Sokudo: Villains Always Win (ᴠᴏʟᴜᴍᴇ ᴛᴡᴏ)

Chapter ten | guilt

Silence. Not the comfortable kind, but the one when everyone is afraid to say the first word, the uncomfortable kind where there's not a single sound. It stayed like that for nearly a minute, everyone waiting for someone to make the first move.

Sick of the ever-lasting silence, Chieko broke it. "Taichi... what didn't you tell me?" She took a demanding tone, worry in her slightly narrowed eyes as she looked at the taller boy. Who had a guilty look on his face turned to the side, unable to hide the truth.

"Chieko..." Minji said, causing Chieko to turn in her direction, and be met with pity. "Taichi, he didn't tell you to save your feelings..." She didn't want any of that, she didn't want his pity. Why did he suddenly start acting so considerate after acting like she didn't exist for days, weeks? He couldn't suddenly start caring about her feelings.

"I don't care," she said bitterly, closing her hands into fists. "I don't want his kindness, or his lies. Minji, tell me, what happened?" She had enough of this, she wanted the truth, even if it'd somehow hurt her. Minji, she looked hesitant. She opened her mouth but slowly closed it, and lowered her head.

"Like I said before, I've gathered more than a few cuts and bruises along the years... I never went to get them properly treated, though, so after our fight, some of my wounds... opened up." Even as she spoke, she sounded hesitant, afraid to hurt Chieko's feelings. That just made the pain even worse.

She lifted her head, staring into Chieko's eyes. "Chieko, it really isn't your fault. You had just gotten so much stronger that, well, my body just couldn't take it... It's my fault, really, for not getting proper treatment, and now I'll have to get surgery." She let a small smile appear at the last comment, a sad one as her gaze slowly fell.

Chieko didn't say a word. Kept her fists tight, a frown on her lips, but her narrowed eyes softened. All of this was a huge mess, they were a mess. She wondered how long they could go on like this, a dysfunctional family of three tied together with nowhere else to go, without even a real house to live in.

Her fists opened up, and she let out a quiet sigh. She couldn't be mad at Minji, but she couldn't feel mad at herself either. Maybe before she would have blamed herself, tell herself that she should have noticed the signs that weren't there, and been more careful when there had been nothing she could have done to avoid this. It wasn't completely Minji's fault either, or so she told herself.

Sure, she should have been more careful, taken better care of herself. Chieko knew Minji was only a few years older than her, nearly an adult but not yet. She still had a long way to go, and yet, she was in the hospital looking like she could fall asleep and never wake up at any given second. But it wasn't her fault, she didn't give herself those injuries, she got them fighting.

She couldn't find anyone to blame, but it had to be somebody's fault, didn't it? There must be someone to put all the guilt on. But it had been split unequally between them, including her.

"It's not your fault, Minji." That's all she could manage to say, her voice soft and quiet, with a pitch of sadness in the mix. Minji must have mistaken her words as an apology, because her eyes widened and she was quick to respond saying that it was indeed her own fault, and not Chieko's. Though, she didn't get the chance to.

Instead of words coming out of her mouth, it had been thick, dark red blood. She coughed, multiple times as Satou panicked, trying to stop the coughing while desperately screaming out for help. Taichi ran out of the room in the blink of an eye, but Chieko still saw the look of horror across his pale face.

Chieko wanted to help, but all she could do was stand there silently in shock. Minji did look close to death, with how sickly pale her face was, and the amount of bandages covering her body there was, and the oxygen mask that covered her mouth now painted a dark red.