Obsession (Ayano x Budo)

Chapter 28

It was like an electric shock had zapped Taro.

His eyes flung open. They danced around the room for a brief second before flashing towards her. As soon as he saw her, his face paled. His chest started heaving, up and down like a tent collapsing and lifting over and over again. Ayano startled. He's having a panic attack!

"Get away from me!" Taro snarled, and although the he didn't move - couldn't move - his eyes blazed on her, his panic and fear clearly evident in the whites of his eyes. Ayano jerked back as if she had been stung.

"What?" she managed, hardly believing what she was seeing.

"Somebody, help me!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, and Ayano looked around her to see a dozen different eyes looking back. She instantly filled with self-consciousness and she shrinked in on herself. What was happening? Why was Taro causing such a scene?

"Go away! Help! She's going to hurt me!" He was still screaming at her, staring at her, not with the gentle, calm expression she'd come to know of him, come to admire of him, but in a dazed, ferocious panic, as if she were the devil itself. She felt her heart breaking for the second time that week. Ayano couldn't stand it any longer. She turned and ran.

With the echoes of frenzied nurses and Taro's screams behind her, she ran. Her legs carried her down the corridors, and she stumbled down the stairs and flew out the front hospital doors.

Ayano was instantly blinded by the bright white light of the sun and she halted, lifting a hand to shield her eyes. At the same time, she was being buffeted by a fierce, angry wind, her hair sent whipping into her eyes, forcing her to squeeze them shut. It was difficult to breathe.

With her eyes closed, she saw Taro's fearful, angry face staring at her.

Ayano broke down right there in the parking lot, crying as her mind replayed the hatred in his eyes.
And in distant, numb way, she thought, "What's the point?" The one she loved most would never love her. She'd thought she could force him. It had almost seemed perfect that he had become paralyzed, seeing as he wouldn't be able to reject her, but now, somehow, he knew. He knew it was Ayano who was the cause of it all, and he would never, ever forgive her. Even if she tried to force him, she could never bear to see that look he'd given her. A look of pure hate.

Senpai could never love me. It was official. That was it. The cold, hard truth blasting through her head like bullets. Game over.

The bitter-cold wind slashed at her clothes and left her body frozen to the bone. Ayano felt like only person in the world. She ducked her tear-streaked face into her hands. There, in the small comfort of the darkness they provided, where no one else could see her pain, she allowed herself to fall apart, and felt hot tears run in between her fingers.

Every cry tore violently at her heart. She felt herself screaming internally, collapsing under a wave of depression which pulled her under the surface into the depths of despair. Even though her eyes were closed, she saw the edge of her vision speckle in blackness. Would she faint? Would her body save her from this overwhelming pain when no one else would?-

And then suddenly she was caught by a pair of arms.

Like a thick blanket, she felt warm, strong arms envelope her, protecting her sides from the onslaught of the wind, encircling her until they reached her back. The pressure was tight yet gentle, like a firm, comfortable hug. She felt herself be pulled forward slightly, until she was being held against a solid chest, her head propped up against it.