I tilted my head. "What? Cat got your tongue?"
Then, I suddenly heard a familiar voice from behind.
"What's going on here? Aria, is that you?"
I froze for a moment before quickly turning my head to see where the voice was coming from. Standing there, her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised in curiosity—and perhaps mild disappointment—was none other than Elizabeth-sensei, one of the teachers from my school.
"Elizabeth-sensei?" I blurted out, my stomach sinking.
This was bad. Really bad. A teacher catching me mid-fight on my day off? I could already imagine the long, exasperated lecture coming my way.
Elizabeth-sensei's sharp gaze flickered between me, the red-haired woman pinned beneath me, and Yuuji, who was gripping the hem of my shirt. The entire situation looked… well, terrible.
I scrambled to explain before she could get the wrong idea. "Um... uh... it's not what it looks like! It was like this—"
Before I could even finish my sentence, Yuuji suddenly cut in, his voice loud and dramatic as he pointed at the red-haired woman.
"This bad woman attacked my Onee-chan all of a sudden!"
Elizabeth-sensei let out a long, weary sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose as if this situation was giving her a headache.
"Aria… care to explain why I found you in the middle of what looks like a street brawl?"
Her sharp eyes then shifted to the red-haired woman still pinned beneath me. Her expression hardened as she addressed her.
"And you… Ariana… you have a lot of explaining to do."
Ariana?
I blinked, momentarily distracted. Her name was Ariana? It sounded so similar to mine… but that wasn’t the important part right now.
I loosened my grip slightly, still wary but no longer pressing down as hard. Turning to Elizabeth-sensei, I hesitated before asking, "You know her, sensei?"
Elizabeth-sensei nodded, crossing her arms. "Of course. She’s your senior. A second-year."
Wait, what?
I turned my head back to Ariana, who looked just as irritated as before but was no longer struggling. My senior? That meant she attended the same school as me?
I frowned, trying to process the new information. "This troublemaker is a student at our school?"
Ariana scoffed, finally shoving me off her as she sat up, rubbing her wrists. "Tch. So what if I am? You got a problem with that?"
I narrowed my eyes at her. "Yeah, I do. You just attacked me out of nowhere!"
Ariana clicked her tongue. "You were playing dumb and pretending you weren’t Irana. Who wouldn’t be pissed?"
"Because I am not Irana!" I shot back, exasperated.
Elizabeth-sensei sighed again, clearly growing tired of our back-and-forth. She placed a hand on her hip and gave us both a firm look.
"Enough. Both of you, stand up. We’re not going to have this conversation on the ground like children."
Reluctantly, I stood up, brushing the dust off my clothes, while Ariana stretched her arms as if this whole thing had been nothing more than a warm-up.
Elizabeth-sensei’s eyes darted between the two of us. "Now, explain. Properly."
I took a deep breath, ready to tell my side of the story.