~ Day 7 –Gone ~
Ene watched quietly as Shintaro turned off the computer until she was denied access to the screen. No signal, it said in front of her. Figures.
Those times when the eighteen-year-old decided to go to bed for a change were the times the cyber girl was overcome by nostalgic feelings and the resulting melancholy. All on her own in the depths of a virtual world, she still found herself looking up a profile for an online game that hadn't been accessed in two years or the homepage of a school that no-one she knew attended anymore.
It had been so long since she had become like this that even her memories of those days she spent frowning and hesitating were turning hazy and were slowly losing their shine. Even the people she had held dear were somewhere else, she and Shintaro being the only ones remaining in one place.
The boy whose computer she inhabited now hadn't recognised her as his former senior. But that was for the best. She remembered him. That arrogant, unpleasant boy with the huge ego and haughty replies. The one who had infuriated her more than once. Ene had wondered why he had become like this- a pathetic existence that was withering away in a room that hardly saw the light of day anymore. And yet, she had always pulled him along. Maybe it was Ayano-Chan's request, still etched into her mind. Someone even more selfish than himself.
Hopefully, that girl was somewhere out there, doing fine. She must have been smarter than that and finally left that awful boy alone. Ene wanted to think that, but deep inside, she pitied Shintaro.
He must pity me all the same, she thought as she brought her footless legs to her chin, resting her head on them. Everyone she once knew must think that she was gone. Dead, most certainly. Her granny, Ayano-Chan, Shintaro (even though she was right in front of him) and then... Haruka.
Was he still doing fine? Was he even alive? Ene prayed for him to have lived through his attacks. Even if he knew that she had disappeared, she wished he'd just gone on with his life. While she knew that her love couldn't and wouldn't reach him anymore, she at least wanted for him to be the same as always, smiling that stupid smile of his somewhere else for someone who didn't chicken out on their feelings.
But what if he wasn't around anymore? What if he had died in the knowledge that Takane was gone? Ene bit her lip and held back her tears. She couldn't allow herself to think about these things. It was her fault in the first place, for idling all her life and then, when she finally had made up her mind, not being able to tell that one person how much she loved him.
This was but her own fate. It was a bitter truth, but a painful fact nonetheless.
And yet, even when Haruka wouldn't remember her, wouldn't recognise her as his classmate from two years ago, that was fine with Ene. As long as she'd get to meet him again, all that pain would be fine. She'd atone for all her wrongs to see him again.
To show him that she wasn't gone.
A/N: It's already been a week? Seriously? Well, thank you for the favourites and follows thus far! And the reviews, too, of course!
But I feel like I'm doing something wrong if no-one gives me verbal feedback, you know? Well, maybe I'm just doing everything right and you guys just want to tell me that by simply liking things.