❝お見通しそれ You doubt me
読み切って レッツ Showdown❞

xv. crescent: growing friendship

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"Name one thing I'm not good at!" Grayson barked at Blaze as they were heading towards their homeroom. They both got into a fight about cats and dogs; now it led to something else. "Everything!" Blaze shouted back erupting into laughter showing her pearl white teeth. Grayson rolled his eyes to the sky and snorted, "just wait until my therapist hears about this."

Blaze and Grayson got into many small cats and dog fights, ironically. This only helped to make their friendship thicker with both earning each other's trust. Blaze pulled out a pack of gum from her pocket and took one, unwrapping it and then popping it inside her mouth. Grayson looked at her side, "Can I have the pack?" Blaze widened her eyes listening to how absurd his demand was and nodded her head a big no. "Then give me a gum," he asked and Blaze shrugged pulling out one and reaching it out to him.

While trying to reach their homeroom without any problems (with a problem magnet), they both saw people rushing towards them both and then just pushing them like how they do in fish markets. People seemed to be in a hurry, panicking, pace up and down, and quacking in their boots. Blaze and Grayson shared a confused look on their face and decided to follow them.

They both gaped their eyes a little open seeing a dead female body on the floor, cold metallic crimson blood gushing out and eyes closed. A few people were crying, must be her close friend. Some students with a brown tag on their chest were covering the body and holding up an investigation. "Who are they and what is this?" Blaze questioned scanning her whole surroundings with her eyes. Grayson replied, "they are the detective team of the school. We come across a few murders and the student council doesn't want the police or outsiders to interfere with the casualties, resulting in the detective club. Jeongguk Stallion leads this club."

"With the look in your face, I can say this is not your first time seeing a murder," Blaze uttered with a tender voice, her tone was softer than usual. Grayson nodded his head slowly as if he regretted his whole life decision and said, "I can say the same about you." Blaze puffed her cheeks and looked at the body. Blood was splattered like paint on white canvas, and people were moved the slightest as murder is not a sin, but just a harsh reality everyone should accept.

"The murderer was in a rush and a left-hander," Blaze kneeled and looked over the trails of blood. "How?" Grayson questioned taking a glimpse of Blaze and then averting his gaze to the place where Blaze was staring at. "Do you see the blood? it is still fresh, but it seems leveled and dry with wave-shaped stains. The murderer must have tried to clean up the body and the blood and it looks like she/he failed miserably. While trying to clean up the bloody mess, they must have used a kerchief and cleaned it in a wave manner, people tend to use wave-type cleaning when they are in a hurry, the reason is they might have heard footsteps coming towards them. The wave started from left and then right, left-handers naturally start everything from the left side," Blaze answered and then started to search the students buzzing up like bees on a honey hive.

"That guy is the murderer," she pointed to the blonde-haired guy with pale blue eyes, biting his nails anxiously as if he just committed a murder. "The crystals on the ground must belong to the dead girl's chain. They are scattered all over the floor like the blood and seems like he rested his palm on the crystals while trying to clean the blood and a few stuck onto his palm and leave prints. There is a lump on his left hand's middle finger indicating that he is a left-hander," Blaze profounded standing up swiftly and dusting her skirt neatly. "You really solved a murder case in less than 60 seconds. Do you have any idea about joining the detective committee? you could be of great help!" Grayson was clearly knocked down with a feather; Blaze's capability of becoming a well-known detective is higher than the detective club students, to be frank.

"Whoa there cowboy! I couldn't have solved the case without the dead girl's crystal though and I have zero probability of joining the detective club," Blaze chuckled and started to leave the crime scene. "You're not gonna tell this to the people investigating?" He questioned walking along with Blaze. "They must have found it by now judging the look on their faces,"  She replied sparing a last glance at the scene and left.

"And oh, I found what the term beehive means based on the faline academy," Blaze smiled matching her footsteps with Grayson. "The school is the beehive, the student council are the female bees, the students are the male bees and a member from the council is the queen bee," She clapped her hands slightly and jumped from the black block to the white on the floor. "It is very simple. The female bees collect honey and do all the work: the student council recruits the pupils of this academy, The male bees actually do nothing except mating: the mating here refers to gambling for the students, and the queen bee, it is still a mystery to me. A group of people can never work without a proper chain of command and a worthy dominating leader and someone from the student council is the leader."

"What makes you think that the student council has a leader?" Grayson questioned still chewing the gum and Blaze pouted, "the credibility gap between the student council with grow to a larger extent without someone to command and help them co-operate with each other. After all, what's a spider without its head and a bee herd without its queen bee?"

"Your thinking and way of grasping things never fail to amaze me, Blaze. Any guesses on who the student council's head?" Grayson smiled. Blaze hesitated for a bit, but regained her composure quickly and responded, "It is not Chaeyoung, no one wants a person with trust issues and ego to be their leader. Not Jisoo either, she is too impulsive and has no hopes of building a strategy. I'm 100% sure that it's not Emily, her cunningness, unpredictability, and looking down on people are the opposite traits of a leader. It's not Taehyung either, no one listens to a hot suicidal psychopath who would instead of asking a girl out on a date, would ask her to join his double suicide." Grayson chuckled, "I never thought about this all in your perspective damn woman, I'm jealous."

Blaze grinned from ear to ear, "Thanks to my past trauma."

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❝ I can see right through you, you doubt me
Reading all the signs, let's have a showdown❞

+ btw, the pack of gum(second paragraph) is not a filler. It is a psychological trick called the door on the face technique. You ask someone something that is impossible and deniable and then ask something possible and easier than the first request.