Lady Misfortune: Daddy, I'll Be A Righteous Villainess!

"Well, I think that the Principal's shenanigans are effective. So, we're going to humor it until the Playground Ghost disappears!"

Mr. Richards sighs, unimpressed. His frown makes a parabola that stretches down into infinity. Ms. Mirabella only laughs. Her grin reaches her eyes - a stark contrast to his offending expression. 

"Isn't that ghost supposed to be in class? Your class, I must add. Why're you letting him do whatever he wants?" 

"Yeah, he's my student. But I've been told that he's a special case. So, I don't have to do anything about him skipping classes. He's an exception."

"Oh, another rich boy hanging off the coattails of his rich parents, huh? Tch. Kids these days."

"Saoirse."

"Huh? What?"

"His last name is Saoirse."

Silence.

It took a few more seconds before realization hit Mr. Richards like a truck. Once it did, his eyes bulged wide in shock. Ms. Mirabella has finished off the rest of her lunch by then.

"Wait! You mean, that's Chairman Saoirse's son?!" he exclaimed, astonished.

"You should be nicer, Mr. Richards. He might follow you home and haunt you in your sleep," she teased, smirking playfully. 

"Ha, ha. Funny."

"You'll be sorry for that."

Mr. Richards watches her tuck away her lunch box and leave the lounge. He then sighs into his coffee. Ms. Mirabella seems to be supportive of this whole Playground Ghost thingy. He can't question that anymore since he now knows who that boy really is.

'The son of the Chairman, huh? Interesting.'

---

Contrary to most people's beliefs, Weiss is fully aware that he's being used to make the children behave.

He's quite annoyed by it - if he's going to be honest. But the playground is his only sanctuary at school right now. It's conveniently far from the middle school building, and it's kind of cozy.

Besides, that's his single purpose in life – to be utilized as a means to an end, that is. Everyone always has to have some sort of ulterior motive.

Still, Weiss can't really blame Lady. 

He's had a whole week, after all – a week is enough time to make him realize that he's being an irrational twat for fretting over something as trivial as her wanting to uncover their secret past. It's true that he's only using the excuse of protecting his true identity to draw his distance. The reality is that he's scared of forming a type of relationship that can expose all his flaws and weaknesses.

After seeing Lady at the flower shop more than once, he began thinking that he's indeed being an irrational twat. That made Weiss realize that he no longer had any control over the fact that life wanted to make the two of them cross paths again and again.

'Why is she absent today, then? We went to school together. But why wasn't she there? She didn't show up in class at all. Just when I finally made up my mind to face her, she'd suddenly disappear?'

Lady is nowhere to be found at school today. Weiss is so distraught that he has decided to skip class yet again.  

His head feels all muddled and fuzzy. But the swings have helped him boost his brain activity – he can't even begin to explain that. The most prominent one among his thoughts right now is that, of course, Lady is no ordinary girl at all.

From that stems a tumultuous ocean of discernible thoughts and indiscernible feelings – cursed feelings. He wants to throw them all away and burn them in hell. Yet, at the same time, he wants to take action and apologize to her for being a jerk. He wants to do a lot of things, really, if he can just get his butt out of this stupid swing.

That day, Weiss has done a lot of thinking.

---

Mr. Richards has been doing a lot of thinking.

He's a good man, he tells himself while waiting for his students to finish working on the activity he'd given them. He's respectable. He pays his rent, cooks his food. He teaches first-graders and Science in middle school. Ms. Mirabella has complimented his tie that morning, so he believes he's also fashionable.

'Just what am I doing wrong, then?'

He likes Ms. Mirabella – he really does. But his attempt to spend lunch with her earlier had been a disaster. The whole thing had only gotten worse when he'd bumped into someone and spilled coffee all over himself. To top it all off, it started to rain. He doesn't like rain. It gets him all wet and muddy, and he likes to keep his branded shoes dirt-free. 

'What a lousy day.'

Now is not the time to have a crisis over his shoes, though. He still has work to do.

'Ah, work. The universal suffering of man.'

He stares out the window of the classroom, watching water droplets tumble down the glass. He waits for the day to end so he can go be depressed at home. But his last class is dragging on because he has assigned his students an activity.

The rain gets heavier as the minutes tick by, and Mr. Richards takes to distracting himself from his thoughts by classifying rain drops.

'That one's a fat one…' he mentally pointed out, watching the raindrop roll down the window. 

'Probably hogged all the water vapor – that ass. That one's going down fast. That one's going slow. Another fast. Another fat one. Fast, fast, slow, fat, thin, slow, slow, fat, fast. Oh, wow, there's even a white one over there… Wait, what?'

Mr. Richards paused.

He stands and walks over to the window, peering out. There beyond his classroom is the playground, and the white rain drop is apparently their resident ghost.

"What is he thinking?" he muttered to himself, brows furrowing in concern, as he studied the boy.

He's still all huddled up on the swing set, undisturbed by the ongoing downpour. He really looks like he's boasting how depressed he is right now - maybe even more than him.

'Strange. Very strange.'

---

Weiss should probably get out of there.

The rain feels really nice, though. It's soothing in a way.

But his butt is sore. 

He doesn't remember ever sitting in the rain like this, alone and free – it's calming. The consequences of his stupidity may be severe, but for a moment, he just wants to feel this. He wants to experience something other than everything he's been through the whole week. So, he closes his eyes, letting his thoughts ebb away.

All go except for one thought, 'I won't see the sunset today.'

Weiss smiles a rueful smile, kicking the mud beneath his feet and swinging. Catalina will scold him later for it, but right now, he wants to feel like a kid -

Like someone normal.

Thunder booms in the distance as the rain bears down on him, but his soul isn't fazed nor shackled by the storm. He kicks the ground harder, swinging faster and higher, seeing how high he can go, wondering if he can fly into the clouds. Then, he opens his arms, laughter lost in the wind, feelings lost in the downpour.

'Is this…?'

His movements slow down. 

And Weiss sighs. He thinks of Lady. 

He wonders if she's ever swung before. She most likely has. He grins, thinking that he should probably bring her there someday. 

She's just the kind of person who can fly into the clouds. He's not.

He rubs his hands together, suddenly feeling cold. The rain is the only thing he can hear for miles. 'Am I lost?' he found himself wondering.

He leans against the ropes of the swing, slowly rocking back and forth. Maybe it'll be good for him to stop thinking already. He lets the numbness settle in, lets it still his thoughts. Then, for the next seconds to come, he listens to the rain until there's a disturbance in the sound. 

Suddenly, he isn't so cold anymore.

"Hey, you lost or something?"

Weiss looked up to find Fallon.

He's holding an umbrella over him, shielding him from the rain. Thrown off guard, he nearly fell from the swing. But then, the sight of his shoulder getting wet made him go still. 

Weiss, somewhat on instinct, takes the umbrella from Fallon. 

"Come closer…" he beckoned. 

"You're wet. You'll get sick."

"Only idiots get sick…" he quoted with a dry tone.

"And I'm not an idiot. But you are."

"Did anyone tell you to say that to me?"

"What do you take me for? A messenger?

Ignoring his comment, he reaches into his pocket for his handkerchief. But when he pulls it out, he finds that it's already all wet.

"Don't worry about me. I have towels in my locker…" Fallon said.

"Worry about yourself. What the heck are you doing here? You look like a stray."

"Apparently, I'm the Playground Ghost…" Weiss snorted.

"I'm here to scare off children and make them behave."

"Oh, right. That crap of a spooky tale. Principal Abel should probably retire soon. He's just full of shit sometimes. Even my Science teacher thinks so."

He couldn't help but laugh at that. It looks like he's not the only one who's annoyed by that rumor.

"It's a good thing you're back, though.. Lady has been worried sick."