Chapter Three Losing Your Love
One afternoon, Minami was about to go into her classroom, but gasped when she saw what was going on. Hideki and Ayano were together. Minami couldn’t help listening to their conversation from the hallway.
“Hideki, there’s something I wanted to tell you.”
“Yeah?”
“I love you. Please go out with me! Let’s do many fun things together and make wonderful memories.”
Tears filled Minami’s eyes, and she clenched her fist. “Hideki is going to be taken away...” Somebody else asked Hideki out before she had a chance to tell him her feelings.
“Sorry.”
“What?”
“There’s a girl I love from young age. I can’t leave her.”
Hideki...
“Uh, uh, um...”
This time it was Jun.
“M, Minami, I, I like, like you.”
“S, sorry, but I, I already like s, someone else,” Minami stammered.
“Ms. Yamamoto, Mr. Ohta, there’s something I’d like to ask you,” said Minami.
“What is it, Minami?”
“Can you tell me about the school festival, twenty years ago?”
“Alright...” Ms. Yamamoto said quietly, tears filling her eyes. “There used to be a high school student named Yoko Yoshimura. She liked her classmate Teruhiko Ito. However, Teruhiko started going out with a girl named Mai Iida. Since then, Yoko grew depressed and couldn’t eat or sleep and one day...”
“She fell off the roof of the school building. Her younger sister quit school. A boy named Youichi Hiroda who secretly liked her younger sister stayed in school, though.”
Mr. Ohta’s expression was also bitter.
Yoshimura... Minami suddenly realized something. “Do you have a picture of the student named Yoko Yoshimura?”
“Yes, I do.” Ms. Yamamoto showed Minami the class picture of the girl before the school festival. "This is the girl. "
So it’s true! The girl wore glasses, but her face was similar to Eiko Yoshimura. Eiko was the younger sister of Yoko Yoshimura and the criminal of all cases. If so, the next victims must be the other two!
“Kanako, there’s something I wanted to tell you,” said Tetsuro Yamagata. Tetsuro and Kanako were sitting on a bench under the tree of the schoolyard.
“Yes?”
“I liked you from high school. But you were quite attractive and many others liked you as well... Since all the others are gone, I’d like to ask you. Will you please go out with me?”
“I’m sorry. I really loved my husband. It’s just that Kouichi was so nice to me recently, so... ”
Just then there were two sounds of the gun and the two fell down with blood out of their heads.
“Kanako! Tetsuro!” Minami shouted.
Minami found a tape recorder attached to Kanako's clothes.
Just then, she saw a black figure going into the school building.
“Wait!”
She didn’t intend to let the criminal escape again.
Minami ran after the criminal and reached the roof of the school building. Then the criminal turned around and suddenly shouted, “If you come any closer, I’ll jump off!
“So it was you, Eiko Yoshimura, the younger sister of Yoko Yoshimura!”
“W- why do you know about my sister?”
“I asked my class teacher. They told me your older sister lost her love and jumped off from the roof of the school building. You quit school after that. You liked a boy named Shu Muroi, bur he started going out with Kanako and they got married. In addition, Kanako started flirting with Kouichi, and you came up with this murder case. Am I right?”
“Y- you don’t know anything about my feelings! I don’t care because I’m going to fall off!”
“W- wait! Hold on...” Minami took a step forward, but Eiko backed further to the edge of the roof. Oh no, she’s going to commit suicide... Minami didn’t know what to do.
Just then, a man arrived. It was Youichi Hiroda.
“Wait! If you jump off, I’m going to jump off after you!”
“W-why didn’t you tell me that earlier?” Eiko asked, crying.
“I was a coward. I couldn’t tell you this for twenty years. But now I can say it. I want to say it before I lose you. I love you!”
Eiko finally walked away from the edge of the roof. She came near Youichi and said, “Thank you.” She kissed him softly in the cheek.
