Chapter 1

The rumor spread faster than she thought, thanks to the power of the newspaper club. By noon of the next day, all the students at the school already knew the truth that the Best Soeur couple were in crisis. It spread extremely quickly.

``You're horrible Tsukiyama Minako.''

It was lunch break.

Yumi had tried to bring her lunch one-handed into the Bara no Yakata, where Rosa Chinesis and Rosa Gigantea looked at each other over the table and groaned.

``This is bad. Should I pour you some thick tea?''

Rosa Gigantea said as she looked at Rosa Chinesis as if she were a department head watching some drama unfold. Her gaze did not shift from the wide expanse of the table, and her back was slightly slumped. It was as if she were an ``old man''.

``Rosa Chinesis. Is Japanese tea alright for you?''

``Hmm ......No, actually, I'd like Orange Pekoe.''

It was said that always having the same thing was good, and Rosa Chinesis was a person who always had the same taste, but today she wanted to try something different it seemed.

``Orange Pekoe.''

Saying this and inclining her head as if she were wondering whether Darjeeling was bad, Rosa Gigantea searched the cupboards, and produced a teabag from a glass-like bottle. She looked as if she knew how much to use.

(Me: Rant time! No disrespect meant, but, Orange Pekoe is not, and I mean not a flavor of tea! Remember that ye scallawags!!! Orange Pekoe is, in fact, a grade of black tea one can find when searching for tea. Typically, Orange Pekoe looks a lot like clumpy chunks of dirt, and is a lot less fine ground than your typical teabag which uses Fannings. Because of this quality, Orange Pekoe often contains a lot more flavor. Plus, Orange Pekoe often contains the first tea leaves, so that's another plus. The Fannings which your average teabag uses are the leftovers of every other grade, of which Orange Pekoe is only the topmost, and then ground up. The flavor is a lot more diluted, and is thusly a lot cheaper. So make no mistake, there is no Orange Pekoe flavor of tea, and I have not ever seen an Orange Pekoe teabag anywhere.)

The thing that caused the Rosas to grumble was a copy of today's headline from the Lilian Kawaraban. It was a one-sided color print on B5 paper, it was quite simple, but it drew the eye to it. (Me: If you're not familiar with paper sizes, different paper sizes have different classifications. The standard US paper size is Letter, while the standard European size is A4. B5 is yet a different size.)

The headline was, in big letters, ``Yellow Rose Revolution''. And next to it was written, ``What will happen now in the yellow rose family?!'', and was printed in order to get readers excited.

``It's just like a sports newspaper.''

The unexcited true fan Rosa Gigantea complained while stuffing herself with mustard, Taramo Salad, and a sandwhich.

``It's awful how this can be the school-approved newspaper.''

Rosa Chinesis said, while fishing out a straw-like rice ball from the middle of her lunch box.

(So, is that it.)

For some weird reason, Yumi understood.

Before, the Lilia Kawaraban seemed like an orthodox school newspaper. Because it was read in every corner of the school, maybe two or three issues were released per month, and this sort of gossip could be found as news stories.

So then, what sort of a person was this Tsukiyama Minako, who chased after rumors and made news stories out of them?

Her character was such that, ten days ago she had released an issue of the Lilian Kawaraban that featured a two-shot of Rei and Yoshino, and now her new layout completely destroyed that image. And the sense this new layout gave was very convincing.

Well, regarding sense, the two Rosas in front of her eyes were great examples. One was having bitter tea with a sandwhich, the other was having a rice ball with Orange Pekoe tea, both were huge mismatches, Yumi thought, and as she was, Rosa Gigantea took interest in interesting-looking Yumi, gazed at her face, and laughed. She must be making funny faces. (Me: If you didn't know, Yumi has a tendancy to make funny faces as she thinks about things that get her excited.)

``What is Yoshino-chan doing during break?''

Rosa Gigantea asked, without saying anything about Yumi's face.

``Ah, yes. I went during break to try to see her, but it seemed like Yoshino-san had not come to school.''

``Rei had come.''

Whispered Rosa Gigantea, seeming too serious, and she wiped her mouth with the ring finger of her left hand and continued stuffing herself.

Yumi had heard that, because Rei-sama was always coming to school without Yoshino-san, from first period she seemed to choose to stay inside her classrom. When the first night dawned, it became a lot quiter, and Rei-sama showed that she was not in fact very robust, almost as if she were recovering from an illness, and she looked a slight bit pitiful. Well, that was Rosa Chinesis's opinion. Everyone was worried that Rei-sama was trying to act too brave. The cleverly taken pictures in the newspaper extra made it seem that even her expectations had had a portion eaten out from them. (Me: The last bit was somewhat weird to understand, what with the randomly-changing subject nature of Japanese and no helpful pictures in novels.)

``Because Rei turns down requests and is careful around her classmates, they seem to not have been able to obtain much information about this, and that's good, but -''

Rosa Chinesis stopped her words and then, for some reason, set her gaze upon Yumi. ``Letting Rei change and then thoroughly listening to her is awful'' added Rosa Chinesis.

Without them saying, Yumi could see in one glance that the work Rosa Chinesis and Rosa Gigantea had to perform in their morning classes had made them tired. Having to run a marathon and then swim all during first period had made them completely exhausted. Because of the time they had spent swimming, each of the two's appearances reflected the special amount of fatigue they had, and she already could understand that from the moment they entered the room.

Of course. Because of what they had to do in the morning, they were probably mentally tired also. Stress was probably nearby.

Remembering the rumors and reading over the newspaper extra once more, Yumi became worried about the Rosa Foetida en Bouton sisters. Because the intensely excited students could not hear about the thing from the person herself, they would all listen to the rumors. People who were nearby to the Rosas en Boutons would make the en Boutons their targets. Yumi herself not knowing the true state of things chose to not bear the questions her classmates flung out as complaints and instead ran to the Bara no Yakata, where she learned about the many problems plaguing the Rosas.

``It's sort of like what happened to me ......''

Two weeks ago was the Gakuensai, and Yumi remembered the things from that time. Whether or not Yumi and Sachiko-sama would become souers was the topic that had exploded throughout the students. The thing that was going on now resembled what happened then.

``But this time, doesen't the trouble lie with Rei and Yoshino-chan? They should put more worth into a soeur relationship, and that's why it's not good.''

The Rosas were adults, Yumi thought. Neither their actions nor mood nor analysis were wrong. During Yumi's time, they had only wished her a vague ``I hope you do well''.

``By the way, what about Shimako? If she's in the same class as you, how come she didn't come running with you?''

``She would smile sweetly and say ``I don't know'', so everyone would leave her alone.''

Right now, Shimako was probably in the secret Gingko forest collecting Gingko nuts. She was fidgety about it from morning.

``Of course, it's the advantage of being in beautiful. On the other hand, in Sachiko's case, many truthful rumors floated about her.''

If Yumi looked, Rosa Chinesis herself had quite a beautiful shape. Rosa Gigantea, on the other hand, did not have the normal type of beauty. Because her eyes and her nose were not quite aligned, she could be compared to a stone sculpture in an art showcase and be called beautiful. In Rosa Foetida's case-.

For that matter, what about Rosa Foetida? Who would be like Rosa Foetida that when a crisis breaks out, they aren't available? Now, Rosa Chinesis and Rosa Gigantea were coming to the Bara no Yakata, and complaining about the situation. Because Rei-sama was in fact Rosa Foetida's sister, it was only appropriate for Rosa Foetida to listen to her.

``Is Rosa Foetida on vacation?''

Yumi asked, and the two Rosas looked at each other and said ``She was coming but.'' and phrased the answer in an ominous way.

``But?''

``After yesterday's Rei incident, she just disappeared. It is eerie but, there is no talk about it.''

``Every day it seems that things are getting worse. Why is this happening?''

After saying ``Why is this happening?'' she put her chin in her hands. Wouldn't it be better if they don't worry about it? In the first place, at least they found out the cause of the incident with Rei. No, not really. If someone doesen't understand the cause, then they can't deal with the situation.

``Well, when my ability is needed, I can speak in Rosa Foetida's name.''

Rosa Gigantea carelessly stipulated.

``If we don't show our face it's good, Yumi-chan. But yesterday, we should've sorted things out completely.''

Complaining about yesterday's decision with Rei-sama, Rosa Gigantea said this, and Rosa Chinesis nodded.

``But yesterday, you said we should not interfere in family revolutions ......''

``We thought that yesterday, but the situation has completely changed. Now we must act.''

Said Rosa Foetida as she flipped the newspaper extra with her fingertip.

``What sort of news story is this ......''

Yumi lowered her gaze onto the expanse of paper. Actually, this morning near the row of gingko trees, she took the newspaper, and had looked over it once carefully.

``There's a big problem. This isn't a news story, it's a fiction story.''

The newspaper extra was attacked by five fingers.

``It's a fiction story?''

`` When you say ``- isn't it'' or ``- it seems like'', all you're doing is guessing. If you read the whole thing, you'll see that it's a mixture of part truth and part fact.''

From being just a newspaper reporter, Tsukiyama Minako had moved on to other appropriate genres, Rosa Gigantea said in sarcastic un-praising words.

Really, the sentences used in the newspaper article seemed more like a fiction story than an article. Without being able to expand upon the truth, and having a lack of data on Yoshino-san and Rei-sama, they would have to use their imaginations to write the article. But if someone had not pointed that out to Yumi, she would not have noticed, because the articlehad been written with such skill. Under the premise that a newspaper contains the truth, readers would most-certainly believe what they were reading.

``Because they wrote something different from the truth, aren't they protecting Rei-sama and Yoshino-san?''

``They didn't protect anyone. After this, I hope other revolutions don't occur.''

``I see .......''

Yumi nodded uncertainly.

(That's bad.)

Before she had used much effort to understand what was going on, but after this conversation, she became clueless.

(Ummm. Even though Rosa Gigantea and Rosa Chinesis had been watching the situation clearly from before, now that the sensational novel-seeming article had been written, it seemed like hopes of this incident with Rei-sama and Yoshino-san would be finished quickly would be realized. - At least, that's what I thought.)

``This is a problem. The news story is quite a moving piece.''

Rosa Chinesis stood up and this time poured in some Orange Pekoe tea for herself.

``It'll probably have an effect.''

Rosa Gigantea leaned her back upon the chair and sighed ``Yare yare''.

The three set their teacups down with a clang, washed them, and the two Rosas left the room into the corridor, with Yumi not understanding the words they had just wishpered. Yumi watched with an inclined head as they did not come back.

``Moving piece ......? Effect ......?''

But the surprise was quickly revealed.

(Me: The suspense is killing me!!!!! Heh.)