Our Mask [Shinso Hitoshi X Reader]

Special: When He Had It All

WARNING: *ANGST*. Themes of suicide and death. A short story that took place many years before Hitoshi and (Name)'s meeting.

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The sun was setting, coloring the sky in pink and orange hues. It was a sight that even a man as unininterested as Shouta was distracted by. His hand rested on the door handle of the pharmacy but he wasn't making a move to go in yet. The calm that the view was granting him was interrupted by a voice behind him.

"Sir?Are you a homeless man?"

The familiar words registered instantly. In any other case, he would've been annoyed at such a rude assumption, but the reality of his soulmate being right behind him had him far too preoccupied with startlement. He turned.

In front of him was perhaps the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was holding out a bright red apple in her gloved hand, waiting for him to take it with passive eyes.

"You're probably not going in the store because you don't have money for food, right?"

Though, as beautiful as she was, she was starting to piss him off. He sneered and his glare was enough to make the woman quickly retract her hand. She muttered a meek 'sorry' and walked off with haste. He didn't call out after her. Based on the mark on his hip, he knew he'd see her again.

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Shouta finally had the eye drops that he quested out for in his pocket. He was walking around with no purpose at this point, his breath visible in the cold of the night. He stepped foot on a bridge high over a river and his attention was caught by a silhouette far off into the bridge.

There wasn't much lighting for him to see so far. All he could make out was a ridiculously tall person at the edge of the bridge. He didn't mean to stare as he walked across, but once the fog cleared up the slightest, his eyes widened in panic.

There was no tall person beside the bridge--it was a familiar figure standing on the edge and she looked ready to jump. In a second, he threw out his capture weapon, catching the woman by surprise and she screamed at the sudden feeling of the restraints throwing her down into the ground. She trashed around in a panic, her screams echoing in the quiet night, and Shota was too agitated with the adrenaline coursing through his veins to address her yet.

Was the woman trying to kill herself?

The woman was no longer in a panic but she kept begging and crying out against the restraints; one thing he could tell was that she wasn't happy to have her plans ruined by him. He was in far too much shock to comfort or question her yet so he let himself take a seat on the ground as he tried to take his bearings. It would give her the time she needed to calm down.

Eventually, that time came. She was no longer fighting the restraints despite how much she'd significantly loosened them after all she tried. The woman laid helplessly on the ground with tears flowing out her eyes. Her sniffles were the only sound for a good while as she stared directly up to the night sky until Shota finally spoke up.

"Why were you going to do it?"

The man never saw a need to beat around the bush and now was certainly not the time for it. The woman had been seconds away from handing over her own life and had fought against his rescue until she had no energy. A suicide attempt wasn't one he'd yet encountered and he observed her carefully. Her eyes never stopped producing tears or left the view above her as she answered truthfully,

"I'm tired of killing."

Shouta's eyes widened. The dead silence of the night was louder in his ears. The woman looked nothing like a killer--she looked delicate and the way her words sounded was desperate. He knew better than to judge by looks, though. There was no reason for her to lie about something as severe. Then he remembered another detail.