4.

Eventually, I was back on route to Teenyma’s apartment. She really did live in trekking distance from campus so getting there on foot was not going to be an issue. I was roughly 2 minutes into my journey when I found myself temporarily forgetting about the girl and instead remembering a few of Haru's statements from earlier. The part when he called me a freak. The part when he accused me of murder. And the part when he called me his friend. Obviously calling me his friend was clearly fake. Yet, I couldn't help but wonder how quickly things went sour between us, after what, four five years of friendship?

My memory of our time together as kids came in form of a flashback. We were both inseparable six-year-olds having the time of our lives. We did everything together. We played together, ate lunch together, and even had sleepovers at each other's houses basically all the time. We always made up whenever we had a fight, and we always stood up for each other whenever some of the other kids wanted to pick a fight with one of us. We weren't perfect in any way. But we were a team. However, as soon as we turn ten, on that faithful day, everything went to shit.

It was supposed to be a joint birthday party. But somehow, somewhere, things did not go as planned. I remembered someone screaming. I remembered seeing blood on the floor. I remembered seeing blood on my clothes. And I remembered seeing blood on the knife I apparently was holding, but did not remember carrying. I also remembered seeing bodies on the floor as well. Haru's mother included. As well as the body of my mother, father, sister, and a few of our then neighbors and their kids. They were everywhere. After that, I remember being confused, scared, and sick to my stomach. Then I remembered throwing the knife away and fighting back tears as I rushed to go try and wake my parents and little sister up. They never did.

When I finally got to the street that led up to Teenyma's apartment it was well past 6 pm. Thanks to the cloudy weather it was pretty much dark at this point, with rows of street lamps illuminating the roads and buildings on either side. Her house was located on the 4th floor of a high-rise multi-unit complex, which was the third building on the street. And when I made my way inside, up an elevator, and into her floor, I rounded the corner and found a young blonde woman standing outside her home, dressed in a loose fitting dark blue baggy hoodie with a pair of white shorts and sneakers. Her hair was tied up in a rough bun at the back, with a few strands escaping to fall across the front side of her forehead as she stood peering over her balcony at the streets below.

For a second, I considered clearing my throat to startle her a bit. Then I considered clapping my hands together to make her jump. Then I considered sneaking up behind her and placing a hand on her shoulder to really frighten her. I couldn't quite decide on how best to playfully announce that I was right behind her, so I thought against it. Plus, I also couldn't tell if she was in a playful mood or not, so it was probably best I didn't try it in the first place.

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"Teenyma?" I finally called out to her as softly as I could, and she immediately lifted her head up from the balcony and turned in my direction.

"Hiroshi?" she replied, speaking softly as well. "Is that, is that really you?" she asked, her eyelids heavy, her face tired. Was she not feeling well?

"Yeah. It's me." I replied, taking a step towards her and starting to get a little worried.

"Hey, Teenyma." I said, letting the closed umbrella I held in my right-hand clatter to the floor. "Are you okay?" I reached out with my right hand towards her, my arm shaking. "Did something happen?"

She sniffled. Then nodded.

My eyes shot open in horror as my heart dropped. I was silent for a moment.

If there were two things I hated the most in this world, it was the way most people treated me like I was some kind of disease, and witnessing Teenyma being upset. The first one I can handle on most days no problem. But the second, something within me just breaks whenever I Saw Teenyma in such a state.

"Teenyma." I said, my voice cold, My face dead serious. "Tell me. What happened?"

Opting to remain silent, Teenyma instead began walking towards me, her steps slowed, her sneakers quiet on the concrete floor. When she was finally standing in front of me, a head shorter than me, she spoke.

"If I tell you what happened, would you help me to fix it?" she asked, her voice soft, her face still sad.

"Yes." I replied, hoping that she sensed the seriousness in my tone.

"That's good." she replied, looking around a bit before squatting to pick up the umbrella I had dropped on the floor. “That, is good." she repeated, standing back up and flashing me a smile with her eyes closed.

Suddenly I felt like I had misread the situation.

"Now." she said, "are you ready to hear all about what happened?" she asked, her eyes still closed, her lips still curved up in a smile.

"Yeah," I replied hesitantly. "But..."

I did not see the first swing coming until it was too late.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!"

The middle part of the umbrella connected with the top of my forehead as a now very angry faced Teenyma began venting all of her frustrations on me. Obviously I was not going to stand idly by to get beaten with an umbrella, so I immediately took off running before she could land anymore hits.

"Hey! Where do you think you are going? I'm not done with you!" Teenyma took off running after me round the entire floor, steaming and venting while she tried to hit me. "I've been worried sick waiting for you the entire afternoon. I didn't realize you were going to take your sweet time coming here. Do you know how worried I was! I thought maybe you died or got kidnapped or something. And where did you put your phone? I kept messaging, and calling, I even sent a couple voicemails." At this point I tried defending myself by claiming that my phone was switched to silent mode while I was in class, which was true, but Teenyma was not having any of it. "Even if your phone was in silent mode," she continued. "Did you not simply look at your phone after class?! Don't you have eyes to do that huh?!" it was a good point but I totally ran out of battery. "Hey!" she continued yelling. "Get back here! I swear you will not send me to an early grave because I am constantly worrying about you. Hey! I said get back here!"