Special A Fanfiction: Part 6

The echoes of birds chirping filled the silence between them as they walked away from the greenhouse. Ryuu felt that he should fill the silence, ‘What’s the matter Aya-chan?’

Ayano stopped in her tracks, her back towards him to hide her face. ‘Don’t call me that,’ she replied flatly.

‘Aya-chan?’ he asked, puzzled. She nodded.

‘But why? We are friends’.

She turned towards him. ‘Friends?’ she repeated, ‘Were we just friends?’ She gritted her teeth to stop herself from letting her emotion slip. Ryuu pondered over her words and smiled sadly at her, ‘Looks like you’re still angry’.

She snapped, her hands swung back and slapped him hard across the cheeks. ‘Angry? Maybe more disappointed than angry’.

Ryuu touched the part where her skin had contacted his, an angry red mark crept to his cheeks. He was surprised by her sudden behavior, she seldom does that unless she’s really upset. ‘Ayano?’.

She hid her face, tears filling her eyes. Her hands curled into a fist, ‘It took me 3 years to figure out what went wrong. 3 years of confusion and I was finally able to let go then you showed up again. Why?’

Ryuu reached for her sagging shoulders. ‘Don’t touch me!’ she ordered before he could. ‘We can never be like before so, just stop,’ she whispered weakly.

‘Then what do you want me to do?’ Ryuu pleaded, his heart aching when he saw her beautiful face crying.

‘Nothing. Just do nothing, like you once did’. She lifted her head, ‘I’ll leave this place, we’ll never see each other again’. Ayano retraced her steps and walked out of the woods. Her words repeating in his mind like her final words to him 3 years ago, ‘You’re a coward Ryuu! I don’t want to see you again!’.

He watched her departing back, wanting to run after her and scream ‘Don’t walk away from me!’ but he couldn’t. Like she said, he was a coward. He is. He doesn’t have the rights anymore. Instead he sank to the ground and wept. The sounds of two hearts breaking can be heard.

Kei was watching everything from where he was lying down reading. He saw Ayano leave and his strong friends shed tears for the first time. She must have meant something to him for him to be able to break down. Kei let him collect himself and stepped out from his hiding place, ‘Ryuu’. The dejected figure of his friend straightened up and smiled weakly at him, ‘Guess you heard everything huh?’

Hikari saw Ayano sitting at the exact same spot Ryuu sat a while ago. She was staring into space, at the clouds, her mind clearly far away. She didn’t want to disturb her but Ayano needed a friend right now and Hikari was ready to be that friend.