As I was saying, Maeda was a sad kid, he couldn't just say it himself.
The reasons weren't really that clear to me up until a certain group of high school boys approached us. I really don't know who they are but they seem to be acquainted to him.
Even from afar, you could hear them calling Maeda's name.
"I thought you just said that you don't have friends ー?" I was about to ask him who those guys are but when I looked at him, he was shaking and nailed on the ground as if he's paralyzed. His eyes wouldn't blink nor even look at the voices calling him. In a closer look, he's even close to crying.
It's already obvious but those guys were probably the baddies making his life miserable.
"Maeda-kun!" One of the high school guys said as he clinged onto Maeda's shaking shoulders. He still didn't look at their eyes though.
"Oh. You seem to be with someone." The guy noticed my presence and smirked as he stared at me.
"I'll get going now. See you tomorrow at school, Maeda-kun!" The guy's tone of speaking reeked of sarcasm even as he and his chummies walked away.
Noticing that they're gone, Maeda fell off on his knees.
"Hey hey hey hey hey! You alright, you alright? Relax." It's natural for me to get worried about him so I decided to stick my nose a bit more than a stranger should. "Who uh, who are those guys just now?"
"..."
Instead of answering my question, Maeda just walked away and ignored me.
Man, I hope he's doing fine.
His shoulders were drooping as he walked away.
Well, this was a brat's issue and I don't plan on getting involved with it.
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Or that's what I thought.
Just few days after that, I once again encountered Maeda.
It was around late at night when I was sitting on a bench with both my arms crossed, sleeping. The weather's really chill at night so it was really a good sleep if you just ignore the mosquitoes.
This time however, it was Maeda who confronted me.
"Hey you."
"...Hm?" Half-asleep, I responded. "Oh, it's Maeda. Yo."
"Hey ー!"
"Stop right there. Whatever you're planning to say, keep that for another day. I'm tired right now, good night."
"But I need your help! Wake up." Maeda was adamant and commanding that I had no choice but to lend my ears for him for a bit.
"Tomorrow. I want you to kill these guys." He then took three pictures of family high schoolers from his jogging pants. He's wearing a jacket too by the way. He's probably taking a jog because he's kinda sweaty too.
Wait.
"What?" The first time he said that, my fried brain didn't seem to understand what was that.
"I've been thinking of this for a while now. If it's you, no one will care. You are unknown man with nothing to hold you back. Besides, if you were put into jail, it'll even do you a favor. In there, you'll have shelter, clothes and meal three times a day. So please... kill these guys. I don't care how you'll do it but please, I just want this to end."
"H-Hey, Maeda-kun, let's take this thing slowly ー!"
"If you will not cooperate with me, I will jump on this river and kill myself right now. My lives amount to nothing anyways."
"Maeda!"
"Don't come closer!" Maeda backed away as I slowly tried to approach him until he's just a few meters away from falling on the river.
"Stop that!" I shouted.
"I don't know who you are but please, do me a favor... It's a win for us, c-can't you see? You'll get a nice and comfortable and I will be happy! Isn't that nice?!"
At this moment, Maeda lost his mind.
The meek kid from the earlier days was gone. All I've been looking at this moment was a psychopath.
"Oh! Ah, seems like you don't like jails, no problem. I uh, I-I-I know where they live. In fact, I know everything about them. With all the information I have, w-we can create a plan to lure and kill them without risking both our lives! How about that?!'
He looked so proud but I felt scared. Kids nowadays had it rough too, huh. But seriously, this wasn't the way.
"I can pay you thousands of yen! My parents are so damn fucking rich, just uh, just name your price and I will give it to you immediately. J-Just do me a f-favor, man. Please..."
Maeda was shaking from lots of emotions that I doubt any of those were positive ones. Anger, frustration, insanity, you name it but...
"Maeda, this is not the right thing to do ー!"
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW!!! I DON'T CARE IF I-IT'S WRONG OR WHATEVER THE GODDAMN FUCK IT IS BUT I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE!!!" Maeda starting hitting himself and slapping his face as he melt down. He's crying and yelling in the middle of nowhere where I was his only audience.
"You are just a, you are no one so do it! I don't need your preachings or speeches for why is this wrong, I don't give a shit about those. Did the world gave a shit about me?! Everyday, I'm being thrown on stairs and windows. My girlfriend was stolen from me. My bag were burnt from time to time. My textbooks were always flushed on different female's toilets... Speaking of toilets, I'm forced to drink and wash with piss on men's toilet. There's even a time I ate a shit! So tell me, is this not enough for me to kill them?"
What...
Everything he said... made me speechless... I felt like my guts were being crushed. Every passing second felt like an eternity, one after another.
The cold wind breezed but the comfort it brought me just a few moments earlier were gone.
"No way..."
That's all that escaped my stiff mouth.
"I see. I have no time to be wasting on you now. Sorry."
Maeda jumped on the river backwards. I tried to have a hold on him but I was a few seconds too late.
When I looked down, he's still mid air because he really fell from a high place.
Our eyes met that made his lips contorted into a smirk.
Unknowingly, I also jumped towards him when I saw that. I mean, who wouldn't?
Good thing I know how to swim so the moment we both fell in the river, I quickly got a hold on him before we both drown. The river was streaming moderately fast that's why it didn't turned into something big. And besides, if he die here, the charges would fall into me so this brat thoroughly thought of this, huh.
No matter what I say, I wouldn't be able to deny his request.
Sigh...
"Wake up kid! Hey! You're still alive right?!"
I brought him to the riverside and checked his heartbeat by putting my ears above his chest.
I didn't know how CPR works so I just kept pushing his chest or stomach, I'm not sure but it did worked nonetheless.
He suddenly coughed up some water and when he fully sobered up, he began weeping as he wiped his face.
"Why... Why is it always me?"
"..." I really don't know what to say. From that moment up to now, I still wonder for what's a good sentence to respond to him.
Will it change everything if I said something to him that night? Who knows.
Maeda suddenly stopped and turned his head to me with a blank stare in his eyes. He then spoke in a calm yet, tired manner.
"Kill me."
"No..."
"If you don't, I will stab myself..." He brought out a pocket knife and groggily opened it.
Before he could stab his neck, I stopped it with my bare hands.
"Don't do some crazy shit now... You won't die... I will never let that happen!"
"Why are you doing this? If I kill myself right here right now, rest assured, you'll be fine. I wrote a letter in my room before I left that says I will commit suicide."
"You're too smart for a kid, alright but you're stupid if you think that killing them will change a thing."
"It will. This matter is something I can only handle by myself. Maybe with you too if you join me."
"I will help you but let's change our plans. No killing. We will deal with this in the most legal way possible." I suggested.
"Okay. Deal. And if you fail, you will do what I said."
I gulped and rethink my decisions. Would this turn out for the better? I didn't have any plans in mind anyways. And talking it out with the bullies would be impossible because if that's how easy the world works, this would have never happened.
But you know what, damn it. I could endure jail life if it's all that was left for me to save him... Not.
Not just him but those guys too. Killing people wasn't really something good so I wouldn't let them experience it too.
I have to think carefully.