THE UNWILLING MATCHMAKER

Death

After a few days, you reached half of the book. You regret not reading it sooner. With the book in your table, a bookmark between its pages, it's safe to say you're becoming a fan of the book. And so, your friend Sarah is clearly ecstatic to the fact you have joined her and the bandwagon. 

But it's mainly because she can finally talk about the book with you, this time with you having interest. She didn't miss a day in asking you what's your opinion. 

Including today. 

"So Y/n who's your favorite?" During lunch, Sarah asked while leaning towards you with a curious look. It looks extremely suspicious with the way she covered her face with her hand. It's as if you're both gossiping bad about people in the class. I suppose you can say it's just how normal high school teenagers spend their day if they have time to relax. 

"The book? I don't know, I haven't finished it yet." You raised your eyebrow, nonchalantly flipping through the pages of your science textbook randomly, perhaps trying to recall the lesson you have forgotten as soon as the bell rang. 

Sarah looked at you expectedly but sighed when you answered with the same words you always tell her. "Well who do you think is interesting, like the one you think you'll like!" She kept going, adding a question to keep the topic going. 

You hummed, thinking. The book has a lot of interesting characters despite having cliche looks, they're unique in their own ways and you grew to love them all. But you don't have that much interest in them, not in a bad way. You haven't decided yet but one person have managed to peak your interest despite having short scenes. In your opinion, you think you'll like him. Besides he made you stare at the character sheet for half of an hour. 

"I suppose Hirokami?" You spoke and Sarah perked up at the name you mentioned. 

"Not Y/n?" She said and you gave her a look. Not just because a character has the same name as yours, doesn't mean you're automatically gonna have them as your favorite. 

"I do like her but nah." You said, it's true you do like Y/n in the novel. She's pitiful in a way and there it goes, your frustration towards the author had raised once again. You made yourself calm by taking a deep breath and forced yourself to think of something else. 

"Your choice makes sense." Sarah noticed the way your mood changed, she hastily moved the topic forward, "Cuz same. He's my favorite too!"

"I thought you like Yuu?" This time it's your time to ask and raise your eyebrow in a questioning manner. Sarah is quick to answer. 

"I like Yuu for Noriko. There's a difference." She huffed, crossing her arms and yet again perked up when another question went up to her brain, "Speaking of ships, who do you bet for Noriko?"

And so both of you talked for the remainder of the day, like the high school girls you are. In the end both of you wanted the same thing and felt the same thing. Just like every readers of the book had felt. "I'm just sad since the author hadn't released the second book yet." Sarah sighed and you smiled. 

"Let's just wait for it then." You said. It's been just a year since the book had been published, no need to be impatient. 

**********

You were wrong. 

The sequel didn't arrive for years. It never arrived and the author seemingly have disappeared without a trace. Their contacts and information (that can be counted by a hand) was erased from the internet. It's as if they didn't exist at all. 

All the reminder of it all was the book they published, whose popularity is dwindling after years it's prior publishing. It's kind of disappointing for everyone who's been waiting for years, everyone got impatient and some just doesn't bother waiting anymore. And the remainder? They simply forgot it and went on with their busy lives. 

You? You're all of it, respectively step by step. You waited, got impatient, gave up waiting and in the end, went on with your life. You're sure you have already forgotten the whole book itself, the plot and it's characters. Who wouldn't, it's been 7 years, almost with absolute hiatus. But still the joy and the memories of the book never have you forgotten it, it gave you momentary happiness during highschool years with Sarah. 

Now you're an adult, fresh out of college and found yourself a job you got recruited in. You're happy, very much so with how much your hardwork and persistence had paid off. Sarah who's your faithful friend and still your one and only friend, couldn't be more happier for you. She too, got impatient of waiting she just gave up and went along the stream of life. She's now a chef in a fairly popular restaurant. 

"Y/n! Where are you?!" Sarah's loud voice almost made you deaf despite the city's bustling noise. You don't even know how she can scream so loud that the other bystanders beside you looked at you in confusion. You smiled sheepishly and lowered down the volume. "Calm down, I'm at the intersection across the street. I'm waiting for the green light." You whispered to remind her to lower down her voice. 

"Hurry up, I'm so excited to see you!" Sarah didn't bother to lower down her voice and you didn't bother to correct her, too tired to even say anything anymore, knowing she won't listen anyways. She's an excited person and you can't help but smile from her happy tone. 

"Yes yes Sarah, wait alright?" You giggled, looking at the stoplight. It's color is still Red but the count down is less than 10 already, just a few seconds then you'd be crossing the street and reach the block where Sarah's apartment is. "Alrighty! I'll be waiting, I prepared your favorite food with my love!"

"Looking forward to it." You smiled, already crossing as soon as the streetlight turned Green. With your focus at your phone and certainty that the cars had stopped, you didn't notice a large vehicle ramming it's way through the street. 

"Miss!" You heard someone scream for you and you looked, this time noticing the truck that was approaching you fast with no intent to stop, "Miss get out of the way! The brakes won't work!" The driver was screaming in panic and yet, you remained frozen. 

"Shit!" Your body won't move no matter how much you tried, it's as if time slowed and your heartbeat erractically quickened. 

"Y/n?! Y/n?! Hey! Oh my God!" Sarah's voice was the last thing you heard before you felt hurt all over your body, everything sort of blacked out and you felt as if your body became crushed in the side by gravity itself, you felt every impact, every bone breaking, every pain and aches. And how your heart beat faster than it could ever do. 

Then everything stopped. 

Then you were already at the cold hard concrete street, staring up the sky, still unable to comprehend what happened, adrenaline still in your veins. Then pain hits, and you gasped. But you choked, feeling a warm stick liquid go up your mouth and trick down your chin. 

'It hurts.' It's all what you could think of, 'It bloody hurts.' Was all you can utter as you choke in your own blood. Everything just blurred all over and all you can do is lay there. Your ears rang and within a second, everything got clear. 

"Hurry! Someone call the ambulance!" You can hear bystanders panicking, you could hear screams of terror and the truck hitting a nearby pole after crushing your body. 

You moved your head on the side, still choking and having difficulty to breath. You saw your phone, broken in the side. 

'Sarah.' Everything started to blur once again, this time you felt as if you're getting weaker and weaker, your eyes getting heavier. 'I'm sorry.'

Then everything blacked out.