Chapter 5.5
Rena and Mayu returned to their classroom from the school courtyard. Mayu listened to Rena’s story about what happened to Jurina and the return of Akane. There was confusion as they did not know what to do about the situation. The discussion ended with Mayu’s outburst of anger before calming down.
“Ah, welcome back, Matsui-san,” The teacher said as Rena walked back into the classroom. Rena bowed to the teacher before walking to her seat.
The teacher saw Mayu walk in behind Rena, “Oh? Mayu-san, I thought you weren’t feeling well.”
“It turned out to be nothing. A bit of rest was all I needed.” Mayu responded as she walked over to her seat.
The teacher resumed his lecture. Half of morning classes had finished by the time that Rena and Mayu returned to the classroom. There was a feeling of uneasiness as Rena sat in her seat. It felt weird to Rena to have the seat in front of her empty.
The face of the seat’s owner flashed through Rena’s head. She felt a tightening pain in her chest as the image faded from her mind. The sound of the teacher’s lecture faded from her ears as she was unable to focus on the lecture.
Rena’s eyes wandered towards the outside world beyond the classroom windows. Her mind entered its own world as it rejected the reality around her. All she could think about was Jurina
There had to be a way for her to help Jurina.
The saddest thing was that Rena did not know what to do. After her discussion with Mayu, there seemed to be no way to help Jurina. If even Jurina’s friends could not help her, then what could Rena do? All she had was a week’s worth of time spent with Jurina. It could not compare to the time that the others spent with Jurina.
There was no time to wait either. Every second that Rena spent hesitating meant that she could lose Jurina. Mayu’s outburst made it clear that this was the outcome she wanted to avoid. Rena’s friends had experienced what it was like when Jurina had closed her heart off to others. They wanted to avoid the same thing from happening again.
Even Rena wanted to avoid the same thing from happening again. She did not experience the full effects of Jurina closing off her heart, but she experienced what it was like when Jurina opened her heart to someone. Remembering back, it was the most fun that Rena ever had in her life so far. She wanted to keep on making memories with Jurina and the others.
The solution to helping Jurina was clouded in mystery. Even if they knew the cause was Akane, the problem was not something that could be easily fixed. The problem reached deep into Jurina’s heart which was not easily reached by other people. Her heart was locked away from almost everyone around her.
“Re… Rena… Rena-ch… Rena-chan!” Yuko shouted. There was a look of concern on her face.
Rena flinched as her mind returned to reality, “Sorry, what happened?”
“Geez, you have been spacing out since we got back to class,” Mayu said as she put a piece of her bento in her mouth.
Lunch period had started by the time that Rena had realized. She put a piece of the bento in her hands into her mouth. There was a complex expression on her face as she ate. Mayu and Yuko noticed her expression and gave each other a quick nod after glancing at each other.
“Yukirin, can you take Haruna and go buy us some drinks?” Mayu asked with a quick glance at Rena.
Yuki noticed Rena’s expression and nodded, “Let’s go buy some drinks, Haruna.”
“Okay, let’s go,” Haruna said as she stood up, oblivious to Rena’s expression.
There was an awkward silence as Rena, Mayu, and Yuko continued to eat their lunches in silence. Mayu and Yuko suddenly placed their bento boxes down. They both nodded at each other before breaking the silence.
“Mayu told me what happened with Jurina,” Yuko said in a soft voice.
Rena sighed and placed her bento box down, “I just don’t know what to do…” Her voice trailed off.
“I will be honest and tell you that I don’t know either. This happened once already and we couldn’t do anything about it,” Yuko said while remembering the past.
Mayu continued, “We thought it would be better for you to know what happened between Jurina-chan and Akane.”
“It all started about two years ago,” Yuko started to speak, “It was the start of year three of middle school. All five of us were placed into the same class. Harunyan and I sat beside each other and so did Mayu and Yuki. We were all sitting in different parts of the class which left Jurina alone beside the window seat in the back of the classroom. Beside her was Akane. I don’t know what happened, but after one month Jurina suddenly told us that she was interested in Akane. We were a bit surprised since Jurina never talked about love before, but we supported her because it made her happy. Jurina eventually found the courage to confess to Akane who accepted her. Jurina then started to spend a lot of time with Akane instead of us. It was a bit lonely without her, but all we cared about was that Jurina was happy. But then it was roughly a year ago when everything went wrong. All five of us decided to have a surprise birthday party for Akane. Jurina had invited her to come to her house to relax. Half an hour had passed from the arranged time, but Akane did not show up. Jurina frantically called Akane’s cellphone multiple time but only got a busy tone. Akane suddenly sent her a message that only said, ‘I’m sorry, goodbye.’ Jurina ran out of the house yelling that she had to find Akane. She eventually found her at the train station. They stood face to face on opposite platforms. Jurina tried to yell out for Akane, but a train stopped at the opposite platform from her. When it departed, Akane wasn’t there anymore. She had left without a word.” Yuko’s eyes turned towards the sky as she finished the story.
“Jurina was devastated,” Mayu continued, “She tried contacting Akane multiple times, but always got the ‘this number has been disconnected’ message. It was roughly a week after Akane disappeared that Jurina locked herself inside her room and refused to come out. We didn’t know what to do. Even her parents couldn’t get her to come out. All we could do was keep on visiting her and passing messages to her underneath her bedroom door. Our messages tried to encourage her to leave her room,” She paused for a moment.
Mayu clenched her hands into a fist before continuing, “It devastated us so much. Our best friend was in pain and we could do nothing about it. What could we do? It must have hurt her a lot. Having the person that you trusted and loved the most suddenly walk out. It must have left a hole in her heart. I know that I would feel that way if Yukirin suddenly left me without a word. It was even worse for Jurina because she didn’t know why Akane left. We ended up trying everything we could think of, but Jurina suddenly left her room just as we ran out of ideas. We were so happy to see her again, but we quickly realized the effects of the whole ordeal. The Jurina that we once knew was no more. She had closed off her heart to everyone around her. She started acting the way that she was when you first arrived at our school. It was heartbreaking to see Jurina acting that way. We tried our best to get her to reopen her heart, but it failed every time. It was then that we promised ourselves to protect Jurina from this ever happening again. Anytime anyone approached her, we were there to make sure they weren’t going to hurt her.” Mayu paused to take a sip out of her drink.
Yuko continued for Mayu, “From what I heard, she became interested in you the moment you walked into their classroom. It was the first time that she had shown any interest in anyone in around a year. We were a bit wary, but we thought it was the perfect opportunity for Jurina to open her heart to someone. You should have noticed it when we said we were busy and couldn’t hang out with you. It was all a lie to get you two alone. I should apologize for using you like that, but we had the feeling that both Jurina and you had mutual feelings. In the end, it worked out. Jurina opened up her heart to you and returned to the Jurina that we knew. We were actually expecting one of you two to confess their feelings at some point, but then Akane suddenly showed up.” Yuko finished the story.
“I never knew…” Rena’s voice trailed off.
Rena started to think about what Mayu and Yuko told her. The story told her enough to understand what happened between Jurina and Akane, but it did not tell her the solution to the problem with Jurina. It was time and Rena’s appearance that originally made Jurina open her heart again. The only problem was that Akane’s reappearance broke the balance in Jurina’s heart.
The delicate balance of Jurina’s emotions was what kept her from closing herself off completely from others. Rena was the reason that the balance was tipped in a way that allowed for Jurina to open herself again. Jurina knew that she could trust Rena.
Rena suddenly realized that Akane betrayed Jurina’s trust. The pain of not knowing the truth was what probably what caused Jurina to close off her heart in the first place. Discovering the truth might put Jurina’s heart at ease.
Obtaining the answers directly from the source is the problem. Even if she could get the answers, did Rena really want Jurina to know? She worried that Jurina might pick Akane over herself. Even after all that Jurina had been through, there still had to be some amount of feelings towards Akane left in her heart.
Rena spoke up, “So, we don’t know what to do then?”
Yuko spoke in a serious tone, “There’s not much we can do ourselves, but we trust you. Whatever you decide to do, we will support you. To be honest, you are probably our only hope with Jurina. You were able to open her heart once before, so there must be something that you can do to open it again.”
“I’m the only hope…” Rena looked up at the sky, “I might have an idea, but I’m scared to do it.”
Mayu placed her hand on Rena’s hands, “Just like Yuko said, we will support whatever you decide to do.”
Rena looked at Mayu and Yuko with resolve, “Okay, I will try it.” The bell to signal the end of lunch period rang. “Can you tell the teacher that I’m not feeling well?”
“Don’t worry about it, just do what you have to do. We are counting on you,” Yuko said as she left with Mayu. Rena was the only person left on the roof.
Rena stayed sitting, “Don’t worry Jurina, I will get you back. I won’t let it happen again. I will never go back to that place again.” She stood up and left.
“Will Rena-chan be okay?” Mayu asked Yuko as they walked down the staircase.
“She will be fine. We just have to put our faith in her,” Yuko replied as they parted ways.
Rena walked out of the school gates. She did not know where she was going, but she began walking aimlessly. All she had to was confront Akane about why she left Jurina.
Rena’s own heart began to hurt as she remembered her own past. She did not want it to happen again. Jurina was the only person that she had opened up to in a long time. She knew exactly how Jurina felt.
Rena had realized that only the truth was able to help Jurina at this point. Hiding the truth from Jurina will just continue to hurt her. No matter how much the truth hurt, Jurina had to know. Rena knew this as a fact.
There was not much left for Rena to do. She just had to find out the truth from Akane herself. Then, she would be able to deliver the message to Jurina. It would then be up to Jurina to decide what to do.
No matter the final result, Rena was not prepared. She wanted to see Jurina happy again, but she was still worried. The thought of losing Jurina kept on coming back to haunt her thoughts. Rena could not escape remembering her own past.
Nightfall had arrived by the time that Rena realized where she was. She had wandered to the same park from the night prior. The park was dimly lit from the light posts. There was no one that Rena could see in sight.
Rena began to walk around the park, retracing the steps that she had taken. The park was silent as a breeze could be felt. One of the light posts suddenly went dim. Rena looked at the light post before returning to the view of a figure appearing in front of her.
“Akane?” Rena asked as the dimed light post returned to normal.
Topic: [HIATUS] The Love that Changed Everything - Chapter 5.5 [WMatsui] (2017-09-30) (Read 4212 times)