"Ah!!" Otsuki let out a groan of pain.
I wasn't very strong, but I hit her hard enough that she almost fell to the ground. Tsukiyomi managed to keep her from falling.
Nobody said a single word.
Otsuki started bleeding from her nose. Hina, after a brief moment of surprise, took tissues out of her bag to give them to her.
Everyone was stunned. I was the most stunned.
Huh ?!
I was still shaken. My whole body was still shaking, including my voice, and I could feel the weight in my chest turning into a sharp pang.
"What do you think you're doing!?" shouted the teacher who had just arrived, standing under the door frame.
That scream brought everyone back to reality.
"Hey…" "What's wrong with him?" "Did he really hit him?!" "Otsuki didn't do anything to him…"
Most of the people in the class were just whispering amongst themselves, like before. No one really came to help Otsuki apart from Tsukiyomi and Hina.
Not only did my head hurt, but now my right fist and left arm hurt too.
Otsuki was looking at me.
I was surprised, and at the same time a little scared.
We were both afraid.
It was killing me just the fact that he looked at me with that face...
It was like I was looking at a monster.
I wasn't judging myself anymore, I felt nothing but fear.
"What if it turns out to be true?" "Isn't that a bit surreal?" "But it's a possibility…" "He says so himself in the video!" "I still don't believe it."
Stop.
"She was his sister!" "Maybe he did it out of jealousy…" "Would they have had a fight?" "Something like that is unforgivable."
Stop.
" And now he's done this!" "Go on, hit a girl…" "That's enough!" "Surely the same thing happened to him with his sister." "What if he can only handle things like this?" "What a jerk." "I can't be in the same class as someone like that."
Stop…
"You! You're going to the office with me, now!" The teacher tried to cross the throng of students to get me.
What would my face look like at that moment? What face did others see me with? What eyes were they looking at me with?
I don't know when it was, but I fixed my gaze forward again.
I could still see the three girls in front of me. They were talking to each other.
"A-are you okay, Otsuki?" Tsukiyomi said.
"Y-yeah… just… caught me off guard… Ouch!" She replied.
"Your uniform is stained all over… i-isn't that too much blood?" Hina said.
I had them practically next to me.
Otsuki wasn't looking at me anymore. She seemed calmer. It was as if she'd woken up. She was focused on her nose.
The teacher was approaching.
Tsukiyomi and Hina were standing next to her. I guessed they were going to take her to the nurse soon.
My whole being was screaming one thing at me.
Run away.
That word rattled in my head. I was going to turn around again. I didn't want to stay here any longer. I didn't want to go with the director. I didn't want to be seen any longer.
The last thing I saw in class that day was Otsuki's gaze. She stared at me for a moment.
It was a mixture of doubt, surprise, anger, and regret. At the time, I couldn't have deciphered any of those emotions, but the look on his face told me everything.
I didn't think about it any longer. If I did, I wouldn't be able to move later. I already had my bag in my hand, so I only had one thing to do.
Run.
"Wait!" the teacher shouted.
I walked between the classroom tables and left the classroom.
I was running through the halls.
I wasn't going to stop to change my shoes. If I did, someone would probably stop me.
I could see people stopping to stare as I passed them. They're probably wondering what I'm doing. 'Is he in a hurry?' 'Is he late for somewhere?' 'Does he want to go home that badly?'
At the time, no one knew me. Only the people in my class knew who I was. No one in the hallway would recognize me as the boy in that video.
But if I come back here, will they know who I am? Will they talk to me? What will they do to me? All I knew was that those were questions for the future. Now I just had to run. It was so easy. For once, I'd been able to do something.
I've done it.
Was this what you wanted to do from the beginning?
Was this what I deserved?
Now everyone's going to see me with those eyes, right?
...
I…
I don't want them to look at me like that...