The Past that Reaches Out

The next day, I woke up and did my daily routine just like any other day. When the whole incident with Akemi occurred, I made sure to tell my sister about it as well as the fact that she had cursed me by saying such things when nothing had happened between the both of us at all.

She simply responded with a chuckle and shrug off the shoulders which pissed me off, but there was nothing else I could do in response to that.

When I arrived at the kitchen, breakfast was already prepared for the both of us. I took a seat, gave thanks for the food and simply started taking small bites out of everything that was on the plate.

"What are you going to do about that, brother?"

"About what happened with Akemi?"

She gave me a single nod at those words and just thinking back to what happened, it left me with a foul taste in my mouth.

"Nothing. I have no reason to talk to her at all. That was just something I couldn't get away from regardless of what I had done"

"That's not what I'm talking about, brother"

"Then what is it?"

"Don't you think that she's going to try and talk to you about what happened and thank you for what you did for her?"

"Well..." Knowing her, the possibility was high for her to do such a thing and she would most likely stop at nothing to say thank you or even do something in return for what I had done.

"I'll just say that it's fine or ignore her"

"I doubt it's going to be that easy"

"..." I glared daggers at her for a bit and sighed "She has a point. It's not going to be that easy at all"

"Regardless, let's just finish eating and then head on to school, what do you think about that, brother?"

"Yeah, let's do that"

Without waiting another minute, the both of us continued eating to our hearts content and as we were doing so, I couldn't help but have the thought in the back of my mind about what could happen with Akemi if she did decide to push forward with her thanking me.

"I'd rather not deal with her if I can help it" I let out a sigh and simply continued eating until there was nothing else on my plate. 

Once we finished, the both of us cleaned the dishes and other utensils that were used. From there, we closed the door to the house and started on heading over towards school without a care in the world.

As we were making our way down the street, I couldn't help but notice that there was a figure waiting on the corner of the intersection we would walk by.

"Sorry for making you wait, Yuki~"

"I really thought the both of you had decided to leave just like that, I got scared for a second there"

"..."

"Good morning, Tadao-senpai~"

"Morning"

"Somebody seems to be in a bit of a bad mood"

"The thing is..."

As we made our way down the road towards the school, my sister started explaining everything that had happened, including the fact that I had helped out Akemi.

"Is that why you're in such a bad mood, Tadao-senpai?"

"More or less"

"What's wrong with that? That just means that she's thankful if she does thank you, don't you think?

"I know, but..."

"You still can't get over the fact of what happened between the both of you, right?"

I nodded my head at her words. I couldn't very well handle being close to her knowing about everything that had happened when all of that was a complete lie on her part.

"..."

I glanced over at Yuki and noticed that she was staring directly at me all the while the three of us walked alongside one another "Something wrong?"

"No, I was just thinking about something, that's all"

I didn't dare to ask her what it was since there were two reasons I didn't do so. The first one being that I didn't want to know what things she was thinking about in the moment and the second one being that I was so focused on other things that finding out what Yuki was thinking was the least of my worries.

Upon arriving at where the school gates were, I was expecting everything to be the same as every other day. A peaceful walk towards the classroom and what not alongside my sister, but this time around with someone else being Yuki.

"T-Tadao"

"Hmm?"

I glanced over my shoulder, and I could feel my heart sink all the way down to my stomach.

"..."

"C-Can I talk with you for a bit?"

Sure enough, everything that my sister had said was happening before me, regardless of what I would say, I knew that she would find a way to get me to start talking with her about what had happened.

"It's better to get this done with as fast as possible so that I can relax the rest of the day"

"Sure. As long as it's fast"

I knew that I sounded rude, but for me, I didn't want to be with her a long time. I wanted to get everything that had happened done with so that I could continue living out the life that I was already used to.

"We'll see you later, brother"

"Yeah"

Just when she was going to start leaving, Yuki simply stood there looking over at the both of us, but the way she was looking at us... It felt as though she was worried about something.

I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but whatever it was, it was worrying her deep down. Seeing her acting like that, I scratched the back of my head and sighed "I'll see you guys at lunch, Yuki"

She seemed a bit surprised by my sudden words, but regardless, she shook her head and smiled at me "Ok, see you later, Tadao-senpai~!"

With that out of the way, the both of us started walking the opposite way of where the students were. Once we had reached a relatively empty section, she cleared her throat and spoke up "Thank you... For yesterday"

"Yeah... Don't mention it"

"..."

"..."

The entire situation felt awkward, but there was nothing else that could be done.

"I didn't know what was going to happen to me when they had gotten me in that little alley"

"Yeah, you were lucky to get out unscathed"

"Yeah... All because you were there"

"Yeah..."

"B-By the way, I see that you still practice very thoroughly, huh?"

"Yeah, it was the only thing I could do during... That small break that I had"

"I-I see..."

I could tell that she felt a bit awkward about hearing me mention such a thing, but in the back of my mind, it didn't matter how she felt in the moment, I was simply speaking the truth.

"If that's everything, I should get going"

Just when I was trying to leave the area and head to class, out of nowhere, I felt her hand grab my arm and just when I was about to tell her to let me go, she spoke up with some words that were the very ones I was expecting a long, long time ago.

"I'm sorry about what I did, I hope you can forgive me"

"... Huh?"

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry about the rumor that I had created" "Because of that... All of that happened to you"

"..."

I couldn't forgive her. Not now and nobody knew when I could forgive her for what had happened.

"Sorry, I can't accept your apology"

"Why...?"

"If you really didn't want anything like that to happen, you wouldn't have done what you did"

"But-"

"Everything you're telling me in my eyes is a lie and I can't forgive you and I can't forgive you for it"

I forced my arm away from her grasp and started walking away without a care in the world. Of course, I looked like the asshole in the moment for not accepting the apology, but the damage that had been done to me was something I could never forgive and she had seen it herself.

If she had really meant to apologize, she could have done it back then, she didn't have to wait until I helped her or until everything had already calmed down.

"Bullshit"

I cursed at everything that had happened and continued making my way towards my classroom without caring what would happen next.