Tear

"Good work. The monster is no more." Ms. Reachet told us, after our first run-in with a monster.

"So, is that it?" Ail asked. "Or are there more we've got to deal with?"

"There are many more. And that one was weak compared to the rest you'll encounter later."

I don't like the sound of that...

"We didn't do too well, though..." I added. "The monster captured a person..."

"That's to be expected."

"What do you mean?" Ail asked again.

"Monsters only attain physical form by taking control of a person's power." Ms. Reachet explained. "It will always try to capture a person. It can even capture one of you, so be careful."

"Isn't there a way to avoid that from happening?"

"The best thing to do is to stay together until you defeat all the monsters."

"Of course..."

"That means the Master Chef has to stick with these two? He supposes there's no choice..."

"Too bad for you, chef boy."

"Anyway, off you go. Good luck."

We all left the room afterward.

--

"That wasn't too bad, I guess." Ail said, while walking down the hall with me and Barry.

"What wasn't?" I asked him.

"The monster. I imagined something a lot worse." He said, looking partially relieved.

"But still, I'm not looking forward to seeing the other ones..."

"Neither am I..." Ail sighed. "But it's not like we have much choice. Apparently."

"The Master Chef is distraught with this as well."

"Really? Because it sure doesn't seem like it."

"By the way." Barry said suddenly. "The Master Chef is having a barbeque at the beach tomorrow."

"... So?" Ail seemed irritated by the sudden statement.

"Remember what Ms. Reachet said? We have to stick together. The Master Chef hopes you both have no plans this weekend."

O-oh no...

Ail sighed. "You're lucky I don't... What about you, Tear?"

"N-no, but..."

"But what?"

"W-what exactly are we going to do at the beach...?" I asked, not wanting to hear what I thought I would hear.

"Like the Master Chef said, he is having a barbeque. There'll also be volleyball, swimming, and even a tour of Grit Cave!"

"A tour of Grit Cave? Oh goodie..."

"I-I'm sorry, I don't like swimming much... In fact, I'm not very active at all..." I told him.

"Don't worry, there's still the Master Chef's food to look forward to!"

"Enough with the 'Master Chef's; it's getting wicked annoying. And Tear's going to get bored just eating your food, chef boy."

"My food is worth the boredom! ... E-er, that is..." Barry coughed. "The Master Chef is sure you'll find something to do there!"

"T-that's okay, I think I'll just stay here. You have fun without me..."

"You can't! Does the Master Chef need to explain again?!"

"B-but I..." ...really don't want to go...

"Hey Tear, you like to draw, right? Just do that while you're there." Ail suggested.

"Alright, I guess..." If all I have to do is draw...

"Okay, see you!" Barry said quickly, then started to walk away from us.

"Wait a sec, chef boy!"

"What?! The Master Chef has very important things to do!"

"You didn't tell us what time the barbeque is!"

"Oh, right. 1 o' clock at Star Beach. Try not to be too late."

"Alright, thanks."

"If that's all, the Master Chef'll be going now..." Barry went to his room.

--

"A barbeque, huh? Not exactly what I had in mind for this weekend, but whatever." Ail said, lying on his bed. "You got anything to wear for tomorrow, Tear?"

"I'll just wear the usual." I was drawing while sitting on my own bed, not really paying attention to what Ail was saying. "I won't really be doing anything, anyway."

"You're kidding, right? You'll get heatstroke if you wear that to the beach!"

"I'll be fine."

"Tear, there's no way I'm letting you wear your sweatshirt there."

What he said caught my attention. "W-why not...?"

"Because it's the beach. Need I say more?"

"I-it still might be chilly there. You never know..."

"It's even hot at school! How hot do you think it'll be when you go to the beach tomorrow?" Ail got up suddenly. "Why are you so attached to that sweatshirt, anyway?!"

"I-I'm not!" I said nervously. "I just don't like to be cold, that's all..."

"You're going to get sick if you don't stop wearing that thing!"

"B-but..."

"Don't make me take it off you myself!" Ail said angrily, getting closer and closer to me.

"E-eh?!"

He's not serious, is he?!

"D-don't!" I backed away, only to have the wall stop me.

"... Relax, I wasn't being serious." Ail said, his expression softening.

"R-really?" I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Seriously though... Don't blame me if you get heatstroke. I mean it." Ail went back to rest on his bed.

I'm sorry, Ail...

--

The next day, we went to Star Beach. Ail decided to bring some of his friends too: Tech, Mac, and... Chelsea.

Why did Chelsea have to come?

"Welcome to the Master Chef's barbeque!" Barry greeted us, along with three other girls who were with him.

"Hope you don't mind, but I brought some friends with me." Ail said to Barry.

"Well... Since you brought a cute girl with you, the Master Chef guesses it's fine."

"I have to say, you have good taste. But..." Chelsea grinned, then latched onto Ail's arm. "...my heart only belongs to Ail~ey!"

"H-hey! Quit it!" Ail said struggling, with a slight blush on his face.

C-Chelsea likes Ail?

"The Master Chef understands..." Barry sighed. "What a waste."

"What's that supposed to mean, chef boy?!"

"Anyway, the Master Chef would like you to meet his three biggest admirers: Ally, Betty, and Relly."

"Oh. These are my friends Chelsea, Mac, and Tech."

"Master Chef, is the food ready yet?" Betty asked Barry, not paying attention to Ail.

"Oh, that's right! The Master Chef just finished cooking. Let's eat."

"Oh boy! I can't wait!" Mac said happily.

"Heh, that's so like you."

"What? Doesn't the food smell good, Ail?"

"Yeah, but I'm not sure I want to risk eating something chef boy made..."

"For your information, the Master Chef has never had a single person reject his food." Barry said confidently. "Not even once."

"Sure, whatever you say."

"Hey Mr. Chef, I want some food too~!"

"Help yourself, Chelsea."

That's all I heard before I left them and sat on a towel. Tech was also sitting there, but he seemed to be too preoccupied with his laptop to notice me.

I wonder if Ail likes Chelsea too... ...w-wait, why am I so concerned about this?!

For some reason, I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I decided to do something else to get it out of my mind.

"U-um, Tech was it...?" I said to him nervously.

He didn't answer, still not taking his eyes off what he was doing.

"A-are you doing programming stuff on your computer?" I said, remembering what Ail told me before.

"Yes, my work's not finished." He said with a monotonous voice.

"I-I see. Do you like your work? Is it hard?"

"Please stop talking to me. It's distracting."

"O-oh, sorry..." So much for trying to make conversation...

I sighed. "I'll just draw..."

I started to draw whatever I had to look at, not really paying much attention to what I was doing.

"..."

--

"Hey, Tear! Whatcha drawing?"

"A-Ail?!" I said in shock, after getting out of my daze. He had apparently come over here with food (hotdogs, to be exact).

"Can I see what you drew so far?"

"H-huh? Drew?"

"Yeah, in your drawing pad..." Ail started poking my forehead.

I looked at my drawing pad, realizing what I had drawn. "A-ah!" I blushed in embarrassment, and hid the pad behind me.

"What? You won't show me?"

"T-there's no way I can let you see this!"

"Fine, whatever. Be that way." Ail glared at me for a little while, then turned his attention to Tech. "Hey, you hungry? You probably skipped breakfast, as usual."

"..." Tech didn't respond.

"I don't think he's listening..."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious..." He said, still looking bitterly at me. "C'mon, Tech. Take a break; working on that thing all the time's not healthy."

"Fine!" Tech closed his laptop suddenly, which shocked me a little. He snatched a hotdog from Ail.

"No need to be so mad." Ail chuckled.

"You're too nosey for your own good." Tech uttered, before taking a bite of his hotdog.

"Yep, that's one of my many faults." Ail turned his attention back to me. "What about you, Tear? Want one?"

"It's okay, I'm not hungry right now."

"'kay then, don't blame me if you're hungry later."

"C-can I ask you something?" I asked him suddenly.

"Sure, what?"

"D-do you... like Chelsea?"

"Are you talking about what Chelsea did before? She was just teasing me, as usual."

"R-really?"

"Yeah, me and her are just friends."

"Oh, okay." Why does that make me feel so relieved...?

"Wait, why do want to know anyway?"

"N-no reason..." I don't even know myself...

"Oh, I get it." He said, with a smirk on his face. "You're so obvious, Tear."

"What are you talking about?"

"You like Chelsea, don't you?"

"W-what...?" I asked, confused. "No, you're wrong..."

"Sure I am..."

"Hey, Ail!" Mac called out to him. "Want to play a round of volleyball?"

"Sure, I'll be right there!" Ail got up and ran to the others.

As I watched Ail run, my eyesight started getting blurry for some reason.

"W-what's going on?"

I shook my head.

"That was weird..."

I sighed again. If there was a sickness that made you sigh all the time, I must have caught it from Ail.

--

A few hours later, Barry took us all to a beach house he rented.

"Isn't this place perfect?" Barry said joyfully. "The Master Chef chose well."

"It's the only beach house here, idiot." Ail responded. "Anyone would have chose it."

"Well, the Master Chef would've still chose this one even if there were more beach houses here. After all, it's a nice place, isn't it?"

"I'm sure they made this place nice because it's the only one, chef boy..."

"Alright, let the Master Chef be sure of this..." Barry changed the subject randomly. "The lovely girls who accompanied the Master Chef have already settled in here. Would anyone else like to stay here for the night?"

"We might as well all stay, since it's so dark out now."

"The Master Chef will show you all to your rooms, then."

--

Barry took us all around the house, which had a lot of halls.

He opened the door to one of the rooms. "This is Chelsea's room."

"Really? This whole room's all for just me? Thanks, Mr. Chef~!" Chelsea went inside her room happily.

We left Chelsea and walked a bit more until Barry opened another room.

"Wow! This room's pretty big, too." Mac commented.

"Who's room is this, chef boy?"

"Huh? The four of you guys are sharing this one."

W-what?!

"You gave Chelsea her own room! Why can't you give us our own, too?!" Ail asked angrily.

"She's a lady, she can't sleep in the same room with you guys. Obviously."

"I have a feeling that's not the only reason..."

--

The four of us went into the room and started preparing the beds for us to use.

Do I really have to share a room with these guys...?

Ail punched his mattress in anger. "Chef boy pisses me off!"

"It's fine, this room is big enough anyway!" Mac said, happy as usual.

"Yeah, but still..."

"Ugh..." I held my head. It was hurting for some reason.

"Did you finish setting up your bed, Tear?" Ail said, walking over to me.

"Ah, no... Not yet..."

"What's wrong? You feeling okay?"

"N-not really... Everything's a bit blurry, and I have a headache..."

"It must be because your body is too hot. I told you that you'd get heatstroke if you brought your sweatshirt with you!"

"S-sorry..."

"Jeez..." Ail sighed. "You need to do something to cool your body down, before it gets worse."

"L-like what...?" Please don't say what I think you're going to...

"Let's ask chef boy where the shower room is."

"Um, okay..." I guess that's fine...

--

We went to Barry's room, which was near the entrance to the beach house.

"What's up? How can the Master Chef help you?"

"Where's the shower room?"

"Ah. The Master Chef will lead the way."

Barry brought us to the shower room.

"Here you are. The Master Chef wishes you a good night!" Barry left soon after we went inside.

"This room's pretty big. Just like the rest of them."

"Y-yeah..."

"I might as well take a shower, too..." Ail said, taking his shirt off.

"W-what are you doing!?"

"Getting undressed... What's it look like I'm doing?"

I quickly ran into one of the shower stalls, while trying to hide my nervous face.

T-this is too much...

"Weirdo..." I heard him say before he went into the stall near mine.

I-I have to calm down. Or Ail'll think I'm acting suspicious...

I got into the shower as soon as Ail did.

I need to make sure to get out after him...

A sudden realization hit me, which made me even more nervous than before.

A-Ail, he's... showering right next to me! "Gah, I need to stop thinking about these things!"

"Did you say something, Tear?"

"Ah, n-nothing! Don't worry about it!"

"'kay..." Ail turned off the shower. "Anyway, I'm done. Hurry up and finish."

"Y-you go without me..."

"You sure? This is a big place, you might get lost. Especially in your condition."

"I-I'll be fine, really."

"Alright... Later, then." I heard Ail leave the room.

Sorry Ail, but I can't let you find out...

I finished showering, and put my clothes back on. Before I could put on my sweatshirt though, my head started to hurt again.

"G-gah, it hurts..."

My head started throbbing more, and it became harder and harder to see.

"W-where... My s-sweatshirt..."

I managed to grab my sweatshirt, but...

WHAM!

... I ended up tripping and falling on my side, colliding with and opening the stall door on the way down.

"O-ow..." I tried to move, but the pain in my hip and head started to become worse. "N-no, I have to put it on... O-or they'll found out... M-my s-secre-..."

"Tear?! A-are you alright? Answer me! TEAR!!!" I heard Ail yell, before I passed out...

End of Chapter 4

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Writer's Comments:

Gasp! What is Tear's secret? ... Well, you'll have to find out next chapter. Sorry.

So, I liked writing this chapter. Why? Don't really know, maybe because I'm going to get to reveal something I've wanted to since I first started writing this.

Which will be revealed next chapter. So enjoy this one until then! Whenever I feel like writing it...

- CS-Masyet