I rushed in as soon as I heard the news. Apparently, Team Stardust had lost their Semi Final Match against Team Supernova. It was an absolute defeat with all members of Team Supernova was still standing. Team Stardust was completely way out of the league of Rika and her cousins. It all begins with the quick fall of Cyclone White from the hands of Rika Lightning herself. From then on, everything goes south as one by one, each members were picked out of the match. In a matter of minutes, the match was over.

After hearing about the grave news of their defeat from Nif and Kaym, I quickly rushed into wherever they were resting at. After minutes of searching, we found them resting between Stardust's almost destroyed headquarter and the school's garden. All of them were sitting and lying on the ground. Completely unfazed of their surroundings. Mind completely blank.

"Hey, are you guys alright?"

I tried my best to talk to them but not a single of them were talking. They were all speechless.

"We didn't expect this would happen..." said Kaym as he scratches his head.

Nif then added, "I've considered that we might lose the match but not losing it by a landslide. It was way off my analysis..."

"It's alright, Nif. You did well..." I patted her back as I said that.

Then, Kin finally arrives and said, "I finally found you guys!"

"Kin?" I looked at Kin who seems to be exhausted after minutes of running all over the school trying to find our defeated friends.

"Pull yourself together, guys!" Kin suddenly spoke out to them, "I know we lost the match but this is not the end of the world. And...and where is White?"

Once she mentioned that, I also realises that White weren't there at all with everyone.

"I'll go look for him." I volunteered myself to go look for White. "In the meantime, give some pep talk to those guys."

Kin nodded and said, "Will do. And I have to say something to Blax..."

Her faces was filled with remorse when she said that.

I slowly squat down to look at her face and told her, "It's alright. You can say it..."

Kin slowly nodded as I made my way to wherever White ran away to. I've searched high and low for him all over the school but there was nowhere else for him to hide. I even looked at the school's rooftop to see whether he might be planning something unforgivable up there. But thankfully nobody was there. As I made my way down the building, I came across Mei who stopped me in my track.

"Where are you running to, Kirin?" asked Mei.

I told her, "It's White. You've heard the news already, right? Have you seen him after the match?"

"Have you search everywhere in the school?"

"Everywhere."

"Even that one tree?"

"Tree? What tree?"

Mei pointed the direction to where the tree was and said, "The tree where White always use to study at whenever he has a free time in school."

"The tree...oh, that tree!"

"Yes. You might find him there."

"Thanks a lot, Mei." I bowed and thanked her and rushed my way toward White's favourite tree.

Once I reached there, I saw White sitting and lying over his back to the tree. He was spacing out from the looks of it. I approached him to take a closer look.

"White...I've been looking all over for you."

"Well, congrats, Kirin. You found me." His voice was slightly cheerful.

"You seem to be fine after all of that. I thought you running away would mean that you've kicked the bucket already."

White snickered, "That's a sinister joke there, Kirin. I'm not going to kill myself just for a single upset."

I still haven't seen his face since he was facing the other way. But I decided to seat and lean my back to the tree as well.

"Well I'm glad your alright, White."

"Yeah. I'm actually glad that we lose to be honest."

"Really now?" That took me by surprise, "Why are you glad about it though?"

White sounded hopeful and said, "Sure we ended up major defeat from Rika and her cousins. It was definitely my mistake for coming out in the open and face Rika all on my own. I should have known better. It was a silly mistake. But I'm through with that..."

"Thankfully, you managed to hang in there. Here I thought you would be upset or get frustrated over that defeat. I mean, there's no way someone like you would be frustrated about such a thing like not winning the elusive trophy of The Magic Duel."

"Yeah..." His voice started to dim down.

"I knew you would be able to hold on to this defeat. Still, it's amazing how you guys were still able to get to the Semi Final. A few matches and you guys would have won The Magic Duel. At least, you're not frustrated as everyone else is."

"Yeah...I'm not..." He started to sob all of a sudden.

"White...Are you alright?" I slowly got up and looked at White.

Tears were already running down his face before I even got here. He has been hiding his tears away from his teammates. He didn't want them to see him like this. It would just make the whole team even worse.

"I'm...I'm not..." He continues to sob until he suddenly said his true feelings, "Yes! I'm frustrated, Kirin! I am frustrated!"

"White..." I didn't know what to say to him as I let him sob out all of his frustration.

"This tree..." I suddenly heard Mei's voice.

"Mei?"

She continued whatever she was saying, "I've been watching him for as long as I known him...This tree...This was the place where he would cry out all of his sadness. All of that time spent alone wasn't just to study. It was also to let out whatever he was feeling. And before you know it, this tree started to grow bigger to the point that we can lean on it now."

I couldn't believe it but it was definitely what might have been all this time. I wouldn't have known this because I've always been on my own way back then in school. I was still his friend back then but I never had the thought to even think that his request of solitude was to let out all of his frustration over here. And apparently, neither did the rest of Stardust.

Mei continued, "I really couldn't do much to help him. But I did. I hanged out with him a few times at this tree. I've started to understand a lot about him. I started to see what he see."

"And what did you see, Mei?"

"Hope."

"Hope? What do you mean?" I didn't understood what she was talking about.

"She means that I'm always full of hope..." White's eye were already red once he started talking.

"But I don't get it. You did cry because you were frustrated that you lose, right?"

"Of course. I did cry for that. It's not like I'm a robot or anything. Even though I'm as antisocial as you would think, I still have emotion. Strong emotions. I'm just that good at hiding it."

"Well now you're not anymore, White." I suddenly heard Blax voices from a distance. "Your cover has been blown, my friend.

All of Stardust was there. Looks like somehow the juniors were able to pull back the others back to their normal state.

Hosuke sighs, "After all this time, I thought you were just a robot. But in fact, your a crybaby."

"Let's not call him a crybaby, Hosuke. I think it's not just him who is a crybaby over here." Rulend told Hosuke that.

To which he replied, "What are you implying? I'm no crybaby!"

Rulend happily giggles.

Rider then said, "Well, we've lost. What now?"

"How about we find someplace to enjoy the rest of The Magic Duel?" suggested Lore.

Airi then volunteered himself, "I'll go grab something for everyone. Anyone else wanna come?"

"Count me in!"

"Me too!" Both of them followed Airi.

Zone looked at the three of them and told the rest of us, "I guess I will be with them as well. Who knows those three might do something stupid without my supervision."

Serena then jumped in and said, "Count me in as well guys! I wanna grab something good as well!"

"Um...Serena. I think whatever you're thinking might not be a good thing at all..." Nif followed Serena, making sure that Serena doesn't get into trouble as well.

Haz crosses his arm with a smile and said, "Well, well, well. What are we suppose to do now, White? We've lost The Magic Duel. There's nothing else we could really do before we graduate out of high school."

White shakes his head and told us, "Not really. We still have some stuff to do around here."

"And what is it?"

"Like Lore said, we can still enjoy the rest of The Magic Duel. We'll enjoy it with everyone here. Including you, Mei."

Mei was took by surprise, "Me too? But I'm not..."

"It's alright, Mei. You're kind of apart of us already."

"I guess so..."

And with that, all's well that ends well. Although Team Stardust didn't win The Magic Duel. We were still happy to know that we're still able to laugh and cry with each other without worrying too much. I'm glad to know that everyone grew up to be a bunch of wonderful people by the time I returned here.

But still, there was still one person that I haven't quite know yet and that was Mei. Even after all of those exposition from Escher. I still feel that something was missing. Perhaps something that was removed from a long time ago. Who knows? Maybe White know something about it...

TO BE CONTINUED