Broken friendships.

She started sweating after seeing Ayane. She was visibly scared after seeing her, even more than before. Her eyes were deader than previously when she got bullied by Masato and his group.

"Yuki-chan-", Ayane said, approaching her slowly.

"Don't come closer!", Yuki shouted.

"Eh?! B-but why? I trust you, Yuki-chan. I believe that they have done something to you and thats why you are forced to play along, right? The Yuki-chan I know won't ever do this stuff."

Yuki clenched her lips. What she said was the absolute truth. But she could do nothing about it. She had to keep her mouth shut, otherwise both of her embarrassing truths would be out to the public.

She was scared, scared of criticism. She was an introvert because she wanted to avoid it.

And the internet was her safe place. She was free to do anything there without criticism. Many people would support what she was doing, and if there were someone who would go against her deeds, she could just ignore them.

But if that safe place gets destroyed, then…

She couldn’t comprehend what would happen then, but it was for sure something bad.

Yuki continued to approach her with the slowest possible movement, with her bandaged arm.

“Didn’t you hear me! Don’t come near me!”, she said with a broken heart. Yuki finally followed her request.

“That’s right Yuki! I have a book that I want to give you!”, she said cheerfully, hiding her pain and taking out the book.

“I don’t want it!”

“But-“

“I hate you!! Don’t come near me!!”

Ayane’s heart shattered into pieces.

“You are not my friend!! Stay away!!”, Yuki finally couldn’t hold it anymore, and she started crying, as her real emotions clashed with her speech.

She couldn’t bear this, forcing herself to say something she didn’t want to say. She wanted Ayane to be the best of friends, she pictured her with Ayane doing loads of fun stuff, reading books, going shopping, having sleepovers, discussing their types, and having girl chats and whatnot. But it was all shattered because of an egotist guy who got rejected and wanted to get revenge.

She ran towards the exit, where Ayane was standing. Ayane just stood there, seeing Yuki running away with teary eyes, she knew that Yuki was being forced.

As she ran towards the exit, she bumped into Ayane, making her fall again on her injured hand.

“Ayane!-“

“Leave!”, Ayane shouted, “If Masato sees that you are helping me, then you might be framed! So don’t help me and go!”

Even when she treated her so wrongly, Ayane believed in her. Her tears poured down her cheeks. She ran from that place, without looking back.

As her footsteps became dull and silent, Ayane sighed a heavy sigh.

“I know you are forced to do so… but… it still hurts… a lot…”

Ayane carried herself from the school campus to her house all by herself, even though she was heavily injured. The sun was at its final hour before it set into darkness.

And Ayane’s fresh friendship of a few days was broken in an instant.