No Pain Tomorrow

"My name is Arata Aki and I love a girl who feels no pain." He looked across him and the girl he had abundant feelings for, stared back coldly.

Everyone in the circle cheered for them both cause they knew that the boy deeply loved the girl.

It was two weeks ago when he first saw her. He had just joined the rehabilitation and was heading to his room when the beautiful, scarlet head appeared before his eyes in bruises and bandages. Although, everything about her body appeared excruciatingly painful, her expression was as calm as the sea before the storm.

"A-are you okay...? He asked on impulse because there was no one to look after her. She was limping alone in the empty hallway, her thoughts unknown to the world around her. He couldn't help but wonder what might have happened to her but for now, he let it go because he was sure they would keep on encountering each other.

She heard him but she walked past because she hated conversations. She hated people, she hated herself, she hated her life in all. She questioned herself why she was even alive if she can't feel the one thing that makes us human. Pain.

She tried so hard to kill herself; savaging her arms, destroying herself in ways one would profoundly feel miserable of. However, none of her actions ended her life. In a twinkling of an eye, her life would be saved by strangers. Strangers that cared too seriously or a single life to be lost. So, she gave up. She gave up everything and everything of hers to only live like a puppet. She doesn't care, she doesn't talk, she doesn't mind anything that happens around her. But, unfortunately, she didn't know that there would be someone who would fall in love with her. She didn't know that there was guy in her destiny who would make her feel pain. Scarlet got up from her seat and left the circle without the counselor’s permission. The wooing and the laughter’s annoyed her to an extent. She wished she could turn back time and ignored Arata Aki when they had bumped into each other a few weeks ago.

"Hey, you're alright now?" Arata cheerfully asked. His smile was weak but he seemed to try his best.

"I am." She spoke unintentionally but soon realizing what she had done, she pursed her lips and walked past him without seeing his reaction.

His reaction? He fell deeper in love with her voice. It somehow soothed his heart and his heart yearned to hear more of it.

"W-wait!" He turned around, swiftly grabbing her wrist and stopping her. "What's your name?"

Scarlet was surprised to have her hand touched by someone for the first time. Or at least a guy who was her age, who looked handsome and was awfully interested in her.

For the first time, Scarlet's heart pulsed in different rhythms and waves. She could somehow feel her cheeks getting warm and a strange feeling overlapped her. A feeling she could describe but couldn't spill out with her tongue.

"Please, what's your name?" Arata’s soft voice made Scarlet's ears pink. She immediately averted her eyes to the side and hastily uttered her name. "Risa Scarlet." She wouldn't tell her name to anyone except the people who treated her. None of the patients knew her name but now one did. And she should have thought before about the consequences of disclosing her name because she didn't know that, that one guy would make it sound so enchanting.

As soon as Arata let her go, she turned around and walked away as fast as her legs could take her. Her heart thumped loudly and perhaps she didn't notice it, but a stream of tears that were filled with complex emotions stained her cheeks.

Arata instantly jolted from his seat and ran behind Scarlet. The wooing suddenly stopped and the counselor was readying himself to give them a speech on discipline and most likely, a piece of advice since he truly believes in young love and love at first sights.

"Risa, wait!"

Scarlet stopped on her tracks. Why did she do that? She could have just kept walking.

"I have said it a thousand times in three weeks and I'm gonna say it again..." Arata’s words were breathy. Risa could hear it. The loud heaving. The pain in his voice. She could feel it all but she didn't turn around. It didn't mean anything to her. Arata’s feelings were just writings on the wall for her. She didn't feel a thing for him so why waste time on something she doesn't have interest in? That's what she's been saying to herself for past three weeks at most.

"I love you."

The words came out smoothly. Like the weaving of the thread, and the passing of the clouds. No matter how many times Arata says the three magical words, he says it the exactly same way he said it for the first time. With the same emotions, the same tone, the same feelings and the same pain.

"I love you." Arata was standing in the rain. It was cold, it was freezing and the beating of his heart was fading but he stayed where he was because Risa was there. She loved rain. She loved every drop and every rainbow that comes after it. However, the sound of the rain made Arata’s words vanish like ashes. The world was colored grey and Risa was the only color that bled gracefully. She was looking overhead with her eyes closed, feeling every rain drop fall on her pale face and then slide down her throat. But Arata watched her till the end. He watched her till he no longer could. He watched the pretty portrait until his eyes were clouded.

"I know you love me too. Why won't you say it?" He slightly gritted his teeth. He wanted to scream at her. He wanted to tell her a thousand times more how intensely he loved her.

Slowly, Risa turned around. She faced him impassively. Her eyes were blank like an empty sky and her thoughts were suddenly unreadable.

"I don't love you. Stop loving me too."

Arata took a step forward. "I can't do that."

"Why can't you?"

"It's impossible." His heart was getting exhausted again but he tried not to show it on his face. Just a little longer...he thought.

"It's not."

"It is..." Arata was now inches away from Risa. "I can't stop loving you and you can't deny loving me."

"I said, I don't love you--" Unexpectedly, Arata touched her fingers, ever so lightly and delicately. Just a touch and he smiled.

"Are you sure you don't love me?"

Risa hesitantly nodded.

Arata played a tiny smirk on his chapped lips and stared into her hollow eyes. "Give me three days."

She frowned in perplexity. "Three days for what?"

"I will make sure that you take back what you said in three days."

Risa took a step back, away from the magnetizing touch of Arata’s cold finger.

"Do whatever you want to do but nothing's going to change. Not even in three days." She turned around in annoyance and walked away because Arata didn't matter to her. Arata wasn't and isn't supposed to be her in dull and insensate life.

"We'll see..." He clenched his heart and supported himself by the wall. His palms and temples had formed sweat and his knees were trembling to settle down somewhere. The heart was getting weaker but Arata’s feelings were becoming stronger and he promised himself that he wouldn't give up until he would hear the confession from Risa’s own tune.