Chapter 15

You and Satou visited Yuma’s apartment every day after classes that week. They played detective while you drank yourself into unconsciousness on the couch. Between the smell of jasmine tea and the crime scene photos, you almost wished you would drink yourself to death.

Your little meetings were bad for your mental health, but they were good for Yuma’s. She’d been isolated in her apartment since the beginning of the semester. She took classes online and had her groceries delivered. She even paid one of her neighbors to put up the fliers around campus for her so she didn’t have to leave the building.

She was scared shitless of the killer, convinced she would be the first one to die, given her awareness of the game.

“How do you even know you’re in a game?” You slurred one evening, just to make them stop talking about the way that Hiro’s body was found, how “It was obviously meant to send a message, but to who?”

“I dunno,” Yuma said. “I just know. I mean, it makes sense. The first thing I can remember is moving into this apartment at the start of the semester. The most information I have in my brain is about the murders that took place at Haruki High, as if it was planted there.

“I know I had a childhood, I know I have parents, but nothing about them sticks out besides the fact that I was the weird, quiet kid without any friends.” What a sad character, you thought to yourself. The dev team must really not like this girl to have made her aware and make her hurt like this.

“You’re not alone anymore,” Satou cooed comfortingly. “We’re here with you and we’ll protect you.”

Something in Yuma changed after that. She started to become less interested in detective work and more interested in Satou.

You didn’t like how she looked at your pink-haired friend. Her gaze no longer left Satou, from the moment she stepped in the door to the moment she stepped out. Her eyes were wide open, flickering over her face like she was trying desperately to memorize every detail. It was creepy.

If Satou noticed, it clearly didn’t bother her. She basked in the attention like always. It bothered you, however. The seed of obsession had obviously been planted in her and was beginning to take root.

…

“I got a weird email from Yuma,” Satou said as she idly clicked away at her phone and computer. Already dressed down into her babydoll nighty, she was laid out like a meal on the mattress in the master bedroom.

You pulled your toothbrush out of your mouth long enough to reply, “I’d be more surprised if you got a perfectly normal email from Yuma.” You drank too much today and ended up throwing up into the toilet.

Minoru had held your hair back and stroked your back as you were helpless, bent over the porcelain bowl. “Good girl,” she had whispered. “Get out all the bad stuff.” You were still shaking from that little session, but the taste of vomit was easier to get rid of than that memory.

“Ha ha.” Satou monotoned before repeatedly, audibly, clicking something on her computer and letting out a noise of frustration. “She sent me an email -no subject, no message- with just a link in it. I thought she was sending me the crime scene photos because it wanted access to my camera and photos, but nothing downloaded or popped up.”

“Probably spam,” you told her before spitting into the drain, rinsing off your toothbrush, and setting it aside. You set your hands on the bathroom counter and stared at your reflection in the mirror for a long time. “Are you ever going to tell her the truth?”

“That I know who killed Hiro and Kimiko? Or that this is a yandere dating game? I suppose it doesn’t matter. The answer to both questions is no.” She closed both of her electronics and put them away for the night.

“Why not? She’s going crazy, not knowing.”

She snorted, as if you had just told her a funny joke. “Because she’s not yet crazy enough, and she’s not crazy in love with me. That’s all that matters to me.”

“If we tell her the truth, we might be able to stop her from becoming a yandere.”

“That’s the exact opposite of what I want. I want a whole, matching set and I can’t have that if I’m missing Yuma. Don’t get sentimental, Y/N. She’s just a scripted character. Just let her do what she was scripted to do.” Fall in love with me. Fall into ruin.

You turned to see Satou laying on her side across the bed width’s way. Her best assets were on full display. You quickly, politely, looked away.

“Come to bed,” she crooned, opening up her arms to you.

“I think not,” you said shortly, crossing the room to the door.

“Why? You’re not mad at me, are you? Y/N? Y/N!”

How could you be mad at her? She was the player and she was just playing the game. You couldn’t be mad at her. You couldn’t be… But you were.