My Ex-Girlfriend’s Sister Ran Away to My Room, and We Can’t Stop Making Mistakes. - Chapter 34: Broken Heart.

Broken Heart.

When I returned to the hospital room, Mii was breathing in a quiet, steady rhythm. The IV tube hung listlessly toward her arm.

“I told Vanilla-san about what happened with Ayumu,” I muttered blankly, sinking into the round stool beside the bed.

“It’s a strange thing. Putting it into words makes it feel like I’m looking at myself from the outside. Like I’m telling someone else’s story, talking about some guy I don’t even know.”

The only sounds were the low hum of the ceiling ventilation and Mii’s gentle breathing.

The squelch of my rain-soaked shoes felt slimy and unpleasant.

“And… I think I finally understand just how many mistakes I’ve made.”

The only thing binding me is my own will. It was exactly as Ayumu had said; I had kept myself locked in chains of my own making.

Maybe it was just a self-indulgent sense of guilt. Terrified of a punishment that didn’t even exist, I had spent all this time fleeing from my sins.

“Why don’t you hate me?”

Of all the people in the world, why did Mii have to end up at my place? To her, I should have been the very embodiment of an unerasable trauma.

Why was she so fixated on me?

“Nobody hates you, Saki-nii.”

Hearing her voice, I looked up to see that Mii had opened her eyes. Her pale face blinked a few times. Then, she tapped her forehead repeatedly with her index finger.

“Your forehead.”

“My forehead?”

“Vanilla-san’s lipstick.”

I instinctively swiped my hand across it.

I rubbed at my skin, but there was nothing there.

Mii’s expression didn’t change as she spoke. “I’m lying. That person doesn’t even wear lipstick.”

“Why did you—”

“I’m just glad it was only your forehead.”

With a slow, deliberate movement, she rolled onto her side.

“She almost took you away from me. You didn’t get her contact info or anything, right?”

Reflectively, my hand drifted toward my pocket where Vanilla’s ID was hidden.

Mii didn’t say anything more.

Before she could, I broke the silence. “How are you feeling?”

“I’ve calmed down. Medicine really does work.”

Mii let out a soft sigh.

“I used to take it back when I lived over there too, but I stopped once I ran out.”

“Since when?”

“Since I started middle school.”

Mii looked hazy and deeply drowsy.

“Back in elementary school, I was completely fine. But after starting middle school… right around the time my sister got married, I think.”

Her first panic attack had hit her on the way to school, she explained with a heavy sigh.

“I wonder what it was. Once you become a middle schooler, everyone suddenly gets so restless and shallow. All the backstabbing and gossip… None of that happened in elementary school, but suddenly that became what most people did. It was like everyone turned into completely different people.”

“Yeah.”

“There was a car accident on my route to school. A police car was there, and when I saw the red flashing siren, I remembered my dad. I started feeling incredibly sick.”

Apparently, she had broken down and crouched there all alone.

By the time she realized what was happening, she had been brought to the hospital in an ambulance, hooked up to an IV just like she was now.

“After that, I couldn’t stop worrying about how people looked at me. I felt like everyone was gossiping about me. And the truth was, they actually were. I became an outcast in class. The things I used to solve with brute force when I was a kid… I couldn’t do that anymore.”

Her breathing was shallow and frequent.

The liquid dripping from the transparent tube flowed into her at a steady, measured pace.

“I felt like everything around me was made of awful, terrible things.”

Shadows, she called them.

The faces of other people had lost their shape to her, warping into pitch-black voids.

“I thought things might change if I went to high school. But it wasn’t like that at all. Someone who came from the same middle school spread rumors about me. That ruined absolutely everything. That’s why I came to Tokyo.”

“You don’t need to force yourself to go to a school like that.”

“That’s different from what you said the other day.”

“I changed my mind.”

“Well, I’m glad.”

Her cheeks softened slightly, and she turned her head to face me. Her hair was a tangled mess. Her eyes were dull and clouded.

“You can finish what you were saying earlier. I’ve taken my sleeping pills, so I won’t get mad.”

“It’s fine. We can talk about it next time.”

“Tell me. You’ve decided on something, haven’t you?” she said, her gaze seeing right through me.

“I’m going to call Ayumu.”

“Can you really do that?”

“I will. And I’ll have her come pick you up. Let’s put an end to this thing between you and me.”

“Do you hate girls who take psychiatric medication?”

“No, that’s not it.”

I couldn’t stay with Mii any longer.

I really shouldn’t have gotten involved in the first place. If she stayed with me, she would only keep breaking down.

“I can’t live with you, Mii.”

Silence filled the room.

After a long while, Mii’s body shifted. The sheets rustled softly. Pushing herself up slowly and cautiously into a sitting position, she spoke in a hushed, trembling voice.

“I see.”

In stark contrast to her calm face, her voice was painfully weak.

“So this is what they call a broken heart.”

Tears were streaming down her face.

They rolled straight down her cheeks, dampening the sheets below.

“I finally understand how you feel, Saki-nii.”

She spoke without even looking in my direction.

Lowering her head back onto the pillow, Mii closed her eyes once more. The damp traces of her spilled tears remained etched into the fabric of the bedding.

I couldn’t say a single thing.

Once I was certain she had fallen back asleep, I quietly left the hospital room. When I stepped outside, the rain was still pouring. I slumped onto the same blue bench in the smoking area from earlier.

Pulling out my smartphone, I pulled up my contact list.

Her name was right there.

A phone number that hadn’t been used in a painfully long time. On the screen, it was nothing more than a string of characters. Untouched by dust, it simply existed.

Hachijou Ayumu. Childhood friend. Former lover.

I pressed dial.

“Hello?”

After a few rings, her voice came through the speaker.

“Saki-kun?”

On the other end of the line, she sounded breathless, a distinct note of joy in her voice.

“Is that really you, Saki-kun?”