A Fateful Meeting

Ai Ishikawa is a 17-year old girl. She lives in Tokyo with her mother and father. She goes to St. Alex’s Catholic School. As you can see, this seems like an average girl living an average life...but she is not.
Ai is not like other girls, who usually speak about boys. Boys, boys, boys. “But what if I don’t want boys?” Is the question Ai always asks herself. She never found boys attractive. The blue-haired girl always found herself looking at the other girls from her school, and was always reduced to a fumbling mess when their eyes met hers.
This led to rumors. “Ai is gay?” “Yeah, she was staring at Kuzumi during class!” “Ew, that’s weird!”
Ai stared at the small group of girls, her teeth clenched, green orbs peering behind glasses. The girls caught wind of this and gave her a peculiar look. Ai swallowed her anxiety and turned to walk away, not looking back at the group.
When she got home, things got worse. She closed the door behind her with a sigh, removing her shoes and bag while one sentence repeated in her mind like clockwork. 'Today, I’m going to tell them.'
When she told her parents...it all went to hell.
“Mom, dad...I’m gay.”
“What?”
Ai wet her lips before repeating, “I’m gay.”
Her mother stared at her. Not in a positive manner, no. Her eyes became red. Tears began to roll down her cheeks and she covered her eyes. “Please, please, please, tell me you’re lying."
“Please, mom I-”
All of a sudden, a sharp pain stabbed Ai's cheek, burning it, and turning it red.
“You’re not gay?! Right?!” The deep voice of Ai's father boomed, echoing in the small house.
“Mom, dad, you don’t understand! These are my true feelings!”
“No, they are not! This is just a phase!”
“Please, listen to me, I’m just being honest!”
Tears. Pain ebbing into her heart.
Ai's father went next to her mother to comfort the crying woman, placing his hands on her shoulders.
“You have done enough!”
“Listen to me, I beg of you!”
“No! If you are what you say you are...you are not allowed into our home.”
“Dad! I-”
“And you are not our daughter!”
Ai’s eyes widened. She was speechless. “M-mom?”
Her mother turned away.
It took a day for Ai to pack her things. She had to take the day from school. Her father gave her 60,000 yen and sent her off. She found a motel a few neighborhoods from her school and set up her room.
When it was the weekend, she looked for a job. She found one at a tea shop a few blocks down.
Returning to school was one of the hardest things Ai ever had to do. Upon entering school grounds, she heard people whisper, “It’s her.”
Some people looked at her in admiration. Others, in disgust. Most in disgust.
Four months pass. Four very, very, excruciating months. Ai suffered from bullying of all kinds, from whispers and taunts from her classmates, to physical attacks from both men and women outside of school. Once Ai returned home, her eyes burned with tears. She cried, her eyes leaking with the pain of torment that she suffered continuously.
Her eyes drifted to a small transparent blur. Her anti-depressants that she had bought several days ago sat next to a water bottle near her T.V.
In one quick motion, she grabbed them both, scrambling to open the pills. She paused. Her sobs became louder, filled with pain.
Suddenly, there came a bright light that appeared before Ai. She squinted and looked up and a figure stood. Long, platinum hair trailed the floor in two pigtails as two black wings covered some of that bright light. It was a girl, who looked just around Ai's own age. The older was speechless.
“Hello, Ai. I’m Ko, your guardian angel.”