So this girl isn't a thief and I've just sexually assaulted a young girl!?!

The shock of reality caused me to loosen my grip on her which was another big mistake

The second she got a chance, she pulled away from me and kicked me right in the face with all the strength she had. I think my nose is broken and so are a lot of other things on my face

“What the fuck are you doing you damn molester! It's your first day here and your stalking and groping women. That's fucking disgusting”

She knows it's my first day at school, so then she's in my class?

While both of us were still on the ground, I looked to see who it was

The girl was on the ground in a defensive position with her legs towards me. She covered her chest with her hands, as the jackets zip was lowered because of the struggle

This revealed her concealed breasts. Unlike when I saw them at the store, they looked like rockets bursting out. So those were the soft things I was squeezing. Then who's the owner of those babies?

I looked up to see her face

The hoodie, mask and sunglasses she used to cover her face were all off and I could see her face clearly. She had the same golden hair and blue eyes I saw this morning. I then shouted in surprise

“You’re the girl sitting next to me!”

How the hell did I meet her here!? She already wants to kill me for some reason and now this happens. I'm dead meat

She was glaring at me with utter despise. It was like she was looking at a cockroach on the ground. But her anger is justified since I was the one who started chasing her out of nowhere. She probably thinks I'm perverted molester now. I have to properly explain the situation

“Uh? You were stalking me but didn't know that! So anybody is okay for you, you creep?! I'm going to report this matter to the school and get you expelled. But before that I'm going to the police station. If I let someone like you who assaults random women for a hobby escape, no girl will be able to roam around peacefully”

Police! I can't go to jail! If I go to jail, who'll take care of Kaede? I can't let that happen. I got to explain

“No! No! Wait! You got it all wrong! Let me explain!”

“There's no way you can escape, you enemy of all women. You absolutely have no excuses to get out of this situation”

“Just wait! I'm not a pervert or anything. I have an explanation for chasing you”

“That's what they all say. I'm not falling for your tricks”

“No wait-”

“Shut up!”

She was getting up to run away

If she leaves now I have no way of explaining things and this will be blown into a huge matter. Even my whole family will get involved. If that happens I might get expelled, which will leave a bad mark on my record. Getting into a good college will be impossible if I have a criminal offence on it

But most importantly I don't want Kaede to be labelled as a pervert's brother. I know she will understand if I explained it to her but others will never believe what I say and will ostracize Kaede for my actions

I'd rather die than let that happen

As one final effort to stop her, I put my head on the ground and grovelled before her and shouted at the top of my voice

“Please! Just one minute! Listen to what I say for minute! I won't ask anything else! I beg of you!”

You might say that I don't have any pride for doing this, but who cares about pride when your family's reputation is on the line

I didn't look up and kept my head down. I didn't hear anything from her so I thought that she had already run away

I guess that's the end of the line for me. Sorry Kaede I couldn't-

“Fine”

She was still there!?

I lifted my head up and looked at her

She looked like she'd rather run away from me but was staying because of what I said

“I'll listen to what you say for a minute, but you should keep your distance from me. If you try anything funny I'll run away and report it to the police and make sure your behind bars”

Thank god she's reasonable. Normally a girl wouldn't listen to what I have to say in this situation. I guess she found out how desperate I was when I grovelled before her

“Thank you so much! I won't do anything, so just let me explain. Just let me get up first-”

“No! You keep on sitting on the ground and I'll get up. I need a head start to run away if you try anything weird”

“Sure whatever you say”

She got up and stood a few feet away from me. I sat on the ground with one leg rested and one knee up

“Now start explaining. I don't want any made up bullshit”

“Okay. First let me say why I chased you in the first place”

“That's because you’re a stalker”

“No that isn't it! I thought you were a thief and I chased you down to catch you”

“As if I could believe, an excuse like that. That's the most overused one in the book. Do you really think you can get away with such a dumb excuse?”

“No I'm not lying. I'll show you the proof. Just look over there”

I pointed towards the police officers in the distance and she also looked where I pointed

“What are you saying? There's nothing there. Stop trying to fool me”

“I don't think you can see it since its dark. Try using your phone's camera and zoom in on that intersection over there”

“You’re not lying right?”

“Trust me”

“There's no way I can trust someone who groped me, that easily”

She took her phone out and zoomed in on the place I showed her

“Yeah. There are a couple of cops restraining someone in black clothes”

“That's the thief I was talking about. I thought you were him and started chasing you”

“Hold up. How did you even see them from here? They're over a kilometre from this place. I can only see a black smudge when I see it normally without my camera”

“I just have good eyes”

“Good eyes? More like an eagle's”

“Back to the topic in hand. I thought you were the thief and wanted to help out the lady who got her purse stolen so I started chasing you and grabbed you to make you stop. But I accidentally chased the wrong person and it ended up like this”

“How did you even mistake me for a thief in the first place?”

“There were too many factors that lead to that conclusion“

I pointed at her tracksuit

”First is that appearance of yours”

“Huh?”

“A black tracksuit with a hoodie, black sunglasses and a mask. That's obviously someone who's trying to hide his identity or escape without being seen by anyone. The lady who got her purse stolen told that the thief was wearing black”

“That's umm....Ahh….”

She was struggling to come up with something to explain her appearance

“Anyway that's not a proper reason to say I'm a thief“

She dodged the reason

”I can wear anything I want to wear, it's a free world. Who are you to judge me for what I wear? Is it really wrong to wear black clothes? Is there any law obstructing the use of black clothes?”

“Of course I didn't decide you were the thief with clothes alone. What alarmed me was the moment you ran away when I called out to you. That's definitely something a suspicious person would do”

She then blurted out

“That's because I didn't want anybody in school to see me. When you called out to me, I panicked that I was about to be found out and started running”

“Find what out?”

“That's…umm…”

She didn't know what to say again. It was most probably to hide her otaku hobby from me. But that's useless since I saw her buying the manga and reading it happily. It's clear as day she's an otaku

“Never mind that; after hearing all that, do you still think I'm a pervert?”

“Hmmm……”

She was deep in thought. I hope she believes what I said. What she says now will decide my fate

After a few seconds she stopped thinking and looked at me

Now the moment of truth

“What you said extremely hard to believe…”

So she didn't believe me in the end…

It's going to be really tough to deal with this situation now. I'll have to meet the principal tomorrow and-

“…But it looks like you aren't lying”

She believes me?!

“You've shown me proof and your story adds up. And I don't think a guy who’s after girls would chase them with groceries in his hand. I'll take what happened here as a honest mistake and leave you off”

“Thank you so much for being so understanding. I don't know what I would do if you didn't believe me. I really started panicking when you mentioned bringing police into it”

“Well that's natural since I thought you were a molester. If you didn't have a proper explanation I would've made it so that you’re behind bars for the rest of your life”

Phew. I dodged a bullet there. No, it's more like I escaped from a homing missile

“Thank you again for helping me out. I'll pick up your books for you-”

I was reaching out to pick one up when she shouted

“Don't touch it!”

I pulled back my hand

“You don't have to do anything, I'll do it myself”

“But-”

She looked at me with the same fierce eyes she had in class

“I said I'll do it”

“Ok”

She quickly went around and picked up all the books on the ground. I also got up from the ground and wiped the dirt of my pants

After picking up all the books she went in front of me and said

“Listen up. You didn't see me today and I didn't see you. Tomorrow when you come to class we're total strangers. Just forget what happened and don't tell anyone. Don't try to talk to me in…”

She was moving towards a turning in the road while looking at me. She hasn't noticed that the traffic light was green and was walking straight into it without checking for cars

I took a step towards her and said

“Hey wait don't go any further the light is still-”

“What do you think you're doing?! I said don't approach me”

She didn't listen to what I said and was moving farther away from. She was now at the corner of the road and I could hear a vehicle coming from the turning

“Stop there! There's a vehicle coming!”

“I said don't come near me!”

She took two steps backwards which placed her in the centre of the road

The vehicle coming was now visible and it was a big truck

It was only 30 metres away and was coming at full speed towards her. The driver didn't notice she was standing on the road and didn't look like he was going to stop . She was standing there clueless, not knowing that a truck was going to ram her

I shouted at the top of my voice to warn her

“Move out of the way! There's a truck coming towards you!”

“Huh?”

She heard what I said and turned to look. She saw the truck 15 metres away coming straight towards her but couldn't move her body due to the sudden shock and just stood there waiting to get hit

Although her body didn't move her lips did, saying in a soft, shivering voice

“Not again, help me”

The second I heard that, I dashed forward as fast as I can to save her. The truck was now a few metres away and its bright headlight was shining in my face. If I didn't make it in time, a life would be lost in front of me

The very thought of that caused my legs to be pushed like piston and I launched myself towards her. It was the same as before when I jumped to catch her but this time there was a truck 4 metres in front of me and if I failed both of us would be sent flying towards the water way

I was flying mid air, 3 metres away from the truck and could finally reach her. She turned her head towards me when I jumped and was now looking at me with dark despaired filled eyes that looked like they accepted death

Those eyes triggered something inside of me and I said to myself

’Don't you dare give me that look. You’re not dying today, Not while I'm here’

With all the strength I could muster, I caught her shoulders and pushed her away as hard as I could. With this she should be safe from harm’s way

That's a relief. Now what should I do about my situation

The truck is now 2 metre away from me and chances of me escaping are slim. If I get hit there's no way I'm surviving

But then suddenly my vision started to become slow and everything around me looked like it froze in time. The whole world became still and silent and all the strong emotions I had at that moment were gone and I felt at peace. Although I couldn't move my body which was floating in the same position, I could move my head and talk

I didn't know what was happening but came up with an answer which was unfortunate for me and said

”Oh! So this is what they call ‘Peace before death’ ”

”So I'm going to die here..…Well that sucks”