3rd Grade hallway, near the entry to 2nd Grade hallway. Aoi is leaning against the wall, grinning from ear to ear, looking towards the main doors. Rose walks in, her hair tips faintly glowing and her eyeliner swirling around her eyes. She’s smiling and humming something to herself.
"Good morning, Rosie-chan…" Aoi says with a mile-wide grin on her face.
Rose stops, sees Aoi’s grin and blushes furiously, the surrounding air suddenly aflame with pinkish embers. "G- Good Morning Aoi…" she manages to mutter out.
"Well, blondie-chan must be good…" Aoi says, still grinning.
"AOI!" Rose yelps out, shocked. Her face flushes bright red.
"Oh look, the rose has finally bloomed into a red one." Aoi teases and laughs.
"Aoi, I will kill you." Rose mutters quietly.
"No, you won’t.. I.. I think this Rose isn’t thorny anymore…" Aoi smiles gently at her friend. "Rosie-chan.. Will you tell me, one day.. What that is...?" Aoi points at Rose’s chest, where the small pink jewel-like glow is, just above her shirt’s neckline.
"It’s.. it’s the future, and our way forward.," Rose closes her eyes and smiles. She touches the glow with her fingertips. "It’s the salvation of us. Of all the Naturals, and we have Lili to thank for it… I will tell you one day soon. But for now, it’s still too fresh that I could talk about it clearly. But, it’s not anything bad, I can tell you that."
"Future and Salvation, eh? Those are some big words, Rosie-chan." Aoi says astonished.
"Yeah, but they don’t even begin to describe the feeling. Aoi… I’m not afraid anymore. In the future, I’m going to feel hope, love, anger and sadness, but I’m not afraid anymore. And it’s all thanks to her."
"Oh my, that really was a big kiss on the stage back then, eh?" Aoi says and grins at her again.
"AOI!" Rose exclaims, but calms down immediately afterwards "But yeah, you’re right. It was…"
"Well, you can repeat that now, if you want," Aoi says smiling.
"Huh?" Rose exclaims.
Aoi says "Look, it’s your sunshine," and points at Lily who’s in all purposes running towards Rose.
"Lili!" Rose yelps and runs off to meet her.
Aoi grins wildly at Rose’s back.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
