Disclaimer: I Own Nothing
Optimism is like a night light. It keeps the darkness at bay while you lay there completely exposed to it. However, it doesn't make the darkness go away. It just tricks your body into thinking it is still daytime, and that the darkness isn't around. That it cannot harm you. And, like a nightlight, optimism eventually runs out of battery. Eventually it just lies there dead, leaving you at the mercy of the darkness you refuse to even acknowledge. In that instant, when the light finally flickers off, you are completely consumed by the darkness. It is all around you creeping into crevices you didn't even know existed. And you acknowledge. You come to realize that the darkness has always been there, it won't go away, and you have no choice but to live with it...
For Ryuzaki Sakuno this moment, this single instant in her life, happened when she was walking home from school. She sighed. Eyes puffy, nose runny, head hurting, and her entire body ached. At this moment, two blocks from her house she realized that she was sad. That she had been sad for a while. She couldn't tell for exactly how long. The days all seemed to blur together. She sniffled and sighed again. She couldn't go home. She didn't want to go home, to the house her grandmother owned. She didn't want to do homework or chat on the phone with Tomoka. She didn't want to go to sleep only to wake up the next day with the same aching head and heavy heart. So she dropped her school bag and ran. She ran as hard and as fast as she could. The wind hitting her in the face. She had no direction only intention. And when that flower delivery truck rumbled down the hill, with no hesitation she threw herself into its path.
That was the first day Ryuzaki Sakuno attempted suicide. It was also the first time the entirety of Seishun Gauken Middle school found out that Ryuzaki Sakuno was an orphan.
And nothing would ever be the same again.