dmims Page 31
Page 31
Yuto Itsuka emerged from behind the vending machine and slowly approached Mai Sakurajima.
He felt his legs go weak and his stomach churned.
"Calm down, this is just a simulation," he kept telling himself.
He walked to a position about two meters behind and to the side of Mai Sakurajima, and together they faced the railway tracks.
In the distance, the tram's headlights were already on, and a slight vibration came from the tracks.
The sounds of the wind, cars, and crowds all seemed distant at that moment.
All that remained in Yuto Itsuka's eyes was the approaching train and the girl beside him who knew nothing about it.
He was going to jump at the last moment to make sure Mai Sakurajima could see it clearly.
The tram roared in, bringing with it tremendous wind pressure.
It's now!
Yuto Itsuki gritted his teeth, lunged forward, and crossed the yellow line.
"Danger!"
"What is that person doing?!"
He heard gasps of surprise from the crowd around him.
He even mentally envisioned himself being crushed into several pieces.
Goodbye, damn simulation.
However, the expected excruciating pain and darkness did not arrive the next second.
He felt a tremendous pulling force on his wrist.
"squeak--"
The tram came to a complete stop.
Yuto Itsuka's body was violently pulled backward by the force, causing him to lose his balance and crash heavily onto the platform floor.
He opened his eyes, his mind blank. He wasn't dead?
He then turned his head and saw the person who had grabbed him.
Mai Sakurajima.
She also fell to the ground due to inertia, but her right hand was tightly gripping his left wrist.
Her strength was astonishing; Yuto Itsuka even felt that his wrist was about to be crushed.
The platform was in complete chaos.
Screams, shouts, and the whistles of platform staff.
Yuto Itsuka stared blankly at Mai Sakurajima.
She sat on the ground, breathing a little rapidly, her bangs disheveled, and the pink bunny hair clip askew to one side.
“You…” Yuto Itsuka opened his mouth.
"Why did you save me?"
This is the question he most wants to ask.
Why would she risk saving a stranger? A junior she'd only known for less than two weeks who was a simp?
No, the question should be: why would the emotionless Mai Sakurajima have the thought of needing to save someone?
Mai Sakurajima didn't answer immediately. She slowly released her grip on his wrist, where a clear red mark had been left. Then she stood up and dusted off her school uniform skirt.
Platform staff rushed over and anxiously asked if they were injured.
“We’re fine,” Mai Sakurajima replied calmly.
“Young man! You were in a dangerous situation just now! How could you do something so foolish!” The staff member turned to Yuto Itsuka and reprimanded him sternly.
Passersby gathered around, chattering amongst themselves.
"Hey! Are you guys alright?"
"That really scared me to death! That girl reacted so quickly!"
Yuto Itsuka had no choice but to bend over abruptly and shout with the spirit of a master craftsman, "I'm so sorry! It's my fault. I was afraid of missing the train, so I ran over, but I was going too fast and couldn't stop. I'm really sorry!"
The trams weren't stopping at any stations, which was the excuse to fool idiots, but the staff didn't pay attention to this issue at the moment. They just looked the boy up and down to make sure he really didn't intend to commit suicide again.
"Never mind, it's good that everyone's alright. You should still go to the hospital to see if anything is bothering you."
"No need, really no need." Itsuka Yuto straightened up.
"It's my own problem, I'll handle it myself when I get home. I'm sorry for troubling you."
The staff initially wanted to take them to the station's office, but he could only apologize repeatedly and explain that he had no intention of dying and that he was just rushing to catch the train.
It took a lot of persuasion to finally get the staff member to leave. Once back in his seat, the staff member kept staring at him, as if he wanted to keep watching him until he boarded the tram.
After the crowd of onlookers dispersed, Itsuka Yuto asked again, "Why?"
Mai Sakurajima tidied her messy hair and reattached the rabbit hair clip.
She turned to look at Yuto Itsuka, "I don't know."
“I just felt that you couldn’t die here.”
Why can't I die here?
"I do not know."
Volume 1: Chapter 39: The Little Demon Itsuka Yuuto
do not know?
Don't you have an emotional disorder? What does my death have to do with you?
Yuto Itsuka turned to look at Mai Sakurajima, who still had a calm and expressionless face.
However, this was the first unnecessary action the girl had taken after he had been observing and tracking her for so long, and perhaps he could find a breakthrough from here.
So he said, "Whether I live or die has nothing to do with you, senior. Why would you do something so unnecessary?"
Indeed, why would she do something unnecessary?
She asked herself the same question.
"I do not know."
Just as Yuto Itsuka was about to jump, her heart skipped a beat, and a sudden emotion compelled her to rush over and pull him away.
Yuto Itsuka chuckled softly, "Ah, you don't even know yourself, senpai? What a strange person."
"But senior, you should know that I walked over there on purpose, right?"
"Ah."
"So, senior, since you pulled me back from the brink of death, it means you've interfered in my life. Therefore, you must take responsibility for me."
"Responsible?"
“That’s right,” Yuto Itsuka said matter-of-factly.
"You saved me, so my life is yours now. From this moment on, you are responsible for taking good care of me."
"Senior, you wouldn't want me to die so easily, would you?"
“Your life belongs to you, and I have no obligation to be responsible for it,” Mai Sakurajima said calmly.
"You can't refuse, senior. See you tomorrow."
Yuto Itsuka waved to her and turned to continue walking towards the station.
……
The following day at noon, during lunch break.
Wuhe You/Q*un〡Yilin??Yiqi?Siwujiu (four) Jiu8dou came to the rooftop of the senior high school building alone.
He walked to the edge of the rooftop, where there was a wire fence about half a person's height. Without hesitation, he used both his hands and feet to climb up and straddle the wire fence.
This position is extremely dangerous; if you lose your balance even slightly, you could fall from the height of a five-story building.
But he doesn't care.
Not long after, the door leading to the rooftop creaked open, and Mai Sakurajima appeared in the doorway.
She came for lunch, and she was holding a piece of bread in her hand.
When she saw Itsuka Yuto straddling the barbed wire, she stopped in her tracks.
Yuto Itsuka did not turn around, but he could feel that gaze falling on him.
He didn't speak, but simply swung his legs, which were dangling in mid-air.
Footsteps sounded behind him. A second later, he felt his ankle being tightly gripped by a hand.
Then, the hand tried to pull him down from above.
He did not resist; instead, he followed the force and rolled back to the safe area of the rooftop.
He turned around and met Sakurajima Mai's unwavering black-blue eyes.
After confirming that Yuto Itsuka was safe, she looked away, turned around and walked to an empty bench next to her, sat down, and naturally tore open the packaging of the bread in her hand, taking small bites to eat.
Yuto Itsuka looked at her and found it somewhat amusing.
He walked over to her and sat down without any hesitation.
Mai Sakurajima paused in her eating, but didn't look at him, continuing to chew in small bites.
"That senior is really too much. She saved me and then just abandoned me."
He paused, looking at her unmoved profile, and deliberately emphasized his tone: "Saved and then abandoned? You started something and then dumped it... Senior, you wouldn't happen to be one of those legendary scumbags, would you?"
She finally turned to look at him.
For the first time, confusion appeared in those dark blue eyes; she seemed completely unable to comprehend Yuto Itsuka's thought process.
"I just pulled you down."
"Hmm, and then?" Yuto Itsuka pressed.
"That's dangerous."
"But I just like being up high." Itsuka Yuto shrugged and started talking nonsense. "Standing up high, feeling the wind, I feel very free."
Mai Sakurajima looked at him, remained silent for a moment, and then repeated what she had just said.
"That's dangerous."
Yuto Itsuka sighed and leaned back in his chair. "But senpai, danger will always exist no matter what you do, right?"
"Walking on the street, you might get hit by a car; while eating, you might choke to death; even staying at home, you might get hacked to death with a machete..."
As he spoke, he secretly observed Mai Sakurajima's reaction.
Yuto Itsuka continued, "Look, senior, this world is full of all sorts of accidents and dangers. If you're not careful, you can die."
"Especially for someone who has no one to care for them or look after them, the probability of them dying is even greater."
He paused here, then turned to look at Mai Sakurajima.
"Senior, that's just who I am. Nobody cares about me, nobody takes care of me."
"Yesterday on the street, today on the rooftop, and maybe tomorrow, I'll die for some other reason."
"..."
Mai Sakurajima's lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, no sound came out.
"Originally, I thought that because my senior saved me, she was willing to care about me and that she cared about me, but you rejected me."
"Indeed, it would be better if I just died cleanly and decisively, wouldn't it?"
After saying that, he secretly glanced at Mai Sakurajima.
One second, two seconds, three seconds...