Vol 2 Chapter 16 – The Knife【Vol 2 — Youth in the Midst of Calamity】

“S-Sophia…?”

“Yeah, Will-kun. It’s me. Sophia — your onee-chan.”

“……”

How long had she been there?

Just how long had she been standing right behind me?

The worst possible thought crossed my mind.

Don’t tell me — she saw me kissing Aria just now—

“H-Hey, Will-kun.”

Sophia’s expression was rigid.

I had never — not once — seen her look this way before.

This shaken.

“…Ehehe, hehehe. Hey, Will-kun.”

An unnatural laugh slipped from her lips.

“It might just be onee-chan’s misunderstanding, okay? But onee-chan kind of — just now, I kind of saw it. Will-kun and Aria-chan. You were kissing, right?”

Sophia’s gaze shifted past me to someone behind my back.

I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was.

In the direction of Sophia’s stare, Aria had crumpled to the ground, dazed and lost in a stupor.

I honestly couldn’t tell whether Aria had any idea what was happening here.

“——”

“Oh — no, never mind, it doesn’t really matter. I already knew Aria-chan liked Will-kun, and I understand those feelings really, really well. I even knew you two had kissed before. Yeah… I knew.”

Sophia recited the words like she was making excuses to someone invisible.

“It doesn’t bother me, okay? Because… because I knew Will-kun would look at me in the end. Would look at onee-chan. I was sure of it — I was supposed to be…”

Shk — my feet stepped back.

On their own.

Without thinking.

You shouldn’t be here, every instinct I had was screaming at me.

Sophia’s hand shot out and grabbed my shoulder.

“Hey, wait? Will-kun, wait. Please don’t go?”

“——”

It felt like my shoulder might shatter.

I couldn’t move.

“Something’s wrong. Something’s wrong, right? Because — because I, for Will-kun — …No, that’s not it, Will-kun is… huh? Hehe. That’s strange.”

Sophia’s lips were trembling.

Her eyes were vacant as they reflected my face, like she was staring somewhere far away — somewhere that had nothing to do with here.

Then, as though afraid of what she might hear herself say, she slowly opened her mouth.

“Hey, Will-kun… does Will-kun feel about Aria-chan — mm… ngh.”

I kissed Sophia.

I couldn’t even retrace the chain of thought that had led me there.

But I must have believed it would cut through the moment the same way it had with Aria just now.

How pathetically optimistic of me.

Lips to lips — and I slipped my tongue in. I had hesitated even less than I had with Aria moments ago.

“——”

But the moment our lips met and I saw her face, I knew instantly.

It was the wrong call.

She gently pulled her lips away and looked at me with eyes that could not believe what they had just seen.

“…Yeah… yeah. I’m so happy. I never thought Will-kun would do something like that on his own.”

“Ah — right, yeah, I mean — Sophia—”

“I love you, Will-kun. I love you so, so much, okay? I think you might be the only one for me. So I’d do anything for Will-kun — I really believed that. That’s why I… I…”

“……”

“Hey — Will-kun loves me, right? Loves onee-chan, right?”

I nodded.

A single dip of my head — that was how I answered Sophia’s feelings.

But the gesture didn’t come from an honest place.

Every part of me just wanted to get out of there as fast as I possibly could.

“For real? Do you really love me? — Will you love me?”

— And yet.

With her face mere inches from mine, our noses nearly touching, her trembling eyes locked onto me and searching — when she said those words, something shifted inside my chest in a way I didn’t understand.

I didn’t know what that feeling was.

I nodded anyway.

Nodded to give Sophia her answer.

But it was meaningless.

Inside Sophia, the conclusion had already been reached.

“A lie… right? Will-kun doesn’t really… doesn’t really think about me that much, does he.”

“T-That’s not true! I do — Sophia, I—”

“No… I always knew, really. I love Will-kun so, so much — and yet Will-kun doesn’t love me back. That’s why I can only do something like this.”

What she was saying made no sense.

None of it held together.

There was something unhinged about it.

I stared at Sophia’s unnatural smile and blurted out, frantic:

“Y-You’re wrong! I love you, Sophia! That’s not a lie!”

“Then — will you say I’m your number one? That you love me more than anyone else in the entire world — will you say it?”

My mouth moved on reflex to say yes.

And froze.

What am I hesitating for?

The number one priority right now is getting out of here in one piece, isn’t it?

That was when I felt a weight settle against my back.

Someone leaning into me from behind.

Unsteady, uncertain — pressing herself against me and holding on.

“Wii… Wiiill… ehehe, hehe.”

“— …Aria?”

“Mm-hmm, that’s right — Aria, Will’s one-and-only Aria, okay? Ehehe… Will, Will, Wiiill… I love you…”

“——”

Squeeze.

Aria tightened her arms around me, slowly and quietly.

Her breathing was ragged, and with her chin resting over my shoulder from behind, I could feel every uneven exhale pressed straight against me.

In front of me, Sophia was watching with an expression that — against all expectations — looked almost composed.

That same unnatural smile, not so different from before.

“I see… so that’s how it is. Yeah… yeah, I guess so. Hehe…”

“N-No, Sophia — this isn’t — it’s not what it looks like—”

“No, it’s okay. I’m fine, I’m fine. I know.”

Sophia took one step back and tilted her head slightly.

“I’m sorry, Will-kun. I just realized something. — I don’t think I can bear to watch a Will-kun who doesn’t love me. Who won’t love me back. So—”

“——”

“Is it okay if I kill Will-kun? I’ll die too — when it’s done.”

“— What.”

“But… if Will-kun, starting right now, truly and genuinely loves me — and stays with me forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever, foooreeeveeer… together, and keeps loving me — then I think I’ll be okay. I think. …— I love you, Will-kun.”

W-Wait.

Just wait.

I don’t — I don’t understand what she’s saying.

With Aria’s warmth pressed into my back, my confusion reached its peak — and Sophia smiled her unnatural smile.

“— Hey. What are you going to do?”

Sophia raised one hand.

Casually.

Without a care.

In her grip was a block of ice, shaped in the likeness of a knife.