Eyes, everywhere we looked. They were all fixated on us as we got closer to the school gate. Kids with the same uniform as us were not able to stop gossiping about us, and every one of them just had one question in mind. Just where have we disappeared for so long?

Ai stuck close to my almost hiding herself from everyone. She was more timid around people than before, and anyone could tell that. She had the character of a cheerful, extroverted girl known by everyone in the school, but this difference in her behaviour could be noticed by even the blindest of people. I can already guess the type of things that are being said around us, but I decided not to pay heed to them. Most of them are going to piss off Ai anyway.

"Don't pay mind to them," I said to Ai, and she looked up to face me, and I shot a big smile at her. Her shoulders got a lot more relaxed, and she smiled back at me as radiant as before, enveloping everyone around with the cuteness emitted from Tsubaki Ai.

"I won't," she said in a little cheerful tone, and I chuckled, seeing her steeling herself to go into the class. We already know a lot of people will be swarming her, and that was the main thing that was worrying us. "Just, stay by my side," she muttered, but I could easily hear it.

"As if I was going anywhere else," I replied making putting her at ease.

We entered the school gate, and all eyes were on us, a lot more intense than before. Ai wore the full sleeve version of the school uniform while I still had the half sleeve one on, but I doubt that is going to cause any issues. We are already pretty close to the winter season now that the temperature is going to be colder, so some students will start wearing the full sleeves uniform.

We walked right through them with me in the front and Ai walking right behind me, holding onto my arm. I can notice the weird look the people around me were giving us, but more importantly, to Ai. Just seeing them act like this was pissing me off. I met their eyes, lightly glaring at them, making each of them quickly look the other way. Better.

As soon as we entered the class, all the eyes fell on us. I could see Ai's friends looking at her with a worried and surprised look. The class erupted, and almost everyone rushed towards us. Ai pressed herself against my back, and I stood between them and her.

"Tsubaki-san, are you alright?"

"Why were you absent for so many days? You never miss a school day?"

"Is everything alright? You can tell us; we are your friends."

"Why are you standing behind Shiba anyway?"

"Hey, Shiba, get out of the way. We have to talk to Tsubaki-san."

The audacity of these people. Haruka and the other quickly made their way through the group of people and started pushing them away.

"Okay, we have the entire day, so stop bombarding them with questions," Haruka said, pushing them away. "They just came back after a long time. Is this how you welcome them?"

"If you value your life, back off," Asumi threatened them, cracking her knuckles.

"P-please stand back!" Sakura tried her best to voice her thoughts. I am honestly very grateful for them. They were handling this a lot better than I would, though I don't mind my method either.

Soon, the group that was pushing against me, trying to get to Ai, became slower and disappeared in the next five minutes. It took a lot of convincing by the three of them, but I started to get annoyed by how persistent they were. Ai, on the other hand, didn't reply to any one of their questions and stood behind me, grabbing my arm tighter. Whatever Dominic did to her still had a big impact on her mental state. We also don't know if there are any underlings of that bastard around us, so being extra wary of everyone around us is our best bet to do anything about this situation.

After fully getting everyone to leave us alone, our saviours turned around to face us, and Ai slowly emerged from behind me. She looked at them with a guilty look on her face. "I'm sorry…I worried everyone…" she said meekly, but all she was met with was three pairs of hands grabbing her and pulling her into a big group hug. She was a little taken aback by this and turned around to face, but I just smiled at her.

"There is no reason to apologize, dummy. Of course, we will worry about you. We are friends after all, right?" Haruka said, grabbing both of Ai's shoulders. "You never replied to any one of our texts or calls. We even visited your place, but neither of you were there."

"We just wanted to make sure everything was okay," Asumi said, lightly tapping Ai on her arm.

"Yes, we just wanted to know if you guys were safe. You both randomly just disappeared," Sakura said.

"You guys…" Ai was touched by seeing this and turned around to look at me again, but I had the same smile plastered on my face. You have people who care about you, Ai, no matter what happens. I hope you can understand this, too.

She looked back at them and hugged all three in one go. Due to the fact that Ai was so happy, she ended up jumping into them to hug them, and all four just ended up on the floor. They all started happily laughing, and I couldn't help but stand there with a warm feeling in my heart. There are so many more people who care about you, and it makes me so happy how safe you feel around them.

I walked over to them and helped them stand up. While Ai was happily giggling and held onto me, all three of them looked at me with a look on their face. Wait, did I do something wrong? Why are you looking at me like this?

"When did you get so muscular out of nowhere?" Asumi commented. "Last I remembered, you didn't have this much muscle on you. It looks a lot more apparent."

"Aaah, this? Just got into some body weight for stuff now, so you know. The gains have to come sooner or later," I said, looking at my arms. Is it that noticeable? I mean, my muscles have been a lot bigger than before after I fully converted into a half vampire, but I didn't think it was that big of a difference. Not like I am complaining, I do like how my body looks now, and Ai seems to have taken a liking to this body.

"I couldn't tell, but this big a change this quick? Don't tell me you hopped on some gear," Asumi said, and a sweat drop fell from my face. I can't really say that is because I am a half-vampire now.

"Stop checking out my Kazu-kun!" Ai said, jumping between us and rapidly moving her arms up and down. We both looked at her and started laughing, making Ai a little confused. "Hey, why are you laughing? It's not a joke!"

"Ahahaha, I know, I know, Ai. No one is going to steal your little boyfriend here," Asumi said, putting her arm around Ai's shoulder and starting to whisper something in her ear, and all I saw was smoke starting to come out of her head as her ear got red. She nodded, and Asumi looked back at me and whistled. "Good going, man," she said, giving me a thumbs-up.

Okay, what is going on? What is she even saying to Ai? Why is Ai blushing? Thoughts like this filled my head, and I looked around only to see the jealous looks of people in the class. While the girls were giggling, seeing how Ai is openly professing how much she loves me, the guys just couldn't hold back their jealousy. Like you all ever had a chance.

I grabbed Ai from the shoulder and pulled her closer to me. Her face was still bright red, and she looked up at me with her eyes looking a little hazy. Okay, seriously, what did you say to her?

"Enough now, at least let her sit down, then talk to her," I said and led her to her seat, where she put down her bag, and the three followed us. I stood next to Ai while the three were asking her all sorts of questions, and good thing we had already practiced in the morning what we were going to say.

The story was, a very close relative of mine passed away, so I had to leave for the countryside in a rush, and Ai decided to join me. It was a very remote area in the mountains, so the connection wasn't the best, and all calls and messages were unable to go through. After the ceremony ended, I decided to stay by their side for longer, being of as much help as I could, and Ai, who didn't want to go back to a lonely apartment for some weeks, also stayed with us.

"I see, well, I am happy everything is fine," Haruka said, and both of us let out a sigh of relief. It was good that they believed us. The bell rang, and we started to scurry back to our seats. Much to Ai's dismay and mine, I had to walk all the way back to the class to my seat next to the window.

I could feel the curious eyes staring at me after Asumi's comment. Sigh, this is getting troublesome. Well, now that this was taken care of, I sat down at my seat, seeing Natsumi-san entering the classroom with her register. Her eyes fell on both of us, and her expression softened for a second before her stern teacher aura took over.

"You have a lot of guts, taking such a long vacation, Kazuki," Sensei said, and I gulped. Oh no, I have to face her wrath either way. Please give me back the kind and soft Natsumi-san. Why must you forsake me, god?

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