A boy on the bridge and a girl in her uniform.

Did you know? A person's heart beats the fastest right before they're about to die. The palpitations that ring through their body escalates and the sweat that runs from their brow turns cold as the world around them gradually loses colour.

For a minute it's as if time itself stops, or rather they fail to perceive its movement. A moment is thus born when they could look back on all of their decisions, weigh their worth, and ask themselves how they got here.

So, do you reckon you knew all of that? I'd think not.

Why?

Cuz I made it the hell up.

But just because the cause is different doesn't mean that you can never actually feel the things I mentioned. I say that having felt the exact thing happen to me on separate occasions. It was dreadful, and I doubt that I would ever forget about either.

But I would never want to either. Those were the best years of my life after all...

 ---- Can I Hurt You?  >

It was a pretty evening. The sky was orange, the crows were wailing and I was on my way to a little place that I knew across our town. 

As per usual, the roads were empty and the walls around the independent houses turned this place into the generic maze of a Japanese town you would see in kid's anime. Just think of the most generic setting you can recall.

A little town, a twenty-minute walk across (if you walked at the astronomical speed of a snail). No crimes, barely any drama, kind people all around. A couple of deaths in a year, mostly the ancient people passing away only to meet the God they raised after his first visit two millennia ago.

It was that kind of town.

I pulled my bag in closer to my thighs and started to speed walk my way through this place. Today the new volume of Horinimamiya came out. And I was excited, or as the kids call it nowadays, 'waku waku(ed) af'. 

If there was anything I liked more than binge eating sweet stuff to the point of diabetes, it was living my lonely life vicariously through fictional characters.

That was probably why I monologued so much.

Before I knew it the concrete confines of a badly planned town came to an abrupt halt, and what filled my sight was a lovely street, lined with trees on either side and the fresh scent of sweet sakura. Not that it smelled sweet. It just smelled like nothing.

Hup. I covered my hand to check for the scent of sanitizer and sighed. Safeee.

"The Virus is long gone, stop being paranoid."

I skipped my way through the road, pink leaves under my feet and a broad smile on my face. Atop that little hill in front of me was where my little spot was. In essence, it was just a bench covered by a nice little hut. But it was vacant. No one ever came there. So even though it was government property, I claimed it as my own. Finder's keepers.

My destination was high but I was fueled by a reader's lust to read in the ideal environment. That is if you consider manga readers actual readers.

Anyways I soldiered through. Or so I overexaggerate. Honestly, the view around me was stunning in its own way. The dark grey almost blue asphalt turned right leading into the more industrial part of the town, but I considered on the grassy path that led straight ahead.

It was a little shortcut that I had heard of but not quite gotten around to using yet.

It was offroad from there, but there was a clear trail you could follow. I followed it. I pushed the leaves of the trees in front of me away as I climbed a little higher.

And an unfamiliar yet gorgeous sight came into view.

Wooden planks, butterflies fluttering around, the green grass around and peonies, and a red bridge with a boy hanging off the side a couple of meters in front of me.

"Eh?"

My steps immediately stopped, as I rubbed my eyes. Whut? Let me have a look again.

Wooden planks, butterflies fluttering around, the green grass around and peonies, and a red bridge with a boy hanging off the side a couple of meters in front of me.

NOTHING CHANGED!

Crap! The abruptness was catching me off guard. No really what the actual hell. This was a normal pretty day. You can't just spring something like this on someone who was about to have the evening of their life!

There was a boy standing on the side of an otherwise very pretty red bridge. In a T-Pose. With his back to the fall. The bridge was a little higher than I was, atop a very slight climb, so I could not quite meet his eyes but it only took a moment to realise who it was. With his fluttering hair and lean build, I caught a glimpse of a familiar face.

God damn it! Why of all people, why did it have to be him?!

The sound of leaves rustling and crows wailing.

"Goodbye world."

.
.
.

He said the thing. Kinda embarrassing from my point of view. WAIT! It wasn't the time for that!

I dropped the bag, and out of my duty as an upstanding citizen moved instinctively. He wasn't falling yet. I could still make it. 

If I grabbed his hand I could save that stupid little life of his. So I rushed. I wasn't a fast person. Even though my parents were against it, I tried to build my stamina, but when push came to shove my speed was as astronomical as that of a snail.

So my heart was beating. My world became focused on the guy, partly because I didn't have anything else to focus on, and partly because of my anaemia. I was already seeing galaxies around me. My sweat from sitting on my school desk all day made my back and my underbo-ehem (nvm this is supposed to be rated all) sweaty, sweat that turned cold.

I felt closer to death than that person hanging was. But he wasn't falling. Yet.

Fwoop.

Well, never mind. 

He was falling now. His fingers pushed him off the edge, and he was diving back in a spectacular arc. Although still a slow one.

I could make it. I was already on top of the bridge after all. My hand grabbed the side of the railing as I pushed myself over to his side. I could see his silhouette falling. Further and further. 

His familiar face, pretty eyes, pretty nose, pretty mouth, pretty ears, pretty neck, pretty adam's apple. Was he even a dude? But more importantly, focus on his pretty hands! I leaned over the ledge and reached out for his arm.

His fingers were reaching out while the lack of expression on his pretty face persisted. I could reach him. 

Definitely. I, an 18-year-old girl was about to cement myself the title of the saviour of man. Pretty man.

My fingers ran past his tie, then the inner side of his coat, then his cuffs, before I touched his fingers. Only to miss.

My heart dropped.

I, an 18-year-old girl was about to witness the death of man. Pretty man.

No! That would be traumatising!

My hand kept sliding across every one of his surfaced, BEFORE FINALLY! Finally, I could grab onto something. His feet. I tightened my grip without wasting any opportunity. I was not going to witness a boy my age die in front of my eyes.

I was holding on to him. He was suspended for a brief moment.

"Ki-innourgghh, you iddiiiiiooott!" I yelled while pulling him up the best I could. I had succeeded in grabbing a hold of him. 

Yet again I, an 18-year-old girl was about to cement myself the titl-

"Eh?"

Suddenly my feet felt unnaturally light.

"Eh?"

The wood of the railing was digging into my midrib. 

"Eh? Eh..." 

My top felt heavier than ever before.

I suddenly remembered the lesson we had about the centre of mass the other day.

My hand was holding onto him, a heavier mass and that made my legs float. I slowly felt my weight shift forward and then before I knew it. I was mid-air.

Falling.

Son of a bi-