Chapter 1: The man with lifeless eyes

"I'm sorry, Hikki."

"Huh?"

"With the way things are now, I just can't. It's true, I did want to confess to you after the fireworks festival, but now with the situation with Yukinon, and after all that's happened."

"It just doesn't feel right, huh?"

She nods in affirmation.

"...I'm glad, but I'm sorry, to be honest, I'm not so sure of my feelings anymore. Maybe you're right, maybe it was just me feeling grateful." so she says, but I can see her trembling as she says it.

"And then there's Yukinon's feelings, and Iroha-chan, too." she whispers to herself.

"I like the relationship we have now. Will you wait for me to sort myself out?"

"And pretend like it's nothing in the meantime?"

"Everyone has something they hold dear, something they never want to lose. That's why they pretend. I think you said that once." she quotes me. "I don't want to lose us."

I hate nice girls. Just by exchanging greetings with them will get them on your mind. Start texting each other, and your heart will be set a flutter. If they call you, you're done for. Enjoy staring at your logs and grinning like a fool. I've said time and time again, I wouldn't be fooled again, but here I am, but I guess this time we're both fools. I decided to accept her kindness and she fell for mine. I broke her heart once, now she's breaking mine. It's even.

…

"I'm sorry. Hikigaya-kun, but I can't accept it, as well."

"Huh, you knew?"

"Yes, we once had an agreement that we wouldn't talk about you, but Yuigahama-san felt she couldn't hold it back."

"I knew it. Knew it all along. I betrayed her trust. She told me because she wanted me to respect it, she wanted me to let things be. She sacrificed her happiness for the sake of our relationships. I would've fine with that, if it wasn't for one detail." she pauses for moment. "You confessed first."

I can't exactly say why, but those words hit hard.

"I don't want to betray Yui anymore than I already have. I'm glad, I'm glad that I was able to get you to confess, too, and it makes me sick. I'm sorry to put you through this twice in these past few months, but I can't accept it either. I'm sorry, really sorry."

She runs away. Another rejection. I lean my back against the wall and look up at the falling mid-spring snow. After my confession to Yuigahama, Yukinoshita suddenly seemed to be taking more initiative in our conversations and relationships. Several times, she invited me out on pseudo-dates, and again I found myself falling. I've let my guard down. Haha, I guess this is what it truly means to be a loner.

…

"I'm sorry, senpai. I'm going to have to stop you there."

It's just a month before graduation. The Service Club has been disbanded due to internal strife between the members and was never reformed the following year. Since then, I found myself helping out more and more with the Student Council, and growing closer to a certain flaxen-haired underclassman of mine.

In fact, I was about to confess, but she suddenly stopped me.

"Eh? Can I ask why?"

"I'm happy, I'm honestly really happy with our relationship and the past year, but I'm not sure how far I want to take this. I was serious with you. My feelings, what we have, despite the pretenses, I felt honestly was the genuine thing I'm looking for, but the fact of matter is you're going away, aren't you?"

"Yeah, it's true. I felt like doing this, now, because I don't want it to end just because of distance."

"I'm happy, senpai." so she says. "but, I think some distance might be good for us. I want to see how long I can hang on to these feelings. I want to know if this is the genuine thing we were looking for. So please, give let's give ourselves some time. Sorry to put you through this again."

"Huh, what do you mean?"

"I know why the service club fell apart, I know you ended up confessing to both of them. I never mentioned it because I didn't want to believe it, but it was always in the back of my mind that I was like a fallback."

"There's no way tha..."

"I believe you. So…" she interrupts. She takes a deep breath. "Could be that you're trying to confess your love to me, I'm sorry but please give me sometime to see if it really would work out."

She says so with those familiar words.

"Okay." I say defeated. She really is sly.

…

It's been four years, since my high school graduation. I've graduated from college. Lots of things has happened since then. I've changed my name to avoid debt and had to cut my connections with a lot of people. Japan has gone through a major reconstruction period changing the layout and name of many cities. Apparently, cybernetics has been enhanced to incredible levels. There was even an incident just last year about a cyborg attack. There was that new billionaire, Ago-something. Even mysterious beings have been occasionally popping up around the world, but I don't care about any of that right now. I've always said, "To work is to lose," but here I am brooding over a failed job interview to become a corporate slave. It's not my fault, the skills I went to college for are not in-demand. Bah, I already knew it was going to end up like this, but after living on my own for a while, I've realized how foolish my dream to become a house husband is. My mind falls back to three moments in my life, where that could've still been a reality.

…

Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad, but it's too late, now, I can't even get in touch with them. I don't care about anything anymore.

A/N: The first two chapters of this will be just rehashing the OPM manga, before it gets into my own more or less original content.

"Ah!"

I hear a woman suddenly scream.

"Run away."

"It's a monster."

A monster? I look up and forward and see something big, red, and almost naked in front of me. Heh? So, it comes down to this, huh. I don't run. I just look at it. This must be one of those mysterious beings that the news said to have been showing up lately.

"Huh? Are you sure you don't want to run away? Fuku, Fuku." it says. Like I said, I don't care about anything anymore.

I sigh.

"Fuku. Fuku?" it continues. "I bet you're a newly employed salaryman already tired of work."

If only.

"I ate too much crab and transformed into this, Crablante."

What the hell… How does that even work… sigh. I swear can this guy just get it over with.

"Why aren't you running?" it asks. "You've got a death wish? Is that it?"

Do I really got to explain myself to this guy? To tell the truth, I don't want to die, I don't like pain, but because I don't like pain, I don't mind dying to get rid of the pain I'm feeling now.

"Well, not quite." I begin.

"Fuku?" it utters.

"I'm no salaryman. I'm unemployed. I just came from a job interview and got rejected royally. I couldn't care less about anything right now. So, I don't feel like running just because the Great Crablante appeared."

"Fuku, Fuku, Fuku!" it seems to laugh.

"So, what'll you do, if I don't run?" I ask it.

"Fuku!" it makes a giant grin.

"Your eyes are lifeless like mine. From one set of lifeless eyes to another, I'll let you go."

He begins to walk past me.

"Besides, I'm hunting different prey right now."

"Hmmm…" I utter just out of genuine curiosity.

"A big-chinned brat. When I find him, I'm gonna rip his arms off. Fuku, Fuku, Fuku, Fuku!" it laughs as it walks away.

Huh, somehow, I'm still alive. This is the first time my eyes have done something like this for me. I genuinely don't know how to feel about this, but I guess I'll go to the park. I don't think I want to face my parents right now. My parents weren't so happy of changing my name and running away from debt as the responsibility fell upon them. And they've been badgering me to find a job. I feel like a failure of a son. I've been living under their new roof again since the reconstruction and the renaming of this place to City Z. Humans are amazing to have advanced technology this fast, but I guess as a result things like that and cyborg attacks are starting to happen more frequently.

As I walk by the playground at the park, something in my peripheral vision catches my attention.

A big-chinned brat playing with a soccer ball.

Edit(s):

[1] Just made a few grammar edits.

[2] Added a bit of stuff and fixed a few more grammar mistakes. Feel free to point them out.

[3] This was supposed to be just a one-shot chapter, but people seem to be asking for new chapters, I guess I'll consider it. Expect timeskips though.