Chapter 19 — “Himari’s Confession Video”

When the lie becomes truth.

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The morning starts quietly.

Too quietly.

The first notification buzzes through the classroom during homeroom — a message on the class group chat.

> [Anonymous]: check this link.

[Anonymous]: it’s her.

At first, no one clicks. Then someone does.

Then everyone does.

Within minutes, the room fills with the glow of screens and muffled gasps.

Himari looks up, confused, until she sees her own face reflected in someone’s phone.

---

The video is titled:

> “Himari Akane’s Confession — I Killed Reina.”

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It’s shot in the art room, under yellow light.

Himari sits in her uniform, expression pale and hollow.

Her voice trembles.

> “I didn’t mean to push her. We were fighting, and she said she’d tell everyone about me and Mizuki. I just… I just wanted her to stop—”

She breaks down crying.

> “Please forgive me.”

Then the screen cuts to black.

At the end, white letters fade in:

> Love never lies.

---

Silence floods the room.

Someone whispers, “It’s real, right?”

Another says, “She admitted it—she killed Reina.”

The teacher stumbles over her words. “Everyone put your phones away!”

But the damage is done.

The video spreads faster than rumor ever could.

By lunch break, the entire school has seen it.

By evening, so has the city.

---

Himari runs to the bathroom, locking herself in a stall.

She scrolls through the video again, shaking.

It’s her face. Her voice.

But she never said those words.

The lips move perfectly. The tone, the tears — everything.

Only the eyes are wrong.

Dead. Too still.

> “It’s a fake,” she whispers to herself. “It has to be.”

She vomits into the sink.

Outside, she hears the whispers building again.

Her name.

Her crime.

Her lover.

---

By the time she finds Mizuki, the sun has already set.

She’s sitting on the school rooftop, sketchbook open, drawing the horizon in red chalk.

> “You saw it?” Himari’s voice shakes.

> “Of course.”

> “Then say something. Tell them it’s not true.”

Mizuki looks up slowly. Her eyes catch the dying light — bright, feverish.

> “But it is true, isn’t it?”

> “No! You know I didn’t—”

> “Maybe you didn’t mean to. Maybe your hands slipped. Maybe you were scared.”

> “Mizuki, stop!”

Mizuki’s voice lowers to a whisper, tender and cruel.

> “You told me once you hated her for getting too close.”

> “I never—”

> “You said she was in the way.”

> “Stop lying!”

> “I’m not lying, Himari. I’m giving you freedom. Now they’ll all stop pretending.”

> “You made that video, didn’t you?”

Silence.

The wind rises, carrying the smell of the sea from the cliffs below.

> “I fixed it,” Mizuki finally says. “You couldn’t confess, so I did it for you.”

> “You ruined my life!”

> “No. I made it ours.”

Mizuki stands, stepping closer. The rooftop railing glints behind her.

> “Now they’ll remember us together. Always.”

Himari’s breath catches.

> “You’re insane.”

Mizuki smiles faintly, her voice barely audible.

> “You said you’d still love me, even if I did something terrible.”

> “Not this.”

> “Then tell me what I have to do to make you believe me again.”

> “You can’t.”

> “Then I’ll die proving it.”

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She moves toward the edge before Himari can stop her.

> “Mizuki!”

> “If I fall, will you finally forgive me?”

> “Don’t—please don’t!”

Mizuki laughs — soft, broken, beautiful.

> “Smile for me, Himari.”

Then she leans back, the red sunset burning her silhouette —

And vanishes over the edge.

---

For a moment, the world holds its breath.

Then a scream tears it open.

---

Hours later, sirens wail outside Saint Elora Academy.

Students gather near the courtyard, faces pale, hands shaking.

Police tape flutters in the sea wind.

Someone says she landed on the rocks.

Someone else swears she smiled as she fell.

Himari stands behind the crowd, unable to cry.

The video keeps replaying in her mind — her false confession, Mizuki’s real death.

On the announcement board, a new poster flaps in the breeze:

> Memorial Service for Sera Mizuki, Friday 10 AM.

Someone has scrawled beneath it in red pen:

> Smile for her.