69 Painful Memories

"K&J KTV bar…"

Nakano Yuna lifted her head up and read the sign printed in faded red bold letters in a toneless voice. Then, she turned to face her friends once more and hunched her eyebrows.

"Are you sure this is the most decent KTV place we can go to? Can't we look for other alternatives?"

Ryo glanced around the one-story building and seemed satisfied enough with what he had seen.

Pretending that he didn't hear the complaining girl just now, Ryo beamed at his friends. "This place is incredible. Come on in, guys!"

Sakura and the others started taking a few steps towards the entrance when Yuna almost dropped her jaw before looking at Ryo furiously for ignoring her just like that.

"How sure are you about that, huh?" Yuna folds her arms as she raises an eyebrow at the guy. "I don't always trust your judgement."

"Says the girl whose moods change every millisecond." countered Ryo, smirking at her in triumph.

When Yuna failed to reply on time, Ryo grabbed hold of her hand and started pulling the girl inside the KTV bar.

"Come on, it may not be as bad as it seems on the inside, right?"

After the gang had all entered the bar, they were astonished to see how large it was inside. As you can see from the outside, one would probably assume right away that the place is a little small for five teenagers to fit in, hence why Yuna acted the way she did earlier.

Unlike on the outside, the interior of this bar is jammed with all sorts of neon lights that are a lot attractive to the eyes of its customers.

Speaking of which, all tables and bar counters are already fully-booked with different sorts of people enjoying each other's company while chugging their favorite alcoholic drinks.

Sakura scanned the whole place and her gaze was immediately caught up to different KTV rooms available inside. There are five KTV rooms all in all, and it looks like three of them are already booked by their customers.

At that point, Tanaka Ryo had already gone up to the counter and was now speaking with a woman in revealing clothing with dangling earrings in her ears and stylish nail polish on her fingers and hands that are hard to miss.

Occasionally, this woman would bat her eyes at the cute guy speaking to her right now, as if she had her own plans to devour Ryo anytime soon. The sight of this woman alone irritated Yuna in the most displeasing way, as if she could tear her apart limb for limb at any moment.

In frustration, Yuna went near Sakura and whispered at her while her eyes were fixed on Ryo and the woman from the counter.

"Look at that woman desperately flirting with a college guy! Even worse, she would shove her cleavage at Ryo in just the most disgusting way! Argh, I hate her already!"

Yamaguchi Alan, who also happened to hear everything that Yuna said just now, suddenly chuckled at his place and had the urge to tease her at the moment.

"Someone seems to be jealous---- Oommpphh!" Before Alan could even finish his sentence, Yuna jumped directly towards Alan's direction and quickly covered his mouth to prevent Ryo from hearing him.

All they can hear now are the muffled noises Alan is making while he struggles against the girl who is stronger than he is.

As Ryo walks away with a keycard in hand after finishing his conversation with the girl, Yuna suddenly frees Alan, making him cough violently.

"Seriously, are you trying to kill me?" Alan cried out while Yuna acted all innocent from what just happened.

Ryo has already approached them and saw Alan sucking in his breath, thus making him hunched his eyebrows in confusion.

"What just happened here while I was gone for five minutes?"

A sweet smile spread across Yuna's face as she replied, "Nothing.". Let's head into our assigned room, shall we?"

During the walk to their KTV room, Alan secretly leaned toward Sakura and whispered, "I'm almost convinced Yuna is a psycho. I can feel Ryo's pain now."

Sakura only chuckled in response as she swatted one hand on his arm lightly. Without them knowing though, there is also another poor guy who's currently suffering as he stares at the two of them laughing together at the back.

However, Sakura immediately stopped laughing as soon as she stepped foot inside their assigned KTV room. In spite of the room's spaciousness, the excellent air conditioning, lighting and speakers, she cannot help feeling anxious by just being there all of a sudden.

Painful memories of her last karaoke session a few weeks before their graduation started to haunt back inside her head like a nightmare.

In a snap of her fingers, it was like all of her friends dissolved in her sight and Sakura is the only one left now as those memories keep flashing around her like holographic moving pictures.

On one corner, Sakura would see her old highschool self awkwardly trying to blend in with the rest of her ex's friends who never accepted her in the first place despite her best efforts to mingle with them.

Then the next thing she sees was the final moment where Sakura is now seeing her past self dumbfounded in her place as the painful truth slowly unravels in front of her.

---

{"It's nothing but a ruse… a fake… all but a product of a bet that we've planned three months ago."}

{"What Ken? Don't act as if you're not a part of this gamble!"}

{"Is it true? Answer me!"}

{"Yes, it's all true…"}

---

Before Sakura even knows it, the corners of her eyes begin to swell with tears as the things in the past start to haunt her once more.

Why… why can't I just move on from it already?

Why did I even agree to go here in the first place?

"H-Hayashi-san?"

Sakura's attention snaps back to reality as she heard that familiar voice just now… a voice that was also part of that living nightmare she experienced just now.

Once she lifted her head, Sakura met Ken's gaze as he handed the mic over to her, who had just finished singing at that time. (Or more like was forced by Yuna to do that and Sakura wasn't even listening the whole time he was singing.)

In the way her eyes glistened with tears, Ken knew right away that something was wrong, but he didn't know what or how to deal with it.