[Author's Warning: Some scenes may not be suitable for an audience who have a weak heart. Caution is advised before proceeding forward—just kidding. Real Warning: The following scene might tugged differently based on the reader. What I've experienced while writing might not have the same effect for a reader. But if you do want to read more of what this Chapter offers you can proceed to L&H:SS or Lucky and Hero: Side Story. I didn't add Sho's backstory before his graduation because it felt more like a filler than a necessity in the story.]
"Sho?!" A familiar voice emerged from the bustling crowd.
Sho followed the female voice and almost groaned when he looked at the girl. Though he himself doesn't have anything against the young lady, the original Sho had a very hard time with her.
And having memories of Sho's life, he was somehow prejudiced towards the girl.
"Hana." He whispered as he immediately became on guard.
If he was really Sho, he probably would have flinched or even trembled with the trauma that this girl gave him. But as an outsider, he could only feel cautiousness and conflict. On one hand, he knew that this type of person is dangerous and when the conflict of disaster thrown to them arises, she wouldn't hesitate to backstab him to save herself. On the other hand, he remembered his promise with Asahi. He felt that he should honor his words with him.
"But does everyone really deserve to be saved?"
As if questioning his line of thoughts, he suddenly remembered that sentence Sho asked to Asahi before. He really felt too complicated.
"What do you know of this?" Hana frowned beautifully as she stepped forward. Her long pink dress swayed, making countless people gaze at her. Her long black-brown hair contrasted her pale yellowish-white skin. Her squinty deep blue eyes made almost everyone submit to her. She looked like a damsel in distress but at the same time, a smart lady who's worth protecting.
Sho inwardly twitched the corner of his lips.
Even after almost one year of not seeing Hana, he immediately knew that she didn't change at all. She was still deceptive with her every move. For those who don't know her would instantly fall for her charming facade.
But as someone who holds memories of Sho, who once fell for it, he knew that everything she did was within her calculation. She knew how to use her move to exude charm, making everyone willing to listen to her. And when people started listening to her, that's when the trouble would start.
There's only two endings to it. Either being her slave, or being her enemy.
Unfortunately, Sho once experienced both.
***
Graduation Day.
Finally, the seniors achieved their graduation. They would start a new life at the University!
Everyone was sad, happy and fearful at the same time.
Sho was no different.
"It's time you confess!" Kenji said. The five of them were currently in the corridor outside their senior's classroom. Only the five of them remained there. All the students went to their respective graduation party. The five didn't proceed to the graduation party yet because Sho was tagged by his friends. They wanted him to confess to his longtime crush and first love.
"Yes! How long has it been?!"
"I'm sure the feelings are mutual!"
~Thump-thump-thump~
His heartbeat was palpitating wildly. Just imagining his confession made him extremely nervous. But he couldn't deny that his friends were saying sensible things. Each of their words were encouragement. The more they talked, the braver he became.
"Look! Hana's coming! You do your job! Don't regret anything!"
"Right! Secure the relationship! You don't know what will happen in University!"
~Thump-thump-thump-thump~
His heartbeat became faster and faster as Hana came close. Her charming delicate smile made him think of wanting nothing but to protect her. Her previously dyed blonde hair before was now back to her natural black-brown hair. She maintained them long to dress herself up for this graduation. Her hair was curled making her look like a doll.
She looked absolutely lovely.
"H-h-hey." Sho blushed realizing his stammering voice..
On the contrary, Hana had a huge smile on her face. It was encouraging to see her like that. So before his courage disappears, he blurted out everything all at once.
"Hana, I love you! Please go out with me!"
~Thump-thump-thump-thump, thump-thump-thump~
His heartbeat was the only thing he could hear. It was suffocating. But he was happy. Finally, he was able to say what he had in his heart! He was over the moon!
But soon, he realized that something was wrong. Everyone was silent, except for soft chuckles coming from his friends. He knew their laughs even when he was not facing them. They had been friends for five years.
But he couldn't care less for them. What he cared about was Hana's face and reaction.
There was a snicker in her face! A mocking smile. It was different from the Hana he knew that he thought he just hallucinated. He blinked and blinked. Trying to remove that image off his eyes. But the mockery didn't disappear.
"Such an idiot." she whispered. His friend's laugh became so loud they felt echoing in his ears.
The bright and colorful place slowly turned dull. Second by second the color disappeared replacing black and white. "W-what…" he whispered. He sensed himself wanting to just watch everything from a distance, but he was hoping… praying that he was mistaken.
"Did you think I would like you?" another sarcasm in her tone.
She's not my Hana…
Sho stared blankly at her. He felt the perfect image of Hana in his memory started to crumble. Cracks appear indicating a mirror that is close to shattering.
"You really are an idiot. Good thing we would go our separate ways. I had enough! Everytime we touch I feel a cringe in my skin! Yuck! You're so gloomy! Do you really think I would like you?"
"Why…"
"Why? You're really an idiot for someone who's so smart. I just want to tell you don't contact me anymore. I don't want to do anything with you. I'll be starting a new life in Yamato. I don't want people to think I'm crazy for sticking with someone who goes to a psychiatrist like you!" her voice was low but Sho caught everything she said.
Each word was like a knife stabbing his heart. It was painful. And so, he decided he didn't want to take the pain. He watched the scene as if he was watching a movie.
He dissociated.
Why didn't he notice anything before? Every move she made, every tone she said, everything felt perfect for him.
The watching Sho felt like crying. Because even when Hana was very different from her usual self, Sho still felt she was perfect. He still loves her…
He refused to listen to any more of what they said. The ridicule of his "friends" was like the buzzing of flies to him. Hana shot her one last look, her eyes were full of disgust. As if those times they were together were stains in her memory.
The group walked out, leaving Sho standing blankly alone.
He heard their distant mockery and laugh, but he couldn't care. He was just there, spacing.
Blank.
Nothing.
He couldn't feel anything.
He didn't want to do anything.
He just stood there with a blurry vision of his surroundings.
Seconds passed by. Then minutes. Then hours. It became darker but he still didn't move. He had no energy.
Everything was just a lie.
He was no dumb.
He knew the talks behind his back. Five years, he chose to ignore it. He chose to act like he knew nothing. He chose to trust his "friends" and Hana. He chose… the wrong path.
He was at fault. And he didn't want to accept it.
He refused to accept any pain!
"Sho? What are you doing there? You should go back to your graduation party, no?" Asahi's jovial voice could be heard in the lonely corridor. When Asahi noticed that something was not right at Sho's back-figure, he immediately jogged towards Sho and proceeded to stand in his face. "What happened?!"
But he knew that asking was useless. When Sho dissociated, he closed himself outside the world.
"It's fine to cry…" Asahi whispered. Asahi knows Sho all too well.
With just one sentence, Sho's tears rain down his eyes. There was no noise, no sign that he would cry. But as Asahi pushed the button, Sho's barrier collapsed.
He silently cried. He didn't want to. He was just about to turn eighteen years old but that age was enough for him to act like an adult. In society, a young man crying was no good. So, he soundlessly let his tears fall down. He was shaking, but he refused to make any sound.
It was painful. Having his heart broken was painful. It was a different pain. It was a pain that no one knows how to cure.
Silently, with a shaking shoulder and body, Sho's face became wet with tears, his eyes didn't even want to blink. He just let the tears flow. But soon, the pain in his heart grew stronger, he closed his eyes and bit his lips, stopping any sob coming out of his mouth.
Asahi didn't say anything else. He just looked at Sho sharing his heartbreak. Although he didn't know what happened, that didn't mean he couldn't share the pain.
Sho was ashamed to cry. So he bowed his head, biting his lips tighter and his shoulder shaking more intensely.
A man shouldn't cry!
"There's no gender requirement for tears…" Asahi whispered at the right time. He knew Sho all damn too well.
And with that, the dam that Sho was barricading suddenly collapsed. Shaky voice of sob escaped his mouth. More tears flowed in his eyes. He didn't know how to stop the pain so he hammered his chest, thinking that a physical pain was less painful than an emotional pain. He struck and struck, but after the third strike, Asahi couldn't watch Sho hurting himself so he stopped him.
Sho still felt the pain but having finally sensed Asahi, he slowly calmed down. He knew that Asahi didn't want him to hurt himself. So he just wept his hardest until no more tears came in his eyes.
Time was null to someone who is grieving. The two didn't care about the time at all.
"T-thanks…" he uttered. His voice hoarse from crying.
"We are best friends. Now, tell me, what happened." It was the familiar voice of Asahi who was trying his hardest to control his anger.
Sho looked around. No one was there. Everyone was at the graduation party already. He sighed in his heart. Having no courage to face Asahi while narrating what happened, he decided to face the window before starting. He left no details untold.
Even without facing Asahi, he knew the guy wanted to explode from anger when he talked. "You don't deserve her."
"I know."
"They are not your friends for laughing at you and leaving you here."
"I-I know." his voice quivered.
"You met the wrong people. But they're not the only people around. They're just the minority. They used you. And now that they're done using you, they want to dispose of you. They're the wrong crowd."
Sho knew Asahi was right, but he didn't say anything. It was too much and he was still absorbing everything. He was just about to be eighteen, he was still in his teens, in the law of Yamato, he was still a minor.
He decided not to attend the graduation party and rest until he got better. When he was better, he went out and wanted to confront his "friends" but was left stunned.
Everyone viewed him as their enemy. Hana vilified his image with everyone. Even his "friends" backed it up. All his classmates and schoolmates saw him as a villain who took advantage of Hana's kindness.
The story they circulated was that Sho went mad when Hana rejected him. They said that Sho couldn't accept Hana's rejection. Hana just wanted them to be friends. She said that she felt they were just like siblings, that's why she was comfortable with him. Sho took the wrong signal and said Hana played with him. Because of his rage, he didn't attend the graduation party.
Everyone saw him as a villain. Even those who don't know him, when they saw him on the street, glared at him. Countless rumors emerged from him.
That he was an arrogant rich kid.
That he was a game addict that couldn't separate games from reality.
That he was going through a psychiatrist because he was crazy.
More and more rumors came out. Some were true while most were exaggerations. Even his teachers tried to scold him even though he already graduated. The teacher close to him saw him pretending to be a sheep in wolf's cloth. They thought it was a pity and "tried" to correct his path. No one listened to his reasons. No one asked.
His last attempt of reaching out was blocked when he heard his "friends" on their usual hangout talking about him.
"Hahaha! Sho is so funny! He's so naive!"
"Ahh~ too bad we won't have anyone to carry or pay for us anymore."
"It's better he's not here. It's always suffocating when he's here! I'm almost always cringing when he acts nonchalant with us but when Hana is here he would talk and talk!"
"Hahaha! True! True!"
"I hate it the most when others mention how he's so rich and they're jealous of us hanging out with him! Yuck!"
"Ahahaha!"
"I hate that Sho! The heck! He would laze around but still get an almost perfect score! What would happen if he didn't laze around! If I have his mind, I'll be the star! I'll be called a genius!"
"Good riddance! I hope we don't see that genius anymore! Being near him makes me feel so little!"
"SAME!"
Sho, realizing that the world was just a pain to handle, he gave up on his University and started to play with the stock market while holing himself up once more in his castle.
"Being a hero is not for everyone. I feel like I seeked my own death, acting like a hero. I should stop playing the hero."
Sho sadly muttered. He realized being a hero is not for him. Not everyone was destined to be a hero.
***
He sighed inwardly and composed himself. Those bad experiences were Sho's and not his.
But even so, he felt sympathy with the kid. Two years old he lost his mother, when he was ten, he lost his father. And when he was eighteen, he lost almost everyone except Asahi.
"This is not some sort of event. The world as we know it would be different. I'm not sure how to explain. But just saying 'glitch' you would know what I mean."
As he said that, he carefully surveyed the area they were in. There was still flickering. Some people who first listened to him started to run again. Fewer and fewer people chose to stay. The once bustling street reduced the crowd by the second.
"How come you know this? How would we be sure that saying that word wouldn't be a trap?"
Lady! How can you be too creative to think that there's a trap?! He can't help but be exasperated in his mind.
But he immediately caught himself. She didn't go through what he experienced hours ago. She doesn't know what's coming. Surveying the people around, what she said was really reasonable, planting doubt in people's minds. He sighed and patiently talked as if he was a teacher talking to his student just to explain something very hard to understand.
"I'm one of the surviving passengers of the train that disappeared." Following that, he rummaged through his pocket. Sure enough, the soaken receipt was still there. "This should be a kind of proof. I don't have anything else to prove it. My phone already sank along with the train. I don't even know which sea it sank."
"Sank? You think we would believe such a lie? How would your phone sink when you are on a train?"
"Right! The train that disappeared doesn't go near water at all! It goes through a tunnel instead!"
Collective agreement about how he was a liar and terrorist came up in the area. Some were even trying to contact police but they couldn't get any signal.
His mouth twitched. Somehow, he wished he could show these people what glitches and systems are. But there's no visible glitch that he has… wait… he has something!
"Soul Crusher!" he shouted. He clearly wanted to perform as shiny as possible. He wanted everyone to believe him. And the first step is to do "magic" in their faces.
He didn't really need to say the item's name loudly to summon it. Just saying it in his mind with the intention of summoning would bring forth the item. But now, he really needed people to be awed so that they would activate their glitches.
As soon as he said that, a long knife half the size of a sword appeared in his hands in a blink of an eye.
"W-what?"
"Where did it come from?!"
"Is this magic?"
"Papa, that magic looks cool! Can I do it too?"
From the collective attacks earlier, the people changed their view to awe, disbelief, confusion and amazement.
But he didn't have time to let them process it. "Just say the word 'glitch' and you'll know everything! I don't care if you think I'm crazy, but what we have to do from now on is to form unity to survive!"
A lot of people were still confused. Some are showing fear to the unknown.
"You really are crazy. Glitch." The first one who said the word he wanted everyone to try was Hana, which greatly took him by surprise.
But even so, he was overwhelmed with the feeling of relief. He had done his first task. And the rest would be easier as long as they work together. It seems like he could fulfill his promise with Asahi easier than he thought.