two metal tools she had snatched from the ceramics room out and forcing her new treasure into the compartment. This guy must not have been very smart. What was the point in locking something like this up? With the way the music played it was almost as if there were neon signs around the desk, pointing out exactly where thieves should look. She scoffed quietly, shaking her head, and carefully inserted the tools into the tiny lock on the desk. It didn’t take long for her to wiggle the lock undone, but just as she began putting her tools away, she heard footsteps near the door. Initially, she stopped to listen in silence. There were still people walking around the halls at this hour even though school was out, but this person, whoever it was, stopped just outside of the door. She could see the shadow near the crack at the bottom of the door. Shit. The girl shot up from the desk, removing herself from the spot in the chair and stepping on the papers beside the desk as she did. It was a bit too early for the janitors to be making their rounds, so it had to be that damned creep. She was screwed. Her eyes darted around the room, but there was nowhere to hide, and even if she was pretty stealthy, this was real life so she couldn’t jump out of the window. She would rather be caught stealing than hauled off in an ambulance. She cursed the teacher under her breath. If he wasn’t so careless, he would have probably had something in the room that she could at least hide behind, but here she was, standing exposed in his shit classroom.

Made by Siren of GS and THQ