On a Knife's Edge

The next day

I barely slept. At least this time, I had a few hours of sleep, but I stayed up. Not because I was busy with school or just playing video games or anything, but I spent last night on my bed staring at the ceiling wondering what the hell that note meant. The note by Nakano-san.

What did she mean? Why Saito-san? Is there really something wrong? I've been at the club for a few months already, but I don't know what was different about the girl, other than that she is very shy, with this veil of mystery shrouding her. I was actually surprised that she was able to talk to me even with a bit of difficulty.

I've noticed that she doesn't talk to anyone, not that I know of. At least, not any of the other guys in her class. In fact, she doesn't even interact at all. The one time I saw her, she was in the back reading a book. No one made so much as an attempt to talk to her.

I just hope it ain't as bad as what my siblings and I went through.

I woke up groggily as my alarm on my phone blared. After a few hours of sleep, I was tired. I woke up with a massive headache. I clutched my head with my hands as my head pounded, the alarm making the pain even worse as it pulsated throughout my body.

"I should've gone to bed earlier," I groaned as I got up. I turned off the alarm and shuffled barefoot to the bathroom, where I took a shower and brushed my teeth. After getting dressed for school, I went downstairs, my oxford shoes clacking against the wooden floorboards. My dog tags dangled from my neck, clinking together as I made each step down the stairs.

"Mornin' Sawyer!" exclaimed Mr. Kobayashi, who was cooking up some eggs in the kitchen.

"Hey, Mr. Kobayashi," I said quietly.

"Are you okay?" said Ms. Kobayashi, looking back from the couch where she was seated at, the news channel on the TV in front of her.

"Yeah," I said, "I just have a headache." I walked up to the kitchen counter near where Mr. Kobayashi was getting breakfast ready.

"There's Tylenol in the medicine cabinet," said Ms. Kobayashi, "Go ahead and take one before you get to school."

"Alright," I said as I opened the medicine cabinet, which was stocked with lots of pills of different kinds, as well as a first-aid kit equipped with bandaids and ace wraps. I searched the different bottles until I found the word "Tylenol". I found the pill bottle and uncapped the lid. I shook out a pill, a small capsule with a blue tip on one end and a red tip on the other, kind of like a magnet. handed me a glass of water and I swallowed the pill.

"It'll work before school starts, so don't worry about having to go through class with a headache," said Ms. Kobayashi, "Maybe you got a headache because you're hungry. Let's eat, shall we?"

I had a hearty breakfast of bacon and sausages. I also had an egg served on top of a scoop of rice. Something simple and easy, but enough to get me through the day. After breakfast, I thanked the Kobayashis and excused myself to get my bag and left the house.

Ono-chan wasn't outside when I got out, so I assume she's not awake again. Time to throw pebbles at her window again, I thought to myself as I crouched down and picked up a small pebble. I wound my throwing arm back and was about to release the pebble when a voice scared the living shit outta me.

"Hello, Lee-kun!" a familiar voice exclaimed as I jumped back in sudden shock, not expecting Ono-chan to be right behind me.

"Oh, Jesus Christ almighty!" I exclaimed as I turned around to see Ono-chan standing behind me, then immediately regret that as I clutched my head, the pain from the headache swelling more from all the movement. I groaned as Ono-chan laughed.

"You okay?" snorted Ono-chan as she grabbed my shoulders, holding me upright.

"Yeah," I said, "I just had a headache and you scaring me made it much worse."

"Aw, sorry about that," said Ono-chan in a not-so-apologetic way, "At least I caught you in the act of throwing pebbles at my window."

"And at least I don't have to wake you," I said, chuckling, "Where were you?"

"Across the street," she said, pointing at a house across the street, a pretty flowerbed on the front lawn. "I was looking at the flowers there. I'm surprised you didn't see me."

"I have a headache," I said, "And I assumed you were still asleep, so I didn't bother to look around." I approached the house with the flowerbed and examined its beauty.

The flowerbed seemed to be about four feet by eight, accented with shell-pink and crimson red roses and sky blue and lavender purple petunias growing, reaching for the sun. The house also had sunflowers flanking the door to the house, really making that house seem like a pleasant and cozy abode. Now if only it was a cottage in the forest, that would make it feel welcoming.

"You know, I wonder how these plants were able to grow into what they are," said Ono-chan, "All pretty and cute. It's like someone had a canvas and was able to paint the earth with flowers. Too bad it's gonna be fall soon and these plants won't survive." It was early-September, Fall was about to arrive soon. Already, there was a slight chill in the breeze. Sooner or later, winter will come and snow will trample these poor souls.

"It sucks that they're not gonna be here for long," I said, "but it sure is pretty to look at for the time being."

After a second of admiring the pretty flowers, Ono-chan spoke up. "Shall we go to school?"

As we split ways at the entrance to the school, I immediately went to my classroom. My headache was slowly going away thanks to the painkillers, but I still felt tired. When I entered the classroom, I had my earbuds in. I wasn't listening to rock, for it'll make my headache even worse, so I was listening to some music. What's even funnier was that I was listening to a song called Painkiller, so it actually helped make my headache go away.

"'Cause you're my painkiller," I sang the chorus, "When my brain gets bitter. You keep me close, When I've been miserable."

When I entered the classroom, I noticed something was off. At first, it felt like a tingle in my spine. Something like a sixth sense being activated or something. I went to my seat, my earbuds still in my ear blaring music. When I sat down, the weirdest thing happened. Absolutely nothing.

Now I was over here just thinking that Takeuchi-san was at least gonna say hi or something, but today, she wasn't in her usual seat. Usually, she would strike up a conversation with me as soon as I sat down, but today, she wasn't here. I found it rather strange because she's always here before me like the valedictorian she was.

CJ wasn't here either, but that was because he was sick. He texted me this morning when I got to school that he had gone down with the flu. Nothing serious, he just has a fever and he won't come back in for a few days. So I was left alone when class started. No excited greetings from CJ, nor playful teases from Takeuchi-san. It was just me sitting in class listening to music.

Class started when the teacher walked into the classroom and neither of my friends had gone to class. At least Takeuchi-san wouldn't bother me today, right?

A few minutes after the bell rang and the teacher was giving her morning debrief, the sliding door opened. There stood a girl leaning against the doorframe, slouched over and panting heavily. Her iconic and obnoxiously large white bow formed a ponytail in her hair. Takeuchi-san stumbled into the classroom, out of breath as if she was in a rush.

"Takeuchi Monika," said the teacher with a disapproving shake of the head, "Why, of all people, are you late?"

"S-sorry!" stammered Takeuchi-san, bowing at the waist, "I was stuck in the ladies' room! There was an awful lot of people there for some reason."

"Whatever just sit down," said the teacher, pointing at her desk, "Class had just started."

Takeuchi-san hurried over to her desk and sat down in her chair. As she got ready, she looked at me. And I was there slowly shaking my head and silently clapping my hands with the straightest face I could make. She playfully stuck her tongue out at me. I silently chuckled as I returned to my own work.

Gym class

I got out of the locker room alone. CJ wasn't here because he was sick, and Takeuchi-san was out doing something else because the student council wanted her help (for some reason, she's buddy-buddy with them enough for them to pull her out of a class), so it was just me and Nakano-san. That was convenient either way because I have to talk to Nakano-san… alone.

Today, our coaches were letting us do what we want on the fields. Whether it is running the track or playing soccer or baseball, etc. etc. The guys were actually able to get out of the locker room before the girls, so we were there just milling around on the track.

I stood near the door with some other guys. We struck up some small talk just to pass the time, nothing significant worth noting. Soon, the girls got out of the locker room and were heading to the door leading out to the fields.

The girls filed out of the gym onto the track. I stayed by the gym and waited until I saw Nakano-san. Sooner or later, she exited the gym, her being the last one in the line. "Nakano-san," I said, grabbing her arm and pulling her aside as she walked by. She had a weird confused face that was pretty much the reaction anyone would get when someone grabs them out of nowhere.

"Yeah?" she asked, puzzled at why I pulled her aside, "What's going on?"

"Can I talk to you for a second?" I asked. Already, the class was going off to do something else. The coaches didn't seem to notice us, so I think we were in the clear at that time. I could finally ask Nakano-san something in private, something that has been nagging the back of my head since yesterday.

"Sure?" she said/asked, unsure about what was going on. "What do you want?"

"Um," I stammered. For some reason, I couldn't get the words out of my mouth. I've been practicing what I wanted to say to Nakano-san, but I couldn't get the words out. I don't know, it feels like I'm asking about what happened to me before. It felt weird.

"About yesterday," I continued, with Nakano-san tilting her head in confusion, pulling her ear closer to me, "That note. What was that about?"

"Oh, you're still hung up about that," said Nakano-san, "Damnit, I was hoping you wouldn't remember that. Just forget it, would ya?"

"You think I would forget something like that?" I said, my voice rising a little, "C'mon, you made it sound serious. Is there really something wrong with Saito-san?"

"As I said before, forget it," said Nakano-san, her voice rising a little to match mine while defiantly crossing her arms, as if she was hiding something, "You don't need to know what's happening."

"C'mon, what's going on?" I said, louder than before, "I'm really worried here! Just tell me!"

"Stop yelling at me!" screamed Nakano-san, her hands tightly balled into fists. I raised my hands in surrender, in fear. I wasn't even yelling, was I?

At that time, it felt like everything stood still for a second. The crowd at the track stopped talking. I don't know if they noticed us or not, but I didn't want to look. Nakano-san turned around and stomped away angrily, leaving me by the door.

She murmured something, but I couldn't hear her. I looked around and no one saw anything. It was as if we were invisible, at least for that moment. Fuck, I thought as I made my way down to the tracks, I've done it now.

I didn't bother being persistent with her, so I dropped the question. I spent the rest of the class in silence. Why did I lose my cool?

Afterschool

When school ended, I did the usual thing and stayed in my seat. Same with Takeuchi-san, who was just scrolling through her phone. I pushed my seat back and put my feet up on the table. It's not like staff members will see me anyway. I put my earbuds in my ear and started listening to music, trying to keep from falling asleep.

My headache was lingering in the back of my skull, reminding me that I didn't get a good night's sleep. I really should start taking care of myself. I was just worried about that note that was bugging me. It felt weird like there was something that I would find out, like some sort of premonition.

Do you get that feeling that something's not right? That something's not adding up? That was the feeling I had since yesterday when Nakano-san gave me that note. I can't help but worry. Especially after what I have gone through, both me and my siblings.

"Is the headache gone?" asked Takeuchi-san, looking to strike up a conversation, "If you still have one, I have Advil in my bag if you need it."

"Nah, I can't take it even if I still had a headache," I said, chuckling, "My liver can't take any more today."

"Says the one who was chugging wine out of Yuri's bottle," joked Takeuchi-san, a friendly smirk forming on her face, "Honestly, you're gonna be an alcoholic when you grow up."

"Meh," I shrugged jokingly, "It's something to take the mind off of it." Takeuchi-san chuckled softly. Honestly, some days, I do need somethign to take my mind off of it. Off of what happened at home. But I don't wanna turn out like my father, an asshole alcoholic who didn't care if he saw the light of day.

"Remember when I chased you when you threatened to have Sayori drink alcohol to calm her down?" said Takeuchi-san in a reminicing voice, "It's like giving a kid a loaded gun and telling her to go ham on it."

"Ah, that was fun," I said softly, putting my hands that was clasped together onto my stomach, "I ended up drinking the entire bottle since no one wanted to drink. Hell, even Saito-san didn't want to drink, she just wanted to show everyone."

"That was a bold move for her," said Takeuchi-san, "She could've gotten in trouble. I don't know what'll happen if she did. She's always that quiet girl."

"Yeah, she's something alright," I said, "Maybe she just wanted to take risks."

"What can you say?" Takeuchi-san shrugged herself before leaning back in her chair, "Adrenaline is addicting."

"You can say that again," I said, "That's why my brother became a fighter pilot. Flying around in that high tech F-35 the Navy assigned him too. Apparently, the fighter plane he flies is a new one that the Navy wanted to test out. Because of his addiction to the thrill, he was assigned to it."

"No way, he was a fighter pilot?" asked Takeuchi-san.

"Yeah, was," I said, looking off into space, as if looking beyond to the other side of the sea, "Well, I prefer it if we don't talk about him right now."

"Oh," said Takeuchi-san, "Sorry."

The sliding door opened a few minutes after. In walked Ono-chan, Nakano-san, and Saito-san. We said hi and everyone quickly went off to do their own thing. Ono-chan and Takeuchi-san went to the back doing something together. Saito-san sat down where Takeuchi-san was sitting and cracked open her own book.

Except for Nakano-san, who approached me.

"Hey," she simply mumbled in a quiet voice as she approached me, "Can I apologize? For earlier?"

"No, let me apologize," I said, putting my feet down onto the floor, "Sorry for yelling at you. I guess I was getting riled up."

"And I'm sorry too," said Nakano-san, "I don't know what happened there."

"It's fine," I said with a smile, "Don't fret about it too much."

"Thanks," said Nakano-san in a bit of a forlorn attitude, something uncommon for her, "You're a good friend." I smiled and she went off to the closet to find her manga.

When she left, I reached into my bookbag and grabbed a pen and paper. I didn't have a book with me, so I thought I would just write tomorrow's poem. I wrote one for today already, but I was bored, so might as well.

"Is that a new poem that you are working on?" asked Saito-san, her face still partially buried in her book. Her eyes peeked over the top of the cover, meeting mine as I turned my head to look at her.

"Yeah, I don't have a book to read," I said, shrugging my shoulders, I figured that I could just write tomorrow's poem."

"Hmm," said Saito-san, "That sounds nice." She put down her book, stood up, and carried her desk right next to me and sat down. She's been doing this more lately. I don't really read with her, but she just likes hanging around with me. A little more around this time.

Both of us did our respective things silently, with her reading her book and with me writing my poem. Every so often, Saito-san would pick up a teacup that sat on her desk. Every time she read her books in the club, she had a cup of tea with her. She claims it helps stimulate the mind while keeping blood pressure down. Meanwhile, I kept disliking what I wrote, so my page was full of scratch marks as I tried to erase my things. Too bad I can't erase pen marks.

After five minutes of just silently raging at my mistakes on this piece of paper, I had to get another one because I ran out of space. I placed down my pen on my table and bent over to grab a piece of paper from my bag.

When I sat back up with a clean sheet of paper, I tried to grab my pen where I last saw it. Instead, my hand had hit more air. I patted down the desk to find my pen. I looked under the table and around on the floor. Nothing.

"Hey, Saito-san?" I asked, "Have you seen my pen?"

"Your pen? Why, I haven't seen your pen," she said, glancing at me for a second before returning to her book. Without looking, she took one hand and reached over to her teacup, grabbed the little handle, and took a quick sip, all the while not meeting my gaze. I shrugged and sighed, returning to my blank piece of paper. Damnit, that was the third pen this week.

My eyes slowly closed, tempting me to sleep a little more. Fuck it, a little bit of shut-eye wouldn't hurt, I thought as I laid my head on my arms like a pillow and dozed off to sleep.

I opened my eyes to see my surroundings. I woke up in the clubroom, but everything was dark. There was no one around me, at least as far as I know.

I had a piece of paper in my hands, a poem that was written in my handwriting. I couldn't move on my own, it felt like I was watching a movie. I guess I was dreaming at this time.

"Here, take it, I can't wait any longer," said a voice from behind me. I felt myself turning around to face Saito-san nervously holding her own piece of paper out towards me, squirming in excitement. Or at least, I think she's squirming in excitement. Already, things felt weird. "Hurry! Read it!" she exclaimed with a creepily large grin.

I felt my hands reaching out towards hers, grabbing her poem in my hands, my poem somehow disappearing from my hands. I guess it was a dream, so anything could happen, my poem disappearing included.

The piece of paper was all crusted with some sort of dried liquid. Looking closer, it was red like blood, as if dried blood was spilt on the page and crusted over. There was some sort of yellow liquid there too that I was hoping was not piss. All the while her poem was illegible. It's not that her handwriting was messed up, but rather it was just a bunch of jumbled letters and symbols. As if it was some alien text of some sorts. What in the fresh hell is in my hands?

"I have endowed it with my scent," said Saito-san, her eyes wide and deranged, her speech accented with quiet and subtle giggling. "I made it for you. Do you like it?

"No," I heard myself say. Keep in mind I ain't in control, so I can't do anything.

"Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha," laughed Saito-san in a maniacal way, "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

From there, she reached into her blazer as if to grab something. A second later, she pulled out a knife. It looked like some steak knife, the blade serated on one edge. While laughing, Saito-san held the knife pointed at her chest, the hilt grasped firmly in two hands. And she plunged the knife into her own heart.

I awoke in a cold sweat. Eyes wide open in horror and shock, I looked around frantically. Ono-chan, Nakano-san, and Takeuchi-san stood over me with worried eyes.

"Wh-where's Saito-san?" I asked as I saw that Saito-san was not in her seat next to me.

"Lee-kun, are you okay?" asked Ono-chan, ignoring my original question. "What's going on?"

"You were mumbling 'Yuri, Yuri, Yuri' in your sleep," said Nakano-san, "Did you have a nightmare or something?"

I put my head to my hands and shook my head. "I… I guess I had a nightmare. It was all a dream. Where's Saito-san?"

"She stepped out for a bit," said Takeuchi-san, "But you shouldn't worry about her. You look like hell. Go get cleaned up in the bathroom." She jerked a thumb towards the open door.

"Yeah, I-I guess that's a good idea," I stammered before struggling to get up and stumbling to the door. The girls looked at each other as I exited, stumbling to the bathroom, my head swarming with questions. What the hell did I just witness? Why did I get a dream like that? What the fuck is happening?

I reached the door to the guy's bathroom down the hall. The girl's bathroom was next to it to the left, modeled like the guy's. That's when I heard a sound coming from the girl's bathroom.

"Kshhh," I heard the sound of something that sounded like someone sucking air through gritted teeth, "Haaa. Haaaa…"

I heard the sounds of someone in pain. What the fuck is going on now?

I felt weak, but I had to investigate. If someone was hurt, I gotta help. So with a silent step, I sneaked into the girl's bathroom. I pressed my back to the wall that was obscuring my vision, me slowly getting closer and closer to the corner with the intent of peeking around it to see what the hell was going on.

I inched closer and closer to the corner, taking in an exhausted gulp as I approached. When I got to the corner, my fingertips already over said corner, the sounds of pain grew louder.

"Wh-why do I keep doing this?" said a feminine voice. "Why do I like this?" That's it, I gotta see what's going on.

I turned the corner and saw someone standing by the sink. Someone I knew. With a knife in her hands. My jaw dropped and my eyes widened in horror. What the hell?

"Kyaaa!"


Honorifics: (Underlined honorifics are the ones used in current chapter)

-san: Most common, it is an all-purpose suffix that can be used in any situation where politeness is expected. Basically the titles Mr. Ms. etc.

-sama: This suffix is one level higher than "-san" and is used to confer great respect.

-kun: This suffix is commonly used at the end of boys' names to express endearment.

-chan: Feminine version of -kun.

Senpai: Superior/Upperclassmen.

Sensei: Master.


A/N: I told you all this ain't your average dating sim fic.

Nothing to say other than I hope y'all are doing good quarantine-wise. Boy, staying home is fun.