A Love as Red as a Ground Cherry

Chapter One

Chiyu stood atop her balcony banister, lightly pushing her hand against the wall to stabilize herself. She looked out towards the horizon as the evening sky painted itself with colors. She breathed deeply, thinking of what brought her here.

All through her life she had wanted to die. From not playing piano perfectly to her unhappiness with her body, the answer was, "I want to die." Yet at the same time she thought, "Others have it worse so I have no right to say "I want to die" but now she was right at the edge. One step and her wish would be fulfilled, she would fall eight stories, landing dead on the pavement. She felt sorry for the worker who would have to clean her up.

Even though right now she was close, so close to the wish she had wanted her entire life; just one more step and she would finally reach her dream. But deep inside her, behind all the despair and turmoil, a little voice intruded with a simple word, "stop." But that wasn't the thought she wanted to entertain. She instead focused on her true wish—death.

The longer she thought about all of this the more her thoughts spun out of control. She wanted it to be silent, she wanted to ignore it all and just jump. But the thoughts raced faster, building on each other until they trapped her in her own mind.

Her senses faded away. She could only hear a faint ringing as intrusive thoughts raced in her head. If only she could cut them all out. Her head began to pound, was she even in this world anymore? Had she already jumped? Then she heard a voice,

"The sunset, it's beautiful isn't it?"

Breaking from her trance, she noticed a boy leaning against the banister. He had the palest skin, white hair, and fox ears, but the thing she noticed most was his captivating scarlet eyes. He was not human to say the least. She paused before answering,

"Mhm." She nodded. "It is."

"Are you going to jump?" the boy asked.

Shakily she took a breath in, attempting to solidify her decision, "I will soon."

They both stared off into the sky. The top of the sun was barely peeking out from the buildings. The sky darkened, and the clouds reflected reds, oranges, and pinks as stars began to decorate the sky.

"You should say to yourself, 'I want to live'."

Chiyu hummed in response, ignoring him like she does to her own little voice.

"This life, the earth, the future, they're all beautiful things, even if you take them for granted now."

She sighed, "I don't think this life has anything kind left for me"

"Then in this life you hate, live on for me."

She took a breath in as if she was going to speak, but she closed her mouth.

"Live solely for this guy I don't even know... I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry." She thought to herself.

After regathering her words, she spoke, "I don't know who you are, what you are, or anything about you at all—why would I live for you?"

The boy hopped onto the banister and stood up. He was much taller than her.

"Sorry, it seems that I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Mafumafu, a shinigami."

"A shinigami? A god of death has come to see me?"

"Ah, don't worry too much though I'm a newly born god."

Even so, such a powerful being came to tell her not to die. Perhaps fate differed from her wishes, but she hoped to change that.

"Even if you're a god, I won't just live for you. I'm not particularly religious either. You don't know my life, you don't know my struggles."

This situation was stressing her out more than she already was. Her heart pounded in her chest as she began to grow more dizzy and breathless.

"Knowing your life front to back isn't relevant. I know in every human there's a desire to live. I can't use any fancy words to convince you so... Just live."

She wanted to scream. A knot formed in her throat with tears budding in her eyes.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up..." repeated in her head. His words were true. Something inside her fought to live. If she held her breath, eventually something would force her to breathe again.

Mafumafu outstretched his hand to her.

"Stop it," she whispered.

He closed his eyes and smiled at her.

"Go away please..."

And then she took a step off.

She screwed her eyes shut. The wind whipped around her as she fell. Then, fear overcame her. She didn't want to hit the ground. She opened her eyes and saw him, Mafumafu.

He was falling too, with his arms outstretched to her. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close to himself. His warm, soft embrace felt like the comfort her little voice wanted. Wrapping her arms around his neck she pulled him close. She leaned her head into his chest. Just once it was ok to feel safe. It was ok to feel comforted. The warmth ended as quickly as it started. Then, they both slowed, landing softly on the ground like a cherry blossom.

Mafumafu helped Chiyu stand up.

"Are you alright?"

She couldn't answer him. Her body was frozen in shock. "Move" she mentally urged herself. Her heart beat out of her chest. "Move... MOVE!" Suddenly she ran, dashing towards the apartment complex's outdoor elevator.

Chiyu spammed the button to call the elevator. Every second felt like years were being taken off her life. Finally, the elevator came.

She rushed in and slammed her fist on the button to close the door. She then selected the eighth floor and leaned against the wall. She took deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself. "In...out...in...out..." The elevator seemed to move in slow motion. All she could hear was the mechanical clicking and shifting of the gears as the elevator continued its horridly slow climb.

A light beep counting that a floor has passed joined the orchestra of gears. She counted each beep, "One... two...three..."

Finally, a resounding click locked the elevator into place and the doors slowly opened. She held her head down as she walked to her apartment door. She typed in the passcode to the lock and closed the door behind her.