Ch 33

POV Kei Shimabukuro

I was scared. It hurt. I didn\'t know what to do. If Makoto kun wasn\'t present I don\'t know what would have happened to me.

Right now, I didn\'t want to move. Sitting beside Makoto kun in silence felt really relaxing. I sat there and just pondered over my past and present experiences.

"Would you like to listen to my story?" I asked finally breaking the silence.

"If you want to."

"Actually, this is not the first time something like this has happened to me. Long back, when I was in elementary school, something similar had happened.

Back then too I was a transfer student. And unlike now I did make friends. At least I thought so. After some time, few girls got jealous of me and started bullying me. It wasn\'t anything major like dumping water on you or scribbling on your desk, but minor harassments like calling names, and excluding me from their group. I wasn\'t really bothered by it either. One day a girl cursed my family right in front of my face so I slapped her. As you can imagine this turned into a fight. The next day that same girl gathered all of her friends and ganged up on me. Just like today they caught me by my hair.

Children are the worst aren\'t they?"

"I\'d say that depends on how you raise them obviously."

"Ha ha I guess so."

"…"

"Should we go home now?"

** ** **

POV Shinji Makoto

What\'s with her? Suddenly telling me about her past traumas? Anyways, seems like she\'s better now.

"Yeah it\'s almost evening already. Even the afterschool clubs would be done by now."

So, we walked back home together as well. It was good that it was so late, otherwise more rumours would have definitely popped up. Both of us were silent. It is hard to come up with a conversation after so many awkward encounters.

As we reached home I realized she didn\'t complete her story. Curious about the ending I asked her about it.

"You didn\'t finish your story. What happened after they ganged up on you? Did you just get beat up?"

"No Ha chan came and stopped them." She said with a smile.

My body froze and anger started building up.

Seeing that I stopped walking she asked, "What happened?"

Don\'t get angry. Take a deep breath. I forcefully controlled my tone and asked her.

"Tell me something Shimabukuro."

"Hmm?"

"Today, when Tanaka grabbed your hair why didn\'t you fight back? What were you hoping for?"

"…"

I did think it was weird that somebody like Shimabukuro didn\'t kick Tanaka in the balls when he caught her. However, I thought that she was frozen due to fear because of her past trauma. But it seems I might be wrong.

"Tell me. Were you hoping for Nishikawa to come and save you again, like a prince on a white horse?"

"…"

You\'ve got to be kidding me right? At that moment I couldn\'t control myself again. I was angry. Angry at Shimabukuro\'s naivety, angry at Nishikawa\'s dense idiotic brain.

"Have you gone mad Shimabukuro? If your little lover doesn\'t stop you from jumping off a cliff will you just continue? Loving does not mean becoming completely dependent on somebody. If you do that you won\'t be anything more than a burden."

"…"

"Let me tell you something Shimabukuro. I too love a life filled with ideal fairy tale like moments. I yearn for that. But never forget that even if you think so, this is reality. A prince on a white horse is fiction and destiny is a joke. I don\'t care how much you love Nishikawa, but thinking he will come and save you every time you are in trouble is wishful thinking. Even if Nishikawa knew you were in trouble today what could he have done? By the time he came back to school what do you think would have happened? If I wasn\'t in that classroom at the right time, if I didn\'t open the window and heard your voice coming from the outside, what do you think would have happened to you?"

"…"

Shimabukuro was trembling upon hearing my words. Seeing her like that cooled my anger somewhat. Shit. It seems like my mask tore on its own. Did I go too far? Maybe I shouldn\'t have shouted in such a situation.

"Umm. Sorry for shouting. I shouldn\'t interfere in something like this. Just treat my words as air okay?"

"No, I am also sorry."

"You? Sorry for what?"

"That. For behaving stupidly."

"How you live is not something I should be commenting on anyways. If you feel like what you did was correct you can continue to do so. Just be aware of the things that can happen. Alright?"

She nodded energetically. Well at least she is fine now. Man, I feel like a parent scolding their child for playing with something dangerous.

"Listen here Shimabukuro." I said, putting my hand on her shoulder. "There is a difference between a hero and a lover. A hero will always save you. He will turn the bad into good. But a lover is different. He might not be able to save you, but he will stay beside you regardless of your situation. Even at your worst moments he will not leave you. And similarly, you will also be with him in both good and bad situations. In the end it is up to you to decide what you see Nishikawa as. If you like him because he is a hero to you, or if you love him because he has always been beside you."

After hearing my words, Shimabukuro fell into deep thought.

"Don\'t think so hard about it. Finding why you fell in love is pretty hard, and you fell for him almost whole decade ago. Memories get distorted and feelings even more so. If you ever need any advice you can always ask me."

"Okay, onii san."

"…?"

Onii. San? Where? I looked around to see if somebody else was present. But I had the impression Shimabukuro was a single kid. Wait. By any chance did she mean me? Really? The memories of today\'s events played out in my mind one by one. Come to think of it I have been acting like a brother the whole day, haven\'t I?

"Umm, Sorry. I meant Makoto kun"

"It\'s fine you can call me onii san. But only when nobody is around. Okay?"

For some reason she became really happy when I said that.

"Really I can call you onii san?" She suddenly asked me with glitter in her eyes.

"Umm. You don\'t have to if you don\'t-"

"No. I happy to do so." She cut me off before I could finish my words. Is this a personality change happening in front of my eyes? Where is the cold, fanatic Shimabukuro that loves Nishikawa? She was walking beside me just this morning. Is one event enough to change her personality so much?

"O-okay"

"Bye onii san. See you tomorrow."

"Bye?"

Did I trigger some kind of weird flag by saving her? Well, it\'s not like it\'s bad. Honestly, I like it better than her developing some romantic feelings for me. I absolutely don\'t want love triangles in my life. Stuff like that should be reserved for protagonists only. Also, she kind of reminded me of my own little sister Eiko.

"Aah. I\'m so tired." I mumbled before entering my home. It was a long day today.

.

.

.

That day as I was scrolling through my phone while having dinner I received a message from Akari.

<Akari:

You still owe me a favour from when I beat you in the arcade, don\'t you? Tomorrow is Shizuo\'s birthday, we are going to celebrate it. You have to come. Don\'t forget to bring Nishikawa as well. Also, Shizuo said there was no need to get her presents.>

Fuck. I had completely forgotten about the incident with Akari. Fuck. I knew I was forgetting something. While walking home today I felt a weird sense of incompleteness. The sort of incompleteness that comes when a f2p player forgets to do the daily login reward in a gacha game. But what could I have done. Damn. It\'s all that Tanaka\'s fault.

I hurriedly typed in a response and sent it to her.

Obviously I will go. She didn\'t really need to use the favour. I don\'t like this feeling. It feels like she is distancing herself from me.

** ** **

POV Kei Shimabukuro

Onii san…

Such an unfamiliar word. But I like the warm feeling it brings me. I have always been a good girl, so my parents have never had a reason to scold me harshly. That is why when onii san shouted at me today I was more shocked and ashamed rather than angry or sad. Afterall, I understood what he was saying was for my own good. Thinking back on it, I also saw how stupid my actions were. When my head was grabbed I didn\'t move at all and let that douchebag continue. In my head all that remained was Ha chan coming to save me. The thought of acting on my own just didn\'t occur to me at that time.

Dependence. This was the word onii san had used. Thinking about it, he was right. I had been using Ha chan as support for myself. I never thought about him, or if my actions burdened him. All I did was selfishly make him move according to my will. I pulled him to the room to have lunch without asking him about it, I made lunch for him without asking him if he really wanted it. I turned the shopping for a gift into a date without asking how he felt about it.

Am I even qualified to be Ha chan\'s girlfriend? Hiwari san\'s face flashed in my mind. No, Definitely not.. At least not as how I am now.