J U S T B E C A U S E - Chapter One

J U S T B E C A U S E

By `S h e r I o k a

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

||S y n o p s i s:

Ryosuke said that Kirari's a star that shines brightly right in front of him right before Kirari passed away from a car accident. It was suppose to be a happy day, he was suppose to take her on a date, she was suppose to say 'yes', they were suppose to become a couple. Every night, Ryosuke would cry himself to sleep. What was weird was, day after day and weeks after weeks, his shoulder started to hurt, his hip started to hurt. When he went to the doctor, nothing was wrong. But, Yuuri who could see ghosts and dead souls due to the two moles on his left eye, he found out that Kirari was sitting on Ryosuke’s shoulder, making him in pain. Kirari was different, not just because she was dead, but she was evil, cruel and cunning. She was unlike her old self. She would always wear a smirk on her cold white face.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

||Chapter One: B r e a t h l e s s

||Chapter One: B r e a t h l e s s
||Note: -- Means flashback. I’m using that so I don’t have to say ‘flashback start’ every time.

Alone. Broken. What can I say? She’s gone. Forever. Just thinking about that fact that, I’m never going to see her again; made drops of steaming clear liquid drop down from my eyes. They wouldn’t stop coming down; they wouldn’t listen to my command. The tears acted as if they are doing the right thing, they think I want to cry. They are right, but wrong at the same time. I did want to cry, throw a tantrum for god sake, but right here and right now, I just don’t have the face to cry. The death of Hoshino Kirari, was my entire fault.

--

A mix of rain and wind hit us in the face as we hid under a building. I tightened my grip on the envelope that was in my pocket. Kirai looked at me; her lips formed a thin line and held up the small umbrella she was holding.

“Too bad we only brought one umbrella na?” Kirai giggled lightly. She agreed to take the umbrella and help me slip the envelop into the mail box just across the street. The mail was for my best friend in the countries, we were the best of friends, and he decided that we should keep in touch by sending mails the old way. Everyone’s sending emails nowadays. What can I say? When everyone goes left, he goes right. He’s the contrary to what is expected.

She gave me a small smile before propping open the umbrella, getting ready to cross the road. But as she walked, from the moment her umbrella flew into the sky, the raindrops splattered on my glasses. Along with a top-notch sound of someone’s brakes, Kirari’s body flew into the air lightly, slowly, drifted on the ground of the cold tar road…was my star.

Although it was spring, but it was more like autumn.

She was only sending a letter for me. Such an easy task, while it let me with such a hard impression.

--

The tears in my eyes were going mad; they don’t intend to stop at all. The entire cars in the world stopped, the crowd flocked toward the middle of the street. Nobody knew the person who lay on the road, is my personal star. She was only five steps away from me, but why do I feel so far? So apart? Bigger raindrops splattered onto my glasses, splattered into my life.

Why? Why did we only bring one umbrella? But I still see Kirai with her white dress, holding an umbrella, walking to the other side of the road peacefully. She’s helping me send a mail, to my best friend, I stood blankly under the building, I saw Kirari again, walking in the middle of the street, and she peered over her shoulders, looking at me. The rain wasn’t actually that big, but it was the biggest rain of our life. And that letter was written like this, did my sweet star Kirai know?

Chinen: I’m going to confess to her today.

--

“Kirai…” I stretched my arm out as she turned around, I touched her cheeks lightly, she had on a confused face, but a wide smile started to appear on her beautiful face.

“Yes?” She asked, touching my hand with her warm ones.

“You’re my bright and shining star.” I grinned. She just laughed, “oh really? Are you sure? I think I’m more of a slave. Always buying food for you.”

“Hey! At least I cooked them.” I pouted lightly, my other arm stretched out and both of my hands squeezed her chubby cheeks. She just laughed, poked my tummy and walked away. I smiled at her back, today; I’m going to confess to her, I’m going to make her officially mine. I’m going to take her to all the places she likes and let her take me to her hometown. We’d be hand in hand, she’ll be pointing to different things that she did when she was young and I’ll listen carefully. I want to know everything about her, my star.

--

I shook my head furiously, waking up from my thoughts. The conversation just happened this morning, but why do I feel like it has been so long? It was only the beginning of the day; we still had lots of things to do. I still need to confess to her, I still need to take her to all the places she likes; she’s supposed to introduce me to her hometown! I grabbed my hair and pulled on it.

The ambulance came, Kirai’s body was hoisted into the car, people went back to their normal lives, like this never happened. I called a cab and told it to follow the ambulance without thinking about how much the ride would be. I didn’t care; I wanted to be with her.

There was no life in her. The words struck me hard when I rushed to the hospital. She died right at the stop. Right on the road.

“I’m sorry.” The doctor sighed and walked away. The doctor called her family members to see her for the last time. I couldn’t stand it; I walked away from the hospital. The rain sinking into my shirt.

“Aishiteru.”

It was Kirari’s voice, the word echoed in my head over and over again. I could just imagine her sweet voice, smiling while saying the word. I grinned lightly; it made me feel alive again.

“Ryosuke?” Someone called my name, as I turned around to look at the person who called me, having just a little tiny hope that it was Kirari. But I was wrong.

“Ah, Sakurada-san. What a coincidence.” I grinned sheepishly. Sakurada Mikan, the waitress for the café I work part time at. She was usually bubbly and cute, always forgetting things but can still put on a great show in front of the costumers, like nothing bad or clumsy ever happened.

“Hi.” She said, blushing a bit. But then her expression changed to shock and quickly pulled out an umbrella and handed it to me.

“You’re going to catch a cold.” She said lightly. I nodded and thanked her before taking the umbrella. It smelled like flowers. It reminded me that Kirari always had a soft vanilla scent with her. I threw the umbrella onto the wet concrete floor before walking away in a fast pace. Leaving a confused Mikan staring at my back.

Getting home, I didn’t even change as I stepped into the shower. The warm water sunk into my clothes, sunk into my cold skin, the reality sunk into my heart. Lifelessly, I pulled the damp clothes off me and took a quick shower. A few minutes later, I stepped out of the room of mists.

I wished I could live in the mists forever, letting it blind my way through. Making time stop, or even better, making time go backwards.

Out of the washroom, the city lights started to come out. The view of the busy city Tokyo was seen clearly from my apartment, from my glass window. Wearing a robe, I stepped up in front of the window. Peering down, the whole world was beneath me. I felt so powerful, yet so apart from this world. I was high, but Kirari was higher, I just can’t seem to reach her.

“What are you doing? Kirari?” I muttered, breathing onto the window.

Just then the originally dark room flickered on a warm welcoming golden light. Turning around to see a wet Yuri standing by the door.

“You left the key outside.” Yuri made out a small chuckle. He shook his hair as drops of rain squatted away.

“What brings you here?” I ask.

“I heard.” He replied simply. Only two words, but I already know what he meant. He knew that Kirari was gone. My star was gone.

“You haven’t even met her.” I mumbled grumpily. He just shrugged it off, “I already know a lot about her. Since you keep talking about her nonstop.”

“Is that all you’re here for?” I asked.

“Hey, I have to ensure you won’t do something stupid.” Yuri gave me a meaningful nod before heading into the misty bathroom, “Can I?” He asked. Giving him a nod, he stepped inside my misty paradise.

The phone rang, echoing in the small apartment, rebounding from the large glass window into my ears. Who could be calling this late?

“Moshi moshi?” I said quietly.

“You bastard.” A girl’s voice boomed from the other line. There was a bit of annoyance, anger and a rush of sadness.

“Aoi.” I said lightly. Chikafugi Aoi, Kirari’s best friend. The girl that supported Kirari more than her own parents did. Aoi, she did everything for Kirari. Yet, I broke Aoi’s trust. I let down her high hopes for Kirari.

“Look, I let you take care of her. You promised you would protect her more than I did,” A long pause was heard from the other line; “I’m not blaming you, but…I’m too tired and too annoyed to talk. Meet me tomorrow at noon. Twelve thirty, where you work.” Aoi hung up the phone.

I stood there, I was being selfish. I didn’t care about other people’s feelings; I thought I was the most broken one. I haven’t even thought about Aoi’s feelings, she’s been supporting Kirari when her parents had no time. She’s been giving Kirari the happiness each teenage girl should have. What have I done? Just taking her from Aoi’s hand and wrecking all the hard work she has done for Kirari? I felt ashamed.

“Who was that?” Yuri asked, ruffling his hair with a white towel.

“Put on some clothes.” I groaned. Yuri was only wearing a towel covering his lower half, while a towel hanging on his shoulder.

“Eh? Aren’t you also only wearing a robe?” He grinned jokingly, coming towards me, sending pokes to my stomach. I smacked his finger away, but laughed along.

“Smile more; it’s better for your health.” He ruffled my hair.

It struck me again, the feeling of being selfish, the feeling of being greedy. Yuri was watching over me, he didn’t want me to do bad things. He was worried over me while I was only carrying about myself. What can I do to repay Aoi and Yuri’s hard works and efforts?

I decided to move on.

“Oyasumi.” I said lightly, pulling the thick layers of blanket on top of me, covering my whole body and face. I felt a bit warmer. With so many things happening in just one day, I didn’t have time to care about whether I was cold or not.

“Night.” Yuri said loudly, flicking off the lights, letting the dark city lights shine in through the large window. My room was tidy, clean and clear. You can see the traffic downstairs, the large office buildings and millions of stars if the weather’s nice. There’s a huge glass window covering one side of the living room. The living room is the room where I sleep, where I make my meals, but there’s also a small separate room as the bathroom off the right side of the apartment. I live alone. And the space is enough for me.

“Ne, today’s stars are quite bright don’t you think?” Yuri said lightly from the other side of the room. He was sleeping on a futon while I was on the bed.

“…”

“Are you asleep?” He asked again.

“…” I didn’t dare make a sound, I didn’t have the mood. Kirari is breathless; my star is breathless, forever.

===================================================================

A/N: So here's chapter one. It took up 5 pages for Microsoft word. Not one of my best or longest chapters. xD But it's okay. Anyways, will be working on chapter two. But I've become so lazy because of school work and all. 

Reply to comments: 

@Miss Tay Hasnan: Sure you can request for a graphic, I already made a column for graphic requests. ^^ Haha, Aoi's really cute ne? :) I hope I answered some of your questions about who Mikan and Aoi are. 

@KumoNoAaKoi: Chapter one is out! :D Thanks so much for commenting. Hehe.