Despair.

"Echoes of Love: A second chance."

[Chapter 8 Start]

"The thugs! The thugs took Aoi with them!" Chako yelled over the phone.

Despair fell upon me:

"Wh-What? What are you talking about, WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY TOOK AOI?!?"

The officer heard me.

"What happened?" The officer asked.

"The thugs! They took my friend, they kidnapped my friend!"

The officer looked surprised. You don't need to worry. I'll get on it rn.

That day, I couldn't sleep. I was in the hospital for 3 days. There was no news of Aoi. The officer said he was trying his best. But no one could find Aoi.

Thankfully, the abdomen stab wasn't much deep. So I recovered enough to go back to school.

In school, everything was the same. Except for our friend group. Everyone was gloomy. We rarely talked to each other. But... Saika was the happiest there. She didn't seem affected at all.

"Hey, guys! Wanna go karaoke today? It's been so long since I went to one!". She said cheeringly.

"Hey Saika." I said while staring into her eyes.

"Uh, yeah?" she replied.

"Don't you know what happened?" I asked her.

"No? What are you talking about?" she replied

"About Aoi, you don't know? "

"Ohhhh Aoi! So that's what you're talking about. Now I get it. She may have been kidnapped. But what does that have to do with us?" She said that to me with no emotion on her face.

"What does that have to do with us?! Everything! She got kidnapped because of me-" 

"No, she did not get kidnapped because of you. She got kidnapped because of her dumbness." She said with a straight face.

"WHAT!" I yelled to her.

I took my bag and went home.

[Chapter 8 End]