Volume 3 - CH 9

Though our little study group separated from the incident, there were still the summer cram classes that we all needed to attend.

There weren’t many days left of the class, but I wasn’t going to ditch school. The following morning after the weekend, I prepared my things as usual.

Textbooks, notebooks, scratch paper, pens, and a backpack.

After my morning routine, I looked at myself in the mirror. A tall, slender figure, and a face of fatigue. I looked like I couldn’t do anything right.

Could it be that there’s too much for me to do lately? Besides what happened with Jiang Muqing, the cram school’s also been eating away at my mind.

I tried to make a funny face at the mirror.

I imagined about what happened that day, the insanity that was displayed on my expression. The resulting reflection gave me a jump.

Pulsating veins on my forehead, bulging eyes, and a mouth that seemed like it was torn open, revealing two rows of gleaming white teeth upon a crimson bed.

Along with the monstrous words that came from my throat….

….

The thought frightened me. After seeing it for myself, I felt like my mind was much clearer.

Was it that I went overboard and scared her a bit too much? I looked back at the office’s shut door.

Though I was still less fearsome than how she normally was during her own episodes, she’d simply closed me off. Her clinginess had stuck to me like a habit, and in a flash, she became like a normal person living at my house. Ironically, it felt surreal.

Should I call for her to come with me?

After all, she had signed up for that cram class for my sake. Now that she had shut off, she probably wouldn’t go back again. I didn’t know whether Mo Shiyu would come either; after all, only God knew what she would think when she sees me again after something like that happened.

“Oh my f***ing god, that bastard’s seen me naked from head to toe!”

It would most likely be a thorough feeling of disgust.

“Dong dong!”

I knocked on the office door, but there was no response.

I turned away almost immediately, feeling a sense of relief. Because at that moment, I thought that maybe the taming had worked.

When a yandere girl hates her person of interest, that person will no longer be of interest. Without the incessant longing towards that somebody, the yandere could not be called a yandere anymore.

But on that logic, she should have gathered her things and gone home already, why is she still hiding in Dad’s office? I had no idea what she was still on about.

I walked to the bus station, waiting for the line that would take me to cram school. To my surprise, Mo Shiyu was also walking along, and stopped beside me.

So, she’d ended up coming? It didn’t seem that the incident had affected her very much. She was wearing clean clothes along with a crisp ponytail tied to the back. She seemed energetic to go to class, and I couldn’t detect a bit of abnormality from her.

However…

“Um, Mo Shiyu?”

I inched towards her.

The shoujo turned around and looked at me, seeming a bit stunned.

“Hm?”

She lowered her head, and her expression was a little rigid.

“About what happened, I’m sorry….”

Though I had already apologized many times, I still couldn’t help but do it again after seeing her like this.

“It’s, it’s okay, I’m alright…”

She laughed awkwardly at me.

The bus peeled in the stop, and she didn’t pay more attention to me, almost escaping onto the bus. Then, she found a spot at the back.

I stepped on too, but stopped at the front.

I didn’t think I should bother her anymore.

Just when the bus started its engine, a girl waved frantically at the driver from the stop. He stomped on the brakes, and she hurried through the doors.

“Jiang Muqing?”

Upon the sight of her white dress, I called out her name.

She ended up coming, but is she not scared that Mo Shiyu would get back at her or something?

Jiang Muqing looked at me, and ignored my presence as usual. She walked to the end of the bus, and stopped by Mo Shiyu’s side.

“Aye….”

I wanted to stop her.

But Jiang Muqing didn’t look very angry at Mo Shiyu.

When she saw Jiang Muqing walk up, her face revealed a fearful expression. She backed away to a more crowded corner, leaving a spot for her nightmare to stand in.

So, it’s still a prey-predator relationship? I was hoping that Mo Shiyu would stand up for herself a little.

Was the formerly bossy class president still conquered by the transfer student in the end? Now that I thought about it, if I was so scared of her before, then I’m no better than the “prey”.

….

After a short walk from the bus, we arrived on time at the summer class.

I walked at the very front, and Jiang Muqing was a short distance behind. I couldn’t see Mo Shiyu until after Jiang Muqing had walked a considerable distance; it was only then she came from behind the street corner.

I felt guilty seeing her, and hoped that time would heal her wound.

Because I’d come early, I randomly picked an empty seat. I thought that none of the two would try to sit near me, since nobody wants to sit next to a sick piece of s**t.

As expected, Jiang Muqing sat at the farthest seat away from me in the corner when she walked in.

Finally, I could listen properly in class. Before, the atmosphere was always bizarre with the two of them sitting behind me, but now, that problem doesn’t exist anymore.

Soon, Mo Shiyu came in. She saw me first, and I smiled weakly at her. Her cheek twitched, and she too hurried to the opposite corner.

Then, she saw Jiang Muqing, who looked up at her. She backed away quickly in fright, and finally sat down in the middle of the classroom.

….

Maybe we’ll never be in the same boat again. Yet, things weren’t as simple as I thought they would be. This happened in the break between the summer class periods.

….

During the first language arts period, we discussed the poem “Slowing Whispers” that Li Qingzhao wrote after her husband died. *

*Li Qingzhao was a Chinese writer and poet in the Song dynasty, and considered one of the greatest women poets in Chinese history.

In the following biology class, we studied cell division and how DNA unravels and instructs cells how to replicate themselves.

During the break, many girls lamented how there couldn’t have been a man who deserved Li Qingzhao due to her elegance and literary intellect.

And many boys tried to figure out how in the world could a few simple cells grow into whole plants and animals.

As for me, I was preoccupied with disposing of the waste in my system that was cramping up my stomach from all the water I drank this morning.

In more common terms, I went to take a piss.

Just when I had let it out and my gut felt a lot better, I heard a series of strange noises from the girls’ bathroom on the other side.

“Ah…. No….”

The moans of a shoujo?

I curiously peered over the doorframe, and witnessed a shocking scene.

In front of me was a long-haired girl and a ponytailed one.

Their bodies were pressed together, and the long-haired one was forcefully holding the ponytailed girl against the whitewashed wall. Upon sight of her prey’s horrified face, she let out a psychotic cackle, and pushed her lips upon her prey’s without a sliver of hesitation.

“Ah! You can’t…”

The ponytailed girl suddenly realized that the hands that were holding down her shoulders had slid down to the buttons on her collar. With a few simple clicks, they reached in.

Her cheeks showed a faint blush, and her pupils grew emptier by the second. They gazed confusedly in the distance, slowly losing their intelligence.

….

“Jiang Muqing, Mo Shiyu… what are you two doing?”

I felt as if something in my head had snapped.

What was this?