The Winners Take It All | Chishiya [English]

Trust

He turned his head towards me as I entered the apartment. Apparently, he had been waiting for me to come back.

Funny, I didn't even think that he would do something like that...

I tossed a box in his direction that I had looted from a supermarket.

From my conclusions, I knew that he didn't like eating sweet things, with one exception: strawberries. When I was browsing in the supermarket, I found strawberry flavored Mikado sticks.

It was risk whether he liked it or not.

Out of the corner of my eye I caught the brief glint in his eyes that gave me approval. Bullseye, I was right.

I quickly placed the bag with the remaining snacks next to the couch and then disappeared into the bathroom with the new clothes, where I closed the door behind me.

I knew I would heat up quickly during the games. That's why I chose a short-sleeved shirt and shorts. I had also brought a new jacket with me, but for now I just tied it around my waist.

As I changed, I checked Aguni's work for the first time. I had to say the stitching looked pretty good. It could have looked a lot worse, but the crust wasn't yellow, which was a bit of a relief.

Now I could only hope that the pain level stayed that way, then everything would be great.

When I left the bathroom, the living room was already bathed in a beautiful, reddish light.

That's right, the sunset...

Since I couldn't see Chishiya anywhere, I assumed he had either gone out to play or sat down on the balcony outside.

I padded to the balcony door and peered outside. Lo and behold - what did I say? He was sitting outside.

He had made himself comfortable on the wooden bench and let the sun shine on his face. Just like he had done on the roof of Beach.

I set about making us something for dinner. Luckily, we had water and a camping stove available, which made cooking easier for me. So, I whipped up instant noodles that smelled pretty good. My mouth watered as the spicy smell hit my nose.

How long had it been since I last had warm food in my stomach?

I filled the meal into two bowls and carried it outside with chopsticks. Without a word, I placed the dishes on the table in front of Chishiya and then collapsed onto the wooden bench, where I began to wolf down the noodles.

My mother would have said it wasn't very lady like. But I didn't really care what she thought- and yet the thought immediately came to my mind.

Chishiya next to me smiled slightly as he too ate his dinner.

"You met Ayumi, am I right?" he suddenly asked when we had fallen into a comfortable silence for a while. I bit my tongue a little in shock and started cursing.

"How do you know that?" I asked as I tried to soothe the burning sensation with water.

"I saw you guys out the window," he confessed, and I looked at him for a moment. He had been looking out the window at that exact moment? I could hardly believe that.

"Mmh," I uttered, and he examined me carefully.

"You've changed, Ayuna," he took a breath, "And yet you still freeze every time you see her. You... didn't have a good relationship, did you?"

Oh no, the conversation drifted in a direction I didn't really want to go.

What was he thinking? Why did he suddenly want to know so much about me, he hardly asked before!

"What will this be when it's finished, Chishiya?" I asked, my voice sounding more irritated than usual. I could have cursed myself for letting the topic get so close to me again, but to my surprise he didn't grin, no, he looked serious.

"Did you do this to yourself? Because of her?" he suddenly wanted to know, and his hand reached for my left arm. I gasped in shock as he stroked the scars that remained.

A monument.

It would stay forever.

It was a reminder of a time when I had no hope.

Oh no, I had forgotten that he was so observant, that he could combine things so well.

He had probably already seen the scars on the beach but had never mentioned it to me.

I lowered my head in shame as his fingers set off fireworks in my body. Every gentle touch on my arm almost made me shiver.

I suddenly had the urge to tell him everything. I wanted to tell him what had happened to me.

"There was a time in my life when the world was against me," I whispered, and he scooted a little closer to me so he could hear what I was saying. I wanted to speak louder, but I couldn't. My throat was suddenly bone dry.

"I was born a twin. The family I grew up in saw this as a curse. My parents... How should I best describe it? They were members of a cult. Twins were not welcome there. And I, the second born, got caught in the wildfire. I don't want to go into too much detail, but my life hasn't been easy," I swallowed.

Only then did I notice that Chishiya was still holding my arm.

Uh-oh, what was I doing here?

"But it only got bad after my sixteenth birthday. That's when I found this special way to deal with my inner pain. I couldn't stop it. When I think back now, I'm ashamed of it," I looked up at the sky, " And then the only person who had given my life meaning died. That was the day when I, too, wanted to end my life. Luckily for me, I couldn't do it. The wound wasn't deep enough. They found me; I was taken to the hospital. There... I heard my parents and how they complained that I hadn't died. From then on, I decided to finally break away from them. I wanted to live, to show them that I could live without them. I worked hard and finally managed to take everything into my own hands. Well, my sister was jealous. She hadn't been able to take this step too. Envy and jealousy have always plagued our relationship."

He was silent for quite a while. I was afraid he would laugh at me. But no, once again he surprised me.

"Thank you for your trust."

I looked at him in surprise. He looked at me, I couldn't figure out what he was thinking. But I never expected what came next.

He smiled. It was a beautiful, genuine smile.

"I'm glad you didn't die."