Another: The Class of 1999

Flashback 6

Mai closed the boot of the car with a loud thud after checking that the suitcases were securely stacked inside. She brushed her long fringe out of her face as she walked around the front of the car and took her seat in the passenger chair. Her mother, a strict woman with a thin face, greying hair and piercing brown eyes, started the car, and they drove down the street.

"Mai, I think I need to apologise," her mother said.

Mai hid her anger and sarcasm. "Apologise for what?"

"For forcing you to come all the way out here for a year," her mother said. "Because your father and I had an argument and separated, you had to leave your brother and leave your friends and come here with me. It was wrong that I forced you, and you had to spend your final year of middle school in a new school. I'm sorry."

Mai rested her head back and closed her eyes. She exhaled. "It's fine."

"Not to mention that little friend of yours passed away a few months ago," her mother continued carelessly. "What was his name?"

"Fujiwara Riku," Mai whispered, her eyes glistening with tears that she desperately tried to blink away before her mother noticed.

That was the first time Mai had said her beloved Riku's name since she had been given the news that he had died. After his family had been on their way to leaving town, their car collided with a truck on the mountainside. There wasn't a single survivor.

Mai had broken down when he had heard the news. She refused to leave her room for days on end. Food barely touched her lips. She just felt so depressed and lacked energy and motivation. The dammed curse had taken him away because he tried to leave Yomiyama. But it wasn't his fault that he had to leave. He didn't want to go. He wanted to stay with her.

All the plans they'd made... The letters they were going to write... The kiss they hoped the share... Now it would never happen. Mai had been left. The calamity had spared her all school year, but it had taken something far worse.

Half of her wanted to die and join Riku, the other half wanted to stay alive for him.

And now the school year was over. She had lived without Riku for six months. Each day had been a misery. Each day had been lived in fear. But she'd been blessed roti survival.

"Yes," her mother tutted. "Poor lad. You liked him, didn't you?"

Mai just nodded, feeling her voice catch in her throat.

"I know you've honoured him with that long fringe, but it's a little bit silly, don't you think? You need to get a haircut before you begin high-school."

That comment just made Mai more determined to keep her long fringe. She decided to grow her fringe long, in memory of Riku, who had done the same after his buzzcut hair began growing back.

"Still, at least you'll be able to get away from this place, now," her mother said cheerfully.

She spoke like there was nothing wrong. That the double-digit deaths that school year hadn't happened. But, of course, Mai's mother didn't know the full extent of the calamity. And now the school year was over, those who weren't close to the calamity were already losing their memories of the incidents.

Mai decided that she would live on for Riku. She would get the best grades she could in high-school and college (if her parents chose the college pathway for her) and then spend her life travelling and experiencing new places, taking Riku's spirit with her.

She promised herself that no matter what happened, Riku would always live on inside her heart.

She would never forget him, no matter what...