Class Villainess

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Noah: I'm waiting in front of your club room, please come asap. I'm afraid they'd see me here. Oh, I'm also here with some useful information that might help us in uhm… our mission.

—

I got interested, so I rushed to the club room. I also didn't want him to get beaten up before I could even reach him. I wanted to build trust with Noah because he was my key here. 

He had access to many things I didn't have. Since he was also in one neighborhood with the three stooges and Barbara. 

I might as well asked about Barbara later. 

I walked in the corridor and saw Noah leaning beside the door, reading something on his phone with full focus. Though, based on his movement, it seemed that he did it to avoid sticking out in this crowd.

I walked in and tapped his shoulder. Noah jolted and almost dropped his phone out of shock, "E—Em, you could give me a heart attack!"

I chuckled and unlocked the door. 

Noah and I came in and closed the door instantly. I didn't know what made him so anxious, so I asked, "Okay, Noah. Calm down. You look nervous as heck."

"I can't just calm down, Em. Because I got an information that might be too dangerous."

"Huh? Too dangerous?" I got even more intrigued. "Do tell."

Noah looked around warily, and he drew near me. He reached my ear and whispered, 'I got a rumor that the three stooges got hired to….' Noah hesitated for a moment. I could sense that his body was trembling as he continued sending his information, 'They got hired to beat up and harass a girl in my batch. They did it already, and she was extremely traumatized because they groped her after beating her.'

…

What. The. Fuck.

No, seriously, what the fuck did I just listen to?

They sexually assaulted a girl?! How could some mindless prank turn into physical assault, and now sexual assault?! 

What kind of sick prank they were pulling here?

I backed off from Noah out of reflex and asked, "Is this rumor correct? Do you have real proof?"

"I mean, sexual assault is a terrible crime, so we can't just outright accuse someone of doing it without any proof," I said. As much as I trust Noah, I didn't want to make a stupid move. There was no room for error in here.

Noah hesitated and shook his head, "I… I don't have any proof, Em…."

"Then why are you telling me this?"

"I mean, I got the rumor in the online gossip page of my batch. But it's just mostly rumored…." Noah said I could see that he was guilty of giving incomplete information. Despite his effort, though, what was the point of giving a baseless rumor?

…

Unless…

"Is there no information about the victim?" I asked. That small idea popped into my brain. I knew this kind of rumor rarely had any real evidence because the victim would be too ashamed and scared to come in most of the time.

Besides, she might've been traumatized to even come to school. 

And that was my clue!

"There is no information, sadly…." Noah replied weakly. 

"Then, is there someone in your batch who just suddenly disappears without any notice?"

"Huh? Disappear?" Noah frowned. "Let me recall…."

…

It took a moment until Noah suddenly gave a surprised expression and nodded, "There is one! I talked to her a few times before, but we're not that close. But I remember that she'd always come to the sophomore cafeteria and sat alone."

"But she just suddenly vanished about a week ago. I have no more information about her, though, since I'm not close with her."

"Then, does she have any good friend we can contact with?" I asked eagerly.

"W—Why are you asking this, Em? Is this important for our mission or what?" 

"It is, Noah. Believe it or not, I think that girl is the one who got sexually assaulted by those three stooges," I delivered my guess. "When someone got sexually harassed or assaulted, most of them will try to hide instead of reporting it to the authority."

"Because they are ashamed by what happened and scared that people would ridicule them for being easy and stupid," I explained. "So we need to meet this girl. What's her name?"

"Elise," Noah replied short. 

"Then we need to meet Elise some way, or at least get her contact," I said, giving a new path to our plotting. 

Noah was stunned, and he suddenly asked me, "How come you know all of this, Em? About what happened to sexual assault victims…."

"Ah… I—I just watch a lot of documentaries on YouTube about it…." I replied, dodging his eyes because what I said was a complete bull.

There was another reason… a real reason I refused to remember because it happened in my last life and was too traumatizing for me. I didn't even want to imagine it, not anymore. 

"I see…" Noah nodded, seemingly accepting my answer without more questions, which made me feel relieved. 

"Do you know anyone close to Elise then?" I asked again, redirecting the topic to the real problem here. 

"Well, she does have a best friend, her name is Mona, and she's uh… my neighbor as well…" Noah said.

"Damn, how could you have so many neighbors in here?" 

"W—Well, this is basically the only public school around, and the government already assigned everyone in my area to put their children in this school. We can't do much…."

"Well, I don't have Mona's contact, but she's working as a waiter in her parents' cafe in the city. We can always go there if you want… on the weekend, of course."

Oh, weekend? I tried to recall whether I had anything to do on the weekend… and I did. 

Well, Mason told me this morning that he just got his first front payment for the role in that teen movie as a supporting cast and wanted to treat me something nice downtown. 

But I could always tell him to meet in the afternoon instead, right?

So I could go with Noah in the morning to investigate. I believed it'd be more effective that way, like killing two birds with one stone. 

"We should investigate, Noah. I think we can get good information there," I said. For a case like this, I wanted to see more and get more information before making some moves. Like what I did with Leah, I investigated first before jumping into the action. 

Now, I sounded more like a detective than a vengeful ghost. 

Noah agreed with my request, and that was the only information he got for now. It was more than enough, though. At least we could get a lead on this.

We sat idly, waiting for people to leave the corridor, so it wouldn't be so crowded when we left because of anxiety reasons, of course. 

Noah got up and looked around the club room. My eyes followed him as he checked each porcelain vase, "I didn't know that you're passionate about pottery, Em. It's so rare for people to like this thing, right?"

"Honestly, even I don't have any interest in pottery," I replied truthfully. 

"Huh? Then why are you here?" 

"Because there is no other member except my club president here. So I don't need to deal with the bullshit other clubs have to face," I replied.

I remembered my time in the biology club before and the competition, especially with Albert. He was so ambitious that he threw away my biology research paper submission, so he'd have no contest at all.

…

Yeah, I'd get him soon, definitely. 

"So, you joined for the convenience?" Noah asked.

"Indeed."

"How about these vases? They look so intricate and amazing!" Noah praised as he wiped the rim of one of the vases. 

"Well, most of them were from the graduating seniors, and newer ones are made by my club president. He is actually a very talented potter if I can say," I still remembered how Logan used to make pottery whenever he wanted if he was stressed out.

It was his own way to cope with something that made him stressed out, maybe a mission that I wasn't allowed to know. 

"I see…" Noah nodded. He checked the one made by Logan, the last one before he disappeared out of this school for his whatever mission, and then said, "Em, is this made by your club president?"

"Uh, yeah, that one, he made it about… 4 months ago," I replied. 

"Hmm… he looks like a very delicate guy. Just look at the ornate motive he made for the vase," Noah started commenting like some porcelain expert. I only chuckled because I knew that Logan was faaaar from that delicate word. 

He was rough, and well… kind of edgy. 

Then Noah looked surprised as he saw something at the bottom of the vase, "Em, there is an initial here."