Cause

I became able to breathe again when Ame walked out of the café. My entire body trembled and my legs threatened to give out any second, but there was something more important.

Jun already stood beside Sachiko when I approached them.

"Are you okay?" Jun asked Sachiko.

"Yes, I think so…."

"Use this, Sir."

An employee of the café approached Sachiko and offered her a bunch of tissues. She grabbed them and started wiping her face and chest.

"Thank you. I'm very sorry for the mess I've caused, please let me help you clean it."

That she caused?

"Don't worry about it, Sir," another employee replied. "It's our job to clean, and it's just some coffee on the floor."

"We also should leave to stop distracting the customers," I added.

Sachiko glanced at me before looking at the floor and nodding.

The entire café had fallen silent when the argument began. Everyone stared at us as we stepped out. Fortunately, Ame's car had disappeared by the time we walked past the tiny parking lot beside the café.

"I'm sorry," Sachiko said again, her voice breaking.

"Don't be, it wasn't your fault," replied Jun.

"It was. It was my idea to hide our situation from her. It was my idea to make Rie have sex with her. It was my idea to come here to…"

"Sachiko!"

I couldn't hold back anymore. I grasped her shoulders and stepped in front of her. She stared at me with her eyes wide open, and I didn't care about my expression anymore. I needed to let it out.

"Stop blaming yourself. It pains me to see how you believe it's your fault, but it's not. It's nobody's fault. We were just doing what we could and what we thought was best for everyone. If you want to blame someone, then blame everyone equally, not only yourself."

I lowered my head, unable to keep staring at Sachiko. My body hadn't stopped shaking since Ame left, and my legs hadn't recovered their strength.

"You're right," Sachiko replied.

Our eyes met again when I raised my head.

She continued, "We're in this together, so I'll stop blaming myself for everything. Thank you…."

My arms wrapped her before I could think about it. The embarrassment quickly grew inside me, but it vanished just as quickly when Sachiko returned the hug tightly, lifting a huge weight off my shoulders.

My smiling face was the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes. I had forgotten that Jun was beside us. It was nice of him not to interrupt us, but I had to let go of Sachiko when the embarrassment kicked back in because of him.

Warmth in my cheeks turned the attempt to look at Sachiko futile.

"I hate to be the one to ruin the moment," said Jun, "but we should discuss what to do next."

Sachiko replied, "That's true, but I have no idea what to do now. I don't even know if I can talk to her without breaking apart, let alone see her."

"Again, there's no correct answer," I said. "We don't know how she's going to react to anything we do."

"I'd suggest waiting for her to calm down a little," replied Jun. "Only reach out to her if she doesn't contact you by tomorrow morning."

We stared at Sachiko, waiting for her answer.

"I don't know," she said. "I…."

She stared down at the pavement for a while. Only a long and deep breath allowed her to continue talking.

"Alright, let's do that."

I smiled at her. "Whatever you choose, we'll support you."

"What she said," Jun added. "I'd also suggest that you both spend the night at Sachiko's place. It'll be better if you stay together in case she wants to talk to Sachiko because she won't listen to the real Sachiko, only to Rie in her body."

"He's right," said Sachiko. "It'll also be less scary if we're keeping each other company."

"Sounds good," I replied. "What about you, Jun?"

"Neither I nor my body is needed in this situation, so it'll be better for me to stay out of it."

"Chickening out already?" I smirked.

He shook his head with a smile.

"Also, three people in a room would feel quite cramped. Unless Sachiko's place is bigger than I think."

I replied, "It's identical to mine."

"Tiny, then. Just remember to call me if something happens, alright?"

Sachiko and I nodded at him.

The three of us walked to the nearby station together, then we split up onto different lines. Sachiko and I took the train toward Jun's house; she wanted to grab some clothes to change into and out of the sticky coffee and to sleep in at her apartment. She also needed something to wear to work the next day.

We reached Jun's house after a five-minute walk. She stepped inside alone not to cause any confusion with Jun's father and his partner, though I doubted they would've cared anyway.

Sachiko's speed surprised me when she stepped out a couple of minutes later, still wearing the same shoulder bag and clothes. She planned to take a shower at her apartment.

While in the taxi, I asked her how she had been dealing with living at Jun's house with his father and his partner. She said she could count the times she had spoken to them with her fingers, and most of those were questions regarding money or groceries.

We arrived at Sachiko's apartment several minutes later. Sachiko didn't hesitate to step into the bathroom, and the water began running not even a minute later.

I sat at Sachiko's desk while waiting for my turn. I turned her PC on, which I had barely touched for the past week, and unlocked it with the PIN code Sachiko had given me.

Work, Ame, and tiredness had kept me away from games or the Internet in general. I didn't have the time to miss any of it, and I also didn't want to invade Sachiko's privacy more than needed even though she had told me it was fine.

On the other hand, Jun had no problems with using my PC and my identity in general. To be fair, he asked for my permission to play with my accounts and chat with my online friends, and I allowed him to do it. I just hoped he wasn't doing anything weird like flirting with some girl… or guy.

Sachiko stepped out of the bathroom as I read game news, already wearing baggy clothes to sleep in.

"Are you going to take a shower too?" she asked.

"Yep."

Realizing I had forgotten to choose my clothes, I stood up and approached the wardrobe. I had gotten used to it to this point and was taking a shower within two minutes.

Sachiko lay on the bed when I stepped out, staring at the ceiling. She jumped to sit up as soon as she saw me.

"I'll let you use the bed," she said.

"No, no. This is your apartment, please use it tonight. It's not like my sleep's gonna be comfortable anyway."

Her lips curved up. "Okay."

I sat down on the carpet floor in front of Sachiko, still drying my hair with the towel.

"Sachiko, I know you might prefer not to talk about it at a moment like this, but I'm curious about something."

She replied, "Don't worry, go ahead."

I took a moment before asking, "How did you and Ame meet each other?"

Sachiko's expression didn't change, she merely looked down at the floor in silence until she answered.

"It happened during uni, a few months after my parents passed away."

"Uni? Was she also studying game development?"

Sachiko shook her head. "One of my class' lectures took place in the same lecture room as Ame's. I used to stay after class to catch up with homework or take naps since I would spend entire nights crying and complaining about life."

I didn't know she had that hard of a time….

She continued, "Sometimes, I'd lose track of time and the next class started. No one wanted to bother me, except for Ame. She would approach me to wake me up or ask if everything was alright. I always answered yes until she confronted me about it. I confessed everything and she comforted me. She was the only one that cared about me at the time. Not even the rest of my family did. They were all busy being jealous of me getting my parents' heritage."

That made me remember that she hadn't mentioned anything about her parents. I would've let the topic pass, but I didn't want her to understand my intentions wrongly.

"Sachiko, I just wanna mention that I won't ask about your parents because I don't wanna meddle too much, but feel free to tell me, Jun, or Kyōko whenever you want."

She smiled. "Thank you for understanding. So, Ame began inviting me to have lunch with her, then to study together, then to visit several places, including her apartment. Eventually, she told me her story, which was nothing short of tragic, then we began dating one year later."

I looked down at the floor, unsure of what to say.

"That's quite the story," I said. "That means you've been together for a while."

She nodded. "My soul slowly regained the peace it longed for with her help. That kept me going until I began noticing some details about Ame. She would ask me where I was every time she finished her lecture, and she would get annoyed if I took too long to reply, even if I was in a lecture.

"Seriously?"

"Yes, but it was worse if I told her I was with someone else. Even though I told her I would go see her soon, she demanded I tell her where I was and ran to join our conversation. On one hand, she was protective against other women taking me away. On the other hand, she got extremely defensive against men."

"Why?"

"She has her reasons."

"Whatever the reason, there's no excuse for her recent behavior."

Sachiko took a moment to reply, "Yes, you're right."

The room fell silent, so I changed the topic to something more lighthearted.

Whether talking or relaxing in silence, we spent the entire afternoon together. It had been a while since I had spent so much time with someone in person, and it was a nice change of pace.

I offered to cook dinner for both of us when the sunlight stopped lighting the apartment, but Sachiko refused and started doing it herself. Although it seemed it was out of politeness at first, I made her confess that she didn't like the lunches I had prepared a few times that week. She wouldn't stop apologizing, while I laughed because I knew my cooking sucked. Regardless, I wasn't going to complain about someone cooking for me.

Sachiko hit the bed once the food settled in her stomach, and I did the same after laying a bed sheet and a pillow on the floor.

We chatted for another hour or so until Sachiko fell asleep. I quickly got bored and stood up to take Sachiko's sleeping pills. It was times like these when my brain remembered Sachiko was chronically tired yet couldn't do anything about it. It truly was torture.

The effects eventually kicked in. My eyes started closing on their own for a while and I noticed how I drifted off again and again.

Then, dry and consecutive knocks jolted me awake.

"Honey," Ame called. "Honey, answer me."

My heartbeat raced as I stared at the door.

It's time.