For a few very quiet minutes, he did nothing but lie in the storeroom that he was in. He closed his eyes again and concentrated only on the silence, waiting for the nausea to settle.
At the first sound, the moment broke.
River’s hand returned to his side. Aspen went up into a crouch and River sat up, Aspen’s jacket sliding off his chest.
“Someone is coming”, Aspen declared in his usual tone and took his jacket back from River.
A bit unsteady, the other stood up and nodded in agreement.
Aspen watched him closely, worried that the other might slump down again.
When River had fainted, Aspen had admittedly panicked a bit. He didn’t know what to do with a fainted person and he wasn’t sure the other hadn’t hurt his head when he fell. Speaking from experience, humans got hurt easily.
He had dragged him into the small storage room in hopes of the young man waking up by himself, somehow managing to avoid the shadows coming out of every classroom. In the meantime, he could do nothing but wait and feel River’s pulse once in a while to make sure he was still alive. His breath was so shallow it was hardly noticeable most of the time.
He had been lucky that no one had appeared in the past hour, and even luckier that River had woken up right before someone came.
The increasing feeling of attachment was like a drug in his bloodstream, but he had nothing to lose. He didn’t want to be alone, so he wasn’t going to allow River to leave him anymore. It was too late for that.
Since the sounds were still far away, the two men hurriedly slipped out of the room.
“There”, River alerted Aspen, who joined River in looking around the corner. The sound they had heard must have been steps, as they were just in time to see Dude – who they hadn’t seen around much yet – jog towards Skirt.
“We haven’t seen this yet. We’re lucky”, Aspen commented and leaned against the wall.
Skirt heard the sounds behind her and looked back over her shoulder. She tensed and nervously lowered her head, stepping to the side, but Dude was clearly there for her. With a large step, he got into her way, forcing her to retreat into a corner.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Qlat bcf tjcv jujlcra atf kjii, Gevf mibrfv boo tfg kjs bo gfagfja. Ktfs fzmtjcufv kbgvr – Vxlga kjr raeaafglcu yea Gevf kjr mifjgis tjnlcu oec.
“Yt”, Crqfc rjlv vgsis. “Lf’r j qfgnfga, lrc’a tf?”
Cr lo ab mbcolgw Crqfc’r kbgvr, Gevf qijmfv tlr ogff tjcv bc Vxlga’r atlut. Pa kjr tlut fcbeut ab mgfjrf atf ilcfr bo tfg rxlga jr la uba qertfv eq j yla.
The girl shuddered. Her whole body trembled like a leaf and she was cowering. There was no hint of her consenting to what he was doing, but he didn’t stop. He whispered some words before laughing and drawing back only after letting his hand slide once over her waist and up to the lines of her breast.
He tapped a finger on the underside of her chin, dominant and controlling.
Dude left, putting his hands into his pockets.
“I wonder, is this common? Does this happen everywhere, people just touching others as they please?” Aspen’s tone was without too much emotion. River’s gaze moved from Skirt down to his partner, who was blankly staring forward.
The dim memories of what his brother’s friend had done to him resurfaced inside of River. Common? Maybe.
“What do you think about things like this?”
“You mean, since I’m also a criminal?” Aspen shrugged. “I doubt my logic works for you. You see, I don’t kill people for fun or anything like that. As I said before, to me it’s not much different from turning off electronics. I acknowledge that society considers it a crime, but I don’t feel guilty about it. That doesn’t mean I enjoy causing others pain or agree with others doing it. I tend to try and keep it quick if possible.”
River hummed. He didn’t openly agree or disagree with Aspen, whose whole thought process was different from what he was used to.
Besides, the longer River lived in the hell the people around him conjured, the more he was inclined to agree with Aspen.
It sure would be nice if you could turn people off and on like machines.
Skirt had not moved at all while they had talked, her body frozen in the corner. It was only when a creak could be heard from nearby that she flinched.
Three heads jerked around.
The man that stood in the doorframe trying to sneak away unseen was an Actor. He was the teacher they had noticed before.
Skirt’s whole body straightened up at once. She rushed over, her hands reaching out to get a hold of Teacher’s arm. Her voice held a clear tone of begging and questioning.
A small flicker of hope appeared in River’s heart. How nice it would be if that teacher now supported her. How nice it would be if he wasn’t a coward.
But if reality was that nice, the girl wouldn’t have committed suicide.
Teacher jerked his arm out of her grasp and turned his head. His voice was unsteady but clearly rejecting her. Someone who tried to act oblivious and dismissive. He was not going to help her, and the moment Skirt realized that point, she began to sob quietly, burying her face in her hands.
The teacher paused for a mere two seconds before hurrying away without another look back.
“So is this the reason why she committed suicide? Because she was being bullied and sexually harassed? Is… that a reason to give up your life?” Aspen tilted his head in confusion. He looked so much like a lost child at that moment that River involuntarily raised his hand and placed it on Aspen’s head.
The soft hair tickled his fingers. Aspen kept still, only moving his eyes to look at him with naive confusion.
“Your pain is yours, my pain is mine”, River said quietly. “I guess no one has the right to judge whether something is still acceptable for someone to bear. What I might be able to handle might be the most terrible thing for you. Maybe this was simply too much for her to endure.”
The constant pressure must have built up. This was her choice of escape, apparently.
Aspen’s lips pursed. “If that is what you think, then you shouldn’t fault me for finding my family too much to endure and killing them.”
River retracted his hand and slowly closed his eyes. “No. I have neither the right nor the wish to judge you for that.”
The entirety of the circumstances in a situation like that was something no one other than Aspen knew.
Why someone snapped, whether that meant turning harm to yourself or someone else, was not something an outsider could understand. River knew that others, were they in his stead, would have long turned violent towards his brother, and yet River endured.
At the same time, Aspen was someone who had decided to stop enduring.
He wasn’t going to fault anyone for their behaviour, not even his family.
Why things were the way they were-
It was too much of a bother to think about it. He had no reason to do it at all.
The moment the teacher was fully out of sight, the girl dashed into the opposite direction. Although this was towards where Dude had gone, Skirt didn’t seem too worried about running into him again at that exact moment.
Aspen’s muscles twitched as he prepared to break out into a run and follow after her, when the large bell rang. In less than a minute, the hallways filled with shadows again.
“Tsk.” Aspen clicked his tongue. “Can we still find her?”
“Unlikely”, River deliberated, looking around. There wasn’t much space at the side of the hallway where they could keep out of people’s reach. “We are pretty much stuck here.”
“Great. Planning time again”, Aspen complained and loosely leaned against River. It was more a touch than anything else, River hardly felt any weight on his side. He glanced over but ultimately decided not to comment and let Aspen do as he wished.
“Can you keep Dude away from Skirt? I’m not sure if you will manage to find him, but if you do, it would be good if you could somehow keep his attention elsewhere. I’ll try to ensure that Skirt is near teachers… Or probably the only relevant teacher. I believe even that man can’t look away if he is in the middle of the scene.”
“What kind of things would keep Dude at bay?”
River turned his gaze out of the window and spoke with a blank, emotionless face. At this moment, he had already distanced himself from Skirt’s situation – there was no need to invest too many feelings into this. Whatever was needed to make it work, it would be fine. “Girls. Flip up some skirts or tear them in front of him. Alternatively you could make it that one of them throws herself at Dude. Trip her or something.”
Thank you for the chapter!! <3
This is such a good story, I am Happily Hooked and awaiting the next chappy. 😊
Didn’t realise the asterisk made italics. Whoops. Noted.
We do get to see his reaction to that at some point 😀
Oh-ho?😃😳 can’t wait to see the fallout then 🤩
I’M ALSO WAITING FOR THAT!!!
SAME!!!😆
AAAAAAAAH! Aspen admitted that he panicked when River fainted! This. is. progress.
And also this!
[The increasing feeling of attachment was like a drug in his bloodstream, but he had nothing to lose. He didn’t want to be alone, so he wasn’t going to allow River to leave him anymore. It was too late for that.]
Give me a minute to restrain my excitement. [deep_breath]