9
For a moment, I thought I was mistaken.
Elijah couldn’t possibly have that look on his
face.
He was gloomy, silent, aloof, and rarely
smiled.
He loved Heather.
This was the third time he’d called my name
since my rebirth.
Yet, after his suicide, he didn’t leave me a
single word.
How heartless, as if I were just some random
<
stranger in his life.
So, my gaze was cold: “Do we know each
other that well?”
He’d asked me that the last time I saved him.
I thought he was embarrassed about his
vulnerable state.
So I told him we were seatmates, and I
wanted to protect him.
Now, I realized.
He probably didn’t appreciate my self-
righteous kindness.
Every sleepless night since my rebirth, I
wondered if I’d done wrong.
This time, I didn’t help him.
I helped someone else.
I didn’t know what he’d think.
But I remembered something I’d read:
“I want you to watch me abandon you, time
and again, saving others.”
“To let you repeatedly ignite hope, then
<
despair, tormenting yourself in endless
darkness.”
So, let him think whatever he wants. The
more twisted, the better.
“We are…”
Elijah opened his mouth, his chest heaving,
his face pale.
He seemed to want to reprimand me, after all,
even if we weren’t seatmates, we were
classmates; I shouldn’t have stood by and
watched.
But his words were interrupted by my
companion’s irritated voice:
“A grown man, with no broken arms or legs,
playing the victim? Heather, if you don’t leave,
I can’t hold him up.”
Wow, he’s feisty, even though he still needs
help walking.
Jason’s voice was still sharp.
Elijah was stunned, his lips trembling slightly,
<
his eyes slightly red as he looked at me.
I wanted to get rid of this clingy guy quickly.
So I replied: “Let’s go, I’ll take you to the
hospital.”
When Elijah, who hadn’t spoken, heard me,
his thin frame swayed, as if a gust of wind
would blow him away.
And the look he gave Jason was icy cold.
