Prologue

2 years ago...

In an empty room on top of an abandoned apartment building, a girl sat in the corner of the room alone. She was naked except for a patient gown that hung loosely around her body. Dark red blood stained the girl, from her hair down to her toes. She sat hugging herself with her legs drawn up to her body as she stared down at the floor with hollow eyes.

"Everything in this world is hateful." The girl said. She looked around the empty room and an eerie smile played across her face. "I want this world to disappear."

She crept up from her sitting position and crawled towards the single window on the opposite wall.

"Pain..."

She crawled closer, breathing out each time. "Suffering..."

"Despair..."

"Envy..."

"Disgust..."

"Hatred..."

She was under the window, still down on her hands. "I want to kill everyone in this world." The girl laughed.

She pulled herself up to the window, clinging onto the hinges and glared outside bitterly.

"I want to be happy." She muttered to herself.

Out the window, a boy walked alone in the middle of the night wearing a school uniform. He was holding a microwave dinner he bought from the convenience store. The girl watched the boy but he didn't notice her staring down at him from the apartment window.

Chapter 1 - Confession

The dead cherry blossom tree swayed gently against the cold winter winds. Its flowerless branches drooped downwards in a lifeless manner and chunks of missing bark littered its surroundings. Despite the prominent signs of decay, the tree stood stubbornly upright, towering to my side.

I stared fixedly at the tree, pondering over its refusal to face demise. To be honest, I was really just trying to distract myself. The last class had finished 15 minutes ago and I was standing behind the school's main building, staring at a tree. Not just any tree, a dead tree. It was a sombre depiction of the melancholy that was my life.

I sighed, pulling my jacket closer to my body as I felt another cool breeze passing over. I was actually waiting for something to happen. Something that I was sure that wouldn't happen, but something that I stayed to wait for in case it did happen. It really didn't make much sense.

And it was at that moment, where I was gathering the last of my resolve to try to leave before I wasted any more of my not-so-precious time, that the "something" that I was waiting for to happen... actually did happen.

An all too familiar figure popped out from the end of the building wall, startling me out of my thoughts. It was a girl, dressed in a school uniform with the exact same colour scheme as my own. She turned to look at her side opposite from me, then not finding what she was looking for, turned to the side towards me. She stopped, seeing me, then waved, a faint smile on her face. I responded to her wave with a frozen stare. Despite this, she made her way towards me, jogging in a manner that suggested her will to be quick and her reluctance to run too fast as to create an awkward scene.

As the distance between us came to a close, it became glaringly apparent that the girl was a beauty of remarkable features. Dark, black hair fell to either sides of an angelic face, pink lips strutted out enticingly and a pair of otherworldly eyes, distinctively coloured to the shade of pale violet, stood out amidst the storm of perfection. I couldn't help but to stare mesmerisingly into her face.

"Sorry," she breathed, her cheeks flushed as her jog came to a stop in front of me. "I tried to come earlier but the teacher wanted me to stay behind to help with some clean-up."

"It's... it's okay." I managed to cough out, averting my gaze with difficulty.

She breathed out again, trying to catch her breath. Meanwhile, I was still having trouble accepting the reality of what was happening. The girl standing in front of me right now was called Luna. She was an idol student at our school, adored both within the school and outside, ranking number one in the state for her academic ability and for her athleticism. But as if that wasn't enough, there was also the undeniable fact that she was completely beautiful in all sense of the word.

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"So, what did you call me here for?" Luna finally caught her breath, though her cheeks were still red. She stared at me with anticipation.

There was the million dollar question. What exactly was someone of her stature doing with someone like me? And for the record, no, there was nothing extraordinary about myself unless you count the fact that I could finish a whole bottle of Mountain Dew in one sitting. The truth of the matter was that I had simply placed a note on the inside of her desk tray that told her to meet me behind the school's main building after school. To much of my bewilderment, she had actually came out.

"I... uh..." I felt my face growing red, my ability to construct a sentence quickly deteriorating. Luna glanced down worriedly at my face. My eyes had wandered off to her feet without my volunteering to do so.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. This was a confession by yours truly. As cliche as it sounded, I had fallen for Luna over the course of two years of being in the same class as her. Who would have guessed? Somehow, I had mustered the courage to slip a note into her desk and managed to get her out here alone. Now was time for the crux of the show.

"Ryo...?" Luna said, her tone soft and gentle.

It came as a surprise to me that she actually knew my name. We had never really seriously spoken to one another before, and my classroom presence was comparable to that of someone with the power of invisibility to say the least. However, my surprise was quickly overwhelmed by the feeling of idiocy as I realised how awkward I was making her feel by staring silently at her feet.

"Luna—!" I spoke in a tone louder than I expected as I straightened up my posture, raising my eyes to meet her.

"Y-yes?!" Luna jumped, startled by the sudden change in tone.

I noticed her discomfort. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." I apologised with a weak smile, my face still red. Everything was going completely wrong.

She laughed lightheartedly, slightly nervous. "No, it's fine, what did you want to talk about?"

I took a breath in a feeble attempt to calm my mind. Come on, let's not screw this up again. "I called you out here..." I paused, trying to get the words out of my mouth. "To tell you something."

Luna perked up curiously. "What is it?"

"The thing is..." Another pause. "Uh..." Oh man, not again.

"Mm?" Luna nodded encouragingly.

"It's kind of difficult to say, really..." My eyes darted to the side, avoiding her stare.

Luna waited patiently.

"I..." Say it already! "I... I like you!"

I bowed my head and closed my eyes preparing for rejection.

I couldn't believe that I had actually said it. The words I had been meaning to tell her for so long. A strange sensation of vulnerability and relief filled my body.

For a while, there was nothing but the sounds of insects chirping in the background.

What the hell was going on? Why was it so quiet? Did she leave? I mean come on, was I that ugly? Paranoia crept up my mind the longer the silence seemed to etch on.

I rose up slowly to see what was going on but something crashed into me, pushing me backwards. The sky and ground switched places and suddenly I found myself lying flat on the floor. Luna was on top of me, her arms on the ground next to my head, keeping her up. She stared down at me, her cheeks red.

Multiple alarm bells went off in my head but I didn't know what to think. How did we even end up in this position? What on earth was going on? Did she trip over or what? It didn't even feel like she tripped. It had felt like she pushed me onto the ground. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore.

"Ryo…" Luna's pink lips parted slightly, and a strand of dark hair fell past her ear.

"Are you alright—" I started, but I never got to finish my sentence.

Luna leaned towards me, her eyes closed and suddenly our lips touched. Her soft lips pressed onto mine and time seemed to freeze.

When she pulled away, I was still lost in my mind, paralysed from my scalp down to my toes.

"I was waiting so long for you to say that!" Luna said, her voice ecstatic.

With that, Luna got up and ran away, leaving me lying on the ground. I listened to the sound of her footsteps fading with a blank mind. It was only after the footsteps had completely disappeared that I started to breathe again, slowly at first. Just what the hell was going on? Why the hell did she kiss me? Did she say she was waiting for me to confess to her? Was I dreaming?

I raised a hand up to my face and pinched myself on the cheeks.

"Ow!"

The pain seemed to confirm that this wasn't a dream. Luna actually kissed me... me! Of all people. The whole idea seemed ludicrous. Did that mean she had liked me too all along? I mean, that's the only reason why you would kiss someone, right? I felt dizzy. What did she even like about me? I couldn't believe that my first kiss would be with Luna. I had never once considered it a possibility.

I managed to pick myself up on the third try and felt myself walking home in a daze.

Author's note: Much thanks to Chiisutofupuru for editing. I don't know how I would live without you!