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For as long as Crystal had known Emilia, the girl had never failed to overturn her expectations. This was true on the first day they met, when they barely knew each other, and it was even more true now, when they could already be considered close friends. Something that Crystal couldn't have imagined in her wildest dreams.
Today wasn't any different, because despite leaving so early in the morning with her friends, Emilia still returned all the way to her home just to pick her up. Crystal had no idea what the girl was thinking. After all, she had been able to get to school on her own two feet for years before she came along, hadn't she?
If it had been anyone other than her, Crystal knew that the person would have been exhilarated to have their crush pay them so much attention.
However, the problem was… the more Emilia gave, the greedier Crystal found herself becoming.
As someone who considered herself as a reasonable and practical person, this was a hard pill for her to swallow. Of course, acknowledging her own behavior was the first step to self-improvement, and Crystal knew she had to be the best she could be to really deserve what she desired.
As the two of them settled into the backseat of Emilia's car, Crystal couldn't help but wonder why it was a little emptier than she expected. "Did your friends head straight to school?"
Of course, by 'friends' she was mainly inquiring about Dixie, though she was aware that Koko was there as well. After all, with how diligent the 'knight' usually was, for her to not follow Emilia back was quite a surprise.
"They wanted to take a shower first, and there's not much time left till classes start, so yeah…" Emilia chuckled as she tucked a few stray golden strands behind Crystal's ear. 'Mhm, I should get her a cute headband later. She'll look adorable, I'm sure.'
Crystal nodded, turning her face away from the girl to hide her blush.
Inwardly, she couldn't help but wonder if Emilia really did any practice in the dojo, or if she just went there to watch. After all, there was not a single drop of sweat or any sign that she had even attempted any kind of workout earlier.
Before she could think about it further, however, they finally arrived at school.
With their classes now being different, Emilia didn't expect to meet her friends again till noon. However, Koko seemed to have been already waiting for her, ran towards her moments after she got out of the car.
Emilia smiled as she watched the freckled girl dash, her hair still wet from her shower. She could already guess that Dixie must have forced her to do it first, never realizing that it would just give the girl freedom to run around while Dixie had her turn. Her knight was really too innocent.
The freckled girl slammed into her arms with a giggle, and Emilia couldn't help but sigh. "It's so cold out, Koko, how could you be so careless? Couldn't you have taken a few more minutes to dry your hair properly?"
Koko's hair was neither long nor short, with her brown tresses barely touching her shoulders. Emilia didn't think it would take long for them to dry using one of those 'hairy dryer' magic doodads.
Compared to how long it used to take for her waist-length hair to dry in the previous world, it was practically instant. 'To think that she doesn't even have that much patience… truly, Koko is such a baby.'
"Don't worry, Emilia! Even if I get sick, it's all good news! Hmph, you don't know, let the Great Warrior Koko teach you a trick. When you're sick, even the people who always bully you will treat you super nice!"
Emilia couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Really? Well, let me tell you a little something too. If I find out you intentionally got sick, I'll get you the meanest doctor who will give you the most bitter medicine and lots of injections!"
Koko jumped back from her arms, pointing towards her in shock. "Uwaah! Emilia is a devil! Ahh, but how can a devil be so cute? Emilia is clearly a suc—"
Unfortunately, before their 'fun' could continue, the knight finally arrived, and immediately started pulling Koko's ear angrily. "You're the devil! Who told you to run around and bother Emily right before class?! You're even bothering Crystal."
Dixie's hair was even shorter than Koko's, and should have taken even less time to dry, but it appeared even wetter.
Emilia was almost certain that the girl must have had a bad premonition before she even finished her shower, and dashed out in a panic.
Dixie was very conscious about what kind of image she projected to 'outsiders', and she tried to apply the same to the other people who associated with Emilia as well.
After all, in her mind, one of her primary duties as Emilia's friend was to create a good image for her in the upper circles.
Although that goal seemed to have been already achieved, more or less, maintaining that image was also important. In the upper circle, no one could be sure when someone would manage to take a misleading photograph from the wrong angle, and spread it around to create malicious rumors.
Even if those rumors couldn't cause much harm to Emilia, Dixie felt it was better to not give anyone the opportunity in the first place.
That was why, even though she wished to stick to Emilia when she decided to go back to pick Crystal from her home, she would rather take Koko separately first. After all, the two of them weren't in a very presentable condition while covered in sweat, and sticking to Emilia in such a state would just leave anyone, even Crystal, with a poor impression.
After apologizing to both Emilia and Crystal, the dark-haired girl wasted no time at all in dragging the crying Koko away.
Crystal used to find Dixie's dedication to Emilia quite 'cute', however, that was no longer the case after last night. After all, there was clearly something wrong with the type of obsession this girl had with Emilia! It wasn't cute at all!
Thankfully, with the two of them gone, Crystal could finally have a normal class with Emilia by her side.
The blonde found herself getting a little distracted by how adorable Emilia looked as she stuck out her tongue while rubbing out the 'wrong' diagram on her notebook. 'Huh? That was already perfect… is she trying to make a diagram good enough for an art auction or something?!'
Well, she didn't mind. A frustrated Emilia was much cuter than a bored Emilia. Bored Emilia was more 'cool', however. Crystal of course liked both of them.
As Mr. Jefferson droned on, however, Crystal suddenly had a bad feeling. 'Wait a minute… something doesn't feel right…'
It didn't take her long to realize what was wrong. 'That's right! How can my day be so good?! Even that annoying guy didn't come to bother us today, and he's not glaring at me either, what the heck is going on?!'
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~ To be continued ~
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DustyDream:
Bonus chapter in an hour or so.
Thank you for all your support! :>