She fished out everything she got in Mrs. Arne's room from her bag and checked everything carefully. There was a huge list of medicines on those prescriptions, and similar kinds of papers were a lot in numbers, each of them having at most a week gap.
"She had'ta change her meds almost every day, God!"
But apart from this information, she couldn't figure out anything else looking at those scribbles of medicines on those prescriptions. So, she just went through those and kept them aside. As she had been living alone since the 2nd year of her middle school, she was well known with simple medicines like those for fevers, headaches, colds, food poisoning, and even period cramps. But none of these were similar to those she was used to.
"What kind of meds are these I wonder," Airi mumbled to herself while looking through all those papers carefully, lest she should miss anything essential.
Then she found some papers that had the hospital name in them, and it said reports, with her name filled in the patient's information. And also, a copy of the form of her admission to the hospital, and the discharge paper. According to those, she got admitted on 25th December, around like 10 pm.
"Guess the day I met with the accident, she faced somethin' alike. Then is that what triggered my swap?"
And finally, the last paper she had was a copy of a police case report, which stated about a suicide case.
Suicide case of Airi Arne.
"Wait, Suicide Case?!"
With the report, there were also some test reports from the hospital. She looked into it and found it written clearly, "High intake of nitrazepam causing a breakdown in the nervous system…"
'Nitrazepam… as in sleeping pills?'
'But those are extreme right?'
'Maa used to… then it shouldn't be something prescribed to a high schooler.'
'Where did she get those?'
'So, Airi Arne attempted suicide, causing her to stay in a coma for all these months.'
'Also, the reports say she took 20 of those pills altogether, and there is no way one can survive, if not taken to the hospital quickly. So surely, someone found out about her attempt.'
'Maria did say something about someone saving her, then was it someone who already got a hunch about it?'
'What was it? What made her so desperate to die?'
'Maria also said about doing it for attention or something, so was all of this just for attention-seeking?'
'Then again, would anyone go as far as to intake deadly drugs and commit suicide just to grab some attention?'
'I don't think any kind of attention-seeking freak would take that huge of a risk. '
'Surely, there's more to it.'
The last thing she had remaining was her old cellphone. She pressed the button to turn on the mobile.
The mobile was indeed, of an old model, as there were just some basic features. It was a totally new experience for someone like her, who was always used to advanced high-tech devices just to play countless games. Airi went through the call log to see the acquaintances she frequently talks to. There were calls from Maria, both incoming and outgoing; some incoming ones were probably from her home probably, as those were saved as 'home'. But the thing that surprised her was the last dialed contact in her log, more precisely, the name on it.
It was an outgoing call, which wasn't received. And the contact was saved as 'Shiro'.
'Shiro? As in, the Shiro guy I just talked to?'
'It could be someone else too, but the way this guy behaved seeing me, the most possible it was the same person. If that is the case, then they are way too known to each other for her to have his number.'
After checking the call list, she went through her messages, to get any more things about her. Arne probably wasn't a text person, because her inbox was empty, without anything sent or received at all. Maybe she preferred all those received ones to erase because there wasn't even a single text from a sim card or mobile company.
Practically, everything seems clean, except a draft saved in her draft box. Airi clicked on that draft and opened it.
The draft was dated 25th December, "the same date as she attempted suicide. So, she wrote this on that day. Maybe before she took those pills."
Airi started reading the content in it, and again, the name addressed here at the start surged up a strange feeling in her.
------
Shiro, by the time you get this, I might be gone forever. I know no matter what I do, I can never erase everything that happened. Nothing can ever compensate for the way I was unfair to you and Sayuri. So, I guess the only thing I can do is to make myself disappear from everyone's life. You must be thinking that even at the very last moment, I couldn't be more sincere as to say all of these face to face. I wish I could do that. I wish I could send this message to you. But you see, I got no courage to do so. I tried calling you before typing this, but you never picked up. Well, you never picked up any of my calls ever so… I am going to make sure this one reaches you, of course before I am gone. I guess Maria did her job as you are reading this now. There is a request to you I want to make. Please, ask my parents about my diary after this. It should be in my drawer, moreover, I have already let them know that you might go to them. So just ask for it, and read it. If… that is not much of a burden to you. That's all I will ask for.
------
And here the draft ends.
Airi stood there motionlessly for a while, processing all those things in her head.
"There is a big-fat misunderstanding. Maria thinks of her as some pretentious girl, and this rude guy totally hates her, prolly he also thinks she went out dyin' just to gain sympathy for their whatever clashes. And there is also a Sayuri in the picture that is totally unknown to her. Is this girl the reason for her death? Or is it the hatred Shiro has? Or anything else?"
'But to think this draft, or cellphone, neither reached to Shiro and nor did Airi find any dairy in her room, all of those kept hidden, just like these reports and her cellphone... And certainly, her parents hid those. Even to her. They took the advantage of me not havin' any memory of all these events.'
'But why? What's wrong with her expressing her final words to someone that it needed to be hidden that much? What's wrong with clearing some friggin' misunderstandings? Makin' themselves clear? Or even lettin' someone apologize?'
'I need to find that diary. Anyhow!'
A strong determination filled her as she calculated the events she got to know by now. And no matter what, she deters to resolve Airi's situation.