Prologue. Sunrise.

"I hate you!"

I feel the slap on my cheek. She holds her hand steady and looks with horror. For the first time in forever, Uzuki Hoshino, the girl I used to bully back in elementary school, has finally cracked.

She storms out of the classroom and runs away. I keep sitting on my chair.

"Good job, me. Now, back to getting expelled from school. Good job, Ai..."

Of course, I hear steps coming in my direction. A fit blonde, Nozomi Katsuya, basically rips the door.

"Oh, you just got a ticket for hell you-!"

She storms up to me and holds me by the neck. I struggle, and just as we're about to hit each other, another voice rings.

"Nozomi, stop"

She drops me, and I cough violently. 

I turn up. It's none other than newspaper club leader, Hikari Houraiji.

"B-but she totally hit her! You just-"

"Watch your tone, Nozomi"

Katsuya goes silent and clicks her tongue. She steps out.

"So... the bully got hit. You don’t get to see that usually."

She sits across the table and takes out a recorder.

"Houraiji Hikari speaking. I'm here with 2nd-year student, Hibana Ai. Most of the school knows her as "that bully that stole my lunch" or "the girl that punched a teacher in first year". Now, tell us, Hibana. What did you do this time?"

I take her recorder and turn it off.

"Houraiji, I... really don’t have time for this. You know how this is. You know my  life more than I do."

"Well... yeah, I'll give you a point there"

She takes the recorder, removes the tape, and stores it back into a box, then puts the recorder back in her bag.

"So... let me do my thing..."

She starts looking at the entire room without moving.

"I see... 15 minutes ago, Hoshino walked through this door. She didn't sit immediately,  so I assume she was scared. She decided to sit afterwards. You two had a discussion, and she hit you. But you didn't bully her this time, no. This time you said something you shouldn't have, didn't you?"

"...yeah, I mean, the whole school knows at this point about your talents and stuff."

"...on the back of your head, right? I guess it must hurt."

I stay silent.

"...This time, she smashed me into the door. My head left a hole in it."

Houraiji sighs.

"You don't have to go through this alone, you know?"

"Oh yeah?" I stand up

"Watch me"

I storm out of the club room. I'm not dealing with this.

I get to the nurse office.

"My name is Hibana Ai. 2-A. I just have a headache and need some pills-"

"I'm sorry, dear, but I'll need to call your tut-"

"Okay, fine thanks..."

Screw these people. A call for a headache? That's dumb as hell.

I walk back home, and on my arrival, I hold the knob. I know what will happen next.

Sliding the door carefully,  a squeak sounds. I don't care anymore.

I step into the house without taking my shoes off.

In the living room, and in the middle of a perfect circle formed by the multiple bags of trash lying around, my mother sleeps, drunk. Again. I manage to navigate through the heaps of garbage to my room, stepping on a bunch of roaches, one gets to my knees.

My room is a freaking mess, of course. Just a graveyard of cheap alcohol and trash, courtesy of my mom. I try to lie down on what's left of my bed. A tiny space in which I barely fit. I don't care anymore.

I stare at the door.

I don't care anymore.

...I ... don't want to care anymore.

My mother has been in this mess since my dad left her a year ago. I remember their fights crystal clear. Dad would come home, and Mom would be drunk. Dad would complain about her spending all his money on booze, and she would fight back. She would slap him and tell him she can't do anything. A complaint to the police and he would get detained immediately. More hits. At the end, he would get to my room, cuddle me, and tell me I would "be a great actress" and "would accomplish anything I wanted"

Great actress my butt.

The only thing I have is that hole on the other side of my room where my mother slammed my head into, which, by the way, still hurts.

I... Just need to disappear for a little moment...

My eyes slowly close, drifting off to sleep.

I wake up, brush my teeth, comb my stupid hair, and while I'm at it, trim it a bit. The scissors are so dull that it turns worse, with the right side shorter than the left. I get to school. 

After class, I head out to the theater club and sit down at the table. There is absolutely no one here. Ever since I became a member of the club, of course, everyone has left. Well, everyone except a girl I have never seen here, but has been on the members list even before me.

A gentle knock sounds on the door; it's Houraiji. Again.

"Just go away, ok?"

I slide down the desk

Houraiji sits in front of me, not saying a word. I peek a bit. Her face looks serious, like, odd serious.

"...are you okay, prez?"

Houraiji sighs.

"My mom died back when I was 10. It was a terrible experience, and more so given the fact that my father is working overseas. So I'm here, on my own, just trying my best."

"...well, that's a great piece of expos-"

"Hibana. Do you love yourself?"

The words just go by, and I lean on the chair.

"Well... It's difficult to explain..."

"I see..."

She keeps staring outside.

"...what's up with that question, anyways? Like, where are you even trying to get here?"

She gives me a look. For the first time in forever, she looks doubtful. Then holds my hands.

"What are you do-"

"Hibana. People change, and if you want people to accept you, you've got to accept yourself first. You're valuable and worth it."

Normally, I'd beat the crap out of anyone who touches me, also I'd mock them for saying such a stupid thing. Yet, this is basically the most serious and intelligent person I've known in school, so hearing something like this means that, again, she just saw through me.

...and I dislike being touched, regardless, so I just struggle out of her hold and slap her hands away.

"Okay, okay, jeez!"

She looks concerned. Stands out and leaves.

What the hell just happened?

Well, I am now scared, so I decided to head right back home. Normally, I'd go at night, just before the school closes, but this time I don't want to deal with the drunk mess.

I walk to my house with no problems, no effort. Just got into it, and I see the usual pile of garbage. My mom isn't home. Probably she went for more booze due to her rant yesterday.  

I get upstairs and close the door again, fumble around the trash bags, and lie down in bed.

Being there for a couple of minutes, I hear the door open.

Yet...I don't hear anything else. 

I check through the hole that I left in the door. For a while, nothing happens. Then I see my mother going upstairs. She touches the knob of my door, tries to open it. As she doesn't manage to do it, she goes straight to her room.

Well, probably she's just drunk again. I get back to my bed and do my homework. 

It's silent. Too silent. She is not blasting the TV, she's not crying or yelling at me to go for more alcohol. Nothing.

I'm really curious now, but I'm better than that. I'd better just stay here.

I finish my homework and go to sleep. A moment later, I get awakened by a loud noise, like a bang, coming from the other room.

I peek through the cracks again. I see...

A pink glow?

Okay, this is getting silly. I open the door and go slowly towards my mom's room. 

I try not to make any noise, and as I get closer and closer...

*click*

She turns around. I stepped on a beer can.

"Uh...hi, Mom, I was just...uhm..."

My stomach tightens.

My mother’s room is a mess, but this time the mess doesn't look right. It's like, arranged symmetrically. She crouches on the floor, fumbling through the mess like she’d lost something. 

That pink light comes from underneat a trash bag. A stick? No… a brush.

"Hey," Her voice drips too sweet, too careful. "Come here, sweetie."

She crawls towards me, arms open, like a mother should. Like the mother I never had. My chest tightens, and part of me wants to believe it.

But her eyes. They are hungry.

I step back. "Y-you’re not her..."

Her smile doesn’t falter. “Don’t be silly. It's me, Mom. Come, let me hold you-”

I dart forward, snatching the source of the glow from the bag. A makeup brush. She squeals with a loud, high-pitched tone. I turn around, her skin cracks like porcelain. Underneath, a void. Like staring at space itself.

My breath catches. A scream stuck in my throat.

And then-

*flick*

Flowers burst from her chest. Thick stems coiled out of her, blooming into blood-red roses that tore through her body like paper, collapsing into a heap of petals.

Behind her, in the corner of the room, a shadow. Long, thin, faceless—watching me.

I drop the brush, stumbling back, my heart clawing its way out of my chest.

"Wh...what was that?!”

I looked at the shadow. But it was gone now.

"W-what is going on here?!"