—Wakahisa.

—Here! —I raised my hand in response to my name being mentioned by our teacher.

Three years have already passed since my first day of middle school, now I’m a first year high school student fifteen years old.

This time passed really fast, I got used to this routine. These last years were very funny, I met many people and I currently have many friends who came to high school with me, good friends, nice persons.

—Danny, are you okay? You look distracted.

—Oh, don’t worry about that, I’m ok.

Who touched my shoulder and spoke to me from behind was neither more nor less than my best friend, Ozuma Shirogane. Black and messy hair, coffee colored eyes, a light-toned skin color similar to mine, slightly taller than me and somewhat more athletic. I met him around my first year in middle school, since then we became friends and today we’re best friends.

That day I was alone in the classroom eating a bento that my mother had prepared, eating alone was a common thing for me and it had always been like that, but that day Shirogane came up to me and told while seating next to me “Wanna play?”. I was frozen in that moment. It was the first time that someone approached me like that, putting the lid on my bento I nodded and decided to play with him, that was all it took for us to continue talking the next day and the day after that too, in fact, our friendship was based on a video game.

—Riedel.

—Here! —And that “here” was heard much closer to me than usual.

Next, the one speaking to me from behind was now whispering in my ear while trying not to be detected by the teacher.

—You won’t be nervous because the “perfect young lady” is next to you, right?

I can’t tell that isn’t the case… but I think that he’s misunderstanding things. The professor mentioned the last name of my friend and then he answered.

—Don’t be ridiculous… if you don’t have something better to say just stay playing your visual novels while trying to make sure nobody sees you.

—Hey! Even for you that was something pretty cruel.

—Whose fault is it?

After that sharp exchange of words, he sat down correctly in his place looking at his phone, he’s a TRUE fan of visual novels, specially dating simulators, perhaps because he never had a love affair since I have known him… and possibly in more of the years to come; although that’s just an excuse, it’s not like I had a romantic relation before and I’m not interested on VNs… well, at least I’m not addicted, I can’t deny that I have played some… just out of curiosity, yeah, curiosity. Although, he’s not a bad boy after all, sooner or later I hope he’ll get along with a girl that will know how to appreciate him as he deserves, despite being a bit annoying with his pranks from time to time, he’s a great friend and guy.

The rest of the class ran normally until the change of teacher.

—Hey Wakahisa, give me back the novel I lent you —ordered a voice that I heard coming from behind.

In front of my table stood a pretty familiar girl for me these past two years, my dear friend Tomoe Kahiko.

Her hair was the same color as Shirogane’s, this one was quite long, her eyes were black and her skin a bit darker than the two of us due to a tan since when we finished last year it was a lighter shade but of course lesser than Riedel’s. She looked somewhat “chubby” with long stockings over the knee that gave a Zettai Ryouiki or Absolute Zone quite noticeable and a chest… remarkable, to put it in concise terms, an E cup? Exuberant in more than one way.

These observations shouldn’t come out of my mind at any time, they’re things that I must take to my grave with me.

—Sure, here I have it —I said as I took a small book out of my bag and handed it back.

—What do you think about it? —She took the book back.

—I can tell that it entertained me a lot, although I felt a little lost in some parts of the plot, do you like complicated books?

A slight smile was drawn on her face.

Even though Shirogane and me address each other for our names given the great confidence and camaraderie between us, Tomoe has been a completely different case, in fact, I have become a more loose person in these years, so once I suggested to use our first names instead of our last names but she didn’t take it in a very good way what made me embarrass a lot, she misunderstood what I was trying to say and… since then I didn’t touch the subject anymore. Although if I see it carefully… I don’t know what I was thinking, we barely met in the middle of second year, it could be seen as a disrespect but luckily enough, the next day she acted like nothing happened, due to that we were able to continue with the natural course of things.

Suddenly and by pure coincidence I turned my head to the left where Riedel’s desk was; she was seeing me. As our eyes met, she smiled and began to see her phone… what was that?

This isn’t the first time that happens.

Throughout these years I noticed numerous times that she was doing that exactly thing, it’s not that I think anything weird, but in more situations that I can remember I have noticed that she’s watching me as I talk to other people or I’m distracted and when she sees that I realized her gaze, she smiles and get into her phone or start doing something else. I honestly have no idea what she’s thinking about when she do that. The next professor arrived before I could continue thinking about that.

Opening a parenthesis right now. What have I learned about Riedel Monica in these years that I have seen her from the back?

She’s cheerful, an energetic girl, loves to help others, she seems like the personification of an angel, she’s extremely eccentric, sometimes do things for no apparent motif or strange enough to get everyone’s attention, but not strange in a bad sense, just like actions that you can’t imagine coming from somebody like her. For example, in a play we performed in third year, the very deranged girl came out with a disguise that had nothing to do with the work and doing things totally out of the script, but luckily that in the end was a lot more likeable to the audience than the work itself, realizing this, we started following her act, thanks to her that event was an absolute success. In short, she’s a very happy, active and good person, she also has excellent grades and cares about those around her, always taking them into consideration.

And like that we decided to make her the president of our class, Riedel easily won all the votes for the delegation of the class in the three consecutive years that I was with her so I wouldn’t be surprised if she wins this year too. Even many were disappointed since she never postulated to be the president of the student council, “surely she would lead the school to its maximum status possible, making all students follow her”, I’m sure that more than a few ones thought like that. We all respect and admire her to a lesser or greater extend, it could be said that she’s the model to follow of our class, or perhaps all the classes that know her.

We surely have spoken in more than one situation, but we have never really approached, just things like interventions in classes, one that another group work in which we coincide, student work, once we were both assigned to the preparation of the class and while we were alone we had a pretty trivial conversation, talks between partners in which we exchange different opinions and topics and laugh together. However, we have never had a real approach.

The classes finished without any anomaly, everything was as it is usually, with the clear changes of being in high school.

And closing the parenthesis, the rest of the day passed.

—Danny, Sugita and Hanazawa will go to the karaoke and they invited us together with the group, do you want to come? —I heard Shirogane talking to me.

—Of course! In fact, I was considering going to the commercial area since I need to buy something —I stood up from my place and went to take my things.

—Hey Wakahisa, thanks for coming —said a feminine voice behind me.

—Thank you for inviting me Hanazawa… Although it wouldn’t be better for you two to be alone?

Sugita Shimada and Hanazawa Aine were the couple par excellence of our class, now that I think about it, we were practically being the same students each year since the second year from middle school with one or two changes per year, we all here already knew each other, our class was like a family and the new ones take a couple weeks to adapt. Those two have been in a relationship since then, I still remember when Sugita declared his love to Hanazawa, he resorted to all the necessary means to succeed, one of those was to make a meeting among all the guys in the group and consult “What should I do?”, despite being a pretty confident person in terms of his aspect and general characteristics, it was the first time I saw him really worried about something and although our advices were useless at the end, he managed to captivate the heart of the girl he liked, we all were following them the afternoon that he took her to a date to declare his feelings, we were as happy as if somebody else had corresponded to us.

In one hand, Sugita is a tall and athletic guy, for an unanimous decision, the most handsome of all the class, excellent physical performance and winner of the last sport festival that we celebrated, blonde hair and emerald green eyes, probably blue blood, muscular enough to not be considered as someone that give so much time at training, if not enough to stay in a good shape, long extremities and shallow facial features, the most extroverted boy and the one who brought us all together as group.

And on the other hand was Hanazawa Aine, white hair with a ponytail and glasses that gave her a mature appearance, sky blue eyes and snow-white skin, her facial features make her expression always difficult to decipher, giving her a disinterested look that only stands out when she’s smiling, of modest attributes and the smartest girl in the class, ranking one place above Riedel in academic performance, although last year there was only one point of difference between them, Hanazawa with 98 and Riedel with 97 points. Small in stature and pleasant in company, reserved and popular among the girls as the salon mascot and a good friend to everyone despite her cold appearance.

—Wakahisa, you’ve never had a girlfriend, have you?

—W-What’s that about?! —It took me by surprise so I turned to her and stuck my back on the wall behind me, the quintessential reaction of a total virgin.

—Think of it this way, just because you’re in a relationship, don’t you want to spend time with your friends? I mean, it’s true that the first few days you just want to know about that person… but the world keeps rotating, and the people in your life still exists. Get my point?

—Oh… you’re right, I hadn’t seen it like that, I’m  sorry, I’ve never even thought about having a girlfriend so I don’t have much idea… —I said something sorry.

—You don’t have to apologize —she said, smiling—. You’re a very cute boy, I assure you that more than one girl would like to go out with you without you knowing it —she tapped me on the shoulder.

—C-cute? —I couldn’t help but blush.

—Haha, that’s right!

—Wouldn’t Sugita be jealous if you told another boy that…?

—Are you unsure? Don’t worry about that, we both trust each other, besides, Shimada is an incredibly permissive and not very possessive boyfriend, I love that about him… man… although sometimes I also wish he would be a little more jealous about me…

—Ah… —I was excluded from this conversation at some unknown point in time.

—Oh, sorry about that, I was rambling, hahahaha.

I let out a little sigh.

—Let’s go, the others are leaving already —she turned and headed to the door.

Women…

***

—Tomadou kotoba ataerarete mo, jibun no kokoro tada uwa no sora, moshi watashi kara ugoku no naraba, subete kaeru no kara kuro ni suru…

It was Tomoe who sang, her excellent voice caressing everyone’s ears in the karaoke room, many of us told her repeatedly that she has the potential to be a voice actress in the anime industry or a singer, but she always laughs and says “I don’t think it’s my thing, I still have a lot of practice to do”, I sincerely envy that side of her, being so modest when she’s so skilled, my friend, a whole otaku who spends her days off singing Jpop, watching anime and reading novels and manga.

As she finished her song, we all applauded her for an incredible performance.

—You’re amazing Tomoe —I added as usual.

—Nah, it’s no big deal, you have amazing singing skills too.

I don’t like to admit it, but I’m much better at singing in English because I lived in a Japanese-American family, they spoke both languages in my house so I grew up being able to speak both languages fluently.

—It’s true Wakkun, although your strength is in the English, you have an incredible voice —said Sugita.

—Ah… it’s not a big deal…

Boys and girls laughed at my embarrassment, we were about three groups of ten people each one (none of whom were Riedel), each group rented a different karaoke room.

Because I was the shyest one in the group of boys, they assigned me a nickname to annoy me; “Wakkun” and even though I refused at first, they started using it and eventually I ended up getting used to it, all thanks to a damned proposal from Shirogane. But not only for boys but also many girls call me like that and… that really embarrasses me, fortunately, Hanazawa was a pretty mature person who kept walling me by my last name commonly.

When I saw the time on the big plasma screen where the available songs were displayed, I realized how fast time had passed since we entered here, as it is a room without windows or any indication of what time it is, it’s very easy to get lost in time here.

—Oh, I’m sorry —taking my stuff, I stood up from my seat—. I have to do some shopping and get home before it gets dark, thanks for today guys, see you tomorrow.

Everyone waved a goodbye to me as I approached the door and left the room, some of the guys from the other groups were in the reception talking to each other and they said a goodbye too.

When I left the karaoke the afternoon had already turned into an orange twilight, fortunately, the store I needed to go to buy the last volume of the novel I’m currently reading was about fifty meters from where I am now.

When I bought the item I had been waiting for over a month, I made my way home. However, from that moment on, everything would go wrong and my life would change completely, the will of my “self” from three years ago would finally be fulfilled and nothing could ever be the same again.

—Huh…?

As I was walking towards home while looking at the majestically illustrated cover of the light novel I had just bought, I looked away after putting the book in its bag again, I could see Riedel walking on the sidewalk across the street.

—Rie…

I silenced my own voice when I saw her cut her own path and make a sudden left turn into an alley. Not ten seconds passed when I observed three dubious-looking guys coming in after her…

Is this…?

What should I do?

My thought process accelerated dramatically, what just happened in front of me was something totally compromising and dangerous, it’s not something I could avoid noticing and going my way… Riedel… was she being chased? No… it can’t be…

My legs started moving by themselves, before I knew it I was crossing the street and a moment later, looking into the alley keeping a safe distance.

Then I realized I couldn’t hide anymore.

—Miss… may I ask what a pretty girl like you is doing all alone around here?

This was the worst… the worst was going to happen, but… I can’t let it happen. Just as I was about to run over to them to help her, she said something that puzzled me even more than what was happening.

—It won’t help if I act scared… no? I don’t have time for you, I’m a little tired and want to arrive to my home. Another day passed and I’m still unable to say anything, I just keep smiling like an idiot, even though… Why should it be just me? Uughh —she complained.

What? Is Riedel Monica that person over there? She behaved strangely… I feel like 80% of what I knew about her was destroyed in one sentence.

—Don’t you have time for us? Then you’ll have to make a little space in your buuusy schedule and improve your mood for us, young lady… —The guy with the menacing tattoos who seemed to be the leader held her by the arm after he finished talking.

A flame began to burn inside me suddenly, I felt my face warm and my legs began to move on their own… What is this feeling? Why is it that every time I’m around her… I act irrationally?

In an instant, I was running frantically directly into them.

It’s a detail I don’t usually mention, but I’ve practiced martial arts in the past, so… I’m able to get rid of three guys like these.

I charged at one of them knocking him to the ground.

—What the fuck?! —They shouted one after another.

Without losing a single second I turned to the other guy, he had started to run towards me, but before he managed to lay a finger on me I took advantage of his own weight to throw him. The man hit one of the walls in the alley with his head, falling unconscious.

The one lying on the floor was still catching his breath, so there was only one left for me to take care of. When I turned to him… I felt a sharp pain in my stomach, it was a big knife…

I was being stabbed.

Is this where it ends?

The three guys ran way, the apparent leader carried the unconscious and the one on the floor managed to get up and run with difficulty, but unlike them, I am not so lucky. I knelt down and then fell to the ground putting my hand over the spot where I had been stabbed, I could feel the knife and… my uniform totally soaked, all this… is blood. I’m lying in a pool of my own blood.

My vision started to get blurry and… I felt cold.

In the midst of all this pain… I was able to say a few words… the words I came here for initially, the last words I will ever say, for sure.

—Riedel… are you okay…?

Riedel… Monica… where… are you…?