Eri and Yumi

Eri’s PoV

I wonder why it doesn’t work.

I wanted to die. I have nothing, but I have to go on living like this.

Earlier, I was surrounded by some men. I could tell by their voices that they were from the soccer team. I thought everything was fine. All I have to do is increase the number of my companions in hell and suffer some physical pain. I should accept it because it was also my punishment, so I had no choice.

“Stop!” Many policemen came shouting. Although they were athletes, the members of the soccer team, who were surrounded by policemen in charge of their work, were arrested helplessly, and I was saved unharmed.

This is an interrogation room at the police station.

Since I was the victim, I was subjected to a simple investigation, and many people were worried about me. I shouldn’t even be worth it.

The members of the soccer team are really stupid. If they did such a thing, many of them would definitely be expelled. They went the wrong way on their own.

It’s the same with me. I was manipulated by that woman, and I lost everything.

I really am an idiot.

I heard that I would have a police escort for a while, just in case. Now I can’t do anything stupid. The despair of being in a living hell with a body that has lost everything. I was so sad that I could not even be desperate. Because from that day on, I was no longer able to make my own decisions.

I was told that I would be taken home soon and that I’d have to wait in an empty room.

Would the police see my room? I felt heavy. During the earlier interrogation, they questioned my current lifestyle of living alone near my parents’ house. When they found out that I had been abandoned by my parents, they looked at me with a kind of pity. My shattered self-esteem was further damaged.

Then I heard a soft knocking. Was the car ready?

My idle expectations had been betrayed.

“It’s been a long time, Eri.”

My best friend from junior high school was staring at me with a stern face.

“Yumi, why?”

She slowly sits down on a chair. I’m surprised at the change in my former best friend, who has become very feminine now. Oh, I see. It’s her father, isn’t it? Yumi’s father is a policeman. So she was contacted that way.

My heart is about to give out. Maybe he is here. There was no way my delusions could be fulfilled in such a convenient way.

There was no way he would come after what I had done.

“First of all, I’m glad you weren’t hurt.”

Yumi said that carefully.

“Thanks. I didn’t expect to see you again.”

A symbol of the warmth of the world I had lost. It made me feel a little nostalgic.

“Actually, I never intended to see you again. That decision hasn’t changed.”

“Yes.”

The tone of her voice had dropped so much that even I was surprised.

I know, I know. It really makes me realize the magnitude of what I have lost.

“But something like that happened, and I had to say it.”

“Yeah.”

It’s an overwhelming rejection.

“You tried to die on your own, didn’t you?”

Even though you just called me by name, I’ve already lost my place to you.

And my ex-best friend surprisingly understood my thoughts.

I have lost such an understanding person.

I nodded silently at her question.

“I see…”

The words, filled with disappointment and more complicated feelings, stuck in my mind.

“You have no reason to complain to me.”

This is the maximum. This is the best I can do now to show my pride.

“Right.”

She looked right at me. Was she that strong? I feel so much confidence from her, much more than I feel from my own bluffing. And a determination to protect something.

Something. It can’t be such an abstract word.

Kazuki.

That’s right.

When I am silent, she conveys her feelings in firm words.

So firm that I realize that she is so different from me, who has lived my whole life in other people’s words.

“You were always so selfish…”

Her eyes were moist as she tried to form her words.

I swallowed several times, unable to speak.

“We will never let you die here. We will never let you abdicate your responsibilities by dying here.”