As sad endings form new beginnings, new beginnings form sad endings.

read.

A lively look returned to Kotonoha's as she cut herself a slice of vanilla cake. She wasn't very hungry, but she needed something to cheer her up. The violet-haired girl plunged the white fork into the slice and quickly took a bite. It was good, but her mind was elswhere.

"Makoto-kun" she whispered after swallowing. Tears began to form in her eyes. Pushing her plate aside, Kotonoha looked down and watched her tears soak the mahogany table.

Why?

Why did it have to turn out this way?

She was happy. Makoto-kun was happy.

"It's better if we stopped seeing each other." Makoto muttered to her sadly.

"Are you saying you don't love me?!" she protested as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"It's just- things are complicated right now. I'm sorry."

Kotonoha's sobs were louder now. Her voice became hoarse as she screamed his name.

"Makoto-kun!!!"

Kotonoha waited patiently on a roof bench. Any second now, he'd show up and they could eat the lunch she'd prepared. Kotonoha looked at her cell phone. He was twenty minutes late. Lunch was almost over.

Where could he be?

Kotonoha then took it upon herself to check his classroom to see if he was still there.

As she trekked across the hallway, she saw Sawanaga. Kotonoha quickly averted her eyes, hoping he wouldn't notice her. It was too late.

"Katsura~chan, what are you doing walking in these empty hallways all alone?" His voice was as annoying as ever. Despite that, Kotonoha did her best to be polite.

"Um, could you please move out of the way? I have to find Makoto-kun."

"Makoto? He's not here today." Sawanaga's voice became flat. "Just like yesterday and the day before. I don't get why you're even with a guy like him. After all that's happened, you should be with someone kinder." Sawanaga grabbed her hands. "Kotonoha, I would never betray you the way he did back then."

"No." She cried, snatching her hands back. "So cheating is wrong, but rape's fine?"

"I just-"

"Men like you are the worst." She spat as she walked past him only to hear the bell ring as she reached Makoto-kun's class. She popped her head in quickly. He wasn't there.

After school, Kotonoha decided to skip her student council meeting to go see Makoto-kun. Just as she left the building, Sawanaga came up to her yet again. His expression was different this time. It was one of regret.

"I was thinking a lot about what you said today…I just want to say… I'm sorry for what I did. At the time, I thought that you wanted it too, but…thinking back on it…It was wrong of me to force myself on you, but that doesn't mean I've given up though. I'll earn back your trust and eventually your love no matter long it takes." The passion in his voice was palpable. "We can start slow at first. As slow as you want. Okay?"

"Since you're Makoto-kun's friend, I'll accept your apology, but my answer is still 'no.'"

The two were blanketed by a long silence. It felt like hours.

"B-but-" He mustered up.

"Sawanaga-san," She said.

Sawanaga gulped as he moved closer "Yeah."

"Kuroda-san has feelings for you, chase after her instead."

A perverted smile crept across Sawanaga's face "Really? Well now that you mention it, she is kinda cute. I've gotta go find her!"

Sawanaga ran back into the school as fast as he could.

Kotonoha giggled as she made her way to the train station. What an idiot. She tried to call Makoto-kun. It went straight to voicemail again.

What was going on with him?

Was he in danger again?

Was he with someone?

Kotonoha shook her head as she boarded the train. He was probably just sick.

Kotonoha tried to calm herself down. She blinked back the flood coming form her eyes only to fall into despair yet again.

"No matter what I do for you; no matter what I am for you, we can't just be together, can we?!!! I just want you hold me! I just want you by my side! Don't you realize that?! Nothing else matters!!!"

Kotonoha's face lit up as the door opened to reveal a short woman with long black hair.

"Hello, Mrs. Itou. Is Makoto-kun home?"

"Makoto, It's that girl!" Makoto's mother yelled with a distant "Okay." heard in the background.

The small figure disappeared into the apartment. Anoher figure soon emerged from it.

"Makoto-kun!" Kotonoha exclaimed as she reached out to hug him.

"Kotonoha, can't you see my hands are full?" The tired boy before her snapped. He was holding a baby in one arm and three bottles and a stuffed bear in the other. His eyes looked as if they were dead.

"Oh, sorry, Makoto-kun." Kotonoha said sadly. "I was just wondering if maybe you want to go out to dinner this Friday. I've been trying to call you, but I keep getting your voicemail."

"Oh that," Makoto replied " Yeah, I keep forgetting to charge it. Oh, and I can't go to dinner."

"Why not?"

"Kotonoha, I have a kid now. I can't just leave this little guy alone every time you wanna go do something."

"You could get your mother to watch him." she suggested.

"My mom said she wants nothing to do with- Actually, hold on." Makoto began to look even sadder. "Mom, could you just watch Kosuke for a bit?" Kotonoha could barely make out Mrs. Itou's responses. "Because I need to talk to her alone…It'll be really quick, I promise!"

Kotonoha stopped crying. She looked over at the knife she used to cut the cake. It was larger and sharper than the ones she usually used.

"What's so complicated?! You're my boyfriend! We love each other!"

"I have a son now, Kotonoha. And things are about to get a whole lot worse soon. My mom's decided to kick me and Kosuke out. She can't support the three of us. Not to mention how angry she was when she found out about him. So far, I haven't been able to find an apartment, and even when I do have one, I'll have to work all the time just to keep me and him fed and with a roof over our heads. It wouldn't be fair to you if you were with a guy like me."

"Wh-what if I let you stay with me, at my house? We have tons of space. My parents are very wealthy so we can all live comfortably together." Kotonoha propositioned desperately.

"Your parents would never agree to that. Besides, I don't want to drag you down with me. This is my burden to bear, not yours. I'm sorry. It's over."

"You idiot!" she sobbed

"What?" Makoto looked puzzled. He slowly began to piece things together. "You never used to call me 'Idiot.'"

"Did that upset you?" she asked. "I'm sorry. I promise I'll never call you that again, just please don't break up with me!"

"Sekai used to call me that…" Makoto thought aloud, " The way you've been acting since…you know. How could I not have noticed this? The outspokenness, scolding me all the time, I though you were just coming out of your shell, but… that's not you. That's Sekai."

Kotonoha's eyes became lifeless, her voice monotone. "Saionji-san seduced you even after your promise to me. I had to be more like her. If she's the one you want, I have to suit your needs. If you want me to be Saionji-san, I can be Saionji-san. I can be anyone you desire."

"Stop it!" Makoto yelled with a fury that caused Kotonoha to take a few steps back. He moved closer and put his hands on her shoulders. "Spare me the soulless eye routine! You're not Sekai! I don't want you to be Sekai! And you're not a zombie either! You're Kotonoha Katsura! Act like it!"

"If it's what you want-"

"Fuck what I want! I thought I'd gotten through to you back then. It's not about me! Plenty of other guys would kill to date you! Taisuke likes you! Go out with him! Just please leave me alone. I can't be your boyfriend like this. Just- just go back to the way you were…before you met me."

"But that's not me either. What I am is your girlfriend, Makoto-kun. That is me. Youu mean more to me than anything. I can't live without you. Even knowing that, do you still want to break up?"

Makoto turned his head away. "Yes, you have to learn to live without me."

Kotonoha took the knife and held it up to her wrist; the white and blue frosting smugding up against her pale skin.

"What do you mean? How could you say 'No' to something like this?"

"Fairly easily." The balding, purple-haired man answered back. "Kotonoha, you have to understand. You're in high school. You'll meet someone new. We are not taking in some stray and his kid just because you think you're in love with him."

"I AM in love with him! He's the only boy I'll EVER love!"

"Kotonoha," said a woman with short black hair and breasts twice the size of Kotonoha's. "You're young. you don't understand. Not to mention that he has a child from another girl. We have no ties with either of them."

Kotonoha was growing desperate. "You're wrong, Mother! He has ties to us. I tie him to us, and so does his second child!" Kotonoha began to rub her belly.

"You're not pregnant." Her father said coldly.

"I am!" she defiantly maintained.

"You can't be!" Her mother was teeming with rage "Do you know what that would do to us? Do you know what that would do to our social status? We'd become pariah's. They'd laugh behind our backs! Did you even think about the shame you'd bring on our family?"

"Who would do business with a man who can't even control his own daughter?!" her father yelled.

"Don't you ever think? How could you be so stupid?!"

"M-mother, I just- Father, I-"

Her father's eyes were full of disappointment. "I don't know what to do with you."

Kotonoha's parents left her in tears as they walked down the hallway to their room.

How could one lie cause so much damage?

Kotonoha heard a large THUD coming from her parent's room. Quickly, she put th knife down, ran to the room, and knocked on the door.

"Mother? Father? It's me! I'm- is everything okay?" Kotonoha received no response from the other side of the door. Finally, she cracked it open to see if they were alright.

Red.

She opened the door completely to find two corpses. Two bodies became two objects during her breakdown in the kitchen. One, her mother, lying limply on the bed; the other, her father, sprawled out on the floor with a knife in his hand. Both were drenched in pools of fresh, red, blood still spurting, albeit slowly, from their throats.

Kotonoha stepped backwards, and with a look of shock and fear, let out a horrified scream.