To Live a Life of Ridicule
by Satosh1
Chapter 3: Betrayal
A/N: I might be overstepping the boundaries of the PG-13 rating, so please inform me if this story is.
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It was just a week after the fall of Ritsuko's undermined ego and the upbringing done by the embracing arms of a person she had burdened with her own existence... to have been saved by a man so gentle and considerate, so thoughtful and kindhearted even towards her own detested stature, she felt fortunate to encounter someone of such eminent compassion having fallen upon her otherwise valueless life. Kaji... being the first man she's ever given converse, and to truly fall in love with... it was what could only be described as one of an angel's blessed dreams...
Nightfall came in as they renounced their dreaded memories of the past, looking onward towards a new future for them in an unwavering promise. Stars shined and twinkled their brightest in the nightly sky, on-looking one of the most gleaming of moons in the never-ending galaxies throughout the park.
The same park, where Ritsuko almost saw death firsthand, holding and grasping it... and was subdued within.
The same park, where she met a man she had recognized before in an unfortunate incident of which she regrets.
The same park, where that man... Kaji... purged the essence of death and held her onto his chest in a warm embrace... protecting her from harm...
The same park, where she ran away from an inexperienced emotion she became frightened of... only to be inclined to him as he reached for her hand...
The same park, where she urged and pleaded the man to kiss her...
Tis such an irony...
Kaji and Ritsuko... an unlikely couple within the minds of the staring onlookers and pedestrians around them, perhaps. They gazed intently with bafflement, but the couple was completely unaware and unaffected by their constant gawking and loud whispers. They disregarded whatever surroundings as they enclosed their thoughts to one another and held hands, peering deeply into each other's eyes... as the entire area lighted up with the dazzling radiance of the full moon and its underlings.
Stopping, their eyes still connected, one slowly approached another and gave a unspoken kiss of breathtaking passion. Beside them, a tree of blossoms, their pink petals seemingly dancing with a solemn grace as they fell with a constant shine from the skies, with their sparkling reflections. Clutching onto Kaji, Ritsuko released a single tear, running down off of her cheeks and slowly making its way to the ground below her. She never wants this moment to end. It felt too beautiful to ever have a "finite"... but sadly, there always had to be one, a conclusion to all things. Regrettably breaking the kiss and looking upwards to a confused Kaji, she asked him in a steady whisper;
"Kaji... don't ever leave me..."
Gradually approaching his lips near Ritsuko's ear, he whispered;
"Don't worry. I'll always be here for you, Ritsuko."
And with that, they kissed again in an even further embrace... lying within the brightest and luminescent of all places, all throughout the coming night.
The following day after...
Ritsuko awoke and happily stretched from the best sleep she ever had within the apartment of Kaji's, holding in arms the man she truly thought she was in love with. Except, he wasn't there. Glancing around the room with utter confusion and yawning a bit, she gradually noticed a consistent shine on top of the drawers invoked by the sunlight, which was gazing through the window in its own accord without a care. Pushing herself from the bed, she observed closer to identify the irritating sparkle.
She saw it as a reflective encasing of a laminated piece of paper in beautifully written cursive letterings. Seeing it addressed to Kaji, she curiously picked it up, not knowing what to expect. It reads;
Dear Kaji,
Meet me in the bar at Tokyo-2 early in the morning. You know the place. I'd love to see your cute lil' face again.
P.S. Remember your promise of paying for the grub in our next date!
Love, ............
There was a blunted smudge in place of the person's name that sent the letter. It seemed to have been intentionally rubbed off with a common thumb, and quite possibly done by Kaji, or so Ritsuko thought to herself. With a worrisome expression to her otherwise restless eyes, she immediately grabbed some casual clothes and quickly put them on, leaving out of the apartment building and heading towards the bar she hoped to never go to again.
Just four blocks away from it, she began to question whether she wanted to know if Kaji had in fact cheated or is cheating on her. And within every step she took towards the hesitant truth, she steadily slowed. Just within a few yards away from the bar, Ritsuko came to a complete stop. She tried her hardest to remember and fulfill the promise she and her lover have made in that memorable night, and so she held her tears to distance her away from the reach of hopelessness and denied the feelings she so wanted to let loose.
Her eyes peered onto the ground; she slowly turned back, thoroughly convinced that Kaji cheating on her was preposterous and absurd. Just when she stepped only few feet away, Ritsuko unexpectedly tripped by reason of a tree's roots underneath her footing and luckily avoided falling onto the ground face-first, if it weren't for her speedy achieve at balance.
And as she straightened herself from the earlier mishap, Ritsuko noticed a familiar figure out in the distance along with a shorter, longhaired woman accompanying each other by the access of the bar she had meant to enter previously. There was no need to squint or observe closer, for she was absolutely sure who it was.
"Kaji..."
They conversed all the while with smiles shooting at one another. Seconds later they hugged... and gave each other a somber kiss.
"No..."
Bearing witness to a treachery happening in front of her own eyes, Ritsuko struggled to restrain her otherwise teary condition, and so in exasperation she twisted her manner into an animosity unfathomable even to herself. She felt like a clean knife had struck her in the heart with a violent and painfully excruciating tremor by means of cruel intentions. Ritsuko clutched her chest in pain.
"I opened my heart, my feelings, my mind... for you... only you... and you would do this... to me...?"
Anger and hate filled her thoughts entirely, feeling as if she should solely march towards them and shout the most hurtful and horrible of obscenities.
She couldn't possibly indulge in such a mania. It wasn't in her persona do to so.
Her ego couldn't withstand such pain. Such hurt. Such infidelity. Utterly breaking her promise to her former love, she broke down and slumped onto the ground.
She simply did what she did best, and she did so in the same manner as she had always done. Insecurity flooded the very existence of this fragile being, and once again there was no one to save her from the soiled grasps of sorrow and depression. But this feeling was different. She bared her heart to him, thinking that he would help her throughout, but promises were broken. It was the feeling of betrayal. This time, there was neither a tear nor a sad expression.
In a sadistic smile, she turned back to return to where the apartment, with an intention apparent within her viciously tainted eyes.
At the apartment...
With absolutely no expression at all, she peered around the inside, slowly tilting her head left and right with a frightening facade. What caught her eye first-hand was a rack of sharp steel knives neatly settled onto the kitchen table. She approached them and slid one of the knives off of it. Her selection of was the smallest, yet one of the sharpest of knives meant for the filleting of fish. Ritsuko licked the sides of the knife within her psychotic state of mind, while contemplating a way to give reprisal to the man she once loved... who had been unknowingly cheating on her the whole time.
Ritsuko stood beside the apartment door with knife on grasp, eagerly awaiting Kaji's return all with a sinful face, filled with intensity.
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dekiru...
