Work Text:
The sky was gloomy when Arisu woke up. He peered out the window. It was going to rain later. It rained on this day last year, too. Very fitting then, since today was an anniversary. Everything might as well be like it was last year.
He got out of bed and went to the closet. He glanced at the rack full of monochrome clothes, all white, gray, and black. All his boyfriend’s, and all very plain compared to Arisu’s own rack of multicolored clothes. Honestly, did he ever wear any color? Only when he wore his hospital scrubs.
“Wear your blue shirt.”
He turned to his boyfriend, who was peering through his own clothes. “It looks good on you,” he said.
Arisu looked down at Chishiya’s white hoodie and dark jeans. “You wore that last year,” he stated.
Chishiya smiled sardonically at him. “So you noticed.”
“You should change.”
“But I like this hoodie. And you wore the blue shirt last year too.”
Arisu sighed. “If I say I’ll wear it, will you leave me be?”
Chishiya’s eyes glinted like a cat’s—playful, for now. “For a while.”
It was better than nothing. Besides, if his boyfriend and the weather were repeating what they did last year, he might as well go along with it. “Fine, I’ll wear it. If that’s what you want.”
He was rewarded with a victorious smirk and wanted to roll his eyes as he smirked back. Everything was a competition with him. He pulled out the blue shirt in question, a regular tee, and frowned down at it. He thought it was a lighter blue. But it was a dark blue.
He turned to Chishiya. “Do you remember this being a lighter…”
Chishiya had left the closet.
“… blue,” he finished. He sighed and looked down at the shirt. Then he shrugged and picked out a pair of jeans to go with it. When he looked out the window again, the sky hadn’t changed. It was still a dull, sullen gray.
When he walked into the kitchen, he wordlessly passed Chishiya, who was sitting on a counter watching him. He heard a puff of air that he knew to be Chishiya’s laugh and ignored it. He went to the fridge and opened it, taking out a container of day-old rice and the egg carton.
“Fried rice with eggs,” Chishiya remarked. “That’s what you made last year, too.”
He set the containers on the counter next to the stove and went to get a pan. He silently made the fried rice, and despite not having made it for a year, he reflexively remembered exactly how to make it.
Chishiya hummed as he watched from the countertop. “You still remember.”
“An extra splash of soy sauce,” Arisu said aloud as he did the action.
“Exactly how I like it. You learned just for me.” He could hear the smirk in Chishiya’s voice. “I’m almost touched.”
“You were touched when I first made it like this for you.”
“That was then. Before I knew better.”
Arisu huffed and stirred the rice in the pan. He eyed the soy sauce on the counter, and after a moment of thought, grabbed it and added just a bit more.
Chishiya scoffed. “Well, that’s just rude.”
This time, Arisu really did roll his eyes as the soy sauce forcibly went back in the cabinet above the stove. It was just a little more. If Chishiya went hungry because he refused to eat it, that wasn’t his problem. It shouldn’t be that he had to accommodate without being accommodated in return.
“Well, someone’s being especially grouchy this morning. Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, darling?”
Arisu gripped his spatula as he stirred. Why wouldn’t he just shut up?
“Well, I’ll come back when you’re ready to stop being a child.”
He was unable to stop from whirling around and throwing his spatula. “I’m not a child!”
The spatula hit the wall and clattered to the floor of the empty kitchen, and he thought he heard the faint sound of the front door closing. Chishiya had already left. How could he leave so quietly? He really was like a prowling cat.
Sighing, Arisu rubbed his eye and went to get the spatula. He would be eating breakfast alone… again.
His phone rang as he sat down, and he half expected it to be Chishiya calling to tell him he was a child. But no, it wasn’t him. He answered and put the phone on speaker. “Hi, Usagi.”
“Hey, Arisu! How’s it going?”
She sounded overly cheerful. Maybe she thought Chishiya was listening. She didn’t have to worry, he was gone. “I’m fine. I’m about to have breakfast.”
“Oh, me too. What did you make?”
“Fried rice with an egg and soy sauce.” He bit his tongue so he wouldn’t add “the way Shuntaro likes it.” “What about you?”
“Just fruit.”
“And you’re always telling me to eat more.”
Usagi laughed sheepishly. “Okay, okay, you got me. You know me too well now.”
Arisu smiled as he ate; he could at least always count on Usagi to brighten a day a little bit. “You can’t change your tactics on me, now.” He wondered when she would bring up today. She always did this, ease into a more serious conversation with a bit of small talk to lighten the mood. It was just a matter of time.
“Aww, I can’t. You’ve got me all figured out.”
“What kind of best friend would I be if I didn’t?”
Usagi laughed… then she paused. “Hey, Arisu…”
There it was. Arisu ate a forkful of egg and rice. “Yeah?”
“I was thinking… do you want to have a movie night later tonight? You know, it’s just been so long since we last hung out, and I was thinking we should. So how about it?”
A movie night and hanging out with Usagi did sound nice… “I can’t. It’s our anniversary today.”
“Oh, Arisu…” He almost hated it when her voice got all soft and pitying like that. He wondered if she knew, or at least had an inkling, the importance of today. Or maybe she was just disappointed in herself that she forgot. “I know. But… you shouldn’t have to bear all this alone. Especially today.”
“I’ll be fine, Usagi.” He bit back a comment about how he kept telling her this. Usagi was too kind for a passive-aggressive remark like that. And she wasn’t a bad friend for wanting to make sure he was okay. But he didn’t need her help. He was fine.
“I know…” Usagi sighed. “I just worry about you.”
Arisu smiled softly. “I know. But I’m fine, really. Today’s important.” He’d taken the whole day off work for today. Today was important—too important even for a movie night with Usagi. “Maybe we can have a movie night tomorrow.”
That seemed to placate his best friend. “Yeah, that sounds great! You’ll be free tomorrow night?”
“I should be.”
“Me too! Do you want to come over here? Or I can come to your place.”
Chishiya wouldn’t like it if she came over… “I’ll come over to your house.”
Always accommodating, never being accommodated.
“Okay! Do you want to shoot for… seven? Seven-thirty?”
Arisu went over his schedule for tomorrow. “Seven-thirty sounds better.”
“Got it! This’ll be fun!”
He smiled. “Yeah, it’ll be fun.” He checked the time. The library would be open now. “Sorry, Usagi, but I have things to do today. I’ll talk to you later?"
“Of course! I’ll talk to you later. And if you ever need to talk about… you know…”
Arisu’s smile faded. He’d almost forgotten until she referred to it. He worked to keep his voice the same as it had been before. “I’ll talk to you. I promise.”
He was rewarded with what sounded like a happy smile. “Good. I’ll talk to you later, okay? Love you.”
“Love you too. Bye, Usagi.”
He hung up and went back to eating. He needed to finish and clean up after himself so he could go to the library. At least tomorrow would be nice. He wondered if Usagi remembered they made plans for a movie night tomorrow last year, too.
The breakfast dishes were cleaned and put away, neatly enough to suggest they’d never been used, and soon Arisu was out the door with his work bag and a library book that was overdue. He’d completely forgotten to return it earlier this week… oh well. He could just pay the fine at the library.
He would have to go grocery shopping afterwards, he thought to himself as he walked to the library. He didn’t have what he needed to make dinner tonight. Chishiya never liked that, his forgetting about things. He never liked Arisu’s inability to remember when library books were due. It was a miracle he didn’t find the overdue book and lecture him for it.
Deja vu enveloped Arisu for a moment, before he remembered he’d done this last year, too. He’d gone to the library to return a book and do some work for the psychology clinic, then he’d gone to the grocery store. He looked up at the sky, still a gloomy gray. It seemed the entire day was determined to repeat itself.
A chilly October breeze swept through, and he shivered and pulled his hoodie tighter around himself. Not one of Chishiya’s white ones, he didn’t dare touch those. His own hoodie, a comfortable dark blue one that matched the color of his shirt. He’d had it for years, despite Chishiya telling him once that he ought to get rid of it. But no, he refused. It was too comfortable. And he wanted to have at least one thing for himself.
Always accommodating, never being accommodated.
He entered the library, returned the book, and paid the small fine. He felt a little bad at drowning out the clerk, Tokie, as she talked to him while ringing up his payment. Tokie was a cheerful, middle-aged woman who liked to talk. Chishiya didn’t like the chattering, his introverted nature preferring silence, but Arisu liked her. And normally he’d try to listen and converse with her. But today was different. Today was more important.
“Arisu?”
He snapped back to reality and realized Tokie was looking at him expectantly. “Oh…” he laughed sheepishly. “I’m sorry, Tokie-san. What did you say?”
“I was just asking where your nice boyfriend is. Oh, what was his name? Shhhhh…”
“Shuntaro.”
“Yeah, that’s it! He hasn’t come around in a while. You two used to always come in and sit together, I remember.”
They did do that. Arisu remembered those days very well, when he had all the psychology assignments and Chishiya was finishing his medical degree. They would go to this library together and study. They didn’t do that anymore. Chishiya got too busy and Arisu had tried his best to study alone, but missed his partner’s quiet presence too much.
Arisu shrugged. “He got really busy, that’s all.” At least, that was what he told people.
Tokie nodded in understanding. “I see. My husband is the exact same way, always too busy. It’s a shame, though. He was such a polite young man. It feels like it’s been a whole year since I last saw him in here with you.”
Arisu didn’t have the heart to tell her it really had been over a year.
He quickly finished paying his fine and went to sit down. He took out his work laptop and opened it to his email. He responded to a couple emails, then went to work. He only planned on staying at the library for a few hours. He didn’t want the whole day to be taken up by other things.
Two hours passed in relative peace and quiet. Arisu was glad of it. It was one thing he liked about the library, how quiet it was. He could never handle a whole lot of loud noise even when others considered it normal. His father had never understood it about him. But Chishiya understood it. Chishiya understood him. He’d never felt so understood like that before by anyone else, save his two best friends. It was laughable now, almost, how quickly he’d latched onto that about the man, the instant understanding of what others had written off as an unsolvable problem.
“Thinking about me?”
Arisu refused to look up as Chishiya sat down across from him. He knew he’d have that stupid, self-confident smirk on his face. “I know you are,” Chishiya said aloud. “You’ve got that look on your face. You always get it when you think about me.”
Arisu said nothing. He just continued typing out a response to another email.
“In case you were wondering, I’m here because I got bored.” Arisu wondered if he would look up and see Chishiya’s cat-like eyes gleaming cheekily. “I was thinking about you, too. Much to my dismay. And I knew you’d be here. You’re determined to repeat the whole day, aren’t you? It almost makes me feel special.”
He picked the perfect place to antagonize him—he knew Arisu didn’t want to be kicked out of the library, so he couldn’t say anything. The ass. Why couldn’t he just leave him alone?
“I saw the book you returned today.”
Arisu’s fingers briefly froze before resuming typing. He was ignoring him.
“Don’t worry, I won’t lecture you again. Even though I know you hate that. But you already returned it and paid off the fine, so there’s no point. I was a little surprised you even checked it out. Edgar Allan Poe’s not your usual style.”
He wasn’t. Arisu didn’t normally read poetry, or Gothic horror stories. An upper-class upbringing meant Chishiya was more likely to quote poetry, even if he never did. But he liked reading it. Arisu had been able to convince him to read it aloud to him a few times. Maybe he checked out the book of Edgar Allan Poe works because he was feeling sentimental.
“What, were you feeling sentimental because of today?”
Dammit. He was such an ass.
He ignored Chishiya’s amused huff of laughter. He was ignoring him. He would not be antagonized by him.
“I do actually like some of Poe’s work. Most of it’s too dour. But I like ‘The Raven.’ That’s a good one.”
He was just talking for the sake of talking now. At least his love of hearing his own voice and showing off how smart he was hadn’t changed.
“And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting on the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door.”
Arisu worked to not look up as Chishiya spoke. His voice was softer, darker, fitting the tone of the poem, and it seemed to lilt and bend like a dance.
“And his eyes have all the seeing of a demon’s that is dreaming. And the lamplight o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor.”
His voice got the same way those times he got him to read out loud. Chishiya had a beautiful voice. But Arisu would not look up. Because to look up was to somehow admit defeat, to surrender to the hypnotic spell of his voice. And he couldn’t. Arisu could not do that. So he refused to look up.
“And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor, shall be lifted… nevermore.”
Arisu realized his breathing had grown a bit heavier. He brought his hands away from his laptop and grabbed his water bottle. His hands shook as he untwisted the cap and drank, refusing to look at the blonde sitting across the table.
The pause was broken by another huff of laughter from Chishiya. “You know what I like about that verse?” He paused, perhaps waiting for Arisu to ask what it was, then spoke. “It reminds me of you.”
Without waiting for Arisu’s response, he stood up. “I’m going to go look at some books. Don’t work too hard, now.”
The patronizing hand patting Arisu’s head was ice cold. And then he was gone, leaving Arisu shaking in his seat.
Arisu left the library about half an hour later, too distracted to do any more work. He threw his things into his bag and stormed out, barely acknowledging Tokie’s cheerful goodbye as he went. He could feel Chishiya following behind him, because of course he was following him, despite the small hope Arisu had subconsciously had that maybe he could leave Chishiya behind at the library. He would find his own way back home. He always did.
But instead, he had to endure an entire walk to the grocery store with Chishiya right next to him. Chishiya didn’t say anything, just strolling along beside him with his hands in his hoodie pockets. The hood was up over his hair. What a sight they must have made, Arisu with his dark hair and dark hoodie and Chishiya with his blonde hair and white hoodie, walking silently next to each other. Arisu wondered if people would think Chishiya was the nice one if they saw them.
“It’s going to rain later,” Chishiya stated, looking up at the sky.
“I noticed earlier,” Arisu said quietly, glancing up at the sky and refusing to look his way.
“Just like last year. Today is almost an exact repeat of today last year.” A pause. “Interesting.”
This time, Arisu mustered up enough courage to glance at Chishiya. “Why are you doing this?” he muttered. He kept his head down, and after a moment of thought pulled his hood over his head.
As expected, Chishiya once again had that cat-like smirk on his face and the glint in his eyes—playful, for now, indulging and willing to humor, until he got tired of it. “Doing what? Accompanying my partner to the grocery store?”
“You know what I mean,” Arisu hissed.
“Oh, do I? I can’t know what you mean unless you tell me, darling.”
Arisu’s hands balled into fists at that word. That name. His fingernails dug harshly into his palms. “Fuck you.”
“Right now? Have you become an exhibitionist in the past year?” Chishiya smirked wickedly. “But maybe I shouldn’t. If we’re repeating everything we did last year, then we shouldn’t do something we didn’t do.”
“I…” He looked desperately down at the ground, trying to wish away the frustrated tears pricking his eyes. “I hate you…”
Chishiya snorted. “I have to say, you’ve definitely changed in the past year. A year ago, you wouldn’t have dared say that to me, even if it was the truth. Too afraid to hurt me.” He smirked at him. “I think I like this version of you better.”
He would. The ass.
The grocery store wasn’t too crowded, but he almost wished it was, so he wouldn’t be distracted by Chishiya. He grabbed a basket and went to get what he needed. He needed dinner tonight to be perfect—if nothing else, he couldn’t mess that up.
His phone buzzed in his pocket and he took it out. A text message from Usagi. How’s it going? You feeling okay?
He sighed quietly, trying not to be too frustrated. Usagi was just worried about him. She’d been doing this the past two weeks leading up to today. He typed out a response of Yeah, I’m feeling okay and put his phone back in his pocket.
He went to the produce and inspected the strawberries. He liked strawberries, always had. It was one thing his dad didn’t hound him for, figuring it was a good thing his son liked fruit for a snack instead of junk food.
“Don’t get the strawberries. Get the grapes.”
Arisu frowned. Chishiya liked grapes more than strawberries. Arisu always told him he didn’t have to eat the strawberries, but he could never miss the slight frown on his boyfriend’s face whenever he saw them in the fridge. Why couldn’t he just tolerate his likes and dislikes? Why did he have to be so judgmental?
He grabbed a small box of strawberries and put them in his basket.
“Tch. Rude.”
Always accommodating, never being accommodated.
He could feel Chishiya beside him, a silent yet incredibly demanding presence. He used to be a comforting presence, a solid presence, one he could always depend on when even his own mind was telling him he was an unloved waste. He couldn’t help wondering when exactly this began, when Chishiya went from a comforting part of his life to… this.
“You’re going to make ramen again tonight, aren’t you?” When he didn’t respond, Chishiya huffed. “You made ramen last year. Isn’t it odd how we’re repeating the entire day all over again?”
Arisu picked up a peach, inspecting it in the way Usagi had taught him to do to make sure it was good. He was sure Chishiya was just playing with him; he probably wasn’t that bothered by them repeating the whole day over again.
“Why don’t you make something else, hm? Like that salmon dish you made once.”
“You hated that one,” Arisu said quietly.
“I never said that to you.”
“I could tell.” Did Chishiya really think he couldn’t read him after so many years together? He could tell Chishiya didn’t like it, even if he never said anything.
“Even so, it’d be better than ramen. You always make it too spicy.”
“I like spicy.”
“I don’t.”
“You could try it.”
“I did, for you, because I wanted to like similar things as you. I didn’t like it.”
Arisu’s hand faltered over the pack of meat he was about to pick up. He’d forgotten about that. Chishiya really had tried it for him, because he knew he liked spicy ramen.
After a second, his hand moved again. He picked up the beef and put it in his basket.
“Not listening to me, hm? As usual.”
Arisu’s hand tightened its grip on his basket. He closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath, then blew it out. He opened his eyes and kept going.
His phone buzzed with another text from Usagi. Hey! I was just thinking about what movies we can watch tomorrow. Any ideas?
“She’s trying to make conversation,” Chishiya stated from where he was sitting on top of the kitchen table.
Arisu rolled his eyes at him as he typed out a reply. “She cares.” He put down his phone and stirred the broth in the pot.
Chishiya huffed out a laugh. “Wonder why?”
His hand tightened around the spoon. “Because she’s my friend.”
“Must be nice to know she cares so much.”
“You would know how it feels if you had any friends.”
“Oh yeah, that reminds me, have you heard from Kuina lately?”
Arisu went silent. He stirred and looked at the broth. He tasted it and thought for a moment—it needed more chili oil. He grabbed the oil and added more.
Chishiya snorted. “Didn’t think so.”
Arisu wanted to say he was ignoring him. But then again, that would be talking to him. So instead he said nothing.
He cooked the ramen noodles and plated his food. He allowed himself a smile as he looked down at his food. It looked pretty good, if he said so himself. Cooking had been a small way he built up his confidence after moving out of his father’s house. He was pretty proud of how skilled he’d gotten at it.
“Nothing for me?”
Except when he was around Chishiya.
“I thought you wouldn’t want it,” he bit back as he brought his food over to the table. “Since you hate spicy ramen.”
Chishiya rolled his eyes. “Oh sure. It’s definitely my fault that my boyfriend purposely didn’t make enough dinner for me.”
“If I made you some, you wouldn’t want it.”
“When have I ever said that to you?”
“You don’t. But if I had made you food, you would look down at it, say “Oh,” in that tone that suggests you’re disappointed I made spicy ramen, then when I ask what’s wrong, you’ll say nothing’s wrong, but you’ll keep looking down at the ramen with a frown. It’ll make me think you don’t want the ramen, and make me feel bad that I didn’t make something you like more. So then I’ll apologize and say you can eat something else, and then you’ll go make something else. You’ll end up not even touching the ramen anyway. So what’s the point in me making some for you?”
Silence. Chishiya stared blankly at him, like he didn’t want to admit he was right. Arisu felt a strange, spiteful sort of satisfaction at being able to silence him like this. He always had to have the last word, never letting Arisu have that privilege. When Chishiya didn’t say anything, Arisu turned away from him and sat down to eat his dinner.
Chishiya didn’t speak the entire time he ate, just sat on the table watching him. Funny, Arisu thought as he ate; there was this silence last year, too. After so many years with Chishiya, he should have been used to silence—but he wasn’t used to this sort of silence. He was more used to the kind where they could just sit and enjoy each other’s company, free of any pressure or obligation to talk. Not this, where they didn’t talk because they refused to say anything, refused to be the one that was dismissed or set off another argument.
It seemed like far too soon that his bowl was empty. He sighed and went to go clean up. He would have done it earlier, but he didn’t want his food to get cold. Besides, he knew Chishiya probably hated seeing the mess—disregarding, of course, the fact that Arisu always tried to be as clean as possible.
Always accommodating, never being accommodated.
“You can be so cold, darling,” Chishiya suddenly said aloud.
Arisu stopped, then resumed his cleaning up. “Don’t call me that.”
“So you don’t deny you’re cold.”
“If you’re looking for an argument, I won’t give you one. There’s no point.”
“Oh really?” Chishiya sounded like he was smirking. “I think there is.”
“There isn’t. Besides, you’re the cold one.”
“Oh, am I?”
Arisu slammed the pot down into the sink. “Yeah. You are. I could be panicking about something, and your response is raising your eyebrow and asking me why I’m making such a big deal out of things.”
“Is this about the time you misplaced your video game again?”
“No,” Arisu bit out as he put the pot away and slammed the drawer closed. “This is about you. I’m the only one that ever worried about our relationship. All you ever wanted to do was argue and tell me I’m a child.”
“Not true.” He knew Chishiya had to be smiling maliciously. “You were also fun to have sex with.”
“Shut up!” Arisu slammed a cabinet door closed. He whirled around and glared fiercely at Chishiya. “I hate you!”
Chishiya hopped off the table and leaned against it, hands in his hoodie pockets. His eyes flashed wickedly as he kept smiling. “As you so often tell me.”
“I hate you! I hate being around you! Why can’t you just leave me alone?!”
“Oh, Ryohei. Don’t you remember what I told you last year? I will never leave you alone.”
Arisu turned away from him and placed his hands on the counter, trying to quell the anger boiling inside him. He hated this. He hated this man. He hated that he’d wasted so many years of his life loving him and being with him. He hated being around him. He hated just the mention of his name.
Chishiya kept talking behind him. “I will never let you go. That’s what I told you, remember?”
Arisu’s head lifted, and his eyes fell on the knife block sitting by the stove.
“You’ll never be free of me. Not until you own up to what you’ve done.”
The handle of the knife seemed to sing to him, call to him, whisper that he could solve this problem if he just took hold of it.
“And you’ll never own up to it. You’ll justify it however you need to. So that means… I will never leave. I will never leave you alone.”
And suddenly it felt like Chishiya was right behind him. “Never.”
Arisu screamed and grabbed hold of the knife. He whirled around and stabbed the knife into Chishiya’s chest.
The knife went through Chishiya’s chest and clattered to the floor.
Chishiya looked down at it, then smirked and looked back up at Arisu. “Ah, yes. You did that last year, too.”
Arisu staggered back against the kitchen counter, breathing heavily. This part was different than last year. Last year, the knife had stuck into Chishiya’s chest. Blood had gone everywhere, over the kitchen, over the floor, over Arisu’s light blue shirt. It had stuck last time.
Tears started falling as he let out wheezing sobs. “I hate you!” he cried.
“You know, the more you say that, the less impact it has,” Chishiya said. A large patch of dark red began to appear, staining the pure white of his jacket.
“I hate you! You made me do this! I—I couldn’t ever be free of you! You wouldn’t let me go!”
“Oh please,” Chishiya rolled his eyes. He vanished, then reappeared right in front of Arisu’s face, so close his nose almost went through him. “You could have just left. You could have just ended things and moved out. But you were too spineless and considerate to ever leave me.”
“You made me feel like I couldn’t leave!”
“Oh, so it’s my fault? It’s my fault you killed me? It’s my fault you made it seem like I killed myself?” Red appeared on Chishiya’s wrists, darkening the white sleeves. Blood began to drip down his hands.
“I didn’t—!”
“Yes, you did!” Chishiya finally shouted. “You did! You killed me! You murdered me! Just admit it!”
“It was an accident, I-I didn’t want to!” Arisu ducked his head and crawled, ignoring the ice cold feeling that shot through him as he went through Chishiya and scrambled for the knife on the floor. “I didn’t!” he sobbed.
“But you’re not sorry, are you? You’re not sorry for what you’ve done.”
“You made me!” Arisu wailed desperately as he aimed the knife at Chishiya.
Chishiya stalked towards him, looking no longer like a mischievous cat. He was a panther, a tiger, about to tear apart his prey.
“Go away!” Arisu screamed, swiping the knife at him. “You made me!”
“You’re not sorry.”
“Leave me alone!”
Chishiya stood above him, looking down at him with a cold glare. “You’re not sorry,” he repeated.
“I’M NOT! There, I said it, I’m not! I’m not sorry! I thought about killing you for months! I was sick of you! I hated you!” Arisu sobbed grossly. “There, happy?! Leave me alone! Please!”
Chishiya didn’t move. Arisu swung the knife at him again. “GO AWAY!”
Chishiya’s hand shot out and closed around his wrist, stopping his swing in midair. Arisu froze in shock, staring at the hand. He could see through it. It shouldn’t have been really there. But he could feel it. The hand was solid around his wrist, gripping it tightly. It was real.
Arisu struggled to free his wrist. The hand closed even tighter around it. And then his hand began to move again, aiming the knife not at Chishiya, but at himself.
Arisu looked up at Chishiya, crying helplessly as his hand put the blade of the knife to his own throat. Chishiya smiled coldly down at him. “‘Til death do us part, darling.”
The knife went through his throat.
Arisu Ryohei was found later that night. He was found by his close friend, Usagi Yuzuha, who grew concerned after he stopped replying to her text messages and didn’t answer any calls. She later told police she’d been worried about him since the death of his partner, Chishiya Shuntaro, who was thought to have killed himself in their apartment one year previously.
Arisu Ryohei was found lying on the floor of his kitchen, in a pool of his own blood after using a kitchen knife to cut his own throat. A letter was found lying on the table in Arisu’s handwriting, addressed to the police. Arisu confessed he was the one that killed Chishiya Shuntaro exactly one year ago that day, claiming it was due to frustration and feelings of being trapped in their relationship.
Found lying next to him was a plain white jacket belonging to Chishiya Shuntaro, covered in bloodstains and thought to be the one the deceased had worn when he was killed. In the pocket of the hoodie, police found a Polaroid photograph of Chishiya Shuntaro and Arisu Ryohei. The two deceased were hugging each other close and smiling at the camera. Written on the back was, “We used to be happy.”