Sakuta

Sakuta had not bothered to turn the lights on when it got dark. He just laid on his bed, thinking about what he had done. It was the second time that his weakness hurt Mai. And this time there was no talking out of it. It was his own cowardness. He knew that, most likely, nothing would happen. That’s an entirely different timeline and his motivations for going to Enoshima were entirely different too. Nothing bad would happen. But there was still that little voice talking about the ‘what if’. He wasn’t as strong as Mai, he couldn’t just brush it over. The ‘what if’ was enough to make him shiver, all his alarm bells went off at once and there was nothing that he would rather do than run. And run is exactly what he did. He left the woman, he admired and loved on her own so that he could run away. He curled himself up even further while those thoughts were rushing through his head. He didn’t even respond to Kaede coming home, until she practically forced him to.
“What’s wrong, brother?”
No answer.
“Did something happen between you and Mai?”
Slight nodding.
Kaede sighed. “Is it that bad?”
No response.
“Look, I've only known her for a month now, but I’ve read the other Kaede’s diary. Mai is someone who won’t let such a thing stop her, especially when it comes to someone she cares about as much as she cares about you. I don’t think there’s anything that could ruin your relationship unless one of you is sabotaging it.”
A shiver went through Sakuta’s body as he heard that. Of course, he knew that already. He knew what the right thing to do would be, but someone telling it to him was a lot harder to ignore than his own crumb of rationality. He never feared for something in his life that much. Her dark hair getting soaked in blood, the distant cry of sirens, people gathering around the place of the accident... He didn’t even notice that he had contracted even further, until there was suddenly the warmth of a hand ripping him back to reality.
“The door rang, Sakuta. And I think I know who it is. I’ll leave it to the two of you now. I believe in you”
Kaede’s hand was lifted from his head ; he heard quiet footsteps over the floor, followed by the opening of the front door. Distantly, he could even make out Mai talking with his sister. The sound of her voice alone was enough to lift his head a bit, just enough to see the clock. 18:32, 23rd of December.