・・・ ix ・・・
Ever since then, the world that Ao believed in slowly began to fade away.
It was like an inevitable curse.
A path that could not be retraced.
A song that could not be rewinded.
A story that could not be rewritten.
Slowly, slowly,
everything around him
was crumbling.
Underneath it all, Ao, at seven years old,
finally realized two things.
One,
that the world was cruel and unkind,
and
two,
that in the end,
he couldn't really do anything to change it.
・・・ x ・・・
Since then, Fujiwara Kyousuke stopped doing a lot of things.
He stopped smiling.
Laughing.
Talking.
Sleeping.
Eating.
Hours turned to days.
Days turned to weeks.
In all that time, he merely sat in his study room and drowned himself in books.
Fujiwara Kyousuke didn't utter a single word or made a single sound.
His father had broken apart,
and his pieces were too small for Ao's hands to hold.
・・・ xi ・・・
Sometimes at night, Ao would peek from the gap between the door.
As he expected, his father would be sitting in the same chair.
On his back was a warm blanket.
At the desk was a plate of untouched food.
Beside him, only a single lamp illuminated the dark room.
From the faint glow,
Ao would stare at the face of his beloved father.
His eyes were sunken and lifeless.
His body was pale and thin.
He looked... different.
One time, when Ao went to see him one night,
he saw his father crying alone.
Soundlessly, his tears fell down his hollow face.
For Ao, it seemed unreal. Like an illusion.
It was as if any moment, it would easily disappear.
But it didn't.
Ao couldn't remember how long he stared at the broken shell of his father that night.
The only thing that he could was the feeling of pain from his chest and the weight of his guilt as he saw him cry alone.
Because if there was something Ao knew,
it was this:
Everything had all been his fault.
・・・ xii ・・・
Was it... all my fault?
Was I... a mistake?
Did I ruin everything?
Did I wish for something bad?
Did I take away their happiness?
Would it have been better...
... if I was never here?
YOU ARE READING
re:Happiness | Cell Phone Novel
General Fiction「 Can you teach me how to be happy? 」 Fujiwara Ao has been living the past nineteen years of his life in ease. Born with the ideal background and blessed with enough talent, that's what most of the people presume. In their eyes, he was sim...
