Yui's Self-Loathing

Under the bright sun and the cloudless sky, two high school students were on their way to school together.

One of them was a girl with deep black hair and crimson red eyes. Each of her step held great force and intensity as she walked ahead of the boy.

The boy had brown eyes and black hair like her. His face though, was in agony due to both of his cheeks being red and swollen from being pinched too hard by her.

“A-are you perhaps still mad?” he asked nervously.

“I'm not mad!” she responded aggressively.

Kazuma, who thought that it would be a nice day today, had to face Yu's wrath this morning.

Yui may have said that she was not mad, however, she was still incredibly mad.

What led her to being that angry? Was it truly because of the missed calls or was the reason something completely different?

Last night she could not sleep due to being worried about her friend Kazuma. Back then, she had to leave him behind even though he was barely conscious.

When she arrived home, she was most of the time mentally absent. She did not respond to her family when they talked to her, she did not realize that she was under the shower for too long, she did not eat anything at all but all she did was to worry about Kazuma.

Yui blamed herself. She should not have run away. However, she was too scared. Ken surely would have beaten her up, too, despite Yui being a girl. She cared deeply for him but not in a romantic way. He is the only friend she could carelessly talk to. And she knew that for him, she was the only person he could talk to. But she ran away in that moment.

And yet, deep down in her heart, she felt glad when she ran away. Yui was glad that she could escape the dangerous situation and avoid being beaten up by Ken.

Guilt, worry or anything else did not matter to her when she realized that she she felt glad.

She loathed herself.

She loathed herself so much that she threw up in the bathroom and then crouched in her bed the entire night staying up all night.

She tried to call Kazuma multiple times to ease her mind but he did not pick up. Thus, each time her call did not get picked up by him, her anxiety and disgust at herself grew more and more.

When the birds began to chirp in the morning, she rapidly made herself ready for school. Yui decided to not wait any longer and wanted to check up on her neighbor as fast as possible.

Standing in front of his door, she took many deep breaths before she called out to him. She was nervous and scared due to not knowing how to face him and there being the chance that he may hate her. So she tried to act as natural as ever.

But when Kazuma opened the door, she only saw his usual carefree look on his face.

It was when she saw that face that turned her negative emotions into happiness.

However, her self-loathing still lingered somewhere in the back of her mind while they were walking to school.

“H-hey, don't walk so fast! I'm still injured, you know.” Kazuma tried to clam her down.

“Hey...”

She stopped in her tracks and turned around to face Kazuma.

“I'm so sorry for running away yesterday!” she bowed her head sincerely.

Being slightly surprised, Kazuma was startled.

“N-no need to apologize. Just raise your head already. I mean, you have nothing to apologize for. It was me who told you to run away, right?” he said with a kind smile.

“I'm happy enough that you stayed there until the end.” he continued.

“B-but-” Yui tried to counter him.

“No buts. In the end, nothing happened to me so it's fine!” he interrupted.

“Alright...”

Despite being not entirely satisfied with this outcome, she tried to move on from this topic.

“Geez, and I thought you were mad at me for missing all these calls from you, haha!” he laughed.

Then, Yui burst a blood vessel.

“Huh? You think I forgot about that?” she asked.

At this point, her anger was clearly visible and her malicious and forced smile did not help to cover it.

“E-ehm...” he had no words.

“Come here for a second.” she ordered.

Not being able to talk back and only being able to listen to her orders like a dog, he walked to her.

As they stood right in front each other, Yui took one step further to him and reached out her hands so she could place them on his cheeks.

The boy thought in that moment that she would come closer to his face and especially his lips. It could be his first kiss with a girl his age. Internally, he was glad that he chewed gum with mint flavor making his breath fresh and pleasant. As she came closer and closer, he formed kissing face with his lips even though it just looked like a fish. Kazuma was truly a virgin.

“Aaahrg!!!” he cried in pain.

“Accept your punishment for not picking up any of my calls, you idiot.” she said while she was grinning like a sadist.

Now, back in the present.

With the great mystery, why Yui was mad, being solved, the two of them almost reached the school gates.

Entering the school, they could finally begin their next chapter, especially Kazuma.

However, as soon as they entered school ground, they were confronted with the roots of all their problems. Kirisaki Ken.

“Yo, you alright?” Ken asked Kazuma despite not really caring about the answer as he smirked like he schemed his next plan already.

“Don't worry about the authorities. I did everything in my power so nobody would get suspended.” he continued.

Ken wanted to humiliate Kazuma by making him own him a favor after saving him from a suspension from the school.

“Tch.” Kazuma could only click his tongue in response.

“And did your mommy comfort you after I bea-”

Smack.

Before Kazuma could move his body, Yui already stepped forward and slapped him across his face. Kazuma was so surprised that even his jaw dropped a little bit.

“Scumbag.” Yui said with fierce eyes and a voice containing her rage.

Ken spat on the ground before touching the cheek he was slapped at.

“You damn bitch!” he shouted.

Woosh.

As he raised his fist, Kazuma pulled Yui in his arms and as a result, Ken only hit the air.

“You really intended to hit her...” Kazuma stated.

Like an intern switch, Kazuma's expression turned grimmer again.

“Round 2, huh?” Ken commented excitingly.

Ken already was in his fighting stance and was about to attack him. But he got interrupted again.

“Ken-kun, enough!”

After hearing those words and that voice, both of the boys got startled and just like yesterday, Ken pulled back after noticing the presence of his fiancee, Tachibana Emma.

With her appearance, Kazuma also slowly switched back to his casual look.

“What do you want, Emma?” Ken asked.

“Why didn't you pick up my calls yesterday?” she asked firmly.

“Your calls? Oh right, I just ignored them. What? Are you mad? Did you miss me or something?” he remarked letting out a laugh.

“...” Emma still stared at him sternly.

“Geez, I get it. Probably something about that bastard there, right?” he turned serious for a moment.

“Yes. I want you to leave him alone. I mean it.” she said or rather, ordered him.

“Fine, fine. If you say so.” he agreed.

“Thank you.”

Not believing their ears and eyes out of shock, Yui and Kazuma could only stand on the sidelines like statues.

Then, Emma walked over to the two still shocked students.

“Well then, it seems like this case is closed.” Emma stated happily.

“Y-yeah, seems like it.” Kazuma answered baffled.

“Oh, you are Nagisa-san, right? I have to apologize to you, too, for the trouble Ken-kun has caused you!” she said as she clasped her hands together.

“Ah, no need to! It's fine already, Tachibana-san. Really.” Yui tried to hinder her from apologizing as she saw no reason for it.

“But!” Emma would not let go.

“Really, it's fine! Case closed, right?” Yui said with a nervous smile.

While the three were chatting, Ken turned his back on them and walked away.

Kazuma, who was still focused on his crush, Emma, was able to catch a glimpse of Ken leaving.

He spotted a slight smile on Ken's face. Not caring enough about him, he looked back at Emma, who was talking happily with Yui.

However at that moment, Kazuma did not know that Ken's smile was no indication of happiness or something of that sort.

It was a sly and ecstatic grin embodying his future plans for Kazuma and his surroundings.