The Girl Behind The Mask

As classes were coming to an end, I glanced over at the girl who had proposed for us to go out and I found myself simply staring at her out of the corner of my eye for a good minute or so. Not because of how pretty she was or anything of the sort, but simply because I was confused as to what she wanted to achieve with the words she had left me with.

"Why does she want to go out with someone like me? What does she really mean with everything she said up there?"

From her inviting me out all the way to seeing those scars on her wrist, everything about my meeting was her was more than confusing and suspicious enough for me to start thinking about every little thing that she had mentioned. It got to the point where I couldn't help but think that I was being set up by someone who's purposes I didn't know.

Before I knew it, the sound of the bell ringing caught my attention, everyone in class started packing up their belongings and walking out the door without a care in the world. Seeing this, I followed suit and picked up my own belongings, once I had done so, I glanced back over at the seat where Amaya was supposed to be in, but to my surprise, she was already long gone.

"That was fast..."

I let out a sigh and started making my way out of the classroom and slowly but surely made my way towards the front gates of the school and as I was doing so, off in the distance, I could see Amaya waiting with bag in hand and just like when she had interrupted me up in the rooftop, I could faintly see her smiling without a care in the world.

"How can one be so happy...?"

I was genuinely confused as to how someone could be so happy the entire time, but it wasn't for me to say anything about, especially without even knowing the person in question, so simply keeping those words to myself was more than satisfying for me.

"You're late Yuma!"

"I'm not late"

"But you are"

"..." I couldn't even retort back at her words; it had gotten to a point where it was meaningless if I said anything to her since she would just ignore me completely and just continue on with what she wanted to do

"Yuma?"

She leaned her head closer to my face and at this, I couldn't help but back away just a tad bit "W-What?"

"What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing... Just wondering why, you even invited someone like me"

"Like I told you, I want to show you that it's worth living~" Before I could even say another word, she grabbed my hand tightly and started dragging me away from the school gates"

"H-Hey! Let go of me!"

"Not until you agree to accompany me wherever I decide to go today"

"Fine! I'll comply, just let me go!"

"That sounds more like it~" At those simple words, she let go of me and started walking on her own without even batting me another glance. Seeing this, I could tell that she was being serious about everything she had told me, I couldn't feel a hint of her deceiving me or anything of the sort.

As we both made our way down the road, we didn't speak another word to each other ever since the last interaction we had, we were both in complete and utter silence. If anyone saw us, they would most likely think that we had gotten into a fight or something along those lines, but to me, this type of quiet time was more than fine for me.

"Here we are"

Before I knew it, she broke the silence with those three single words, I looked around the area we were in and felt somewhat confused "What are we doing here?"

"This is where I wanted to bring you"

"A river?" For whatever reason, we had walked all the way to the closest river that was in the area, luckily, there were no people around and the silence that enveloped us was pleasant, but at the same time, I couldn't help but wonder what she wanted to do exactly.

"Come on, take a seat with me, Yuma"

Just like that, she plopped herself down on the grass overlooking the river and gently patted the space next to her. Since I had already agreed to comply with whatever she wanted, I went ahead and took a seat but directly next to her, instead, I left some distance between the both of us since I really didn't desire to be next to her so close. Personal space was a very big thing in my eyes.

"What do you think about this?"

"What do I think about it...?"

"Yeah. Don't you like this view?"

"It's just a river"

"I know, smart guy" "What I'm trying to say is that this type of view and peacefulness is nice, don't you think so too?"

"I guess you have a point... But my real question is why you wanted to come here? I thought you wanted to show me the reason to continue living and what not"

"I am" She gently stood up from where she was sitting, walked forward a little bit and then turned to me with a big smile on her face "It's views like this that should want you to continue living, Yuma"

"Going to the beach, climbing a mountain, going down a trail, visiting little areas like this, everything you can possibly think of" "By experiencing all of these things you'll get to see that living is worth it since there are going to be countless things you'll want to experience"

Listening to her speak so passionately and the way she was looking directly at me was more than enough to explain to me the meaning behind her words "So this is why you told me that there is a reason to live..."

"You finally noticed?"

"This is how you coped and healed yourself... By coming here, right?"

"Hit the nail right on the head, Yuma" She took a few deep breaths and started showing me the scars on her wrists "I would come here almost every day and started cutting myself slowly but surely... I would wash the blood away in this very river... This was the only place where I wasn't judged by anyone"

"I don't know what you're going through, I don't know if it's a family thing, a society thing or if it's just you, but don't end your life just like that... It's not a pretty thing to be honest with you"

"You've seen someone end their own life..."

"Yeah... I did, but that's a story for another day... For when we know each other a little bit more"

It didn't seem to be a sensitive topic for her, but at the same time, I understood where she was coming from when she mentioned that she wanted to save it for another day "That's fine. I don't fully trust you yet either to explain my whole story"

"Makes sense, we did only barely just talk to each other today, so opening up just like that would be kind of awkward"

I nodded at her words and as I did so, I couldn't help but find myself staring at her, her whole demeanor had changed completely to when I had first seen her at school. For some reason, she seemed a lot freer.

"Yuma...?"

"Hmm?"

I snapped back to reality and stared at her for a bit, but as I was doing so, my gut feeling was telling me that whatever I was going to here from her mouth was going to be something completely unexpected.

"I know that we don't know each other all that well but..." She turned away from me and a brief moment of silence enveloped us "If I asked you to save me... Would you?"