For some reason.
For some unexpected phenomena.
I felt my body shivered and a cold sweat ran through my forehead. Slowly turning my gaze to her without moving my entire body, there was a girl standing beside me.
What is happening?
For just a moment ago—for just a few scenarios ago, I saw her dead lying on the school ground, her bones sticking out of her body and her head was severely broken.
Is that what they called De Ja Vu?
Isn't that the feeling of there was something that happened again and again?
Or just now did I foresee the future.
"... Didn't you heard me? "
Porcelain skin.
Charcoal black hair.
Sapphire blue eyes.
A straight face looks.
A monotonous tone of voice.
Unlike the first time I met her, I could almost see all of her colors except her clothes. There's no doubt that she was the girl who died earlier.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
Shooking my head, I immediately turned around but that was the thing I shouldn't do.
It was too fast but I felt like it was too slow.
It was too slow but I felt too fast.
The law of gravity was crumbling inside my head, only I realized that the clumsiness of me struck and now I tripped myself, slowly falling on the brink of death.
I'll —.
A hand grasped my wrist and pulled me up from the brisk of falling from the rooftop to the ground.
Right, those hand was the hand of the girl who was with me on the rooftop.
Our body collided after she pulled me and it made us fell on the rooftop's floor with her on top of me.
Probably, I subconsciously wrapped my hands to her and turned my body in the mid-air just to protect her from any further damage.
Haa... I'm too kind and helpful.
Just like what I said earlier we fell with our body collided on the rooftop, now we were lying on the cold hard floor with the only thing between us was her hands grasping my uniform firmly.
I supposed she was shocked by what happened.
Now that said, I haven't felt that I'll die just a few seconds ago unlike—right, I remember I was struck by a truck, that time I felt like a flag was set on me.
Death.
I'm gonna die.
I'll die.
Unlike that time.
Gently moving my body to sit down, I patted her head telling her that, I'm okay now, thank you for saving me.
I knew words couldn't repay her for what was she did to me. A mere 'Thank you' couldn't repay the life that she saved.
She will die tomorrow too...
The thought that first came out of my mind.
That's right, I must save her from her death tomorrow.
I gently pushed her away from me but her grip on the chest part of my uniform was too firm and she kept her face buried on my chest.
"Sorry and thank you"
I couldn't find another word to tell her, I wasn't used to this kind of situation—to this kind of drama. I'd just hoped that she quickly took her body away from me before something awaken on me.
I'm no pervert, it's just a normal thing for a virgin person like me. Not to bragged.
She just nodded, slowly loosened her gripped on my uniform, and sat down straight in front of me with her right hand pulling the hem of her skirt down.
Her straight face was nowhere to found, the only thing I saw on her face now was a bashful face, probably because she took a while before she moved away from me
but there's no reason to be shy about it.
It's just proof that you were alive.
That you were scared.
Looking at her, I gulped. Because of what happened earlier, I'd never notice that the girl sitting in front of me was a beautiful high school student.
Right, as I recalled I heard a rumor about a girl before. She excelled in all the academics subjects, live in luxurious life, and has a face of beauty.
"Hannah...Lara"
I unconsciously said, it just came out of my mouth without thinking, but what happened next surprised me.
She looked upon me—just to meet my eyes. I felt like her sapphire blue eyes were pulling me inside it. She gave me a gentle smile and says, Yes?
—Yes.
Just a three-letter word that told me that the girl in front of me was the rumored girl.
She's real.
She exists.
She was sitting down in front of me, looking at me with a shade of smile on her face.
She wasn't like a bookworm person who always had a book on her hands, she wasn't like a daughter of a rich family who has a spoiled personality and thinks highly of herself.
She's just a normal girl.
Just a normal high school girl.
I just stared at her, watching her pulled her hair to the back of her right ears as the strong wind blows on us.
Her straight face was now gone.
Her monotonous tone of voice was nowhere to be found.
The girl in front of me showing a gentle smile.
Hana Lara was smiling—She's smiling at me.
Just a moment of silence roused between us before I started to thought what should I tell her as an excuse—why do I know her name. I knew I shouldn't tell her that there's a rumor spreading about her, I might make her feel anxious about it. So I decided to tell her a lie.
"I just happened to heard your friends said your name the other day," I said with my finger scratching my temple and my eyes avoiding her gaze.
"My friends talking to me?" She sounds a bit confounded.
"Y-yes just the other day... "
Her brows furrowed as she turned her gaze downward, there's a 'hmmm' sound emitting from her as though she was thinking deeply, then she began her words.
"That's a bit strange..." He paused still thinking deeply. "That's because I'd never had a friend before"
Eh?
That made me taken aback, her confession about her having no friends made me doubt it.
A high school girl with a beautiful face and excelled on any academic subject—not sure if she was a daughter of a rich family—has no friends, even once, just like what she stated.
"Even once?" I subconsciously asked, then she nodded as her answer. "So even a people with beautiful face and excelled on any subject have no intention about making some friends," I muttered.
"It's not about me—having no intention to make friends, it was just couldn't make any"
"Couldn't make any?"
"Right, they knew my name but they ignore my existence" she declared, made me think back about the first time we met.
People in her surrounding ignores her existence.
Even I when we first met—ignored her, why is that.
"Sorry to made you told a lie, I knew you heard my name from the rumor—Even I, I know that there was gossip spreading around about me"
"So those are all lies?"
"No, actually not all, for example, the rumor about me having an excellent great on any academic subject was tru—" she jolted and shook her hands in front of me. "I wasn't bragging, it's just like if you opened a cup of ramen and poured the hot water in it, eventually the ingredients inside will be cooked inside. Just like studying if you opened a book, poured your attention on it, you will learn"
That was one hella bad example she said.
At first, I thought she was like a celebrity, especially after I figured out that she was Hana Lara, but as I continued talking to her, she was an easy-to-talk person and it's kinda fun being with her. I should have talked to her the first time that I met her.
"Then about you being a daughter of a rich family? "
"I guess, it wasn't true. It just happened that my father's business boomed and made many branches all over the country" she said with an innocent smile.
Don't smile at me, that's what you called a daughter of a rich family, you know, it's already counted as that.
Huh? Then it made that all rumored was true, why did she say and not all of that was true?
"Lastly... " She continued. "the rumor about me—Hana Lara—being the most beautiful girl this school—in this country was false" a soft small voice came from her, embarrassed by any words she said.
It made my eyebrows curved, everywhere I looked she is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen in my entire life, not to mention that I have achromatopsia, so I couldn't appreciate other people's beauty.
Her face.
Her eyes
Her nose.
Her lips.
And even her body.
You could call it the image of perfection, a perfect beauty without any cosmetics, natural beauty that should be shown in the whole world. Maybe she can win the Ms. Universe if she decided to enter the pageant—just my personal opinion.
"No, I think that part was true... "Id just realize that I mumbled embarrassing words and It made me wanted to kill myself.
She didn't say a word instead she just nodded.
After just a few talks and chatters, we decided to make our way out of and building and out of the school ground. The sun was already down yet we were still together, aimlessly walking around the street—just looked around and continued talking like it was a natural thing to do if you have someone walking with you together.
"So you couldn't see any colors?" she asked.
Just a few seconds ago, I told her that I had been diagnosed with achromatopsia—an illness that my eyes couldn't see any colors except white, black, and a shade of gray.
I had no idea why did I tell her that out of the blue. I just felt like I couldn't control my mouth whenever I started talking with her, and I ended up telling her most of my secrets including the story about my family.
"I haven't met someone with an illness like yours before, I thought that illness only occurred in the drama" she chuckled as if the problem that I bear ever since I was born was a joke to her.
I shouldn't have told you if you will just laughing at me.
But I wondered, why I couldn't bring myself to hate her after she laughed at me like that. Scratch that.
There was no Romance on the tag so I shouldn't think like this, it could make the story more complicated as it is.
As we turn in the intersection, I bit my lower lip as I remembered that this area was the place where I saw the awful people who were lying on the ground.
I reflexively turned my body back where we came from to avoid the awful sight of the area but Hana stopped me by gripping my wrist.
"What's the matter?"
"I just remembered that there was a place I wanted you to see" avoiding her gaze and pointing my finger in a different direction.
Furrowing her brows, she took my hands down as I unintentionally scratched my right temple.
"You have that habit of yours whenever you're telling lies..."
Wow.
It's just a few hours ago since we met each other—or the current her met me a few hours ago—but she already figured out that I have this bad habit whenever I tell lies.
Well, as if it wasn't that obvious.
"Is there something you want to avoid in this area?"
Avoid?
Yeah, I guess if you sum it up, avoid was the best word to describe what I wanted to do. It wasn't like I felt guilty after I told awful things about these awful peoples, I just wanted to avoid that feeling—the feeling as if my chest was burning whenever I see people like them.
Maybe this what people often called 'frustration'
Or maybe I'd just visualize sometime that I'll end up like these people.
How do I know?
I couldn't see the future, I just felt like I'll end up like them.
"N-no, let's go"
I bit my lower lip as I started to walk through that place. Unexpectedly, she held my right hand and led the way.
"H-he—"
I couldn't see her face but I noticed that the back of her ears turned beet red.
"You don't have to do this, you know"
"I—it's okay" she stuttered.
Of course, it's not okay. We just met earlier but she already knows my past, bad habits, and now holding my hand. It's not normal.
A few seconds after she pulled me, I heard the deafening sounds of cicadas. For some reason, my body felt heavy each step I took, not only my step but even my breath.
As the cry of cicadas goes louder and louder—it happens.
I felt a hard thing struck the back of my head, given by how strong that thing hit my head, I immediately lost my balance and fell to the ground.
A man was standing on our back with a large stone carried on his hands, on the surface of the stone, I saw a familiar color, a color that I'd seen before.
—Crimson Red.
The color of blood, or should I say, the color of my blood.
I assumed he was one of the people who were lying on the ground a few minutes ago, based on his rug-like clothes and appearance as though he hadn't taken a bath for a couple of days or weeks.
Glancing at Hana Lara who was stoned on her feet, I opened my mouth and tell her to run, however, there were no words—arose from my mouth excepted for heavy gasps.
Suddenly the people who were lying on the ground a few moments ago were surrounding as continuously uttered the words.
"Money, money, do you have money? please give us money"
They were uttering those words but on their faces, there's a wide smile that almost reached from ear to ear as if they were gone in a frenzy.
My eyelid felt heavy, my gasps became shorter and shorter. The people surrounded us started to check my body, looking for my wallet, I suppose.
Run.
I kept saying on my mind.
My slightly opened mouth was frozen in its position, letting my short heavy gasps came out of it.
I'm gonna die.
Not only me.
We both going to die.
I and Hannah Lara.
Before I lost my consciousness, I saw them cornered Hannah Lara, grabbing her body and touching every part of her. As a closed my eyes I heard a scream, it sounds like she was crying, begging for me.
"Please save me..."