After entering, I changed my shoes and immediately headed to my classroom on the second floor of the west wing of the school. I was already in my second year.

I opened the classroom door and entered.

As usual, my presence was irrelevant. When I headed toward any destination, some kids would move away from me at the mere hint of my possible movement, as if I somehow disturbed or annoyed them. Walking toward my desk, I noticed it.

"Ugh..."

I sighed.

The chair was covered in chewing gum.

The thing didn't shock me much. It was just another childish prank. It wasn't the first time my classmates had given me this kind of treatment.

I took a tissue from my backpack and spent the first minutes of my school day removing the pieces of gum one by one, hearing the murmur of my classmates in the background gossiping about me.

"Ah, why is she even in our class?"

"She probably meets up with some older gentleman after school and..."

"They go to some hotel to do those things."

The gossip was always the same. They think I sleep with older men for money.

This rumor started circulating ever since I began high school. I don't know exactly who started it, but definitely some old classmate from middle school. The fact is that now everyone thinks I'm a girl who sells herself for money.

I'm not saying it left me completely indifferent. I was already used to acts of bullying, but what worried me most was the possibility that this rumor might reach the teachers' ears. I wouldn't want them to start believing it too.

They would call my aunt to school and inform her about the bullying and my antisocial behavior. I didn't want to cause her any more unnecessary worries based on baseless rumors, and I didn't want her to worry about my non-existent social life.

Having cleaned the chair, I headed to the trash can to throw away the tissue full of gum. At that moment, the teacher entered the classroom.

"Good morning, everyone."

"Good morning, teacher."

We all answered together. The rest of the class stood up from their chairs, bowed as a sign of respect, then sat back down.

I threw the tissue in the trash can placed near the sliding door of the classroom and immediately returned to my seat. The lesson began, and I spent all the morning hours staring out the window.

I wasn't very interested in the lessons. I had never been a studious type; I did the bare minimum to keep myself above passing. I hated dealing with teachers... they were all hypocrites. I couldn't stand the way they lectured about everything, and the reason was very simple.

In middle school, when I was teased for my physical appearance, I had tried several times to report the inappropriate behavior of my classmates toward me, but nothing was ever done in my defense.

Every time I tried to ask for help or support, the answer was always based on the belief that such behavior was normal for kids that age:

"Come on, that's not a nice thing to say. They're definitely joking."

Or:

"That's just how young people joke nowadays. Don't take it too seriously."

Those were the answers the teachers gave me. As if it didn't concern them at all.

Kids can be terrible, but sometimes adults can be even worse. They are the same people who educate us every day and teach us life lessons so we can become respectable adults and integrate into society. They should be role models and at the same people we can rely on.

Too bad that's not how things work in reality. Most likely, they are the same people who, when they were teenagers, bullied others or were bullied themselves.

Having been through that phase, they should understand how reality is for kids, but they pretend nothing is wrong. They prefer to wash their hands of it so they don't have unnecessary thoughts on their minds.

All this hypocrisy has always disgusted me.

"*Riiing*"

The bell rang. This meant that lunchtime had finally arrived.

Usually, normal kids with at least some social life would eat lunch together with other kids in the classroom or down in the courtyard. I, on the other hand, spent that time eating alone. Seeing a girl spending her lunch break alone in the middle of a group of people eating together might seem sad in the eyes of others, but it wasn't a problem. I had my own secret place where I could go to relax, far from dirty looks.

When the bell rang, I quickly grabbed my things and headed to the rooftop, an isolated spot where no one usually went. To get there, you had to reach the east wing of the building. On each floor there was a corridor connecting the two wings of the school.

I hurried; I went through the corridor and climbed the stairs until I reached the top, where I found a door leading outside with a pile of cardboard boxes beside it.

The door was always locked. Any student might think there was nothing there, but the real secret was hidden behind the pile. I moved it slightly and a hidden window appeared behind it. The small window also had a lock, but fortunately it was broken, so the window was simply slightly ajar. I climbed through it to reach the rooftop.

It was a beautiful day; the sun was shining in the sky and the wind gently caressed my face. The rooftop was very spacious; I headed to the opposite side from the window I had entered through and settled in the only spot not hit by the sun's rays: the fence that outlined the entire rooftop. Once I sat down on the ground, I finally started enjoying my lunch, which was the same as what I had given Hiro and what I had prepared the night before before diving into my digital books.

Between one bite and another, I started looking at the sky. Its majesty had always fascinated me. I began observing the clouds, trying to decipher the strange shapes they took in the sky. At that moment, a little bird flew by.

Seeing it, I started thinking about how unlucky I was. I could have been like that bird. In that case, I would have had wings to fly away from all this, from this harsh reality, to finally enjoy some peace. Deep down, I didn't want anything so complicated; I just wanted to spend my school days in peace. I continued with these thoughts until the end of lunch break.

After about an hour...

"*Riiing*"

The sound was faint due to my distance from the classrooms. Lunch break was over, and consequently so were my fantasies. I gathered my things and put them back in my backpack to return to the classroom.

I went through the window again to get back inside and put the cardboard boxes back in the exact position they were in before, making sure to cover the window well. I certainly didn't want anyone to discover that you could get to the rooftop so easily, nor did I want the adults to realize that a student had free access to that area. I would risk losing my only peaceful place in the whole school, and I could also get in trouble since, being a permanently locked door, students were forbidden to go there.

Back in the classroom, I sat down at my desk again and, following the remaining hours, I finished another one of my sad and dull school days.

At the end of the day, after putting my books back in my backpack, I headed toward the door to leave the classroom when I heard someone call me:

"Hey, Maeda-san."

I turned to see who it was. It was a small group of three girls from my class whose names I didn't even remember. I already knew what they wanted from me. Usually when they called me, it was because they wanted to dump some work on me that they didn't want to do.

"Clean up for us. We have to go home early today."

Indeed.

I didn't want to do it. After all their meanness, why should I be nice and help them?

But despite everything, I was a weak person. I couldn't assert myself the way I wanted with others. Every time I tried, it was as if a knot formed in my throat and my voice struggled to come out. Stammering, I replied:

"W-well... it's your turn today. And besides... I also have th... things to do."

Upon hearing my answer, they started staring at me with threatening looks.

One of them approached me, grabbed me by the hair, and started yanking me until I fell to the ground.

"We have more important things to do today than the things you have to do in your useless life. You'd better do what we told you."

"F-fine."

I replied reluctantly.

After that, they turned around and left. Once again, I had ended up playing the role of their doormat. I stayed there on the ground, unable to muster the courage to say anything because I was too scared and intimidated by them. I put my backpack back on my desk and started cleaning.

About an hour passed, and I managed to clean the entire classroom all by myself.

I grabbed my things and finally left the building to go home.

On the way back, my attention kept falling on the groups of kids I saw walking down the street, going to have fun together.

I saw them laughing and joking without a care in the world.

In my head, I started asking myself questions about why I was alone, why I couldn't have a group of friends like them, or even just one. I didn't understand why I had to receive all this cruelty from others and why my life had to weigh so heavily on me. I too would have liked to go have fun or even just get ice cream with someone.

I couldn't find an explanation, but I kept brooding over it incessantly. As I kept walking, I said out loud to myself:

"What did I do wrong to be alone?"

Completely lost in my thoughts, I didn't notice that I had reached the pedestrian crossing and had started crossing the street while the traffic light was still red.

"*BEEEEEEEEP*"

I suddenly heard the sound of a horn and turned toward the direction of the noise coming from my left side.

A car was coming straight at me.

I still had time to step back and dodge the vehicle coming toward me, but a strange thought crossed my mind.

If I died, I would say goodbye to every bad thought, every agony, every fear I lived with daily. Being alone, I certainly wouldn't be missed by anyone.

Sighing, at that moment I exclaimed:

"Maybe it's better to end it!"

So, instead of stepping back, I started moving forward.

I closed my eyes, ready to receive the impact and say goodbye to my suffering.

This time I wouldn't have any more thoughts on my mind, and I would be free.

I would grow wings and wander through the sky too, like that little bird from the same morning.

The car was getting closer and closer to me, and I had a strange sensation. I began to see the vehicle moving in slow motion, as well as the people on the opposite side of the pedestrian crossing. I remember that one of them was moving his lips, trying to tell me something. The man was dressed elegantly, wearing a jacket and tie, and holding a briefcase tightly in his hand. He was surely shouting at me to be careful and that the car was coming, but I couldn't hear him. The sound of the horn was still ringing in my ears.

What I was experiencing was similar to one of those scenes you see in movies where the character, before dying, slowly savors the last moments of life, wandering back through their memories.

The only difference was that I had no memories of my life that I wanted to remember.

The car was getting closer and closer... It was time.

At that moment, even though I couldn't hear the elegant man's shouts, a voice came clearly to my ears. Someone was shouting just a few steps away from me.

"WATCH OUT!!!"

Someone threw themselves on me and wrapped their arms around me; together we rolled out of the car's path to avoid the impact. The car ended up crashing into the traffic light pole at the intersection, while that person and I remained lying on the ground.

I opened my eyes, which I had closed involuntarily from the fright. I noticed I was clinging to a dark, heavy mass. I was lying on the ground beneath him, and my face was pressed against his chest. I could clearly feel his heart pounding wildly.

It was obvious. He had thrown himself headfirst and risked his life for a person he didn't even know. He must have been scared too and at the same time relieved that the car hadn't touched us at all.

Gently detaching my face from his chest, he asked me with a worried look, staring straight into my eyes:

"Are you okay?"

I lifted my face to look at this person and noticed he was a boy my age. Given the close proximity, I immediately noticed his big black eyes. I could only notice this before I started trembling. I struggled to breathe and couldn't say a word.

Meanwhile, the people around had approached to see what had happened and, seeing the situation, immediately called the police and an ambulance. Through all this, I was still in his arms. At that moment, I felt my face wet and tears started streaming from my eyes.

I couldn't stop them.

I started crying and screaming like a child.

"Calm down. It's all right. You're safe now," the boy said, trying to calm and reassure me.

Only then did I realize what I was doing.

Maybe it was from the fright, or from the fact that I was beginning to realize that mine had been a suicide attempt, but my head started spinning and my vision became blurry. I couldn't understand what was happening to me, but suddenly my eyes closed and I couldn't see anything anymore. I fainted right there in that boy's arms.