Their hands remained interlocked as they ran out the school compound, glad to finally escape the hell of the action behind them.
They finally decided to slow down and catch their breath, they had been running for minutes now.
"Are you… alright, Shouko?" He gasped. All his energy had been completely sapped out of him from the recent events.
"I'm… fine…" She stopped for a second.
"Thank goodness. I was so worried that they might have hurt you then…" Tadano went to wipe sweat off his forehead, but when he looked at his hand, there was blood.
Not now please… I don't really want Shouko to worry too much about me.
He looked at his girlfriend, still trembling from what had just unfolded a few hours ago.
"Shouko?"
She jumped.
"Oh… I… sorry… yeah?"
"Were you… traumatised?"
Slowly, she nodded.
"I… was so worried that… they were going to take you away from me…"
"I was scared too…"
"I can't believe they did all that…"
"I don't want to believe it either, but some people are just like this, unfortunately. That's just how this world works sometimes, doesn't it?"
"All they wanted was my affection, but they… even went to try and kill you… three times…"
"Yeah, that sounds… kind of dumb…"
"I… will never, ever forgive them…"
"Shouko?" Tadano was slightly surprised.
She looked at him, slightly confused herself.
"That was… arguably the harshest thing I heard you say, ever."
"Well… they tried to kill you… I doubt I can forgive someone for trying to take you away from me… 3 times…"
"Well, that's true. I can agree with you there-"
"Hito…!"
"Huh? What's wrong…?" He turned to Shouko to see her trembling again. Her eyes were filled with worry and concern, as she pointed to the side of Tadano's head.
"What about my- ow…" He prodded his head, unknowingly brushing the wound he received from the pipe strike, and he saw the blood on his hand. The stain was a lot larger than the first time he saw it.
He heard another concerned gasp from Komi, as he looked down to assess his injuries.
He then realised the patch of blood on his hand was not only larger because of his head injury, but also due to glass from his earlier fight with Ramorou having pierced his palm.
He looked at his arms and saw a long gash across his left, stretching from elbow to shoulder, which also tore at the edge of his uniform, staining it red.
It was only then he realised the bloodied mess he was. He felt confident that at least 20% of his usually pristine white uniform was stained with blood.
He turned to his right hand and saw the stab that Ramorou had inflicted upon him.
His whole body ached from all the fighting he had been through, and he wasn't surprised if he had one broken bone somewhere from all that action.
This looks a lot worse than what I thought it was…
He looked up at Komi, tears in her eyes from seeing her boyfriend in this state. She looked relatively unscathed, just a few red marks and light bruising. He thought about bringing it up, but he knew he was by far in the worst situation and mentioning it would just make him sound dumb.
Komi reached out to grab his uninjured left palm.
"It hurts a l-lot… d-doesn't it…?" She whispered.
"It hurts a lot, doesn't it?" His mind went back to the time she had been stabbed in the thigh by a dagger.
Yeah, it really does hurt…
"I'm… sorry…" Komi choked a little bit between her sobs.
"Huh? W-What are you sorry for…? This isn't your fault…"
"It is…! If only… I had managed to… get the courage… to tell you how I truly felt… how I regretted breaking up earlier… then we would have avoided it entirely…"
"I thought you gave me a note telling me to meet in the alley by the courtyard after school?" Tadano looked up, confused.
Komi looked back at him.
"I… never wrote a note to you…"
"Wait, what? So… it was…"
Their eyes darkened as they thought about the high possibility of Yamai having placed the note in his locker.
"It's… my fault… that you're hurt like this…"
"It really isn't… I can just get home and get myself cleaned up…"
"No… I know this might sound… a little s-selfish and all… but… I want you to come to my place to get f-fixed up…"
"Are you sure…? I'm afraid that your parents might… well…"
"It's… alright… They know that it was… m-my fault for that break-up… They won't b-blame you…"
"Is it really alright?"
"Yes…"
"Well… alright then…"
They started walking back to her place, until Tadano let out a little wince from the pain in his leg, causing Komi to immediately look back at him, concern visible in her eyes.
"No… it's fine… I just… well…"
Slowly, Komi grabbed his right hand, and gently lifted it across the back of her shoulder.
"Shouko?"
"I… want to… take care of you…" She blushed, before she started walking again, Tadano holding onto her shoulder.
"Oh… T-Thank you…" He blushed as well. "I… might be staining your uniform with my blood though…"
She shook her head.
"I don't mind…"
They walked the rest of the way back in silence and occasional winces of pain from Tadano.