You're To Blame
Chapter 150: S2 - You're To Blame
Nobody knew what to say at that moment. The humans remained unresponsive to the fairy's crying as they watched her trying to stop the tears from falling down her face.
Yes… wasn't it her fault?
Fraise couldn't even look the humans or the other spirits in the eyes. She just felt overwhelmed with a burden of guilt.
"Uuuhh *hicc* I… *hiccup* should've… *huuek* told you… guys *hiccup*."
She was barely able to talk in a smooth sentence without being interrupted by her uncontrollable crying. After she said those words, all the attention was focused on her.
"What are you even talking about, Fraise?" Kashino spoke up, coldly glaring at the frail, sweet spirit with terrifying eyes.
"Calm down, Miss Fraise… speak slowly," Caramel went to Fraise's side to comfort her, but even so, Caramel looked hesitant.
Having someone pat her back slowed the tears, but her throat still felt itchy and dry after crying so much.
"On the day of the Halloween Fair… after Keiko went back to her dorm, I followed her… I saw her crying for the first time, and… I saw how fragile she was…."
She only managed to get out that much before trying to calm herself down a bit more. She had to tell them now, after everything that had transpired.
The boys and the spirits looked at the tiny fairy in confusion, along with Team Tennouji, and the five judges were also watching Fraise.
"I thought that the only person closest to Keiko was me. I believed every moment we spent together was genuine… but after seeing her crying in her bedroom after the Halloween fair, I forgot how easily she could put a mask on… When I looked at her, she had such a vulnerable look I'd never seen before—but the next second—she put on that mask as if nothing bothered her…." Fraise reminisced, recalling everything she saw that day.
"I saw how skinny she'd gotten and how hard she pushed herself to do everything right… but I… I felt scared. After she put that mask on again, I realized that every moment that we spent together wasn't genuine… It was like I didn't know her at all," Fraise muttered, tears slowly starting to fall down her face again as a gloomy expression formed.
She was no longer energetic or lively—she was lost and depressed.
As everyone heard what the sweet spirit had to say, they didn't know what she was getting at. Undoubtedly, the boys and their spirits also felt this about Keiko, but why did Fraise say it was her fault?
"What are you getting at?" Andou inquired as he locked eyes with Fraise, who drooped her head towards the ground.
"I-I didn't want to be pushed away again! So I… kept quiet about everything… Everything Keiko did to hide her weakness… I watched and let it happen…."
That was right. If she'd spoken up to the others *that* day or even before then, she could've prevented *this* from happening.
Everything. Was. Her. Fault.
"Are you kidding me! You kept all of this to yourself, and now look at where she is! On a stretcher hanging on to her life!" Kashino spouted violently, gritting his teeth like a rabid dog.
"If you'd just said something, none of this would've happened!" Hanabusa spouted like poison.
"Did you think keeping it to yourself would've helped!? We don't even know if she can survive this, Fraise!!!" Andou, who was usually calm, screamed at the top of his lungs.
As she witnessed the three boys screaming at her and glaring their eyes at her, she turned her head to face their sweet spirits who respected her.
Even they had scowls on their faces she'd never seen before.
It was as if the whole world had turned against her.
She could have spoken up, but instead, she let it happen. She didn't tell anyone about every measure Michiko Keiko did to cover up any sign of weakness or fatigue on her malnourished body.
She held the key to preventing this altogether, no matter how anyone looked at it. Right now, everyone was supposed to be celebrating Team Michiko's win, but instead, it was like a dysfunctional funeral.
There was no cheering from the crowd, no smiles on anyone's faces, and no signs of congratulations. The whole auditorium that had erupted in celebration not too long ago was dead silent.
The people Fraise had been working with were now cornering her into a dark space, and she couldn't even get out—No, even she didn't want to get out.
She deserved all of their dirty looks. She knew she could've done something.
After all, they'd all witnessed the frail girl drop to the ground, motionless. She was dead, not able to respond to CPR or electric shocks for a while. They finally managed to get her breathing again, but still… nobody knew if she would survive the trip to the hospital.
The chances of her survival from here and to the emergency room were very minimal.
There was a good chance that she wasn't going to make it at all.
In their minds, everyone knew that. When they spoke to Kashino's parents, they knew that on their numb faces, they were being very vague to them, as if they were hiding the worst possibility that seemed more likely.
When they took this into account, the three boys couldn't help but bite their fingers or pull at their hair.
Their teammate could be dead right now.
"Stop pinning the blame on her," a male's voice interjected into the mix.
Everyone turned to face the direction of this voice, and unexpectedly, it was coming from the direction of Team Tennouji, who had witnessed everything.
After digging herself into this deep hole, Fraise perked her ears as if she recognized this voice from somewhere. Finally, she raised her head to see someone completely unexpected.
It was a male sweets spirit with deep blue eyes and black hair to ears length. He wore a dignified, cream-colored tuxedo that could leave a lasting impression on someone.
It was *he* who came to Fraise's side when everyone had turned against her.
"A-Almond?" Fraise stuttered in shock as the male sweets spirit flew to her side.
"Yes, it's me," Almond responded calmly.
It was obvious who his partner was since he looked almost identical to his human counterpart, Kaidou Rui, the high school's student council vice president.
"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Almond asked with a light-hearted smile as Fraise couldn't help but feel her heart racing.
'Almond… H-he's here…'
Why hadn't she noticed before? She always felt she could smell a nutty aroma from Kaidou Rui, especially after the 2nd round, but she never put two and two together.
Sweets spirits were also allowed to help during the final round, but she was so fixated on helping Keiko with her portion that she never even bothered to look in Kaidou Rui's direction. If she had, she would've noticed earlier.
This was her crush from the Sweets Kingdom, Almond. He was only a year older than her, but since she was proficient in her sweets making, she could jump ahead and meet other sweets spirits, and that's how she met Almond.
It was kind of like puppy love, but it was pure. Both liked each other, but they hadn't confessed their feelings. It was because Fraise had passed her exam to go to the human world before any sweet spirit her age, but she was also gone for eight years. Nobody knew where she went.
Before she left for the human world, Almond gifted her the rare white strawberries that were hard to obtain in the Sweets Kingdom. It was a wonderful gift because the color of that strawberry matched the color of her light pink gradient hair.
As a result, she promised that once she found her human partner, she'd make him a special dessert using white strawberries. Once she did that, she planned on confessing her feelings to him.
That was—until she disappeared for eight years. She'd never seen him again since then, but here he was, appearing before her now.
She didn't even have the words to say anything in front of him as she looked at his handsome face right next to her. Despite losing contact, he was by her side, defending her from the team that turned against her.
'It's been so long….'