A goofy chuckle bubbled from Shuuichi’s lips. “You’re just saying that. So what’s this guy like?”
“Not at all like you, Hirosaki-san. What you see is what you get with him. He’s cold, calculating, crooked, and selfish to top it off. He’s perfect.”
“Reia-chan, I hope that’s not telling of your dating history. He sounds abusive to me.”
“Meh, it’s a game.”
“Your face, your fate, I guess.”
Reia found his reaction amusing. If she ever met someone like Schroden in real life, it’d definitely be a terrifying experience, but he wasn’t real, and that was the important part. So long as Reia was in no real danger, she could peer through the glass and swoon and adore all the horribly toxic men she wanted. The protagonist, Cecilia, was really quite strong for enduring it all.
Obviously, I want someone nice in real life, Reia thought. Someone like Shuuichi-san.
“Reia-chan? Why’d you go quiet?”
“Oh, um, sorry. So, Schroden’s like, um…” She quickly changed the subject, embarrassed by her private ruminations.
Shuuichi listened closely and dutifully as Reia summarized Schroden’s route, so closely and dutifully that eventually the summary turned into a lengthy and detailed lecture. People never listened to her so keenly when she went off like this.
Reia did not return to her senses until the end of her spiel. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry!”
“Sorry? What for?”
“For talking your ear off.” Her cheeks flushed.
Shuuichi donned that silly grin again. “So long as I’m chatting with a pretty girl, I’m in my happy place. I should be thanking you.”
Some people flattered with empty words. Reia didn’t sense vapidness in these, however. Her cheeks burned even hotter. “I, um, don’t have many friends, so I don’t get to talk about this very much.”
“No?”
“I wasn’t sure what to think when you just started randomly talking to me, but I’m, well, happy you did.”
She meant every word. She wasn’t used to speaking her mind, but Shuuichi and his candid heart encouraged her to let go.
The boy returned her gratitude with a cryptic look. Cryptic until he spoke, at least. “Go out with me, Reia-chan!”
“Huh?!” Reia’s mind raced. Her heart raced. Flustered, she stuttered out the truth. “You—I-I don’t know what to say. This is a little sudden.”
“Is that a no?”
Oh. He jumped to that conclusion fast.
She hadn’t said no, as a matter of fact, just that it was sudden.
Her heart thudded. If only to keep him from hearing it, she said, “You’re, er, single, I’m guessing.”
“Sure am. It just never works out for whatever reason. Every single person I’ve asked gives me a hard pass.”
“Your timing could use some work,” Reia muttered shyly, voice too low for him to hear.
If he’d asked a little later, I just… M-maybe I could have given him a proper answer.
“Hey, look over there.”
“Over where?” Raising her head, she followed Shuuichi’s gaze toward a woman on her way back from the restroom, a very remarkable woman. “Wow. She’s so—”
“Pretty,” Shuuichi sighed, gawking at the waves of her silky black hair.
She carried herself with grace and elegance all the way to a seat behind them, but not before Shuuichi made sure he got enough of an eyeful to last the rest of the trip. The sight turned his face into melted ice cream.
The woman was about their age, not that they could know that. Nor her name—Mizunami Ritsuko.
She’s so beautiful, Reia marveled. She can’t be any older than us, but she looks like a real woman. So mature and elegant. Wait, no, that’s beside the point!
“Wow, she sure is beautiful,” said the grinning pile of pudding. “Whichever guy she decides to date has gotta be the luckiest man in the world.”
Didn’t this guy literally just ask me to go out with him?! Yeah, she’s pretty, but come on! How am I supposed to trust you don’t do that to every woman who passes by?
Reia’s amusement had run dry. “I think I know why you never have any luck with the ladies.”
“You do?! What is it? Tell me!”
“The fact that you need me to tell you means you’re already beyond help. Get used to being single.”
“No! I refuse! Please, Reia-chan! What am I lacking? Tell me and I promise I’ll change!”
“Ask someone who cares.”
Or figure it out yourself!
“Don’t do this to me!”
Reia did, in fact, do that to him, and with a shoulder more frigid than the Arctic. All the while, she remained blissfully unaware of how precious their remaining time together would prove.
Leah woke from a restless stupor. Her body ached. She’d gone into the mine shaft as limp as a rag doll, and taken a beating upon landing that her new bruises attested to. Those she could not see, though she could very much feel them. Her entrance disappeared behind her, sealed off by fallen rocks. Not a single ray of light squeezed through the blockage.
Leah stumbled to her feet and scanned the darkness. “What happened? Why am I here?” Unfamiliar thoughts littered her mind, thoughts that blended with her own, changing her in ways she could not yet perceive. “I can’t see a thing. Where’s the way out?”
Using the wall as her guide, she ventured deeper. Every step was a gamble, a leap of faith in the darkness. Despite her acts of courage, her reward remained out of reach. She was no closer to an exit. Every so often, more rubble fell, reminding her that this place could bury her alive at any moment.
Where was her bravado now? Her mask of unrepentance? Lost somewhere in the black void. A girl with tears in her eyes replaced the rogue with the devil-may-care attitude. Still, Leah trudged on, refusing to give up on the light that surely lay at the end of this tunnel.
She walked for what felt like miles, took innumerable turns down innumerable forks. The winding, cavernous path seemed to stretch on forever, guiding her deeper into unknown entrails where only disappointment awaited. Ragged, beaten, and short of breath, Leah sank to the hard ground. She couldn’t keep doing this—physically or mentally.