"Would you come over, please."
It was just a short request through a message which was unanswered when they asked back about what was going on. Because Kamiya didn't answer back they decided to come just to be welcomed by a worried face of his mother on the door.
"He just kept silent and cried. I don't know what had happened. He didn't even look at me when I took his phone to call you. I'm sorry. I know you're busy, but I need to know what had happened. Maybe you could do something. Please, talk to him."
Ren tapped the woman's shoulder and followed the other to go upstairs to Kamiya's room. Everyone took hasty steps upward. The picture of Yamato lied helplessly with tubes connected to him on the bed in the hospital had distracted them from their almost steady life. They didn't want more surprise now. Not when they started to believe that they had already settled everything. It's enough with the surprise from Yamato. They didn't ready for more.
They opened the door and found Kamiya was sitting on the couch in front of the window. His eyes were full of tears and there's no light on them.
"How could we call ourselves his friends all these times when we knew nothing about him?" Kamiya stared blankly through out the window. His tears rolled down his cheeks like a streaming. "How could we call ourselves his friend when we didn't aware of what had happened to him?"
"Kamiya, you scared me. What happened?" Kuraki shook him slightly.
Slowly, he turned over to see his friends were looking at him worriedly. He bit his lips and gulped many times before wiping his tears. He breathed heavily and looked away.
"He was abused."
"Who?"
Kamiya didn't answer. And the four of them bewildered when the realization struck them.
"He was raped."
Honjo held his breath so sudden until he felt it suffocated. "What?" His voice stuttered. He walked over him and reached his collar. "Don't say something absurd!"
But Kamiya didn't bug. He didn't even rebel. It made Honjo let him go right away. Even he, as the most stupid among them knew that he wasn't joking at all.
"It had been happened many times back then and no one of us aware of that."
The others were just gaped at the news. Clearly the picture of Yamato vomiting, his body which thinner each day, his paleness, his blank stares, Yamato who tried to avoid their questions, Yamato who looked always tried to hide from everyone and stayed at the roof top almost every day at school, Yamato who tried to always looked fine in front of them when they knew that he wasn't at all, drawn back as a slow motion in their mind.
"He bore all his pain by himself. We were worried but we're just …, worried. We didn't try to find out. He was suffered and no one of us knew it."
Ichimura ducked deeply, tried to hide his tears while grabbing his hair. Those bruises. Why didn't I realize it?
Ren closed his eyes. He gripped his own hands until his knuckles turned white. Anger blocked his mind from thinking something rationally. And he didn't mind at all. He didn't want to think at the moment. He wanted to scream. He wanted to let all of his feeling out of his mind so he could at least find a room for his heart to cry.
Kuraki lost his words. He didn't know what to do. His mind was blank. He wanted to cry but no tears came out from his eyes. He wanted to scream but nothing came out from his mouth. He wanted to kick or punching something but he couldn't move even any single of his fingers. He was rooted on his seat.
Honjo stood silently in front of the window. He didn't move too. He stared at the wide sky in front of him. It was as dull as his mind.
"Anyone remember the first time he vomited?" Honjo asked with a very weak voice.
Nobody answered. They tried to remember but nothing came to their mind.
"Anyone remember when he started to spent his time on the rooftop?"
Everyone was still silent.
"Anyone remember … " Honjo stopped when he didn't find the right words to ask. His tears flew on his cheeks. "Is there anyone of us remember when he started to avoid every question we asked him? About his miserable look, about his paleness, about his loss weight, about his silence, about …" and he couldn't hold his cry anymore. His body shook hard because of his sobs.
And Kamiya cried more. You kept it for a long time without anyone of us noticing. You hid it from us, and no one of us realizing anything wrong with you. We thought you were still angry with your parents' divorce. We didn't realize that you suffered that bad. I'm sorry. I should realize it. We should realize it.
A middle aged man founded die with bruises all over his body. Ogata Tatsuo, 49, a teacher. A kid found him on the riverside. The police was still investigating it. They didn't find any clue to lead them to the suspect.
Yamaguchi pulled the newspaper from the boys and stared at them sternly. "Tell me that you didn't do this."
Ren stared back at her and chuckled slightly. "Do you have any evidence that we're the one who did it? Did you see us? Or, do you have any witness? You need all of that to accuse us."
"It is obvious that you want to do it badly."
"Yankumi, you hurt us." Ichimura hissed softly, made the woman stunned and bowed at them.
"I'm sorry. But every logic that appears in my head ended with you as the suspect."
The five boys could only stare at the woman before Honjo started to stand up. "Do you call us just to ask us about that? I'm sorry, but I'm busy. See you."
The others stood up followed him to walk out of the store. Yankumi could only sigh and watched them walk away. Shin and Kuma, who kept silent since the very start could only stare at her without any interruption. They could see clearly that the boys were hiding something but they didn't dare to accuse because they didn't have any evidence.
Shin didn't want to interrupt. He didn't spill any single word. He kept silent all the time, not just because he didn't have any evidence but most because of he just didn't want to do it. Half of his heart thanked those guys for killing his uncle, if his instinct was true that they were the ones who did it, but half of it disagreed for the punishment. It wasn't because of his high sense of justice, but mostly because this wasn't what Yamato wanted.
It was still clear in his mind the day when Yamato begged them to release his father when he found out that he was being jailed for everything he did to him. They had tried to convince him that it was the result of everything he did, but they totally failed. Yamato bowed deeply and begged them to release him. Everyone tried to ignore him at first but they started to break when Yamato cried. No one could ignore his tears. Not even Ryu's father.
He closed his eyes and sighed heavily.
"Do you think they did it?"
Shin turned to his best friend. "As they said, we don't have the evidence."
Kuma nodded understandingly. Both of them looked at Yamaguchi who stared at the back of her former students intently before turned to them and sighed heavily.
"I do really hope that I was wrong for accusing them as the perpetrators." She was staring blankly to the list of the menu on the wall.
No one answered her. Shin looked at Kuma who looked at him back. Both of them agreed her silently.
Little did they know that the boys were parting with a little smirk in the corner of their lips.
