#20

This is my second entry, last time I ended where I was invited by Kooto to go to his mansion and see their in-house doctor. Yeah, that was the name of the boy. The only son of the landlord in our town, the one who owned everything I have ever seen in my life, for I have never ventured out of this town before – I always told myself someday I would, that was my dream, but I hadn't yet.

Then happy days followed and now it is needless to count every single thing we did or talked about. There was nothing wrong with me or Kooto, I mean nothing like concussions. Come to think about it now it's pretty impressive from a modern-day perspective that they knew about such things in the past. But anyways.

After the check-up by the doctor, he asked me to stay for dinner. He turned out to be a much nicer boy than just a posh little brat I originally thought he may be. He was intrigued when I asked him if they had any potatoes during dinner because I was served a super nice lump of grilled meat like I have never tasted before, but I did miss my potatoes as it would have been the perfect side to that amazing meal. He said he's never had potatoes before in his life, like never.

That's where we first noticed the vastly different lives we had lived. I was a commoner, as plain as one can be, just an average girl from a bit less than an average family selling things on the market that her father toiled for. My mother died when I was eight in the year of the great plague. That was very sad but I held strong as I realized I was the only joy left in the world for my dad. If I wavered, he would too.

Kooto lived in a different world. Just like the potatoes, for example, he has not experienced things that are completely normal for the commoners like me. But at the same time, he's experienced things that I thought I'd probably never experience in my life. He had maids in his household who seemed to take care of everything, a private tutor to teach him about things that I never heard of (or understood the point of learning when he energetically explained to me), and every now and then had a trip to the capital during the royal festivals – gees, how I would have loved to go.

He came to see me every day at the market, and always bought something, be it fruit, cabbages, carrots, whatever. But I stopped him from doing so after a few times because I felt like he was doing this out of pity, and I didn't want to be pitied by him.

We spent every day exploring the areas on the outskirts of the town. I showed him around the caves, forests, small ponds and streams, insanely big and awesome rocks that looked like an ancient giant had lobbed it onto the middle of the land for no reason. He seemed to enjoy all of this. As much as it was exciting for me to hear about his visits to the capital and all the fantastic things that were on show in royal festivals, he was genuinely interested in the life and the environment of someone like me. But then it became quite apparent that it wasn't just because I was a curious commoner that he took an interest in me. I had never been 'loved' before by a boy, but a girl's sixth sense told me that he had feelings for me as boys do about girls.

This flattered me, but I never showed it. In every shy little smile he made, every hastily made up excuses he came up with to cover up his feelings whenever it looked like he might end up revealing how he felt about me – I loved it. I told myself that the time would come someday and he would confess to me properly, and if that time came far enough in the future it might even be a marriage proposal. I would be married into a noble family, which scared me a little, but it also made me blush to think about such things, not that I was intimidated by joining the class where I did not belong, but to imagine Kooto and I would be together forever felt like a dream and an unbearably embarrassing thought at the same time.

Things went on like this for a few months. We've spent great summer together, watching many a sunset as they turned the sky into a molten core, something he proudly explained to me once back then as something he learned from his tutor. How cute, when I think about it now. Considering there had been no active volcanoes in our country for half a millennium up to that year, the way he was fascinated by it must have been like how the modern-day people are fascinated by legends of the old days that they have only heard as stories.

It was about a fortnight before the autumn festival of that year in our town, that he told me he was going to this year's royal festival in the capital. I was envious as hell, but I wished him well and asked him to tell me all about it when he gets back. He told me he will bring a special gift from the capital, and he has something important to tell me when he gets back – my gosh, I thought, no, I knew he was going to confess to me when he gets back, maybe on the first evening of the autumn festival if he gets back in time. I was nervous as hell since he left for the capital, but at the same time I couldn't wait for him to come back.

#21

"So I was like, whatever, because I had no intention of getting mixed up with such crap. But that bitch really bothered me. The way she accused me of being a slut when I haven't done anything. It's not my fault that the boy confessed to me. If she liked him, and if he liked her, this would not have happened right? Some girls are always like this, I get sick of it"

"Ah, I'm sorry to hear that"

"What pisses me off even more is that now she's going around spreading all these rumours. Like how I was such a slut and always play and lead the boys on, just to turn them down. This is getting too much"

Poor Rika. She was the furthest girl from a slut that I could ever think of. She was absolutely, and totally indifferent to boys – sadly including myself, and now she gets accused of being a slut. What the fuck.

"So what are you gonna do?"

"What can I do? I would kill her if I could!"

"Maybe confront her directly about it?"

"No I don't want to have anything to do with that bitch again, and what's worse, her crush is still chasing after me, trying to chat me up around the school and stuff, and she keeps on seeing this and starts making worse and worse comments to everyone"

"That's fucked up. Who is that boy anyway?"

"Well, the blonde boy you vomited on before"

"Oh shit. Somehow I feel like I'm related to this mess. I'm sorry"

"Well, whatever – sorry I burst into this, you asked me how I find my school life since I transferred in this year, so there you go. That's my current school life in a nutshell"

"And you have a boy who keeps on almost killing you"

"That's not funny at all"

"Sorry…"

"Let's just talk about something else"

"Right"

A few days later I was waiting in the alley where I knew that bitch Rika told me about would pass by. I have been trailing her and saw that she always takes this shortcut on her way home. Not a smart move for a girl who makes someone like Rika her enemy.

Then I heard some footsteps and the humming sound of a girl – this is her. I waited for her to take a few more steps and jumped out right in front of her, for the maximum effect of intimidation. She was visibly startled and stuttered.

"What.. what do you want?"

"I want to talk to you"

"Who are you..?"

Then I could see that she was running her eyes from my head to my toes and seemed to be at least very slightly relieved that I was wearing the school uniform of our school – at least I'm not some random criminal on the back alley.

"The blonde dickhead you fancy, he beat me up, twice"

"What?!"

"I know it all. The first time he was confessing to the girl he actually likes – not you – I accidentally puked on his head"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"That was my bad. Anyways, for that, he lured me to the school rooftop and beat me up there"

"Whatever it was it sounds like you deserved it, you creep!"

Then she turned around and started to pace away

"Hey, I'm not done yet!" I quickly ran after her and grabbed her arm.

"What the heck! Let go of me you freak!"

"Then he beat me up the second time because I was going to confess to Rika"

"What..that slut again?"

"Don't call her that, you are the one who's acting like a bitch"

"What the hell do you know!"

"You see – the boy you like, whom I have to say is an asshole himself, but anyway, he obviously likes her and has no interest in you. He probably never will. Rika has not led him on. He just likes her that much, to go out of his way to beat up some random pleb like me just for even trying to get closer to her"

"I'm sick of hearing this bitch's name! Fuck Rika!"

Then she tried to yank her arm out from my grip, which I just realized that I was still holding firmly.

"Anyways, my point is – give it up. You are barking up a wrong tree"

"You freak, what has all this got to do with you"

"Look I'm just here to explain the situation so you'll give it up and stop spreading shit rumours out of spite"

Then her head dropped and she started to tremble slightly. I let go of her arm and just stood there in silence. Maybe what I said was right, but maybe it was a bit weird to confront her like this in this dodgy back alley, and maybe it was too cruel the way I said the things

"I fucking hate people like you!"

Suddenly the girl flashed out a knife from the side pocket of her backpack – a butterfly knife? What kind of a girl carries such things?

Then I realized she didn't take out the knife just to threaten me, she was actually launching herself onto me with the knife pointed at my throat.

Fack

Purely out of instinct, I stretched out both of my arms to grab her front arm holding the knife, twisting it upwards to change its course. This has saved my life, but freakishly her head still moved forward with the momentum of the launch, then her arm folded with the knife jerking upward. The knife went cleanly through the spot where the bottom of jaws stop and the top of the throat begins, splashing blood all over.

I was still grabbing her knife-holding arm as the knife was still stuck on her throat. Her eyes were fixed on mine full of lunatic rage – this is one hell of a crazy bitch, but fuck no, this shouldn't have happened.

In my stupid panic, I quickly grabbed the knife out of her hand and pulled it out – but I yanked on it too hard and not straight out so the knife ended up slashing downwards on her throat, making even more blood spurt out.

She dropped onto the concrete floor clutching at her throat, her eyes still firmly fixed on mine, still full of rage, but fading slowly. Oh fuck, what did I do.

"Furrrck you…"

The girl spat out her final words with great struggle and died.