53 Delusions

From the corner of the hallway going to the stairs, Okada Koharu hid behind the wall as she watched Suzuki Ara walk away. The pair of eyes that stared at the other girl bore daggers, as her hands balled into fists on her sides.

"What happened to Ara?"

Ever since she came back from her accident, she changed a lot. She used to follow her all the time and only listened to her. Now, not only did she make Koharu look like a liar in front of her classmates and friends, by saying she's not interested in Sonoda, Koharu now would soon not be able to have any reason to go and see him without being suspicious.

Her time was running out.

Koharu was in a panic. She had no time. That idiot Ara said she was involved with that archer prince. If Hiroaki found out it wasn't Ara but her who liked him…

It would be the end.

But why had he not fallen in love with her yet? The book she read said that the person usually fell in love with the "love bridge". It was why Koharu was pursuing Sonoda Hiroaki for Ara. Because it was said that the guy would always fall for the one who had been diligently playing cupid for her friend.

Imagine a beautiful, rich girl with an aggressive attitude in love and her gentle, pushover friend – a simple beauty who was just too nice. Who would you choose? Of course, it's the latter. Wasn't that a great set up? Having a girlfriend in the picture didn't matter. She could always be discarded.

"What to do now?"

With an unpleasant expression, she put her hand in her pocket, where a pink envelope rested. She knew she should stop writing these love letters now that Ara declared she's not in love with Hiroaki.

Hiroaki…

She pursed her lips. Just how many times had she called him by his name in her dreams? Countless.

How many love letters had she written for him? Numerous.

She had declared her love so many times on paper that she couldn't count.

It's been almost three years since she started sending them. But it would have to stop soon before he found out that Ara never liked him from the beginning.

"No."

With a crazed look on her normally serene face, Koharu made a decision. She couldn't stop just yet. She hadn't given him any letter since that idiot Ara went into a coma. It's been months. For sure her Hiroaki missed receiving them as much as she missed sending them to him.

She should go find him and give him the letter. For sure he would be happy. Even if this was the last time she'd be able to do it.

An image of Ara telling them about the archer prince at lunch break appeared in her mind.

"Ungrateful bitch," Koharu cursed at Ara.

If Koharu hadn't intervened when she was about to jump from the rooftop, that idiot would have been dead a long time ago. She owed Koharu her life, so it should be natural that she should always help her.

But that ingrate girl had been a thorn on her side lately. Since that night when she suddenly backed out from taking the bitch Ichihara home in her car, everything started to go wrong. It was just a simple task. Ara that idiot went in the car anyway so why didn't she take the bitch with her?

Because of that, all her plans had been derailed. For months, she had carefully schemed on how to get rid of her love rival without being obvious. She even had to contact that dreadful man to help her. She had spent each and every night imagining how she would come and comfort Sonoda when the bitch died, but Suzuki just had to ruin everything!

And now, it seemed Ara was siding with that bitch Ichihara.

Unacceptable!

Koharu should up her game and make Hiroaki like her fast.

Remembering him at lunch when he ignored her, Koharu was unhappy at first. But then, she realized Hiroaki didn't talk to her because he was being shy. Maybe he wasn't that immune to her after all.

In her delusion, a smile brightened her face. Clutching the pink envelope in her hand, she happily walked towards the Judo club dojo like she had been doing in the past three years.

The dojo was located at a separate building. Their school was a normal one, but they really excelled at some sports like Japanese traditional archery, aikido, judo, and baseball, and so, the PTA made sure the clubs had everything, including a nice dojo and gym to practice.

Reaching her destination, Koharu straightened her clothes and pinched her cheeks, making sure she looked nice before entering. When she did, her eyes immediately saw her target.

Sonoda Hiroaki was in the middle and had just finished sparring with his teammate. He was sweaty and a bit breathless after the exercise, and Koharu found her heart beating so fast.

Hiroaki…

One of his teammates saw her, and since seeing Koharu at the dojo around this time had become the norm, he called out to Sonoda so he would go meet her. As usual, the vice-captain didn't look happy seeing her, but Koharu didn't mind. She thought he was just embarrassed. Like before, even if he looked unhappy, he would still always come to her anyway.

"What do you want?" he asked his usual question, although they both knew why she was here.

Okada Koharu took the pink envelope out of her pocket and extended it to him. "Someone asked me to give it to you," she said her usual lines.

Normally, Sonoda would thank her after taking it and try to talk to her a bit before returning to practice. But this time, he didn't even look at it.

"Oh? From who?" Sonoda asked her, an unusual sarcasm laced his voice, and Koharu frowned.

"Do I have to say it? From your number one fan of course," she retorted sweetly, her words implying Ara, and extended the letter again towards him.

Sonoda took it this time, examined the girly letter with scorn – and to Koharu's horror, the boy she loved suddenly tore it into pieces in front of her.

"What are you doing?" She was horrified. How could he treat the letter she wrote like that?

"Discarding trash,"Sonoda Hiroaki told her mercilessly.

"Do you have any idea who sent that?" she asked, her body trembling in anger, forgetting that she wasn't supposed to act like that.

"I do," Sonoda answered indifferently. "So tell that bitch to stop bothering me with these disgusting letters. Also, tell her that her delusions are making me sick," he snapped before turning his back on her.

To say that Okada Koharu's world shattered was an understatement.

"Unforgivable..."