WARNING: This could or could not contain a suicide attempt...

Karma's POV: Karma hadn't been able to talk to Asano after the kiss.

Asano hadn't been responding to his texts and he hadn't showed up at school the next day(Friday) and now it was the weekend.

Karma typed in his fourth text to Asano and groaned, burying his head in his pillow. Asano had kissed him and then flat out avoided him!

His phone pinged and he instantly jerked up, whipping his phone out in front of him as the screen lit up. His hopes instantly deflated. It was just Nagisa.

Nagisa: Has Asano texted you back yet?

Karma sighed and began to respond when his phone was snatched out of his hands. He turned around and felt something hard hit his face.

"Ow," Karma said, rubbing his face and picking up the object that had hit him. Someone had thrown a phone at him. His mother was standing over him with a scowl etched in her face.

"Get up, you lazy bum!" She shouted, yanking the one cover blanket he had on his bed with so much force that Karma almost flew off his bed. Karma scrambled to get up.

"What?"

She smacked his face hard with the fan she was holding, made out of wood.

"Don't ask me WHAT! Do as I say with no questions!"

Karma looked at the ground. "I'm sorry, mom."

She grabbed his cheeks and squeezed them hard until Karma cut his tongue with his teeth and could taste copper.

"What did you call me?" She asked. Karma struggled to speak.

"Ma'm," he whispered. "I said 'I'm sorry, ma'm.'"

She released his chin. "That's what I thought. We've been invited to dinner with the principal."

She looked at Karma, clearly hating what she was about to say next.

"All of us." That was why she was in such a bad mood.

She grabbed his phone again and threw it at the wall. His phone hit the wall hard and landed with a dull thud.

"So quit texting. Get dressed so that you don't look as worthless as you are and do something about that mop of hair!"

Then she leaned in closer to him. As she spoke, she smiled. Karma had never seen a smile more forced or threatening.

"And you better quit looking like we've tortured the living heck of you. It isn't over yet."

She smiled wider, showing her perfect teeth. "You know, the ungrateful brats don't get to live very long. We should've killed you when no one knew your existence. But don't worry, we still can. Get ready by 3 PM, I don't want to see or hear you until then."

She walked out of the door, smug.

Karma gritted his teeth. Worthless. Pointless. Idiotic to even try. Pathetic. The world was spinning into a pit of black, jeering smiles were all he could see.

How sweet, they said. Careful, your mask is slipping off. People will always see you for what you are. PATHETIC, WORTHLESS PIECE OF- Stopitstopitstopit

Karma wanted the voices to get out of his head, he wanted to stop seeing the faces, he wanted to end it. He grabbed his blanket. The faces were laughing at him, becoming louder and louder and louder. THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE they screamed.

He wrapped the blanket around his neck tight LOUDER. tighter. LOUDER. tighter. LOUDER AND LOUDER AND LOUDER UNTIL they finally disappeared, their whispers creeping into the back of his mind.

Karma was left alone, sobbing hysterically with a blanket wrapped around his neck suffocating him. Please please please let me end this please please please please-

The world around him was fading. He was on the verge of life and death. He was getting closer and closer to death and then-

"Karma." He turned around and saw Asano. Asano was smiling at him, tears trickling down his face. He was the most beautiful thing Karma had ever seen. Asano reached, holding out his hand.

"I can't keep on living," Karma repeated to Asano, his voice breaking.

Asano was moving closer and closer to him.

"Yes you can," Asano replied back.

Karma sobbed and reached out for Asano's hand.

"ASANO!"

Asano vanished, the world came back into view. Karma was alone again, with a blanket wrapped around his neck, choking him. Karma frantically unwrapped the blanket, desperately trying to breath air. AsanoAsanoAsanoAsano. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. He took a trembling breath and clenched the blanket with white fist. He sobbed.

"I was this close Asano dangit." He screamed. "I was t-this close." He pounded the ground with his fist then laid there, sobbing.

30 or about minutes later

Karma stood in front of the mirror.

He saw a boy with sunken red eyes and slightly tanned skin. He looked like he was staring right through Karma, his eyes dull and tortured. His neck was bruised. That wasn't him. Karma splashed the mirror, water dripping downwards. He looked through it.

The boy was still there, through the droplets of water. He looked a little surprised, as if he thought Karma would disappear. Then he looked sad.

We're one, me and the boy, Karma thought. We're both trying to escape what we are, to hope that it vanishes through glass.

He sighed and pressed his back against the door, staring at the boy. The boy stared back.

Asano's POV: "You're daydreaming again."

Asano blinked. "What?"

His father sat in front of him, frowning.

"This is the third time you've blanked out. What's wrong with you?"

"Is this why you asked me to call in sick for class, sir?"

Asano's father scoffed, "that class is useless, nothing they learn that you didn't already know as a toddler. If anything, you'd lose knowledge in that... class." He shook his head. "Asano. The final exams are coming up."

"Yes. Sir, with all due respect, I do not know why you would choose to place me permanently in Class 3-E if you cared about such a thing-me in class 3-E would only raise their class average-"

his father waved his hand. "A minor lie so that Seo and Aoi would work to the best of their ability."

He leaned in closer. "You're going to help me steal 3-E's aces from them."

He pushed a small stack of papers in Asano's direction. "These are the so called 'geniuses' of 3-E. All the information you have to know about them is there.'"

Asano flipped through the file, a lump in his throat. Rio. Nagisa. Yukiko. Yuma. Manami. Karma.

"This is a result of... last year's finals, based on the rankings." Asano's father turned to Asano. "They cannot get any closer to surpassing us."

Asano swallowed and looked up from the papers. "Sir."

"What is it?"

"Isn't it a little too late to, you know, wipe out all these students? The exams are close by."

Asano's father looked at Asano. "The exams are close by. However, I think two months is enough time to wipe out 6 students."

He held up a finger. "But, if you don't feel like you can do it, I can arrange for Seo to carry this plan out. He'd be more than happy."

Asano gritted his teeth. "I'll do it. Sir."

Asano's father gave him a ghost of a smile. "I know you will. And, if you can't, there are always replacements."

Then his phone rang and he walked away, leaving Asano.

"Hello? This is the principal speaking, Gakuho Asano."

He had to choose power. He couldn't let this opportunity go to waste. He needed to be the 'old, ruthless' Asano. Even if it meant that his heart would shatter. But, if the boy he loved faded away then maybe he would be the same as he was. Or maybe different, like his father, colder and untouchable. Nothing else would be able to hurt him.