Facade

Blame

She woke up in her bed. Yui looked around the room in panic. The dance is tomorrow and she didn't do anything. She hurriedly jumped out of bed and looked at the clock. It was 9 PM. Maybe of she ran to school somebody could've stayed from the people who are helping her? Yeah, it's worth a shot. She got up, put on her uniform as fast as she could and ran down stairs.

"I know it's your fault. Don't say it isn't." She heard her mom say.

"But she just collapsed!" Saito yelled desperately, trying to convince his mother.

Yui didn't have time to listen to this, nor did she have the nerves to. She just decided to go by impulse, which was a first for her.

"He didn't do anything!" Yui yelled at Satoko.

Her mother looked at her in surprise, and so did Saito. Satoko's face slowly turned into one of anger.

"Don't you raise your voice at me!" Satoko yelled at her.

"Shut up! It was my fault all of this happened! Everything is my fault! So stop blaming everything that happens on him!" Yui angrily pointed at Saito.

"Yui-" Saito started, but she cut him off.

"I don't care! I'm the one to blame! So shut up and start blaming someone else!"

Her mother was taken a back. Since when is her daughter so angry and moody? Yui was always bright and optimistic. She never talked back, so whats this all of a sudden?

"If you're not gonna answer, I'm gonna go!" Yui said and actually slammed the door shut.

She ran to school, being angry at herself that she wasted precious time arguing with her mother who was stubborn as a mule. As she went to the gym, she heard shattered glass. And again. And again.

"Little boys like playing with fire? Haha, sure." A voice was heard.

It was Haru's.

He walked around the room, occasionally breaking something. Sometimes his hand would randomly twitch, and she didn't see how his face looked like.

"It's not like it matters! Everything is too late! It always is!" He started laughing.

She couldn't even walk inside. What the hell is he talking about? He's acting like a madman.

He abruptly stopped talking and just clenched his head.

"God damn, what am I doing?" He whispered.

With that last line he started heading to the door. She quietly tip toed to hide. It's best if she pretends she didn't see anything. He walked away.

She went inside the gym, still a bit startled. The whole stage was broken. She knew it was her fault, and everyone went away after she ran out.

"Can I even do this by myself...?" She silently whispered.

She couldn't. She knew that. She again, started panicking.

It's her fault. If she didn't twitch like that after Yoko asked a simple question. If she stayed calm in that situation everyone could've stayed and helped her. If she hadn't pass out. If she didn't yell at her mother. If she just talked to Haru now, he would surely help her. That's why he stayed so long.

She was crying like crazy now, even choking at her own tears.

"I'm a failure! Even mom won't love me!" She screamed.

Yui fell on the floor. She still continued to ramble endlessly.

"Mom only loves me when I accomplish something... I failed! She won't love me anymore!" She was just yelling nonsense by now.

She was breathing heavily and looking like she was gonna throw up.

"Yui...?" She heard a voice again.

She panicked so much, she couldn't even recognize the voice. She couldn't even concentrate on something so simple.

"Yui! Relax! It's me!"

Yui recognized her brother, but she still looked terrified.

"What the hell happened?" Saito asked her as he approached.

"I... I ruined it! I fell from the ladder and the stage just...!" She yelled.

"That was just an accident." He assured.

"But... But I ruined it! Nobody else!" She started shaking even more.

"Calm down! Stop putting everything on yourself!" Saito yelled at her.

"Oh please! It's not like you do anything for this family!"

He stopped talking. That's true. Very, very true.

"You don't have a job, you have awful grades and always couse some kind of trouble! If you don't do anything right, at least I have to do it! That's why I drink those energy drinks! I need them!"

He just stared at her. So it's his fault that his sister is like this. But there's no time for that. Something else was on his mind.

"What energy drinks?" He asked.

"I... I drink them so I can stay awake the whole night..." She whispered.

"Are you crazy!? That's unhealthy as fuck! You still need sleep!" He protested.

"Don't even worry about that. I sleep four hours on the weekends and I get one hour of sleep on week days..." Yui mumbled while moving away a lock of hair from her face.

"One freaking hour?! That's still not enough!"

"It's enough to get the job done." Yui smiled.

"That's not the point! Those things increase your heart beating! You know darn well that you're sick, and you still use them! They're illegal, and they're even known to kill people! You could freaking die!" This was one of the rare times Saito scolded her.

Yui looked down, feeling a bit ashamed. But she still tried to argue, not accepting she's wrong.
"Don't worry... Haru buys the ones that aren't dangerous for me." Yui stated.

"Haru bought them?! Is that why you were in the hospital last year!?"

Realization finally hit him. That would make sense. The doctor said she was in the hospital because of increased beating, and her heart was already too weak to begin with. And Haru buys her those things, even though they're bad for her. No wonder he's familiar with the west side. Could the thing Saito and Haru were buying the last time be the very same drinks?

"R-Relax! That time he baught the wrong ones!" Yui answered.

"What if he buys the wrong one again? What are you gonna do then, huh?" Saito continued.

"Hitomi-San is making sure it's the right one..."

"Kimura?! Of course she's fucking involved in this..." He mumbled, still being furious out of his mind.

"I'm sorry... But I need to do this for mom... For you too." She said tiredly, the tears were welling up again.

"You don't need to do anything for her or me!" Saito said, feeling even more angry at himself.

"I'll get a job! Hell, I'll even study! I swear, I'll try to be more careful with my powers! Just please, stop putting yourself in danger!" Even he was sounding desperate now.

Yui started to cry even more. Saito didn't know what he should do, but even then Yui knew what to do instead of him. She hugged him and he hugged her back.

"Thank you so much..." She whispered.

"You're welcome..." He said, still processing everything that his sister did.