Side Yuuki: Chapter III - That was meant to be a joke?

(Trigger warning! There are multiple triggers in this chapter so please read with caution and an open mind. Please be careful at all times through out this chapter.)

Waking up in a Chinabi's comfortable bed, the once black-haired boy named Yuuki, sits upright and stretches. Looking at the digital alarm clock on her bedside table, the red LED lights displayed the number configuration of four o'clock. Crap... I woke up an hour early... "Chinabi.... Chinabi......" After calling her a couple times, it seems like the light-brown haired girl Chinabi is still asleep. I guess I will go ahead and go out for a run. Her body is well maintained, but she doesn't have enough stamina. Swinging the legs of Chinabi off the bed, he stands up and walks over to her closest. He finds a sports jacket and pants. He takes them out and off the hanger and tosses them on the bed. He strips off the pajamas Chinabi used last night and folds them on the bed. He puts in the appropriate clothes for the morning jog and heads downstairs.

Downstairs however, he finds her mother reading a bunch of papers for work. "Oh? You're early this time? Hm? Going out for a run? How unusual of you..." He chuckles nervously and said, "I just happen to wake up early today. Anyways, I will be back to cook breakfast. I'm heading out!"

"Take care!" Just before the door closed completely, her mother smiles and thought to to herself for a bit. You changed quite a bit, Chinabi. I wonder is it because of that boy she befriended with..... After considering that thought, she remembers a grim past she never wanted to remember ever again. No! I won't allow her to come into contact with that boy! I will not let her! No way I won't! If she's wants to see him that badly, then I will disown her!

The morning air was clean and cool.  It was cold enough to see his breath as he was running. Yuuki was still unfamiliar with the area, but after seeing Chinabi's usual path to school from her perspective, he was able to formulate a safe path for a morning run. "Good morning Yuuki..." The half-asleep girl greets him. "Good morning Chinabi. Did you sleep well?" He hears a yawn and some grunts from her. "Huh? Why are you running?"

"I woke up an hour early and decided to go out for a run. You lack stamina."

"I don't care. I hate running. It's tiring, you're all sweaty, and sometimes you get hurt." After turning right at the corner, he bumps into a stranger. "Ah, I'm sorry." In front of him was a man, dressed in a dark blue jacket with a red inner shirt and jeans that are ripped as part of the design. He has spiked up blonde hair and sharp yellow eyes. His left eyebrow has two piercings as well has his ears. "This is what I meant by getting hurt!!" Chinabi worries.

He averts his irate gaze at him and said, "Hey, what the big idea! Oh, you're cute. Hey, do you want to have some fun pretty lady?" He places his rough hand on his chin and lifts up his face to make him look into his eyes. Yuuki slaps away his hand and passes him. "I'm not into guys like you. You guys are lame and act to hard to be cool."

"Oh!" Just as he passes him, the delinquent looking man grabs his arm. "Why are you being so hasty? Come on, let's go." Yuuki catches a glimpse of a small pocket knife, but despite the intimidation factor, he was unfazed by it. "Yuuki, I'm scared!" He pulls his arm away and continues walking. This irritated the man which forced him to pull out the pocket knife in his hand. He tried to apprehend Yuuki, but he retaliates and disarms the man. He knees him the stomach and forces the man's arm behind his back. He places his leg on his back which forced him to lay flat on the ground. "I see.... So you want to have fun, right?"

While holding him down, he looks around and sees a transparent bottle. He smiles and looks down on what uses to be the hunter. "You see that see-through bottle over there? Let's play how much of your blood will it take to fill that bottle up? shall we? Hehe!~". With a sinister laugh, the man panics and begs for him to stop. "No! I'm sorry!! Please let me go. I promise not to do anything like this again!!"

"No♪~ No♪~. You need to know the pain you caused others. Don't worry, if you haven't tried it, then I recommend that you do know the pain of others♪~. Let's begin shall we?" He lifts up the small pocket knife and strikes it down and hit the ground. He intentionally misses the man's cheek to instill fear. "Oh my♪ I missed. Let's try that again!" He lefts up the knife again and purposely misses again. "Fuhuu~ This is so much fun! You wanted to have fun, right!? Right!?!?" Yuuki began strike around the man's head, barely missing him.

After his fun, he drops the pocket knife and gets up. "Get out of here." He coldly said. The man gets up and runs with his tail between his legs. An evil aura began to emit from him, but he quickly diminished it by covering his mouth and breathing in deeply. "Phew... That was close. I'm sorry if I scared you Chinabi. I couldn't hold back the urge."

"I-i-I-it's o-o-okay. I-I-I'm not s-s-s-scared...."

"I'm really sorry Chinabi!!! I truly didn't want you to see that side of me! I will do anything to forgive you!" He can hear Chinabi rattled voice comes to a halt and then there was silence. "A-anything..."

"Of course!"

"Then once after you get out of the hospital, bake me your best cake!!"

"If that's what you want, then I will gladly do so." After the little confrontation, Yuuki resumes the morning run.

Returning home, he encounters a hungry sister and mother. "I'm home!"

"Welcome home."

"Mou!ーー Big sister! It's your turn to cook today and I expected breakfast when I woke up, but there's nothing!" Chifuni was throwing a tantrum like a fussy child. "Sorry, sorry, I didn't expect my run to be that long. I will make breakfast right away!" He wipes the sweat off his forehead and heads into the kitchen.

***

On the way to school, he heaves a sigh and looks back on his morning run. "Man, I'm so tired. Maybe I shouldn't went on that run this morning..."

"Why are you complaining about it then?"

"It's because I woke up early!"

"You could've done something else you know?"

"I didn't think about it at the time, but hey, at least there's one less sexual predator in the city."

"...Just remembering that reminds me that I should never get you mad."

"Yeah, you shouldn't, but you should be fine. I don't get mad at friends or girls... except if they're annoying that is."

"I see. Well, don't sleep in class today! I have math today and I don't want to miss out on the lecture."

"But I learned it already!"

"I don't care! I need to learn it still!"

"But mom!!!!"

"I'm not your mom. We're in the same body. That's not possible."

"Hehe! Can't you lighten up?"

"...Not really. I grew up being a studious and serious student. That's why I was the student council president in my middle school. Possibly, this is the only time I've been taking it easy because of this situation. I think... I can be at ease if I'm with you. I mean, so far, the past few days, I've been enjoying myself."

"I'm glad to hear that." Reaching the school grounds, everyone seems to be having a good morning. All the girls are smiling and chatting freely. Both Yuuki and enjoys the sight, but she always yells at Yuuki for looking at the other girls.

***

After school, Chinabi and some of her classmates wanted to go shopping. Chinabi thought that this would be a good way to help Yuuki and his social anxiety with people, let alone girls. Yuuki truly didn't want to go and shop with girls only to be acting like one and have girly talk about clothes and their crushes in school. Truly, Chinabi didn't factor in the second half of it and forgot that he was rejected by his previous crush.

At a café with Chinabi, Yuuki, and her classmates, they are eating sweets and having a good timeーーwell, everyone was having a good time, all except Yuuki. He only knew the girls' names and their likes, but their chosen topic, of course, was something out of the question. "Chinabi, are you okay? Ever since we left the school, you seemed kinda down. Is everything okay?" Everyone averts their attention to Yuuki who kept quiet and uninterested the entire time. He gives off a wry smile and laugh to fool them, but after seeing their genuine concern for him, he knew he couldn't escape from their pitying gaze. "Hehe.... What are you talking about? I'm fine!" In an attempt to convince them, he accidentally took a huge spoonful of his ice cream sundae and ate it. «Ah!-......» Everyone was shocked that he did this in an instant without worrying about the brain freeze. They stare at him intently as he began to reanimate himself. "D-delicious..."

"She did it..."

"Yeah, she did..."

"You must be crazy enough to do something like that. Tell us Chinabi, what's wrong?" "Go ahead Yuuki, this is a good chance to let go. You can trust them. This will help you a lot, not only that, but it's nice to get a girl's advice as well. Girls help each other in these kind of situations."

"Did you forget? I'm a guy!"

"Even though you are a guy, the advice can still help you. But seriously, you need help and they can do that. Besides, you can't escape from them now, since they know that something is bothering you."

"But..." Briefly doubting her advice, the girl next to her, Ami, who has long indigo hair tied into a pony tail and dull chartreuse eyes. Her concerning gaze pierces through his calm façade which intimidated him. He looks away and encounters the other girl, Aiko who had long flowing lavender hair and violet eyes, held his hand and worries for him.

Yuuki was sitting in the the window seat and the girls were cornering him. "It's okay Chinabi, you can trust us." Ami said with her childlike voice. "Yeah, you can trust us. Let's us help you." Aiko said with her mature voice. With the overwhelming concern from everyone, it brought tears to Yuuki's eyes as he can hold back the unbearable pain he has been tolerating for a couple of months now. Seeing and hearing Yuuki cry, Chinabi was smiling earnestly as her friend cried out the pain.

"We're going to be going ahead then Chinabi. Take care, okay?"

"Yeah, thanks for listening."

"It's no problem. See ya later!"

"Bye." Yuuki sees them off as he continues to sit down at the table. The pain in his heart was lifted and brought him peace within himself. The weight was lifted and he felt happy again. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah... I do. I didn't realize how much that helps. Thanking you Chinabi for that push. I really needed it."

"Anything for my friend. I don't want to constantly see you in pain and suffer for something insignificant."

"Hehe... Maybe you're right.... Thanks again Chinabi."

"If we both had our bodies, I would've comforted you with a hug, but my mother..."

"Yeah, that mother of yours... I wonder why she hates boys."

"I don't know either, but it must've been a good reason to keep me away from a great friend like you."

"Hehe... I don't know if I should thank you?"

"You can. You will. You should. You have to." Hearing her astute plea, Yuuki chuckles, leans back into booth seat, and smiles. "Thank you Chinabi." Chinabi giggles at her proud achievement and cherishes the moment between them. "Hey Chinabi? Can we visit my body today?"

"Sure, I don't mind. We still have time before my mom comes home." With her permission, Yuuki pays for his last drink and leaves the premises.

***

On his way to the hospital, he sees the girls he was with before, but this time, there was a bunch of guys hitting on them. The girls were terrified as the guys were trying to persuade them, then, amongst the guys, he recognizes the same guy who hit on him this morning.

"Oh no, not this again... Well, since I know how this will turn out. This might be interesting to watch actually. Fufuu~."

As he glares daggers at the scumbags in front of him, he turns his head to the right and sees a very rather convenience store. He rushes inside, buys a drink that had a transparent container, chugs the contents of the drink, and prepares to have fun, once more.

"Come on girls, come with us and let's have fun." As the girls huddle together for protection, Yuuki approaches the same guy from this morning and said, "I want to have fun~." Hearing this, the guy turns around and was presented that sinister presence he met this morning. He falls back onto his behind and scurries back. "My♪ My♪ What do we have here? We didn't get to finish our last game now, did we? Come on♪~ Let's continue." Yuuki presents the transparent bottle in his hand and gets closer to the guy.

The guy tries to get up and run away, but Yuuki caught him before he ever got the chance to do so. He pushes him down and pins him down with one leg. He places the bottle in front of the guy and says, "Let's continue♪~ Oh? You don't have that pathetic pocket knife of yours? Man, I really wanted to play though.... Oh well! I'm sure a couple of broken fingers and toes can suffice, right?" Yuuki cutely giggles. "No!!! I said I was sorry!!! Please stop!! Someone help me!! I truly mean it this time! I will stop this for good! I promise!"

"But I told you the first time already. I don't want to repeat it a second time. This might as well be your punishment game, then. Right? Doesn't that sound even more fun♪!~"

Yuuki flattens out the guy's right arm and holds down the elbow and the wrist. He begins to pull back on the guy's wrist while holding down the elbow. "Ahhhhhh!!" At a certain point, Yuuki inverted the man's arm. The scream riddled with pain escapes the man's throat.

Yuuki stands up and stands on top of the man's ankles. He then started to jump on them many times. He was begging him to stop but Yuuki was having fun torturing him.

The man's ankles clearly shown signs of it being trampled and jumped on. The skin was reddish brown and the swelling can be clearly seen. There were shoes marks and it seems that a bit of blood was oozing from the marks. He laughs joyously as his victim was writhing in pain. He then snaps his attention to the man's friends and said, "You guys want to play and have fun too, right? That's why you're here!"
.
Trembling with fear, the other guys grabbed their friend's feet and ran away.

That probably wasn't the wisest idea since he Yuuki just trampled his ankles...

"My god! What an annoying guy!" As Yuuki heaves a sigh of relief, the girls he protected were more scared than before. "Are you girls, okay?" He turns to them with a concern expression. "Chinabi... What was that all about...." Aiko ask as she was still shock from Yuuki's action. "Ah, crap.... Looks like I got too carried away."

"You think!? Well, how are you going to explain this to them?"

"Oh! Uhm... I have the tendency to hate guys who act like that. It really gets on my nerves. Hehe... Sorry I scared you girls. I just couldn't hold back the urge to put them into their place."

"I-I see... Well, thank you for saving us."

"You're welcome..." Yuuki says as he thought that acting that way would make them distance themselves from him, but just as he came to that conclusion, Ami came over, cling onto him, and cry. "That was so scary!!! If you didn't come and save us, I wouldn't know what to do afterwards." Yuuki was shock to see this act of kindness towards him after what just happened. He smiles gently and hugs Ami. "Yeah. It was very scary for me as well."

After comforting one another, they all begin to make their return trips back to their homes.

"It's amazing how those girls are still calm after seeing you rampage on a person's body."

"Hehe... Right?"

Arriving at the hospital around twilight, Yuuki witnesses something unsettling. "It's so sad to see him like that." A tall guy with short black hair and yellow eyes said. To Yuuki, this was his friend Takagi Horishino.

"Yeah, he doesn't deserve to be there." A girl with green hair and red eyes retorts back to him with a concerned tone. This was Aeriel Hibiki.

"I wonder, do any of you know why she's staying back? Could it be that she has feelings for him!?" A short and petite girl with long violet hair and dark blue eyes asks everyone. This is Lexy Notoru.

"She always had feelings for him." Aeriel revealed.

"Really?! If I knew about it earlier, then I would've have teased her and pushed her towards her goal, but if I did, then things gotten worse." Lexy was shock to hear this. She turns back with a sympathetic and looks at hospital.

"Also, did any one know why she wanted us to visit him in the first place?" Takagi asks.

"No, not one bit." Everyone said as they walked out of the vicinity of the hospital.

"Yuuki! Are you alright!?" As he witnessed his old friends walk by him, he wanted to call out to them, but he was in a girl's body and if he did, one of them might have speculated him of being a stalker. The tension of their arrival and departure almost drove Yuuki to the edge of breaking down, again. "Chinabi... I need help again... My hands are shaking and... and..."

"Hurry to your room before you break down!"

"But!-"

"No buts! Go now!" Chinabi, forgetting about the one person who started his pain, was in his room as well.

Yuuki hurries inside into the hospital as his anxiety begins to build up. Following the same steps Chinabi took when she first visited him, Yuuki passes in logging in to the hospital's visitors logs and acquires the visitor pass.

On the way to the room, Yuuki was becoming more and more anxious. "Yuuki, whats wrong this time? I can hear your heart beat all over the place."

"Chinabi, remember those group of people leaving the hospital?"

"Yeah, those people who were wearing a different uniform?"

"Those were my friends when I lived back at the sea side."

"Really!? Then... The reason why you were reluctant to enter in the first place was because..."

Entering the room that houses Yuuki's body was a girl with her head down in the sheets. Even at the entrance to the room, he can clearly hear the girl sniffle and sob. She raises her head and sees a new visitor in front of her. She wipes the tears away and sits up to show her manners to him. "I'm sorry for being ill-mannered in front of you."

Yuuki raises his hand and shakes his head. "No, it's okay. I'm sure anyone would do the same if they were close to him." The girl smiles with a shy smile and looks at the body. "Right?" She reaches over and holds his hand.

"Yuuki... Is this?"

"Yeah... This is her... The girl who I loved. Kaede Nozomi."

Long light blue hair falls down her back and red subtle eyes stare longingly at the sleeping boy. "Kaede......" She reacts to her name being called quietly. "Huh? Did you say my name?"

"Ah, no. I'm sorry I didn't say anything." She looks out the window and speculates this. "Maybe it's one of my friend's who left already, said my name, just loud enough for me to hear them. I'm Kaede, by the way."

"Chinabi. Chinabi Natsume. It's nice to meet you." She nods her head and looks again at Yuuki's body. He realizes that she always shows a sympathetic expression toward him.

He enters the room and sits next to her. Seeing Kaede hold his hands, he wonders what she said back then was just a mistake. Just as he was about to go into it in deep thought, he begins to hear her cry again. Seeing tears fall down her cheek pains him. "Chinabi, even though we just met.... Can I make a selfish request from you?"

"I think it's best if you allow it. If there's a bit of the truth behind her request, then I'm sure that it can ease your pain a bit."

"If you say so..."

"S-sure, what is it?" Kaede's tears begin to stream down her cheeks like a waterfall. In a pained voiced, she asks, "Can I cry out what I've done to him? I can't endure this pain anymore. I truly did something horrible to him and hopefully; he can hear it in his sleep and forgive me for what I did to him."

Yuuki hears an agreement from Chinabi who only groaned.

"G-go for it...." Yuuki was increasingly getting more and more anxious and scared to hear what she needed to say.

Kaede inhaled deeply and let out the air slowly out of her body to relax herself for a bit. She opens her mouth and said, "W...when Yuuki confessed to me....." She takes in another deep breath to calm her body and continues, "I rejected him and ran away from him."

As she said that, Yuuki remembers the horrible pain he went through.

"But I then realized that was the biggest mistake I made in my life."

Hearing this, Yuuki was baffled at her decision back then.

"The rejection I made to him was meant to be as a joke..... I wanted him to run after me and tell me again that he loves me, but when I turned around, he wasn't running after me at all. It was only then I realized that I shouldn't have done that."

That was meant to be a joke..... You shouldn't toy with a person's emotion if you didn't want to get hurt... You.... Shouldn't have don't that.... To me...

"This girl is horrible... For playing with your emotions like.... It's not right!...."

"When I ran back to the area where he confessed to me, he was no longer there. I ran around the area to find him, but I couldn't. My heart knew what I've done to him, but I couldn't correct my own ways after what I've done.... When I heard he moved out of his home and moved into the city, due to his mother's work, I knew that it might end up as only that. What made me even more depressed was that I received mail from him."

She rummages through her school bag and pulls out a small size envelope. She pulls out the contents of the envelope and inside was a torn picture and on the bigger half of the picture was written in the words, It's better like this, right?. Before flipping the picture over, she pulls out another piece of paper similar to a picture. She looks at the picture and smiles at it. She hands it to him and in the picture was Yuuki and his friends in a group picture when they were in middle school.

"You all look so happy together."

"Yeah..."

"I wanted things to be the same with all of us. Just like us in that picture but in Yuuki's perspective..." She flips over the bigger half that reveals how he truly saw everything after that day. It was the same picture, but the only person missing was Yuuki. The smaller half had the words written, I was never needed to make you guys happy. When she flipped it, it was Yuuki but there was a big red X that crossed himself out.

"Yuuki.... Were you willing to erase your existence to make your friends happy?"

"Their happiness mattered the most to me. I've always neglected my own for the sake of theirs."

Her tears begin to burst out like a geyser and she was crying out her pain to a person she didn't know, but in reality; it was Yuuki all along. Kaede turns toward him and cries on his shoulders, "I'm so sorry Yuuki! I didn't mean it!! Not like this! Please don't let things end like this between him and I! Please God! Please let me beg for his forgiveness! Don't take him away from me!"

Yuuki's tears were also beginning to stream down his face. Knowing the truth, he wanted to hug her tightly in her arms and forgive her. He reaches out his arms around her to comfort her, but when Chinabi saw this, she yelled at him.

"Yuuki don't!"

He stops and let's his arms fall.

"But Chinabi... I..."

"No! Are you really going to forgive her that easily after what she made you go what you've been through? She's the reason why you and I are in this mess! She doesn't deserve your forgiveness! Make her suffer for what she did! It's the only thing you can do."

"Chinabi, you may say that it's the only thing I can do... But what if I'm still in love with her?"

Hearing this from him, she was devastated on the inside. A sharp and surging pain erupted from her chest. She grimaces at the pain in silence and retorted aggressively at him. "Fine then! Forgive her for what she did to you! Don't plan on crawling back to me when she breaks your heart again!"

"Wait Chinabi!" Even though the two were as one, it now felt like he was by himself.

In the darkest recess of his mind, Chinabi was still there but she disconnected herself from him. Why! Why would he forgive her that easily! He has to let go of her so that he can walk forward and continue his life. I just don't understand him at all! Why! Just why would he hold on to girl like her!?

Then she feels that same surging pain erupt from her chest. She grimaces again and falls to her knees.

Why.... Why am I in pain? It's not like I like him or anything. I only tried to make him feel better. I only wanted to comfort him, but why am I hurting in the inside? Can it be that I really like him?..... No! I don't want to admit it! I will never admit it! I don't like him! I hate him! I hate him!! ...

The more she denied it, the pain grew more and more. She falls to her side and begins to whimper in sadness.

Why only now.....

Back in the hospital room, Kaede finally settles down and thanks Yuuki for listening. "Chinabi, you're tearing up." He reacts quick to her words and wipes away the tears. "It's a really sad thing that you did there to your friend but, I'm sure he would forgive you. I'm also sure that he listened to your side of the story."

Kaede gets off him and smiles at Yuuki's body. "I hope he did." She gets up and walks towards him. She playfully messes around with his hair and kisses him on the lips. (Author's note: If you're still confused, Kaede is doing this to Yuuki's body. Not Yuuki whose in Chinabi's body.)

***

On the way home, Yuuki and Chinabi didn't say a word to each other. Neither at the house, or even before going to bed. Instead, he stood up and looked out the window. Seeing a star filled sky, he spots a shooting a star and makes a wish. After making his wish, he turns his head to the alarm clock and in red LED lights, the clock displayed 11:11.

There was a myth where if the time is set with the same number. You can wish for something.

Believing the myth, he makes another wish before retiring for the night.


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Author's Note:
Well.... Honestly this chapter must've been the most emotional for me. Going through hardships at the moment myself in real life, this chapter made me delve deeper into my past and many possible futures coming soon. I myself had struggled just trying to get this chapter out due to the arising emotions and triggers I had to go through when writing it. Throughout this chapter, I felt like a child who would cry non stop over something. In real life, I hardly cry or show any signs that I was weak in front of family or friends, especially friends. At the moment however; I might end up breaking down for what's happening to me up till this day. At the same time, I'm trying to manage my anxieties because at the moment, those have really gotten to me lately and I just feel sick of it.

It's... Been a while since I wrote an emotional chapter like this. Whenever I write my other books, I try to stray away from a topic like this only because I didn't want to go through it again, due to past experiences.

Also! The next chapter will be an exciting one at that! Side Chinabi : Chapter Four - Please stop!

See you till then!

-White12ose