Things were not the same after that.
After Dojima had found me semi-conscious and bleeding on the ground, he took me home and bandaged me up, after which he subjected me to intensive questioning. He spent hours asking different variants of the same questions, like where I was going after school, who I was talking to, and why the hell he came from work to find me lying in the street. Meanwhile, he took every opportunity to remind me to thank God I wasn't seriously hurt, or even worse.
"It's okay, I just tripped and fell on my head," I told him, chuckling softly at the irony of the situation.
He gave me a weird look. "Are you sure? If someone is harassing you, you need to tell me."
"No, no one's harassing me," I insisted. Dojima opened his mouth to speak again, but Nanako had appeared beside us, and he was forced to leave it at that.
Mitsuo and I still met up occasionally, but he had again resigned himself to silence. Not even the mention of his JRPGs would get him to speak. If I was lucky, I might get a glance in my direction, or maybe an exasperated sigh, but nothing else. Pretty soon, I gave up and stopped trying. We now spent all of our time together in silence, neither one of us willing to say anything to the other.
So why did he keep coming back?
Finally, after many days, I couldn't stand it any longer. I had to say something. So I asked a question that had been on my mind for a long time.
"Why did you punch me?"
His reply was simple. "Because I hate you."
I was shocked. "What?"
"You heard me," he said flatly. "I hate you. You're just a loser." His words lacked any traces of emotion. "Just like everyone else..."
I stared dumbly at him. Why was he saying things like this all of a sudden?
"Is that really what you think?"
I waited for him to answer. He didn't.
I sighed. "...I see."
I made a move to stand up. It was useless to stay here any longer if he was just going to be like this. Without saying a word, I gathered my things and walked away.
Suddenly, I heard a small voice.
"...W-Where are you going...?"
I turned around. He was now facing me.
"Aren't you going to yell at me?" he asked quietly. "Aren't you going to beat me up for calling you a loser?"
"No," I replied. "I can see that I'm just annoying you. I'll try not to do that anymore." With that, I turned to leave again.
"Y-You're not supposed to say that!"
I could hear him stand up.
"You're supposed to scream at me! You're supposed to kick the crap out of me!" There was emotion in his voice now, as he kept growing louder and more hysterical.
I didn't turn around. "I'm not going to do that."
"Well, you're not supposed to just leave!"
I tried to act unfazed, but it was difficult. "I'll leave you alone now. Maybe we can talk again once you've sorted things out."
I began to walk away again. The voices in my mind kept screaming at me to stop, but I ignored them.
...
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...
*"I can see that I'm just annoying you. I'll try not to do that anymore."
...
*"I'll leave you alone now. Maybe we can talk again once you've sorted things out."
*Souji left the party.
...
Alone...
...
*Mitsuo has become confused.
...
Alone...
No...
*Thy Sadness has gone up by 2.
N...No...
*Thy Sadness has gone up by 3.
No...N...Noooo...
*Thy Sadness has gone up by 5.
Nnooo...
...
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