📘 2007: A Girl with No Tomorrow

✦ Chapter 16: My House is Perfect

> “He gave me truth, bleeding and honest.

I gave him a lie, pretty and polished.”

— Aki Hoshino

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The newspaper had her face on it again.

“Champion Pair Stuns Tournament Crowd: Local Siblings Take Gold”

Of course, they weren’t siblings.

But she didn’t correct the reporter.

Not this time.

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Outside the school gate, Aki spotted Rei leaning against the brick wall, kicking pebbles with his heel. When he saw her, he lit up instantly.

“Gold Girl returns,” he called.

She walked toward him, quietly amused. “You keep calling me that.”

“Well, you keep showing up in headlines.”

He held up the paper. Her face stared back — blank and composed as ever.

They began walking.

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After a few moments, Aki said, “Those boys from the shrine... the ones who stabbed you. They were gang too?”

Rei’s smile dropped a bit. “Yeah. But not mine.”

He ran a hand through his hair. “They’re from Tetsuro-kai. Loudmouths with too many knives and too little loyalty. I helped them once in a street mess, and they just assumed I was one of them.”

“And you’re not?”

“I’m vice-captain of Kyouka-kai. We don’t jump people for sport. We protect our blocks. My captain raised me more than my own parents.”

Aki glanced sideways at him.

“They came after me ‘cause I said no,” Rei added. “Loyalty means something different to fake people.”

She nodded.

> She knew that word too well.

Loyalty.

It was what her parents demanded — but never returned.

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Then Rei asked, almost casually, “What about you? What’s home like?”

Aki blinked.

She could feel the answer rising — the truth. The bruises. The silence. The untouched dinner plates. The makeup. The envelopes.

But instead—

She smiled faintly and said:

“It’s nice. Big house. Strict, but… caring parents.”

Rei looked at her. “Really?”

She nodded. “They expect a lot. But they love me. I’m… lucky, I guess.”

Rei stared a little longer, like he didn’t quite believe it — but didn’t want to call her out.

“Well,” he said finally, “glad someone has that.”

Aki turned her face toward the road, away from his eyes.

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They stopped by the river, watching ducks float along the current.

Rei picked up a stone and flicked it.

“Y’know,” he said, “I like walking with you. You don’t talk much. But when you do… it’s real.”

She smiled faintly again.

Not real.

Not today.

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That night, she sat by her window, notebook in her lap.

> Date: October 31, 2007

He told me the truth — knives, betrayal, and broken loyalty.

*I told him lies — quiet ones, polished ones.

Because some truths feel too ugly to say out loud.*

I’m not ready to say:

“My house is big.

But I have never felt smaller in my life.”

So instead I said:

‘My house is perfect.’

She closed the notebook.

And stared at the door.

Half-hoping someone would knock…

Even knowing no one ever would.

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End of Chapter 16 

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