Views that change with eyes

Dark skies and the windy atmosphere felt very depressing to everyone who was outside right now in Kyoto, Japan. But, perhaps nobody looked more plunged into sorrow than a young boy, maybe in his last teenage years, standing still on the edge of the terrace of a very high building.

Seeing him standing right at the edge would be unnerving and chilling for anyone, but it wasn’t, because nobody was looking at him.

The traffic was going as usual below that tall building, and the people who could have seen him from the neighbouring buildings weren’t really paying attention to what was happening out of their line of sight, or out of their lives, just like everyone else.

“Nobody cares. It isn’t like a-anybody would be sad to find me gone. It isn’t like somebody would be w-waiting for me at home. I am n-nothing to nobody, not worth a single thought or an h-hassle. I am just another face you’d see and ignore in your lives.”

The boy kept on muttering and fumbling, scared to his bones, but there was a strange calmness on his face, which made this whole scene look a lot more real and terrifying.

“So, it’s okay, it is fine. I-I am sure many would be even happy t-to find me gone. It's not like I am l-left with a very bright future being a one-handed handicap.”

"..."

“Not everything is for everyone. Some people just can’t sing well, others might not be the best at dancing… for me it was l-living. I guess it just wasn’t f-for me. Nothing much different here…”

The boy smiled a little as his own sentence caught him off-guard. But, that didn’t last long, his expressions quickly turned back to those calm and dead ones. Only this time, it didn’t look like the boy would be speaking anything, anything at all. This time, all he had were a few tears and his clenched lips, which looked like they were his attempt to conceal his shrieks.

“...”

Not a single pause or action later, the boy let himself go… With his eyes shut tight and his lips between his teeth, he jumped to end everything, right there and then.

But to his utmost surprise, he found himself hanging and not falling as his hand was latched at something. For a second, he thought that he had grabbed something on his own instinctively. But, that thought quickly vanished when he felt that something seemed to be grabbing his hand and not vice-versa.

The wind was strong enough to shake his line of vision when he tried looking up, and even more so, due to his foggy glasses and tearful eyes. But, somehow he managed to understand that somebody had grabbed his hand and broken his fall. He squinted his eyes as much as possible and managed to see strands of long and silky hair. That hair shimmered like silver through that somber sky and dispiriting weather.

Although it was clear that some girl was holding the only hand of Yushu to deter his fall of death, her identity was still shrouded in hair. Those long and majestic hair dancing in that powerful wind, veiled that girl’s face completely.

Fortunately, a sudden gust of wind obliged, and to Yushu’s surprise, he realised it was Kuwahara Himari from his university!

“What are you doing… Ayane-san?”

Himari shrieked as she struggled to support and tried to pull Yushu’s hand up.

The sheer concern in her voice and the very surprising and puzzling change in the situation looked as if it broke Yushu's gloom-shrouded mindset, and he started pulling himself up with Himari. She was gasping and puffing as she clenched Yushu’s hand tighter and tighter to not let him slip.

It was very difficult to pull Yushu up since he had only one hand and Himari was not the physically strongest girl in the world, but after a long and tiring struggle, she was finally able to get Yushu up on the floor of that terrace.

Both of them laid there for quite a while just gasping and panting, before speaking anything. The situation itself was not the easiest to understand or start a conversation in, so that certainly didn’t help.

“W-What the hell were you t-thinking, Ayane Yushu-san?”

Himari spoke first, breaking the silence and the continuation of heavy breaths which seemed to be the only thing audible at that time.

“...”

Yushu wasn’t really sure what to say, and even more, because he was puzzled as to how and why Himari was there. He was quite sure that he had chosen one of the farthest high-rise buildings from his university, so as to not bother anyone with his suicide. But somehow, Kuwahara Himari, who was a girl in his university taking the same class as him, was there.

Yushu was perplexed, sure, but even more than that, he was distraught. That mustered courage, the iron-clad resolve, and his own ultimatum– he had it all, but now, nothing.

“Why are you h-here Kuwahara-san? And… w-why did you do this?”

Yushu was still short of breath and words, probably due to the rush of adrenaline, and the tiring struggle to pull himself up with Himari.

“...”

“Ayane-san, I saw you falling, or more accurately I saw you jumping from here and I leaped across half a foot to make in time to grab your hand–”

“–Do you have any idea as to what you just did, Kuwahara-san? You might be thinking that you just saved me, but no… you didn’t save me, you just forced me into more pain and more misery. I didn’t ask you to save me, I didn’t ask you to come here, I don’t even know you apart from your name from the class… What made you think–”

Yushu was lashing out, his voice was cracking, and it was quite obvious that he was trying to suppress his tears, but he still raged on. His tone was full of anger, remorse, desperation, and almost every bit of fright that he felt just a few minutes before.

Himari just listened on and spoke no further. Yushu kept on going, and saying things until he was exhausted or felt guilty, or maybe both.

“...”

“I never said I saved you Ayane-san. Nobody saves anyone, I know that, I firmly believe that to be the case. I found out that you were going to be doing something like this today, so I just followed you here, and did what I wanted to. Nobody dictated anything, I did this of my own will”

Himari replied very calmly with a tone that felt all too understanding and comforting.

“...”

Yushu had calmed down a bit, the very soothing tone of Himari surely helped, but mostly after saying so much that he had bubbling inside him, he kind of felt at ease, something that he had not felt in a long, long time.

“Why Kuwahara-san? Why would you go out of your way and follow me here? How’d you know what I was going to be doing? Why didn’t you tell anybody else and come on your own? And, even if you knew, why did you want to save me?”

“...One by one Ayane-san, I can’t answer so many questions at once. Come on, first, let’s get something to eat, I am getting very hungry. Would you care for some meat buns? I saw a shop earlier, and by that smell, I am pretty sure that their meat buns are amazing.”

This time Himari’s tone was quite different from the one she was speaking in earlier. Now, it sounded more normal, more girl-like, more cute.

It had already been quite a long and taxing day for Yushu, and now that his attempt to end his life had been foiled, he could think a bit more clearly. He could now see how windy it was up there, and how cold he was feeling. Furthermore, apart from being cold, he could now see that he was also feeling quite a bit hungry.

“...”

“Okay…”

“So, you didn’t tell me Ayane-san, why did you choose mathematics as the subject at our university?”

Himari asked while both of them were digging into the meat buns in their hands profusely.

Now that all the adrenaline that was pumping throughout Yushu earlier had subdued, his voice was back to normal and he was mostly quiet. Not that he didn’t reply or speak as to be rude, but that he didn’t really initiate or prolong the conversations.

Himari thought that Yushu didn’t hear her question and was still eating the meat-bun with much vigour. Pouting and fuming, she took her finger and poked it in the cheek of Yushu, who was taken aback and almost dropped the meat bun in his hand.

“Muwahhhhh..haha… that is what happens when someone does not hear the other person talking to them.”

Himari was laughing at his reaction while Yushu was checking if he dropped any of his meat-bun filling on the ground.

“...I heard you Kuwahara-san, I just didn’t think you really wanted me to answer.”

“Huh... What is that supposed to mean Ayane-kun? If I am asking you a question, of course, I want you to answer.”

“Kun…?”

Yushu was quite surprised that Himari was using the ‘kun’ honorific for him. He felt strangely happy, but also not very sure as to why she was being so informal to just a fellow student. He was happy because even if he tried, he wasn’t sure he could remember the last time someone addressed him so casually and informally.

“...Kuwahara-san, why are you addressing me like that? I don’t think we ever talked at the university before. And I don’t think we became friends or anything today, right?”

“Hmm… so you didn’t like me addressing you like that?”

“...”

“That’s not it, I am just a bit surprised that you are addressing me like that even when I am just another fellow student to you.”

Himari’s eyes gleamed with mischief and a bit of cute enjoyment that she was getting by teasing Yushu.

“So, why did you take up mathematics Yushu-kun?”

“...No particular reason, I guess. I think that I just enjoyed using logic to solve problems and finding new ways to think about something…”

“...Hmmm… that’s quite nice–”

“–wait, Yushu-kun? We’re on a first-name basis now Kuwahara-san?”

“Hehe… I just called you like that because Yushu-kun is Yushu-kun. You should also call me Himari-san… but not Himari-chan, I don’t like that honorific.”

Things were going too fast for someone like Yushu, who had almost zero friends in his entire life. He was feeling a bit happy, and that happiness was maybe the most he had experienced in quite a long time, but it also felt quite strange.

If you think about it, indeed it was quite strange. Somebody who was almost a stranger to Yushu followed him all the way, based on maybe a hunch, and saved him from falling to his death. And now, that person is being very friendly and hanging out with him.

While Yushu was possessed by these thoughts regarding the whole situation, Himari suddenly interrupted.

“Sorry, Yushu-kun, you should go home now, I just remembered that I have to rush somewhere… I’ll talk to you later… Bye-bye!”

“...”

“Huh.. ah..hmm okay–”

Yushu only managed to stutter, while he saw Himari run towards the train station.

“...”

“–What just happened here? Should I go after her? No, no no… what am I thinking… Am I supposed to go home now…?”

A puzzled Yushu gazed at that building and brooded a bit as to what just happened, and then looked around to find that he was standing right in front of a bus stop. Now that his moment of courage had passed, Yushu wasn’t sure he would be able to repeat this again, at least not that day.

Confused and shaken he silently took a bus home while glaring at the top of that building he was earlier going to be jumping from. Weirdly, for some reason, that dejecting climate and the melancholic sky didn't really look that depressing to Yushu, at least not as much as before.

As far as you could see, everybody was talking and mingling and laughing and having fun. Well, that’s what happens at most universities when it isn’t exam time. But, if you looked closely you’d find that there was just one boy walking towards the main building with nobody beside him.

Shrivelled blonde hair, big glasses, dead eyes, and a single hand– almost everybody knew that it was Ayane Yushu, the loner genius of Yasuhiro University of Kyoto.

“-kun… shu-kun… Yushu-kun… Yushu-kun”

Yushu wasn’t sure that it was his name that he was hearing, so he didn’t really pay any attention.

“Yushu-kuuunnnnn…. Yushuu-kunnnn….”

As the voice grew louder and louder, and more familiar, Yushu looked back to find Himari standing behind him huffing and puffing as she had just come to him running.

“C-Can’t you hear me, Yushu-kun? I called you like f-fifty times…”

“...”

“Sorry… Kuwahara-san, I didn’t think I was hearing my name being called. Do you have something to say to me Kuwa–”

“Himari-san… I told you yesterday to address me as such, didn’t I?”

Himari pouted as she corrected and interrupted Yushu.

“And, yes I have something to say to you…”

At this point, everybody around was staring at them since it was the first time they had seen Ayane Yushu, the loner genius talk to someone else, and that too with ice princess Kuwahara Himari. This was like a once-in-a-lifetime moment for everyone at Yasuhiro University.

“I like you… please go out with me”

“.........”

“huh… Huh… HUHHH???!!!...”

Everybody heard and exclaimed at this confession out of the blue, but out of all, the loudest reaction was from none other than the confessant himself… Ayane Yushu.

Thus started the story of a loner, suicidal boy who out of nowhere, got confessed to by the girl who saved him from committing suicide.