Core Part 2

Yui anxiously tapped her feet across the table as she waited in the living room, doing nothing. She was supposed to get a core today, but she didn't feel good for some reason.

“Relax.” Rem placed a cup of juice on the coffee table, his smile still plastered on his face. “Haruto’s family are coming today and everything will be okay.”

Was that it? She gulped. She was feeling anxious.

“Yui, I got good news for you.” Haruto approached her excitedly, smiling as if nothing happened yesterday.

“What is it?” Yui asked.

“I got you a heart!” Haruto gestured with his head to come with him. She stood up, following him as he headed towards the basement. She slowly reached the ground floor, looking around at the laboratory-like place. There were multiple cylinder machines with green neon water inside holding different parts of the body, from arms, legs, elbows, knees, all the parts necessary to fix someone.

“Is this how you fixed my arms and legs?” Yui asked as she observed her surroundings. This place felt eerily and strange. Uncomfortable.

“Yes. Your heart is over there.” He approached the main cylinder that held a core inside, floating inside. “Once a heart gets removed, there is only three minutes before it dies so we need to store it here immediately.”

Haruto looked back at her as he placed his hands on the glass. “Now let me take yours and replace it.”

Yui nodded as she unzipped the front of her cropped shirt and opened the vault. She is just a few meters away from her goal. As Haruto lowered his head to grab her core, his brows sank in. “What? What is this? Why is yours red?”

He looked at the red tubes and he looked up at Yui. “You…”

He let out a speechless breath, his eyes grew bigger. “You- you are not... ”

He trailed off and Yui jumped, startled. She closed her vault, feeling something is up. “What's wrong?”

“You are from the… factory?” He looked at her and she felt like her secret was exposed.

“I know what you think…. I am a robotic b-”

“You deceived me!” He yelled and she took a few steps backwards, quickly closing the zipper. “I didn't deceive you, I just-”

“You lied to me... All this time I thought you understood me, I thought you understood what I felt but it was all a-” he took a few steps backwards, held his head, rumbling. “You were talking strange, but I thought it was because you were… like me but all this time it's because you were…from the factory...”

Yui went silent before she spoke. “I wanted to make you hap-”

“Silence!” He screamed; the veins popped in his neck.  There was a long silence before he bit his nails, looking at her. “Get out.”

“What?” Yui's lips quivered. “B-but-”

“GET OUT!"

She took steps backwards and started to run out of the basement and head towards the main door, also getting out of the door. She felt her core squeezing in and out. “Not now! Not now! Don't stop beating now”

She bit her lips as she ran far and for so long, not looking at where she was going. The whole world blurred as she just ran for as long as she could. Her hair whipped around, slapping her face and body. She eventually got tired and slowed down but didn't stop running. Her breath was slowly losing but she didn't stop for even a second. Her core was hurting! As she ran along the streets, not caring who she passed by, Kaito caught her exhausted running from the corner. He was sitting down on a bench, eating ice cream. He wanted to call out to her but his head just moved along because she ignored him. "Yui- oh, her face looks mad." 

As she passed by him, he stood up, following her closely behind. It went for another hour where he just casually jogged behind her while she was gasping for air at this point. She reached the campfire area of the city and found a chair to fall into. Kaito sat beside her, crossing one leg over the other. She lay there as he took out a lollipop from his pockets and extended to her mouth. “Here you go.”

Yui grabbed it, looking at who is dumb enough to give her a lollipop after she ran this much. “Oh, Kaito?”

“Yo~” he placed a hand on the back of her head and patted it. “What's caused our little princess to be sad?”

She just looked at him and pouted before she looked ahead at the random campfire in front of her. There was no fire, just smoke with orange light underneath to get the illusion that there was a campfire. “Everything here really is fake.”

The memories they made together, the time they spent together, what was it for? All of this was making her mad. She tightened her fist, shaking. All those were fake. All of it? She was just thrown because she wasn't like him?

“Did you tell Haruto you wanted a core?” Kaito's finger were in-between his hair, leaning his elbows on the chair headrest.

“How did you know? I mean, I didn't ask, he was going to give me. I didn't ask! ” Yui rephrased because she never asked him!

“Haruto getting a new heart has spread far and wide,” Kaito nodded. "I figured it would be about you."

“He refused to give it to me.” Yui crossed her arms as she looked at the fire.

“He always had a complex about it.” Kaito shrugged and Yui looked at him. She heard the weird things he was saying to Rinrin.

“Do you want a core?” Kaito asked. “I can get it for you.”

Yui blinked at Kaito. “You have one?”

“Yes.” He nodded.

“Can I have it!” Yui stood up, spreading her hand out for him.

Kaito unzipped the shirt he was wearing, opening the vault. “You sure can.”

“Noooo-! I don't mean yours.” Yui grabbed his hands, slapping it.

“I don't mind giving you mine.” Kaito smiled at her. “You see, if I gave you mine… I'm so important, they won't let me die. They will find me a replacement immediately.”

Kaito laughed and Yui looked at him like he was crazy. “I think you have lost your mind.”

“Trust me, I'll-” He grabbed her chin and looked at her. “Never let you die.”

She blinked at him. Her heart skipped a beat. She frowned. The same words but they mean different things. She didn't understand but… “No, I'll keep my core. I'll talk with Haruto one more time! I get him to understand!”

A blank expression took over Kaito's face. “You know, you don't have to do this?”

“No, I…” Flashes of memories went through her head, from his smiles, his tears, his joy, his frustration, his sadness. “I… trust Haruto!”

"What if he doesn't understand?" He asked the hard question. 

“If he wants me to die-”

She grinned. She trust him and without him, she can't... she can't live anyway. She can't live without him.

“I'll just die.”