“Heh, what you gonna do?”

“She’ll probably go crying back to her mom!”

It was always like that. Someone was always picking on her when she was young, for as long as she remembered.

She wasn’t particularly athletic, nor was she good at socializing with strangers. Making friends was especially hard for her.

So when her parents allowed her to play at the park, it was always the same story.

Some boy would come pick on her, and say mean things about her. And she would just sit there, and endure. Endure until they went away. All the pain, all the annoyance, the pent up, bubbling emotions.

She thought if she endured enough then they would just leave her alone.

Until one day…

“Leave her alone!”

Somebody had stood up for her. A boy she had never spoken to before. A boy with black short hair, and a pair of piercing eyes. He had gotten into a fight with her tormentors so she could escape.

And she did.

“Hey, you!”

And that fateful day, after her grand escape, she had met a girl. A beautiful girl, with golden lock hair.

“What are you running from?”

And so she explained. She told her about the harassment, and how a boy had saved her.

“What?! That’s unthinkable!”

And the girl in turn too, was getting angry on her behalf. That day really felt like it was full of surprises.

Eh?

Before she realized, the girl had dragged her back to the scene, fuming.

But there was no one there.

The fight had ended, and the boys had left.

“Ah-re? What’s with that?”

The girl beside her was baffled too.

Would she never have the chance to thank that boy for what he had done?

“Oh, apologies, I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name is Hazuki, And yours?”

“Naomi.”

The girl replied timidly, but without any stutter.

“Listen here, Naomi. From now on, you’re my friend, and whoever hurts you answers to me, okay?”

The girl she had just met declared passionately. Her eyes were sparkling and beaming with determination.

A friend?

Had she really made a friend?

Her first friend in 9 years…

And she owed it all to that boy that had saved her…

“Okay…”

She spoke once more, sealing the deal.

And thus began their friendship. A new refreshing start for Naomi.

…

Much to Naomi’s surprise, Hazuki was even more headstrong than she appeared, and she would usher away any kids that tried to pick on Naomi after that incident.

Naomi was finally free.

Their friendship held strong to the tricks of time, and the two girls grew up side by side, steadily yet surely.

And through it all, Naomi had found herself discovering sides to herself she didn’t know existed.

She had realized how outgoing she could be in the face of someone she trusted wholeheartedly. She didn’t know having a friend felt that good. She didn’t know laughing together with someone could make one feel so… alive.

Naomi felt more positive than ever, and soon began to see only the good in people, like Hazuki used to say.

The two girls were practically glued to each other for years, and they naturally shared hobbies too.

One in particular, seemed quite fascinating to both.

A weird love for the occult.

They would often watch horror movies together, and spend hours on Hazuki’s computer searching and prying the net for ghost stories. The scares brought with them a sense of satisfaction, a thrill, a thirst for more.

So one day, a few weeks before their middle school graduation, they decided to check out a rumored haunted location in their neighborhood.

An abandoned parking lot.

To their surprise, the place actually felt like the real deal. A certain atmosphere hung in the air, making their hairs stand on end.

It felt too real.

And that was because it WAS real.

Something jumped them out of nowhere in the dark. A hideous and deformed creature.

It got Hazuki in one swoop, with its big and nasty long arms.

She couldn’t escape.

“Naomi, run!”

Her friend cried out, pushed down by the creature.

Naomi was frozen solid, but at the face of those words, her feet moved on their own.

She ran. She fled. She left her friend behind, and saved herself.

Naomi ran back to Hazuki’s parents, and later that night, they found her body.

Hazuki was… dead.

She kept apologizing again and again, but nothing could bring her back,

Naomi had lost her only friend that night.

…

Following the incident, Naomi graduated, and entered high school. This time, alone.

With her timid personality and lack of friends, it was a matter of time before she got harassed again.

After all, Hazuki wasn’t there for her to talk to anymore. She wasn’t there to protect her either. She never had to socialize because of her. And she certainly didn’t have to learn to protect herself.

Hazuki always had her back after all.

But now that Hazuki wasn’t there, Naomi couldn’t defend herself.

And the bullying began once more.

The popular girls from her class always looked at her with scorn in their eyes.

And it wasn’t long until they struck.

After a misunderstanding due to an accident, the girls were onto her.

They even got some scary upperclassmen involved.

Naomi couldn’t do anything. She had reversed back to her old, timid self.

Deep inside though, she didn’t really mind. Maybe that was her punishment for letting her only friend down like she did. Maybe she should have stayed and died with her in the first place.

“What are YOU doing here, punk?!”

“Me? Just taking out the trash.”

Yet again, someone had come to her rescue though.

Another boy, with the same piercing gaze….

Could it be?

He had fought her tormentors, just like before, and saved her one more time without batting an eye.

“You dropped this yesterday.”

To her surprise, he had also retrieved her sketchbook she had thought gone.

Was he watching? Was he looking out for her?

Was he the upperclassman her tormentors had talked about?

Always watching…

Protecting her.

Who could he be?

Maybe, just maybe…

She had to know his name.

“W-wait!” The girl turned towards her savior, clutching the sketchbook in her arms.

But he was already out the school by the time she had called out to him.

Her absent-mindedness had costed her. Despite that though, she found herself smiling. Knowing that young man was also a student at her school was already something positive in and of its own.

As Naomi was lost in thought, an upperclassman with short, red hair came jogging out the school building.

“That idiot! Where did he go?!” She huffed.

“Uhm, excuse me, have you seen a blonde dude, with weirdly nice bone-structure, and the eyes of someone who just got out of prison?”

“Eh?” The upperclassman had turned towards Naomi, who was taken aback.

Was she referring to the boy just now?

“I… think so.” Naomi muttered. “He just left.”

“That damn fool! He didn’t even mop the floor! I’ll get you back for that Kanzaki!” The energetic girl stomped her way angrily back to the school.

“Kanzaki, eh…?”