Chapter 29: The End of Loneliness

"Why? Why do this to yourself? Why care for me when no one else minds?" He held his eyes, trying to force himself not to cry more.

"Because…"

She couldn't stop her hiccups.

"Because you're important to me, my savior even!"

Suzuki's eyes widened from shock. He recalled the past event of helping a girl who used a wheelchair in his first months of being a college freshman.

{Flashback}

"Why such actions against someone who cannot stand for themselves." He touched the first guy's shoulder. The other five guys kept picking and harassing a college girl in a wheelchair.

One even went as far as slapping her across the face, finally bursting the calm and patient Suzuki into a deep state of retaliation. His anger spewed out from every pore in his body, sending shockwaves, deep emotions that were unspoken, heard by everyone.

Finally, He spoke, and the words that came out of his core have haunted the college students to this day. "I'll butcher you all."

{End of Flashback}

His tears stopped falling, asking. "So, that was you?" He looked at her with his eyes wide.

"Hmm." She couldn't speak from all the crying.

Suzuki gave her a minute to collect herself, and before he could propose a question, Nagisa spoke.

"The story goes back a year from when you stepped in for my help. Are you able to listen to me vent for a little?" She asked him, wondering if he could stay up with her for a story talk.

"Yeah, I wanna know." She piqued his interest.

"During the climax of my life, where I had everything. A loving family, health, friends, and functional legs. I lost it all in a car accident. A semi had struck my father's car from the front, crushing both my parents to their death and breaking and severely destroying the nerve system in my legs."

Suzuki gasped as tears shimmered in his long eyelashes, ready to cry, but he held back, placing his hand on his mouth.

"I woke up to the worst news of my life in this hospital. I gave it my all to recovery in therapy, but I quit two months in, knowing I couldn't get my legs or parents back. However, I was determined not to lose everything, so I returned to school. At that time, that was the worst decision of my life. Day and day out, I was bullied and taunted for previously holding myself so up high and using my athleticism to climb up the ladder."

Suzuki's heart grew sorrowful, still trying not to burst into tears.

"Only to have everything taken from me. Track, parents, my legs, and soon my friends turned against me. They became distant and soon joined the pack of bullies who would try something new every day. Pouring milk over my head, shouting insults, and even pushing me off the wheelchair and kicking it away to watch me struggle to crawl over to it. We're some of their sickening acts."

Nagisa wiped away her tears, looking at Suzuki, that was trying so hard not to cry. She felt cozy looking at him caring for her. She continued.

"The bullying carried through to college, and if it weren't for you, Suzuki-San, I wouldn't have been alive right now. That day, when that guy slapped me, I decided to commit suicide. I'm grateful that you stepped in and came into my life, and no matter how delayed our paths crossed, I knew that one day they eventually will. As I watched you lead on with your daily life, alone and shut off. You still bore a smile and looked forward to the smallest things. As I kept crossing paths with you, I grew more fond of you. Suzuki-Kun, I love you."

At this point, Suzuki couldn't contain his cries, and everything he held onto came hurdling out.

"I'm so grateful for you too!" He told her, sobbing with his hand over his face.

"You're truly kind, big-hearted, and so special. You are my first friend. The only thing I wished for, and you answered it. I don't know about love and all that stuff, but please tell me, what is this feeling I feel right now? Is this love or friendship, Nagisa-Chan?" He asked her.

However, she couldn't answer him. "I don't know. That's for you to decide." She smiled, releasing a huff of air.

"Then will you go out with me? I want to confirm these feelings. I wanna confront these feelings for you!" Suzuki, actually, wholeheartedly asked her out.

A boy who couldn't comprehend human nature and emotions finally bore enough emotional freedom to pursue these feelings that he so ever wondered what they were.

"I wanna believe I love Nagisa, but I want to know more. Are these feelings real?" He questioned inwardly, still having his hand over his face, crying.

"Hic!"

"Hic!"

Nagisa cried, falling quiet every time a hiccup rose. Her cries stopped Suzuki's as he looked at her.

"Yes, I accept going out with you. I want to be yours!" She kept crying, accepting his offer.

Suzuki's face wrinkled, trying to hold his tears in, but he couldn't. Then, both crying together, near each other, Nagisa leveraged herself up to his bed, and as he helped her into it, overcome with joy, Nagisa threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly.

It sparked a warm feeling inside Suzuki's chest as he hugged her back with one arm, crying into each other's shoulders.

"Please, Suzuki-Kun, don't ever get hurt like this again! I don't wanna see you like this, ever again!" She told him about her overflowing fears.

"Hmm." Suzuki hummed to reassure her.

End of Volume one.

Join us again in Volume two, which is coming out soon!