ten

Voices.

Kiyoshi hears voices in his head. I never thought I'd actually meet someone like that—I don't even know how to describe them.

Did it hurt? Those voices, did they really torture him? How long had they been in his head? Why wouldn't they leave him alone? I had so many questions that I wanted to ask, but couldn't. He shouldn't know Yuta told me about him—that would only lead him to lash out again, and I didn't want to see him like that anymore.

When he would come up to me, I would try my best to ignore him and keep walking, but he was stubborn and followed.

"Stop following me," I mumbled one day as I waited at the bus stop for the bus to arrive and take me home. He didn't seem to have anything better to do considering he was following me wherever I went.

"Why are you ignoring me?" he asked me, frowning. "It's been days, I don't know if I pissed you off or—"

"You don't have to act like my boyfriend when no one's around," I said, tapping my foot impatiently. "Just go home, Kiyoshi. Go hang out with your friends."

"I don't want to," he said. "I wanna hang out with you."

He's talking nonsense. "Don't hang out with me," I said. "I'm boring—go talk to Akira—"

"You don't understand," he cut me off. "I don't want to talk to him. I want to talk to you."

I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't a tiny bit happy when he had said that, and he seemed to notice. "You're red," he said, smiling.

"Stop." I looked away, but he moved in front of me, smiling like a child. "Stop looking at me." He shook his head. I sighed and covered my face in embarrassment.

"Cute," I heard him mumble. He ruffled my hair and went back to the spot he was standing in before.

It was so hard for me to believe that someone like him could be in so much pain.