[hr][img]https://i.imgur.com/Q73q6UA.png[/img]

[center][color=fff79a]"Oh. It's the consequences of my actions."[/color][/center]
[hr]

Haruna looked like she'd been shot in the aftermath of Michi's tirade. Was this. . . her fault? Had she pushed Michi too hard? Had she simply misjudged the dark girl? She'd seemed harmless enough, constant urge to destroy aside. Regardless, the point was that she'd now placed Suki, someone she'd been trying to improve the life of, in position to be emotionally backstabbed, whether it was her fault or not. 

Worst of all, she couldn't keep her focus on Suki. [i]They enjoy your suffering.[/i] That couldn't be true. Could it? Was it? Was she just using the club for her own selfish purposes? Was. . . was that why Suki seemed so averse to her, why the blood witch seemed to think she was a liar? 

Maybe that was why she could never actually understand her family. She'd just wanted to please them because it fed her ego, because their praise would have propped up her failing self-esteem, regardless of whether it actually made them happy. Maybe that was the case.

[color=fff79a]"I. . ."[/color] She looked down at the ground, Haruna's bangs falling to obscure her face. [color=fff79a]"I'll. . . follow Suki."[/color] One didn't need Tsubomi's powers of empathy to see that, intentionally or not, Michi's words had cut her to the bone, questioning core aspects of her personality and outlook in a way she wasn't equipped to reply to. She turned as if she'd rusted in place, following after Suki as the latter slinked away.