Date Her Instead Vol. 6

Chapter Four: Left Behind

If there was anything Michi could say she truly understood, it was being alone. From birth, her parents had hardly given her the love she should've gotten, being more in love with each other than caring for their own daughter. Growing up, she hadn't made many friends of her own thanks to the mix of her fancy arrivals by driver and blunt attitude. Even when she made it to junior high, little changed. She gained a few friends, but that was all.

However, perhaps that was why, for as harsh on the outside as she could be, Michi cared so deeply about her relationships with others. Forming bonds with others so much later in life had allowed Michi to understand just how much they added to one's life. For instance, a person could eat alone, but the food seemed to be much better with friends. It was things like that, moments like that, that allowed Michi to see what had been missing in her life.

It was also why she could get so angry with others. In the past, Haruna had obviously been terrible to Kanako, so that was reason enough to not like her for Michi, but her reasons went beyond that. Here were two girls who had grown up together. They had laughed, cried, shared memories and who knew what else. Their lives had become inexplicably woven together, and it should've been impossible for that bond to become undone.

And yet, it had. By choice, one of them cut that bond and abandoned the other. To Michi, a girl who had never really had the chance to spend significant time with someone who meant something to her, that was an unforgivable offense. In her eyes, Haruna and Kanako had had something beyond special, and then Haruna had thrown it away. She didn't deserve to be forgiven. She deserved to experience what it felt like to be alone.

Of course, that wasn't really the case. Haruna had other friends, even if they were the kind of girls that Michi despised. Although, knowing that she had other friends just made Michi more mad. Not only had she tossed Kanako to the side, but she was seemingly replacing her as well. How was that fair? How was that right? Did she feel nothing at all for what she had done?

Being unable to know what was in Haruna's heart, all Michi could do was seethe from the side while trying to be Kanako's support. If Haruna would so willingly abandon her position in Kanako's life, then Michi saw fit to take it for herself. She'd show Kanako just how valuable a bond with another truly was, and hopefully, make her forget all about the girl that had abandoned her.

That had been Michi's hope, but it somehow ended up being destroyed. To her shock, Haruna began to make an effort to be on better terms with Kanako. Worse yet, Kanako seemed to be open to the idea. Before Michi knew it, they were friends again. That was something that Michi had thought impossible. She had taken Haruna's place. She was all that Kanako needed. So how was it that Haruna had gotten back in Kanako's good graces?

Michi had no answer, but to be honest, she didn't really need one either. All she needed to know was that Haruna was trying to take back what Michi had felt she had earned. Wanting to defend that post, she tried everything she could think of, but in the end, it had all blown up in her face. Little by a lot then a little, Michi started to feel those pangs of loneliness again.

She began to feel bitter towards Kanako. The situation felt much the same as her parents. Here was this girl, who all she wanted was to be cared about and show that she cared, being left behind again as the one she cared about chose another. That couldn't have been right. Was the universe really so unfair? To have that happen once, with her parents no less, was a sadness of its own, but to experience it twice...

Unable to contain her anger, Michi had started to lash out at her other friends. Mayu and Itsuki mattered to her, of course, but because Kanako had been the first she shared a significant bond with, they were still lesser to her. It was something she'd never admit consciously, but it was clear in her demeanor just how the other two ranked when up against Kanako.