...It's so cold. My body trembles not just because of the cold but with fear as well. I fear I will die right here. Dad, am I going to join you now? But what about mom? She will be all alone and...
"Sarada! Hey! Wake up!" I can hear a voice calling out to me.
...Who are you? Am I dead? No... Please save me...
"Sarada, open your eyes, please," the voice keeps calling me. Who would it be? I want to know. I force my eyes to open but they don't want to. I can hear the beat of my heart. It beats slowly.
"Sarada..."
One more call and my eyes open. It's unclear who's in front of my eyes. I blink my eyes slowly. They don't have the energy to move. Now, the person is caressing my face.
"Sarada... Look at me..."
"Boruto..." it's Boruto. I figured it out. My vision is blurry. I think I lost my glasses. He looks so worried. He got teary eyes looking at me.
"Thank goodness," he says and hugs me. Is he crying? I can't tell as I got my vision slowly vanishing again. The place turns entirely black and I...
Kawaki's POV
Why do I have to join this camp? This is so boring. They are so busy with the bonfire activity and I am here in my room. I got a single bed for myself. I was not in any group and I don't intend to hang out with others as they are all annoying. A knock at the door wakes me up from thinking.
I leave the window to open and entertain who's outside and behind the door. When I open it, it's our class adviser. What does she want now?
"Kawaki, I noticed that you are not outside so I thought you would be here and I guess I'm right. Please, go outside and participate in the activity," she tells me but I don't want to.
"I am not interested in it," I refuse but she is insistent and it's annoying.
"Come on, you need to enjoy yourself a little," but I don't want to go.
"They won't like having me around," I keep refusing.
"You won't know unless you try," she is getting pesky now.
"Okay, I'll go," I say. I know she won't leave me alone.
"All right, see you there, Kawaki," she finally says and leaves me standing outside my room. I scratch the back of my head. She's annoying like that dork. Well, she kinds of remind me of her.
I just close the door and leave for the bonfire activity. They are already doing the fire when I arrive. They look so happy. I wonder what so happy about it.
"This marshmallow tastes good when toasted," that fatso best friend of the dork utters and they laugh at her. The dork seems to enjoy the moment too.
"Why don't you join them, Kawaki?" it's her again. I turn my back at them and aim to get back inside but she stops me.
"Hey, wait. Where are you going?" she asks while grabbing my arm.
"I'll go back. It's cold here," I lie. I just found everything so boring here.
"Enjoy the remaining days of your high school, Kawaki. You would not be able to experience it again," she says. I think I've heard it somewhere else. It makes me stop from my tracks and I try to recall where I heard those words from. No, there's something that urges me not to remember where and who told me about the same thing.
"Kawaki, I know I won't be able to see you grow and I won't be there when you achieve your dreams. But please, live a meaningful life for my sake because you will not be able to turn back time and I don't want you to regret it..."
It's when before she died. I almost forgot about it, mom.
"Enjoy the camp, Kawaki. You will be going to a University in a few months. You won't be able to do these things again when you graduate. Make friends, a few will do just those people you can trust and you will share your happiness and sorrows with. I will be very happy if you bring friends at home, not just pets," dad's laughter echoes in my head. He told me those things before I leave for the camp. I did not respond to him. We have reconciled now and I hate to admit that it is all because of the dork.
I know it will be hard for me to talk to her and it's troublesome to be friends with her knowing that she hates me so much. I haven't thanked her yet for what she had done to me and dad. I could not help myself from getting annoyed by her presence and getting grumpy all of a sudden. What am I thinking?
"It's annoying," I say and take a step away from her.
"Please, join all the activities starting tomorrow," she is persistent. I don't know what to do with her anymore. I completely leave them and return to my room. I did not even eat dinner. I lost my appetite. I am lying on my bed already and a lot of things cross my mind.
"Mom, help me get through all of this..."
What essay are we going to do now? What other lame things are coming? Just what the heck is going on with this camp?
"Did you already make an essay for who will you become ten years from now?" I freak out when she suddenly appears behind me.
"What are you doing?" I snap and she just smiles at me.
"Oh, you didn't write anything yet? Your time is almost up," she tells me.
"I don't have anything in mind," I tell her while smirking.
"Okay, take your time. I look forward to your essay later," she leaves immediately and turns to the girl on my left. As if I will make one.
The time is up and I still did not write down a single word in my notebook.
To my surprise, everyone was called to read their essays in front of the class and I don't have anything written on my notes.
"Last but not least, Kawaki," I am called out by her and everyone stares at me. I don't like being the center of attention.
"I did not make anything," I tell them and they all look surprised. So, what if I had not written anything?
"What do you mean?" she asks while wrinkling her forehead.
"Nothing came to my mind so, I did not write anything," I say and pack my things. I'm going out.
"But, it's part of the activity," why does she need to be that persistent? I stand up from my seat and aim to leave the room.
"So, you are going to force your student to do something he could not? If you insist, I will make one later," I tell her and leave them completely. She tries to stop me but not this time. I'm not listening to her.
The next morning...
And today we are going to make a lame letter. Seriously though?
Speaking of which, the dork's letter is still in my possession. I am planning to return it to her but I don't have the timing to do it. It surprises me that she hasn't bragged about it for a long time now. Did she believe I lost it? How dumb.
As usual, this activity is boring and I did not make anything like that either. The lamest of all things. If I make one, mom would not read it anyway. So, it's a waste of time. And, I did not make one my entire life. I don't know how to make it in the first place. They say you must put all your feelings in writing to convey something important. All I have is my feelings for mom and I don't think they reach her but I know she's watching over me and dad and I believe that's enough.
It's time to make decorations now. Mom used to make Christmas and New Year decorations at home when she was still alive. Since then, we haven't celebrated these occasions again.
As usual, I just watch them work with lame things. I am thinking why the hell they are doing this.
The best decoration so far is from the pettish blonde girl. But who cares anyway?
The day just went by and we are closer to coming home. I am missing Kiwi so much. I doubt if dad is feeding him well.
"Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, huh?" I mutter to myself. On the first day of January, we will be home. I'm so glad.
We are gathered in front of the hotel early in the morning. What the heck it will be this time?
"I guess everyone is here," she starts. I know she has prepared something lame again.
"Why are we here?" a girl from another class asks her.
"Did you forget that we have a surprise activity today?" I don't remember her talking about something like that before.
"Are you excited?" she asks and they answer her with yes. I think I'm the only one who is not.
"We have here plastic bags for you," she takes out the plastic bags from her bag and shows them to us. Don't tell me we are going to collect garbage around the place?
"What do we do with this bag?" the eyeglasses guy from my class asks in confusion.
"Did you see that forest?" she points at the near forest.
"You are going to collect dekopon, sudachi, and Fuji apples from that forest," Is this some kid's play? Hunting fruits in the forest?
"How childish," I whisper.
"You need to at least get five pieces of each to finish the task. Once you all get the required number of pieces of each fruit, you can head back here. The time duration is until 5:00 p.m., this afternoon. Those who return later than the specified deadline and those who return before the deadline without dekopons, sudachi, and Fuji apples are automatically disqualified. Do you have questions?" she explains. Everyone seems ready to leave for the hunting.
"We are leaving!" they say goodbye to her. I did not move from my place. I don't intend to come with them, by the way.
"Kawaki, here's a plastic bag for you?" I startle when she hands the plastic bag over to me.
"What? To me?" I point to myself and she nods at me while smiling.
"I don't want to go," I refuse.
"You are part of this camp too, Kawaki. You can't just say that you only come because this is a requirement for graduation. I can recommend the principal not to add you to the list of graduating students," she tries to scare me.
"Blackmailing me, huh?" I challenge her.
"Nope, I am serious about it," she brags. Tch, what an annoying witch.
"Take this too," she offers me a compass and I unwillingly accept it.
"Good boy. Now, go and get those fruits I told you," she says while smiling. This witch is getting into my nerves. I walk in the direction of the forest. I was left behind. I am fulfilling this activity by myself when others are doing it in a group. Well, whatever I still have to do this, or else the witch will not recommend me for graduation.
This forest is quite huge and this is my first time entering such a frightening place. I have heard that this forest is called the Suicide Forest. I am not afraid of ghosts or anything but the ambiance feels like misfortune is waiting for you inside.
I walk until the open field disappears from my sight. I have to go forward and look for those stupid fruits. I have walked like half a kilometer now but I haven't seen a single fruit around here.
I try to walk further in the forest and still, nothing can be found around. I hear voices talking in a distance but I ignore them and sit down to have a little rest. I got a water bottle and some sandwiches. I eat up a little before I proceed to look for those fruits. After a few minutes, I search for them again.
It feels strange that not at least one fruit is hanging from the trees. I have a feeling that the witch has tricked us into coming into this forest. There's nothing in here. I need to go back but the problem is I don't remember which route I took before I got here.
I grab the compass from my pocket and it says that I am currently at the southern part. So, I need to head the north straight hereon. I have walked a kilometer now I guess and didn't realize that I was away from the open fields this much. I keep walking until I bump into some guys.
"Hey, Kawaki!" the glasses guy calls out to me. His group and the dork's group collided. They look surprised when they see me.
"Are you alone?" the brushy brows ask me.
"He always is. He never gets along with others except for Sarada," what did she say?
"We don't get along either," she refuses. Well, it's true, we don't get along well.
"Why don't we find our way back now?" the glasses guy suggests and the dork agrees with him.
"You come with us too, Kawaki," I guess I don't have a choice but come with them.
"The compass says we head west. Do you think it is right, Sarada?" the glasses guy talks to the dork. They exchange words more likely calculating the situation. They seem to realize that the witch has tricked us.
"You are right. The only thing we can do now is to calculate what would be our adviser's answer to this," the glasses guy tells. The witch likes doing mind games. I caught her one time playing in the faculty room. And as I can recall, she likes doing the opposites like if she tells you to choose the left you should choose the right instead. I fell for that cheap trap a long time ago when I make up for my missed quizzes.
"If it is our adviser who's behind this then..." the dork utters.
"Let's head east," I say to finish it up.
"She likes doing the opposites. So you have noticed it too?" the glasses guy tells me while smiling. I did not respond to him after that. He leads us in the east and we follow him.
"Did you know what place is this?" he asks while we are taking the route back. They seem clueless about the rumor of this place.
"This forest is called the Aokigahara forest. This is famous for its title as the Suicide Forest," he reveals and they start to shiver in fear even the boys are. Weird.
"Yes. A lot of individuals committed suicide in this forest," he continues and they start to murmur a scared sound.
"Denki, stop making up stories, will you?" the girl with an annoying voice begs him.
"It's a very popular rumor I am surprised you guys haven't heard about it," he says casually. He is not aware of their feelings right now.
"Hey wait! I have a story to tell you about a high school student coming from our school who committed suicide here," he doesn't seem to stop telling them about the rumor. Why do I have to bump into these weird guys?
"Denki stop it already!" she screams in fear and the forest goes wild. Birds fly in different directions. Bushes move and unclear creatures appear due to the area is getting dark. They go panicked.
"The girl may come out now," he adds to the tension and they run in different directions because they can't take the fear anymore. To my surprise, someone grabs my hand and drags me away then I realize the dork is dragging me to nowhere. She is screaming like an idiot.
"Hey, let go of me," I shout at her but she seems not listening. So, I just wait until she stops running. Then a few moments later, she stops and gasps for air still grabbing my hand.
She turns to face me and her eyes stretch when she sees me.
"Why the hell are you dragging me here?" I yell at her.
"Why didn't you tell me that it was you instead of Chocho?" she responds. So, she thought I was her fatso friend? Ridiculous.
"What the hell are you talking about? I was like screaming at you to let go of me but you're not listening at all," I snap.
"Where are we?" she suddenly asks. Who the heck knows?
"How will I know? It's your fault for dragging me here," she's undoubtedly at fault here.
"Will you stop with that grumpy attitude?" she tells me.
"What?" I scoff. She is unbelievable. I turn my back at her. I am leaving.
"Where are you going?" she asks.
"To hell. Want to come with me?" I feel so agitated with her now.
"What's wrong with you? Why do you always say such things as if they don't hurt? Are you that dense to not get what other people might feel by the words you throw at them? Why do you have to be a jerk?" she yells at me. I stop moving. It feels like her words stab me through my chest.
Why do I have to be a jerk, huh?
"Kawaki, you are such a good boy..."
"Please be nice to them..."
"Kawaki, always help those in need, okay?"
"You are always such a good boy for helping dad and mom out..."
"Make friends, okay?"
I don't know what happened just now and mom's memories flashback in my mind.
Tears, eh?
Tears are flowing from my eyes and I didn't notice them. Sounds weird, right? And wait...
Is that snow? It's snowing again. Just what the hell are you doing to me, dork? I close my eyes in disgust.
I look so pathetic. I failed mom. I am a disgrace as his son. I was like a jerk this whole time not realizing I have hurt so many people.
Memories of my past after mom died keep appearing in my head. Why all of a sudden?
I can't even look at her now. I'm supposed to be making friends here, right? But what am I doing?
I want to run away from her. She makes my chest hurt so much. I just made a step and she stops me then...
A breaking sound echoes behind me. I turn to see what's happening and all I see is the dork's hand in the air.
Damn it! The ground breaks!
My body gets numb. I can't move. My system doesn't process what just happened. She fell off. The ground broke. Wake up, Kawaki!
I run and check on her situation.
"Hey, are you okay?" I shout at her but she did not respond. Damn it. She is lying unconsciously on the ground under the falling snow. I could say the ground broke with a depth of approximately seven feet. It looks more like a cliff now.
The soil here has weakened its power due to the changing climate. I need to do something. I need a rope or anything that will lift us from beneath.
I check my bag if I got a rope inside but unfortunately, there's none. Damn it! Damn it!
I look around since this was a suicide forest there might be a rope somewhere. I run into the forest to look for ropes.
"Wait a minute..." I found a rope. But this is not enough. I turn to my left and there is another hanging on the tree. It's pretty dark in here. I hurry back to where she had fallen then tie the ropes together.
I tie it on the nearest tree trunk and tied the other end on my waist. This is just enough to reach her place.
I jump off and rush to her. Her face is covered with snow. She is knocked unconscious. Her face is hot and her hands are cold. She got a high fever. She breathes heavily too.
"Hey, wake up," I try to wake her up but no chance. I take off my jacket and covar her trembling body.
I untie the rope from my waist and I move her closer to me from the ground. I plan to tie the rope around us both while carrying her on my back.
It will be a struggle for me since she is unconscious to this point. But I have no choice. If we won't get back to the hotel as soon as possible, her situation might get worse.
I am not sure if the rope will last without breaking before we get to the top. I tried to climb up while carrying her on my back but we drop down again. She is murmuring words I don't understand.
Don't die, dork...
"Sarada!" I hear a voice calling out her name.
"Sarada? Where are you? Can you hear me?" it's the blonde idiot.
"Hey!" I shout. I wish he could hear me.
"Huh? Is someone there?" he keeps shouting.
"Help us here!" I shout back. Footsteps running in our direction.
"Sarada! Kawaki. What happened?" he yells. He looks worried.
"Hey, try to pull the rope up. I am carrying her on my back," I tell him and he nods. He keeps pulling up the rope and I am trying my best to climb up while pushing my feet on the wall.
When we are almost at the top, the idiot pulls us up, and finally, we are saved.
"What happened?" he asks but he secures the dork first.
"Hey! Sarada! Wake up!" he shouts at her waking her up but she did not respond.
"Sarada, open your eyes please," he begs her to wake up.
"Sarada..." he calls out to her once more. It surprises me when she moves her eyes.
"Sarada... Look at me," he tells her and she finally opens her eyes.
"Boruto..." she utters once she completely recognizes who is in front of her.
"Thank goodness," he hugs her tight and I can tell that he is crying in relief but the dork loses her consciousness again.
"I will bring her back," he says. And he carries her on his back. I did not respond to him and let him do whatever he pleases.
"Thank you for saving her," he says then walks off. He did not let me utter a word and left completely.
Thank you for saving her, huh? I bite my lower lip.
I didn't do anything...
"She is safe now," I hear her fatso friend says. I kind of relieved when I hear it. Everyone was worried about her.
"Boruto, thanks for saving Sarada," she has calmed now and is grateful for him.
"Uh...um..." he utters awkwardly.
I walk away from them and decided to return to my room to get a change of clothes.
When I am scanning through my things, something falls to the ground. I check on it and...
"This is..."
"Hey..." I call out to him and he turns to face me. He was visiting the dork and I unexpectedly run at him in the hallway.
"What's wrong, Kawaki?" he asks me while his brows twitch.
"I have something to give you," I say and he gets more confused.
"Huh?" he utters and watches me as I grab something from my pocket.
"Here..." I say and he accepts it.
"What's this?" he asks but I did not answer. I turn my back at him and started to walk away. He calls out to me again but I ignore him.
I don't deserve to keep something I don't own. May it be in the hands of the right person...
To be continued...