Casualties (Yandere Males x Reader)

[17] Concern and Comforts

With knitted eyebrows and inauspicious thoughts brewing in your head, you pressed play on the interview. Seeing all the firetrucks, worried students and staff, and hurried firefighters rushing inside the building that you almost lost your life to; seeing the scene of the fire from an outsider's perspective definitely felt weird.

You skimmed through parts of the video to speed up the process. As you were doing so, it came to your attention that your name was mentioned many times. Looks like you were an important topic regarding this incident. In fact, the main headline was how a student was trapped inside a fire. And from the interviews you saw with the students, they were making you out to be some sort of 'hero'.

Admittedly, a small part of you felt pleased that your efforts were recognised. However, your discomfort on how much emphasis and exaggeration they placed on you was far more prevalent. Well, it was the news after all. They needed to garner audience engagement somehow.

You Immediately stopped skimming through the video when you saw Hayami's face. With knitted eyebrows and a pensive expression, you tentatively listened.

"I tried to save her, I really did!" Her emotional expression did not line in character with her usual aloof and nonchalant behaviour during school.

"(L/n)-san pulled me away from the fire and she told me to run. But, I couldn't bring myself to leave her so I waited by the door, but she ended up tripping. I wanted to run back and help her, but she kept yelling at me to get out of there, to not let her efforts go in vain. So, I ran to safety. I didn't think that she would be trapped in the fire. I still feel a lot of guilt. I should've stayed behind even if it meant going against her words. I'm just glad that she was able to make it out."

Her orange eyes looked straight at the camera.

"(L/n)-san, thank you. And I hope you recover as soon as possible."

Those were her final words in the interview. The video continued to cover other parts of the incident, other parts that went one ear out the other as you were so focused on Hayami's words. You switched off the phone and a tense silence suffocated the room.

"I want to break her neck."

Yeah, that about summed it up in the simplest way possible.

A frustrated sigh seeped past your lips. Your self restraint in stopping yourself from storming out of this hospital, breaking into the closest news station to vociferate refutes to Hayami's words was precarious. If she was going to get away with an attempted murder by simply lying to a camera, you were seriously going to put a pause of saving lives and endanger one yourself. You weren't a male lead, so that wasn't against the rules right? Heck, her acting wasn't even that good. You've dealt with Kashi and Shichirou enough times to know that.

"You look like you need to rant," Seiji said, interrupting your furious storm of thoughts. "Wanna take it out on me? Not to brag, but I'm a pretty good listener."

Though his tone held a lighthearted and playful note, there was a comforting sense of gentleness to it. Just hearing someone genuinely worrying over you without having to stress about their ulterior motives helped quell your anger a little. You sighed and showed a tired, but appreciative, smile.

"I'll take you up on that offer. You don't need to believe me, just—I need to get this out of my system."

And so, you began explaining everything starting from when the fire first broke out. You mentioned how Hayami was the first one that had the opportunity to run to safety, how she was the one who started it in the first place, and most importantly, how she was the one to push you into the fire and closed the door on you.