Chapter 27: If They Wanted a Show, We Gave Them a Funeral
It started with the projector.
Yumi broke into the AV room.Akiro slipped into the control booth during morning assembly.
Every teacher in the auditorium.
Every student seated.Waiting for announcements.Bored.
Until the lights dimmed.
And the screen flickered.
Video One:Akiro. Sitting on the floor of his old foster home.Hidden camera footage.A door slamming. A man screaming.A fist raised. A cry.Cut to black.
Gasps.
Video Two:Screenshots. Group chats.Students mocking him.Planning it.Encouraging each other.
Whispers. Panic. Realization.
Video Three:Yumi's voice.A recording of her plea to the board.Her line:
"If he's a bomb, you built him."
When the lights came back on, the room was dead quiet.
And there they stood.Hand in hand.
On stage.
Not asking.Not begging.
Just being.
Two broken kids — still standing.
Yumi stepped to the mic.
"You called him ugly."
She pointed toward the crowd.
"You called me crazy."
Another beat.
"You called our love a joke."
Then she smiled.
"Now call us liars."
No one did.
No one could.
After that?
The principal resigned.Three students were suspended.The counselor broke down in the teacher's lounge.
And Akiro?
He wasn't erased anymore.
But the tragedy?
Still coming.
Because truth only delays fire.
It doesn't stop it.