I felt a slight shake on my shoulder, "wake up, Mao. I can't let you die yet." He mused. I remained in that position for a while, hoping that he'd end it soon. "I see you missed me," he laughed bitterly.
I turned to face him, my face filled with perplexity, "what do you want with me, Keita?" I spat as my fear slowly subsided. If I was going to die, I might as well fight back. "If it's about that time when I—"
He let out a deafening bellow that startled me, "don't be so full of yourself, Mao." His lip twitched in annoyance and his face turned rigid, "it's not all about you." His eyes darkened. And just like that, my fear instantly returned. "You know… I've always hated that part of you."
I took a deep breath to say something but he interrupts me, "you see, I didn't expect to meet you again, my little kitten." My stomach twisted in disgust at the nickname and I found myself grow a bit dizzy. "One night, I was out with a friend in the park. I fell asleep, but I was rudely awoken by a painful blow on my chest; I turned to the person that hit me and…" his voice slowed down as he explained leisurely and then suddenly, his vigorous eyes flickered to meet mine "I found you." We met again? We have never—wait…what?
"I…" I stammered as I struggled to remember. All of a sudden, the wild realization dawned into me and I found myself speechless. Flabbergasted. I closed my eyes; they were stinging at the painful nightmare and I bit my lip hard to try to suppress the agonizing memory. It was that night when Agito and I went to the park after the concert and I threw a rock near the shady man, but I…I never saw anyone else. Maybe his clothes were too dark and I just didn't see because of the lighting. Either way, I felt like stabbing my leg, if—just if—I didn't throw the rock, would I still be in this position?
"Shh," He hushed and placed his index finger over his lips, "don't blame yourself. I was…glad, you could say, that I'm able to meet you here again." He smirked.
I forced myself to breathe evenly and gathered the courage I prayed I had—I glared at the Devil himself. This man. This man was the one that made my life a living hell. He was the one that pushed me to insanity, isolation, and finally to depression. He was the man that put thumbtack pins in my shoe when I was getting them out of my locker. He was the man that carved the words "freak", "bitch", "fag", "loser", and "emo" because I listened to rock music into my wooden desk. By the end of the year, my desk was filled up with the hateful words up to the point where you couldn't see the brown wood, merely the harsh carvings that haunted me every second of school. My school was a public school where the teachers didn't care about bullying and as long as no one was killed, to which they'd say, "oh, it's okay. You're teenagers, they'll get over it". I felt something within me snap at the recollection of the nightmare; my mouth opened as I struggled to breathe like a fish out of water while my eyelids continued to flicker. I was losing consciousness fast and— I breathed, "calm down, calm down…" I forced myself; having a panic attack right now was not an option. I dug my nails onto my thighs, "calm down," I hissed. Don't let him get to you-that's what he wants. With all my remaining strength, I tried to lessen the strain on my face and slowly regained my composure. 'That's right…breathe in, breathe out…' my mind instructed.
I'm not going to be scared anymore. I'm not going to cry anymore. I have to keep my promise I made with that certain boy on that day. He was the one that helped me. Inspired me. Saved me. I'm not going to hide anymore.
I opened my restrained eyes and he stared at me with the most questioning and perplexed eyes that almost seemed innocent. He sat on his chair facing me, propped his face up with his arm and said, "so, you're his girlfriend, huh?" The naive curiosity in his voice made me sick.
"What are you talking about?" I gasped, shifting my weight a bit from the discomfort of the ropes. "The short kid," he replied, "Agito." I felt my chest drop. How does this relate to Agito?
"Keita, I don't—"
"You know, I never liked that brat." He tilted his head to the left, letting the curls on his hair cover his left eye, "that impudent, arrogant little bitch" he spat and I noticed the emerging veins from his arms, "thinks he's better than everyone. Well, I," he paused, "think he needs a lesson." I was utterly confused.
"So you're planning on teaching Agito a lesson by kidnapping me?" I said in a sarcastic tone as my inner strength began rising. Everything will be okay, Mao. You made a promise and this is the new you. Keep it.
"I'm planning on teaching Agito a lessen by kidnapping his girlfriend." He corrected with a wave of a finger.
I coughed at the absurdity of his assertion, "you're crazy." I shook my head in disbelief. My fear of him was gradually decreasing after all the times I've spent trying to control it. Was this all about Agito? "This is a misunderstanding, I'm not his girlfriend." Maybe he would let me go after this mistake if I don't make a stupid mistake like provoke him.
"Oh, but you are. I was there. You were there. He was there. In the park, you two were going out." Why is he mad though? As far as I know, he hated my guts for no reason at all and made me want to kill myself, then now this? How does Agito relate? He was confusing the hell out of me. "I saw you two-"
"We're not togeth—" I said a bit louder.
All of a sudden, he got up and kicked his chair with such immense force, sending it to explode into tiny fragments all over the warehouse. Stunned, he advanced forward too quickly for my notice and crooked down, his face crashed to meet mine and the abrupt proximity nearly made my heart stop, "DON'T," he roared with his alarming, raspy voice that petrified every inch of my body, the veins on his neck burst out intensely as his destructive, terrifying eyes penetrated through mine like a thin layer. His lips twitched as he forced a sweet smile, which only frightened me more. Keita's nature is…unpredictable. Stepping back away from me, he took a deep breath and his features became gentle just as if nothing happened, "don't," he repeated, but in a softer tone, "interrupt me." My body was paralyzed at the sudden outburst and I felt myself loss for words, "if you listen to me, you won't get hurt. You don't want to get hurt like the last time, would you?" He cooed and brushed a strand off of my face; I recoiled. I whimpered meekly. "Good." He concluded bitterly at my lack of response and withdrawal. I'm scared.
I sat in the chaotic classroom with my gaze fixed straight to the blackboard, waiting for the teacher to come. Students were sitting on the desks, throwing paper planes, chasing each other around and drawing inappropriate things on the blackboard as I looked straight, pretending as if nothing was happening. "I can't believe she had the nerve to show her face to school today." I heard the girl to my far left mutter. I shrugged the fact that Keita was staring at me with amusement along with his little posse of friends.
"I know, right? She's so stupid. She probably wants to get killed by him."
"I feel bad for her though." I feel bad for me, too.
"All right students, go take your seats." The teacher treaded in the classroom with a nasty glare with the fatigue obviously consuming every inch of her energy. "Today, we'll be picking up from where we left off yesterday, which was Energy." She sighed at the sight of the words in the blackboard and began erasing it, "now, go take out your textbooks and somebody tell me a type of energy." The moment she turned her back, I felt a paper ball thrown at the back of my head. And another one. And another.
Ignoring it, I tried to think of the answer. 'Kinetic', 'potential','…um' I tried to remember while I opened my desk drawer. I jumped when I felt something crawl onto my hand and let out a terrified shrill. Trash, rats, worms, maggots, caterpillars, and centipedes filled my desk drawer as they crawled in delight.
"What is it, Masao?" The teacher asked in an unamused voice.
"Th-there are maggots and worms in my desk!" My voice trembled and tears were forming. I have an enormous fear of insects and bugs that crawl.
"Ha?"
"There are—"
"I heard what you said! Well? What are you doing? Go take your desk drawer and empty it out." She shook her head and continued writing. "Kids these days. Whoever did it, don't do it again or else you'll get in trouble."
I was a fool for thinking she'd help me. Everyone was staring. Everyone was whispering. Seeing as his plan worked perfectly, I heard Keita chuckle. Tears ran wildly across my face from embarrassment and with the overflowing feelings of anger and depression, I ran out of the classroom.
After running for several minutes, I found a nearby bench and I immediately plopped down, weeping like a child. I cried out loud with not a single care in the world. Why? Why is he doing this? Won't anybody help me? I clenched my hair in frustration and growled.
"Jeez, kid, would you shut up?" I heard a man say. I looked to his direction and found a man with long, white hair, smoking. Trying to stop my cries, I clamped my mouth shut, but it wasn't working effectively. Moments later, from the far left, I could see a little boy that was running and waving furiously towards my direction.
"I got it! I got it!" He yelled. He stopped and gave a paper bag to the man on my left. He took the bag and ruffled the top of his hair apathetically. Seeing my presence, the boy turned to face me and with a frown, he asked, "are you okay?" I was unsure. Should I? Should I not? Figuring he was a stranger and it wouldn't matter, I decided to tell the truth and shook my head lightly. Luckily, the tears were already beginning to subside. "Crying makes you ugly, so cheer up!" Just like that, I instantly laughed heartily at his reaction. It's been a while since I laughed.
"Thank you." I smiled slightly.
"There you go, your smiling face is much prettier." I nodded. "I'm very happy right now so I will give you something so promise me you won't cry anymore, okay?" He took his bracelet off and handed it to me. It was a blue, beaded bracelet with the letter 'A'. "I made it, so it's not very good. It's 'cause the first part of my name means 'autumn' and when you're sad, I want you to look at this bracelet and remember how the first part of my name means 'autumn'. Just like the fallen leaves that symbolize the past, you're reborn and it means a new beginning of life. A new you." He smiles sweetly and wraps it around my wrist, radiating his sweet warmth and tenderness. My eyes suddenly widened at his words and I felt some sort of indescribable "connection" deep within myself. An epiphany.
"Stop bothering the girl." The white-haired man puffed the last inch of his cigarette.
"Sorry," he blushed sheepishly and apologized to the man. He turned to me once again, "it's just that it's my birthday today so I'm really excited and happy because I can finally go out and not be in the—"
"That's enough." The man's voice hardened as he threw away his cigarette. "We're going home." He dragged the boy by his arm as he struggled to follow.
"Oh, umm—see you later, Crying Girl!" He waved goodbye and I tried to wave back, but they were already too far. My arm faltered and I looked at the bracelet, tracing the letter 'A'.
He's right. I should move on and look towards the brighter future and not dwell on the past. Tomorrow, the world will see a new Masao. This time, it will be different."Thank you." I whispered.
On that night, I took a pair of scissors and chopped off my long, black hair. I will be strong. I will be reborn.
A/N: Okay, I literally have no words to explain how sorry I am for not updating this story for months. It's just that I realized that I had made so many mistakes in the story that I didn't know how to fix them for the longest time. First of all, I realized that this story was ending much sooner than I expected (like, I made it too fast) so there was no development so I really hate it and I can't fix it anymore. Second, I wanted to edit the climax because I missed a vital part but I couldn't fix that anymore too. Third, I missed out so many important parts that I was supposed to include in the story, so I had to SOMEHOW figure out how the later scenes would work without the past ones. All those things gave me a huge headache and the worst writer's block!
If this story is liked, I promise to make a better sequel (this was my first time writing a story, so please bear with my incompetent writing). Since I've gained more confidence, skills, and a couple of criticisms, I am hoping that if I do write a sequel, it's going to be MUCH, MUCH better with funny adventures (I already have some in my head), friendship, and focus more on the romance between Agito X OC, since this story wasn't as good as I planned because I made so many mistakes along the way. This could be like the Part I of their adventure or something haha! Still, I now know where this is going and yeah, if I feel confident and if you guys really want to, I could write a mini sequel. Thank you for reading and supporting me all this time! Your comments and reviews really make all the hours I've spent writing this story worth it :)
Rocky Renagade: *Fan-girl scream* I hope I'm not disappointing you and the other readers though because I basically screwed it up since I forgot to put in a lot of things along the way of the story. I promise to make my writing even better next time!
Reaperdeath: It makes me sad when the protagonist dies, so hopefully Mao will be okay :)
Forever Fanfiction Lover22: You have NO idea how much I'm smiling right now after reading your comment! If I feel more confident and this story is liked by a lot of people, I will be more than happy to write a sequel with more development in terms of romance and comedy *^^*
D-S-W: Hello, Destiny! No worries! Oh my goodness are you serious HAHAHA, I don't know whether to feel glad or scared D: Ohh, I'm so sorry! I didn't know that I wanted to end it as well, it just...happened. It's because I messed it up bad, so I guess I didn't feel like writing it anymore but I might write a Part II since this one was kind of bad; it'll focus more on friendship and romance definitely since there was very little romance here, so maybe like a continuation per se. Thank you! I highly appreciate your criticism since it's important for a writer-especially me-to have a basis in terms of improvement.
Aya Kruez: :O I hope you're okay?! It seems to me like you've been dealing with a lot of things and I REALLY hope that things are getting better D: Yeah...I think it was too fast as well, but the story was kind of messy and I wanted to maybe "restart" if I'm picking up a sequel :)
FlyHighAndTakeTheSky: I'm blushing really hard right now, thank you! Maybe I'll ship more characters so they can be OTPs and canon hahaha!
Whahahahjap: Hmm, yes. It's just that I didn't want her to be "too good" and I guess I didn't strike the correct balance between the perfect character and the boring, awkward one. Thank you, I will try to improve on that.
TheRyomaEchizen: First of all, HOLY CRAP IF I EVER MEET YOU IN REAL LIFE I WOULD WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND SO WE CAN TALK ABOUT PRINCE OF TENNIS AND FUJI AND MOMOSHIRO AND TEZUKA AND THE PRINCE OF TENNIS MOVIE AND THEN FAN GIRL ON ECHIZEN. Yeessss, sorry :c I get really excited when something is about Prince of Tennis. There's very little romance in this story, but if I'm writing a sequel, I am definitely going to focus more on the romance!
Kyoko Hamana: Thank you for your review and support :D
AnnaTheDevil97: Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry for not updating it :c I feel like I've failed you, it's just that I had no idea how to fix my mistakes that I've made while writing this story so I had the longest writer's block!
Senna Bluefire: Thank you for your review, I don't know why but it made me laugh and when I read it, I was like "yes, ma'am! I'm going to update it, ma'am!" It was like I had no other choice and my mind just went blank, following your command ahaha!