Chapter 28: I Am Before You

Chapter 28: I Am Before You

Unfortunately, just as movies eventually ended,

An ambiguous and warm atmosphere naturally also had a moment when it fell apart.

When the movie ended,

The final image echoed the opening image. Beneath the sky was Mochizuki Miki’s unforgettable face, looking straight into the camera.

Her voice had texture, though it might also have been the film’s post-production.

Every word seemed to let you clearly hear the tremble in her voice, or the emotion contained within it. This was a magical talent.

Even the well-informed Yatsuno Gen had to admit that compared to so-called traffic stars, she was indeed more pleasing to the eye and more professionally capable. She did not count as shockwave-level trash.

“It’s over.”

Kazama Sakura looked at Yatsuno Gen pitifully, seeming to feel regret over the end of the movie.

But the true subtext was that she did not want to let go of their still-joined hands, even though her palm had dried, then grown wet again.

Yatsuno Gen nodded.

“Mm, it was pretty good. Although the plot was a bit melodramatic, the shot transitions and soundtrack were all quite good.”

Kazama Sakura very much wanted to say: Is that what I was asking? You’re not a film critic!

But she could not show her intention too clearly. Sometimes, the cuteness of girls lay in clumsily hiding their emotions, while still making sure the other person saw through the flaw.

She was not some expert in love, nor did she have any experience in it.

Clumsily liking someone had already exhausted all her brain cells. If she were not enjoying it so much, she might have found it even more mentally taxing than studying.

Not to mention that her opponent was such an unfathomable and helplessly charming boy.

“Yeah... I chose pretty well, right?”

“Mm, not bad. Let’s go.”

He prepared to let go and stand up.

But at that moment, the hurried girl immediately stood as well, tightly gripping his five fingers and cooperating with him as they rose from their seats together.

“Hm?”

Yatsuno Gen glanced at her.

The girl forcefully pretended nothing was wrong and said, “Are we going out now? There are a lot of people.”

Yatsuno Gen’s gaze lingered for a moment on their still-joined hands, then turned to her eyes.

“Tell me, if we’re holding hands like this, how am I supposed to turn around?”

That was right. With their hands linked at this angle, turning around did seem somewhat difficult and rather awkward.

It seemed that even the other couples who came to watch the movie were not this clingy when leaving their seats. She was like a child who had never eaten candy before, unwilling to bite and swallow the candy as soon as she got one. Instead, she kept holding it in her mouth, unwilling to stop until every bit of sweetness had melted away.

Kazama Sakura hesitated for a moment, then said softly,

“Follow me.”

She turned around directly and walked toward the other side.

And so it became her leading Yatsuno Gen.

Yatsuno Gen did not use force to pull her back, stubbornly staying in place like a child.

Being led away by her was actually a wondrous feeling, as though he, the most expensive and exquisite item placed in a display case, had finally met someone brave enough to take him away.

Walking behind those couples, listening to their laughing comments,

Kazama Sakura’s cheeks burned red. Her emotions had been floating all day, as if they had never fallen back down. She did not know what such a feeling represented, but she was very clear that this was an emotion only this boy could bring her.

It seemed someone had once said that genes decided many things.

For example, what you were naturally good at, what you naturally hated, and also what kind of person you would truly develop feelings for.

Then had her genes been firmly engraved with the name Yatsuno Gen?

She did not dare look back and walked forward all the way.

In the crowded cinema after the show, it was like passing through the river of time, through the gaps between years. There was such a long road laid out before her, together with the long life ahead... If possible, walking it with him should be the most beautiful thing, right?

She was willing to secretly and romantically fantasize like that.

But the girl immersed in this fantasy did not notice something.

At the end of the exit, at the end of the passage almost swallowed by the crowd, there was a figure dressed in a hoodie that looked very out of place in this weather. His whole body seemed hidden in shadow.

Both his hands were in his pockets, as though hiding some treasure.

He lowered his head and murmured to himself.

The crowd slowly passed around him, and he seemed not to feel the heat of the weather at all, nor the stuffiness brought by the packed crowd.

Or rather, the sweat flowing down his forehead had already become something that did not matter.

He kept murmuring, and the world before his eyes was already completely different, detached from reality.

Or perhaps everything in his eyes was the true reality.

Until he seemed to sense something and raised his head, seeing that impossible-to-ignore beautiful figure within the crowd.

A strange sense of familiarity made him involuntarily step forward.

“No...”

“Don’t leave me...”

“Haruko...”

In such a crowded tide, how someone moved through it seemed normal no matter what. After all, there were so many people. Turning back after realizing they had forgotten something and going to get it was also normal.

But whether because of instinct or something else,

When Kazama Sakura saw that gloomy figure walking toward her and Yatsuno Gen, his steps growing faster and faster,

A very bad premonition arose in her heart.

In this weather, he was still dressed so tightly... and there seemed to be some sound becoming clearer and more obvious, sharper than the noisy conversations around them.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Her heartbeat unconsciously quickened, as if its rhythm was accelerating along with the other person’s footsteps.

When she frowned and looked over, the man’s hand came out of his pocket, and she saw an extremely glaring flash and sharpness.

The man raised his head. His eyes were bloodshot, and his expression was hideous and terrifying, like the zombies often seen in movies.

“Don’t leave me...”

“Stay with me forever!”

The man roared.

In the final few steps, he accelerated, charging straight toward Kazama Sakura and Yatsuno Gen without the slightest deviation.

At that instant, some of the people nearby who heard clearly had already turned their heads in confusion, but their subconscious actions were human instinct. Instinctively avoiding possible danger and trying to place themselves in a safe position.

No matter whether they could judge in that moment what exactly this strange figure suddenly charging toward the crowd intended to do, they had no time to react.

There was no time to stop him. Even the screams were still forming in their throats.

At that instant,

Kazama Sakura widened her eyes. She remembered that her hand was still clasped with the boy beside her. In truth, she had the feeling for a moment that the other party was coming toward her, though she had absolutely no idea when she had ever met this person.

Nor why she had become the other person’s target.

But in that moment, she did not want one accident to occur, namely that the other party might be coming for Yatsuno Gen.

Nor did she want... the boy beside her to impulsively do something like taking the injury in her place at this moment.

The instant this thought appeared in her mind, it went blank.

Adrenaline surged through her body.

A strange numbness filled her entire body. Then, without caring about anything, she let go of Yatsuno Gen’s hand at that moment and turned around.

She was like someone actively throwing herself into his arms, pouncing straight toward Yatsuno Gen’s body.

What exactly had made her suddenly do something like this? Perhaps if they dodged, neither of them would be hurt, right?

Actually, she did not know either. Maybe she had watched too many television dramas? Maybe those melodramatic and cliched scenes from bad movies had left too deep an impression? Or maybe her acting addiction had flared up, and she wanted to be that kind of tragic heroine for once.

If something happened, maybe the male lead would remember her for the rest of his life, that sort of laughable mentality...

She did not know anymore.

The moment she pounced, she could no longer think of anything. She only did not want him to be hurt, to be hurt because of her. That was all.

The lights in the exit passage were the last light she saw before closing her eyes. She did not even look at Yatsuno Gen’s face or his eyes.

He would probably blame her a lot, right?

Maybe... he would find it strange too, that she was inexplicably doing something foolish.

There was no helping it. She just liked doing foolish things. She was always like this.

She thought about not troubling others, not bringing him trouble, yet she always ended up dragging him down.

If something happened to her, he would probably be sad because of her, right? She did not want him to be sad, but if he was not sad, she herself would feel very sad.

So what exactly should she do?

She did not know anymore... Let it be.

“Stay with me forever!!”

“Ah!!”

The screams of the people around the passage and the nearly hysterical roar tangled together. It was not a particularly pleasant symphony.

Thud.

She felt the sound of herself falling to the ground.

But...

But...

There was no so-called sharp pain piercing through her back. She felt her body rotate slightly.

As though the whole world were spinning and blending together.

When she realized that she had not blocked the so-called danger for him at all, Kazama Sakura’s entire heart clenched. Fallen on the ground, she struggled to raise herself and look.

She was afraid of seeing the boy collapsed in a pool of blood, and she absolutely could not accept such a sight.

Yet what she saw was the man in the hoodie, appearing frenzied and exposed, sprawled on the ground, while Yatsuno Gen, whom she had been so worried about, was pressing one knee onto his back.

He pinned the man’s hands firmly behind him, while the sharp knife she had indeed seen correctly lay on the empty floor nearby.

The people around them stared at this scene in shock, and it seemed that screams still echoed through the passage.

Most of them were at a loss.

Kazama Sakura got up in a sorry state. She went forward, wanting to ask whether Yatsuno Gen had been hurt anywhere, yet she did not dare recklessly disturb Yatsuno Gen’s movements at this moment, worried that because of one impulse from her, the situation would be ruined and some other accident would be created.

“Let go of me! Let go of me!!”

The man was pressed to the ground, struggling desperately, his bloodshot eyes roaring like a trapped beast.

But the boy holding him down was very calm, his gaze looking straight into the man’s eyes as the man struggled to turn his head.

He only told the man one thing.

“You should thank me.”

The man froze for a moment, looking into the boy’s eyes.

He did not know what kind of gaze or hidden meaning he saw, but the anger and unwillingness gradually receded from his eyes.

His gaze slowly moved from Yatsuno Gen’s face to the front, to the bewildered face of the girl.

Then he suddenly began sobbing.

“I’m sorry... I’m really sorry...”

“Call the police! Hurry, call the police!”

“What are you standing there for? Where are the security guards? Someone come help hold him down!”

The passage descended into chaos.

Kazama Sakura weakly collapsed onto the floor. She did not know what this man was apologizing to her for. She only knew that Yatsuno Gen was fine, not bleeding, not hurt, not seriously harmed.

Thank goodness.