"AEEHHH"
Cold Breeze.
Clinging onto the inner layer of the jacket I had been wearing for some warmth shivers went down my spine as cold wind hit me. I was freezing.
On a Saturday night, you will mostly meet two kinds of crowds at an hour as it was that day. First the drunk people on a night out and second the street cleaners who are just starting their day and among them both I was the third kind of crowd you did meet loitering the streets at that hour, The homeless.
I had just been sitting on the pavement on a street in the middle of them both watching them go by their life.
'The temperatures are likely to take a sharp drop tonight…as the city gets covered in the snow.. the first freeze of this year, as you will see in this weather model'
That's what the advert screens were playing, the severe weather warning. Time was 02:33 AM, Sunday according to my cell phone only a last drop of juice was left on it, less than 10 percent to be exact and before I knew it, before my eyes it had turned itself off.
And no matter how many times I tried pressing the power button it wouldn't work, it never turned on. Although I had the charger with me, going to a metro station or buying a disposable power bank was not an option either: It was either my last meal or using the phone for me.
What would have you chosen on a snowy winter night?
I looked up at the night sky and saw snow "beautiful, the first snow of the year" catching a snowflake in my hand
"So this is the end"
My glasses were fogged up from breath cleaning them once, I got up and headed for an udon cart that was run by an elderly man. I frequented it occasionally when I wanted a change from expired supermarket food.
In the warmth of a barrel fire, I ate my udon. Honestly, everything just gets a bit foggy after this even before I knew it I was roaming the streets aimlessly, I didn't even realize before I found myself standing on a bridge.
Faraway, I heard the sound of a railway crossing, as a train blew the horn and blew past it.
The falling snow, mist, and the glowing buildings far away looked beautiful from a distance.
For a reason that day, I removed my shoes, placed them neatly on the ground and climbed up the safety rail, and stood on the other side looking below
'My name is Cho Akiyama. I used to be a college student, But right now I am about to end my life'
"Thump…thump…thump.." footsteps like running with wooden shoes.
Before someone grabbed onto my arm, I turned towards them but it had merely been a knee-jerk reaction. Looking closely It was a woman wearing a red dress. She was saying something but I couldn't hear anything. I only saw her lips move before I started hearing what she was saying. She was super drunk and her words were intangible to me. Her mumbling, I couldn't understand a single word, what she was trying to say screaming.
Everything, everything felt as if it was in slow motion.
Before I knew it, she grabbed my jacket's collar and pulled me towards her, we accidentally locked lips before I tried to free myself and in the ensuing struggle I fell backward into the river, and with me, she also fell tumbling over the guard rail holding onto my jacket.
I hit the cold chilling water and it almost instantly brought me to my senses. I couldn't see her anywhere, only to dive below and see her have let go of my jacket and drowning, disappearing towards the bottom into the darkness.
Immediately diving towards her, I grabbed her and pulled her up to the surface before I swam with her to the shore, and let me tell you it's not easy to swim with someone unconscious.
Although even before I was able to completely drag her out ashore, I heard a siren and saw lights in the river it was the river patrol boat, some man immediately jumped from the boat and took over from me and started doing CPR, I laid on the ground looking at the sky before some man came running and started treating me.
I don't really know for how long I had been standing on that ledge looking down that day, nor do I know how to repay her for what she did that day.
But nobody can save you Unless you want to save yourself.