who is villain

The sun rose gently through the curtains of Mei's small bedroom. Riku, now three days into living in her body, woke up slower than usual.

His long hair was tangled.

His chest still felt strange to carry.

His body moved so differently.

"This is… still weird." He whispered.

He stretched—and winced.

"Ugh… why does my back hurt? Is this what Mei feels every day?"

Riku went to the bathroom groggily, and for a moment, he forgot again—

He opened the boy's washroom door at school instinctively.

"Oh—!" A sharp gasp escaped a boy inside.

Riku's face turned red as he backed out quickly.

"S-sorry!"

Whispers followed him.

"Wasn't that Mei Aihara?"

"She went into the boy's washroom?"

"What a weirdo…"

His heart thudded with embarrassment.

He had to be careful. One mistake could ruin everything.

At School –

Classes dragged on.

Everyone still whispered. Mei had always been treated like she didn't exist. But now, the boys looked at her differently. Some even smiled flirtatiously. Girls sneered.

Riku felt a pang of rage.

"So this is what Mei faced every day. The rumors, the looks, the silence…"

During lunch, Riku sat alone in the back, pretending to scroll through Mei's phone.

He watched Asahi from a distance—laughing with friends, carefree.

The video was still with him.

Time was running out.

After School –

As soon as the bell rang, Riku rushed home. He couldn't take the fake smiles anymore.

At home, Mei's mother wasn't there. The house was quiet—too quiet.

Riku went to Mei's room and lay down. His body still felt heavy, his heart heavier.

But then he remembered the notebook from the day before.

"Follow the river… behind the old house… the Sakura tree…"

He stared at the ceiling.

"I'll go there soon."

"But first… I need to survive tomorrow."

Evening –

Riku opened Mei's closet to change into pajamas—but again, everything felt awkward.

Lace, skirts, small tops. Everything fit too tightly.

He sighed and chose the loosest T-shirt and long pants.

As he stood in front of the mirror, he paused.

He saw Mei's face.

The sadness in her eyes.

The pain she hid behind her quiet smile.

And now—he was living that pain, bit by bit.

Riku clenched his fist.

"I'll save you, Mei. I'll take the video, expose the truth, and give you back your life."

Day 4

The sun peeked over the horizon as Riku adjusted the school uniform on his unfamiliar body. He pulled the skirt straight, trying to ignore the weight of the bruises from the previous day.

His fingers trembled slightly as he opened Mei's schoolbag. There, lying at the bottom, was a phone.

"Wait… this isn't Mei's phone…" He pulled it out. It was Asahi's.

A golden opportunity. Maybe fate was on his side.

He rushed to the corner of the room and tapped the screen. Locked.

He tried guessing the pattern. Maybe Asahi was careless? Swipe left… no. Circle… cross… nothing. Wrong password.

The screen locked permanently for the next few minutes.

"Damn it!" Riku muttered.

Then— A cold shadow fell across him.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Riku froze.

Asahi.

The tall boy yanked the phone from Riku's hands. His eyes flared with fury.

Without warning—

SLAP. Riku's cheek exploded in pain. He staggered backward.

PUNCH. A hard blow slammed into his gut. His knees buckled.

KICK. He fell to the ground like a broken doll.

The class… watched in silence. No one moved. No one interfered.

Asahi stood above him, lips curling into a cruel smile.

"You forgot, didn't you?" "Touching my phone… means punishment."

Riku coughed, clutching his stomach. The pain was unbearable.

"This body… it's too weak." "If I had my real body…"

He forced himself up onto one elbow, eyes burning.

"Riku…" he whispered aloud, as if calling his old self. "He never bullied anyone. That's why… he's strong."

Asahi leaned closer.

Asahi leaned in, eyes narrowing, voice dripping with menace.

"What did you just say?"

"He was the one starting bullies? Riku? He's the top of this school, the king of violence."

Riku looked up from the floor, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. His body ached, but his voice didn't tremble.

"No… You've got it wrong."

"Riku may have been feared, but he never bullied the weak. He used his strength to stop people like you."

Gasps rippled through the classroom. A few students flinched. Some looked away. But no one spoke.

Asahi's smirk twitched.

"Don't act like you know him. You're just a little worm. Weak. Helpless. Crying like a girl—oh wait…"

He stepped on Riku's hand with a heavy boot.

Riku clenched his teeth, fighting the scream trying to escape his throat.

"You don't scare me," Riku muttered. "You scare them. But not me."

Asahi crouched down, grabbed a fistful of Riku's hair, and leaned closer.

"Then prove it."

He tossed the phone back in his pocket, turned, and walked away with his usual arrogant swagger.

The classroom remained silent, a tomb filled with blinking eyes and guilt-ridden faces.

Riku lay there on the cold floor, bruised and shaking—but inside, something had changed.

"If this is Mei's pain… If this is what she lived with every day…"

He gritted his teeth.

"Then I won't fail again."

Later that moment

Riku sat alone on the rooftop, knees pulled close, the wind gently brushing through Mei's long hair.

His body ached from the hits, but the real pain was somewhere deeper.

His mind.

His memories.

His identity.

He stared at his bruised hands—Mei's hands—but his thoughts weren't on her anymore.

They were on himself.

"I never bullied anyone… right?"

His voice was barely a whisper.

But silence answered him.

Then came the memories… blurred, scattered, broken fragments.

Pushing someone in the hallway.

Forcing a junior to clean his shoes.

Taking someone's lunch, laughing with his friends.

Turning his back when someone else was bullied.

His chest tightened.

"No… I didn't… I didn't mean to."

He gripped his head.

"I was protecting people. That's what I thought."

"But what if… I was just scaring them into silence?"

He remembered the way the classroom froze when Asahi beat him.

The same way they froze… when he used to walk in.

He clenched his fists.

"Was I… no different from Asahi?"

A tear slipped down his cheek.

"Mei… is this why you're making me feel this pain?"

The bell rang in the distance.

But Riku didn't move.

He stayed there, alone with a single question tearing him apart:

"Am I the villain in someone else's story?"

Riku limped through the front door of Mei's small apartment.

The moment it shut behind him, his legs gave out.

He collapsed onto the cold wooden floor, gasping for air.

His body was on fire—his ribs ached from Asahi's punches, his stomach twisted from the kick, and the stinging slap still echoed across his face.

He crawled to the mirror in the hallway.

His reflection stared back—Mei's face, bruised and red.

"This is what she lived with…" he whispered, touching the purple swelling on his cheek.

He tried to stand, but his knees buckled. He dragged himself to the bathroom instead.

He splashed cold water on his face, gritting his teeth as the sting burned through the bruises.

His fingers trembled as he opened the medicine cabinet, looking for anything—ointment, bandages, painkillers.

He found nothing.

"Of course... she never had anything."

"She never could afford it."

He looked down at Mei's body—his temporary prison.

Covered in pain.

Aching.

Shaking.

Not just from the hits…

But from the weight of silence she'd carried for years.

Riku pressed his forehead to the sink.

"I thought I was strong..."

"But I never knew real strength meant surviving this... alone."

Tears fell freely now—his pain mixing with Mei's.

And for the first time, Riku whispered from the deepest part of his heart:

"Mei... I'm sorry."