Hitlist

6- Rooftop

After Kizana's death, and the mysterious murder of a shy, introverted girl named Oka, lots of students were moving schools because of all the deaths. The once cheerful corridors were dark and every step felt like a struggle. Lots of people's smiles had vanished, and even Michiyo could hardly keep up her positive attitude. It felt like everyone was close to their breaking point; as well as that, the headmaster was fighting to keep the school open. It just seemed to go downhill from there.

"Sakurai.. I need to speak to you." A high voice said, in a pitiful tone. She felt a hand on her shoulder and Sakurai turned around, recognising the voice immediately. Michiyo dropped her hand to her side and stared at the floor, tearing up. Sakurai jumped straight to conclusions and feared the worst about what Michiyo wanted to say.

"My parents won't let me go to this school anymore." Sakurai's heart dropped. Her best friend was going to move away. Michiyo hugged her tight and gave a sad smile. Sakurai couldn't bring herself to smile back and stared into the distance, avoiding eye contact.

"I only have one more week here... but I promise we will still see each other after school!" Michiyo said in a sad yet hopeful tone. Sakurai nodded silently and walked away, wanting to be alone. She passed Taro in the hallway and he immediately noticed something was wrong. Despite her state of depression, her eyes still lit up every time she laid her gaze on him. Butterflies swarmed her stomach, as he rested a cold hand on her shoulder. She desperately wanted to bury all her feelings, but she couldn't help but feel safe talking about it to Taro. She suddenly erupted into tears and fell into his arms, as she told him everything. As he wrapped his arms around her tightly, the two of them were completely oblivious to a set of piercing eyes pointing their gaze on them.

By the end of the day, Sakurai accidentally started walking to the drama club, just as they used to before everything started going downhill. That was when she suddenly remembered that the club was currently not open, since everyone in it was still in shock and despair. 'Why can't everything go back to normal, as it once was..?' She turned around and headed for her locker, where she saw Michiyo. Michiyo gave her a friendly smile, as if nothing was wrong.

"Hey!" She exclaimed, waving.

"Hey." Sakurai replied, fiddling with her locker, to get it open. As she opened it, something flew out.

"So do you want to go to a cafe or something soon? I'm kinda hungry!" Michiyo said, changing into her outdoor shoes.

"Yeah I'll go, but let me see what this is." Sakurai picked up the thing that fell out of her locker, realising that it was a slip of paper. It had neat handwriting on it. She slowly began reading the message.

"Oooo what's that? A love letter?" Michiyo grinned, glancing over at it.

"Nope. Someone wants to meet me in a few minutes actually." Sakurai folded the note and placed it in her left pocket.

"Does it not say who?"

"There was no name on it, so I'm assuming it must be something personal they want to speak about?"

"I guess so. Where did they want to meet you?"

"The roof."

Sakurai gathered her things, realising that she was about to be late for whoever this person was. Michiyo announced that she was going to be waiting for her, since Michiyo wanted to go to a cafe straight after. Sakurai said her rushed goodbyes and started running up the stairs. Her hair was effortlessly flowing behind her, as she sprinted up all the staircases. She eventually reached the rooftop. She noticed that no one was on the roof yet, so she walked over to a railing. The view was incredible, she could see everything from up there. There was a gentle breeze, which calmed her. As she watched the sunset, she almost forgot about everything.

"Sakurai, what are you doing up here?" A low voice asked, calmly. The sudden voice startled her and she turned around quickly. It was Taro.

"Oh, it's just you," she said, relieved, "About 10 minutes I found a note in my locker asking for me to meet them."

"Looks like they are late then," Taro said with a smile, "I have to go now, but someday we should go somewhere, like the cinema or something." Sakurai's heart skipped a beat. Did he just ask her on a date? She nodded her head eagerly and he waved to her as he turned away. Sakurai looked at her watch and decided to wait just two more minutes for the anonymous writer.

That was when she suddenly felt two forceful hands on her back...