It all started with the new student.
Aoki Hana was pretty; one could almost say that she was enchanting. With long black hair, large doe eyes, and bubbly smile on her innocent-looking face, she instantly captured the attention from the whole class. Even Masao, my childhood friend, was charmed. He pretended to look outside the window, but I saw him blush after making eye contact with her. I could still remember that day very clearly; it was a warm spring day, with clear blue sky and faint smell of cherry blossom in the air.
The day that my nightmare began.
I paid Hana no mind. She immediately made friends with some other girls, and I thought there was no reason for me to interact with her. We were just classmates, after all. I continued scrolling on my phone, looking at makeup and latest celebrity gossip, you know, the usual girly stuff. That was when I got a text message.
It was weird. In this day and age of messaging apps, no one really texted through SMS anymore.
First!
Umm… What the heck? I was about to exit the app, when several more texts started coming through.
I’m so excited for this! The ML is so cute!
AHHHHH it’s finally here!!!
Get ready everyone! It’s going to be a wild ride!!
They were all from different unknown numbers and seemed to be expressing excitement at something. I was spooked by the amount and the speed at which these weird scam messages were flooding in. I was deleting them one by one when one of the messages caught my eyes.
Just the first chapter but I know that girl Akane is bad news!
That was my name, Akane. I glanced around the classroom, expecting to see one of my friends holding in laughter as they saw my reaction to their tasteless prank. To my surprise, they were all minding their own business, except for one person.
I was not close with Fukuda-san. We barely interacted at all.
But there she was, staring at me from the opposite side of the room, smiling, unblinking.
I got goosebumps. I wanted to confront her right then, but the teacher told everyone to quiet down and started his lesson. During lunch break, I showed the texts to Masao and told him about my suspicion of Fukuda-san, but he just laughed.
“How could it be Fukuda-san? You guys don’t even know each other that well.”
“I don’t know. Why was she staring at me…”
My sentence was cut short as someone bumped into me with full force, somehow knocking the box of juice I was holding out of my hand. As I stabilised myself, I saw Hana fall to the floor with juice poured all over her head.
I was shocked. How did the juice end up on her head of all places? It shouldn’t have been physically possible. The box should have been knocked to the floor, with only a little bit of content spilling, but somehow it looked like the box had completely exploded. Hana looked terrified; her face was flushed red and she looked like she was about to cry.
I bent over to help her up. I was going to apologise.
But for some reason, I just… laughed?
I didn’t know why I did that. The giggles came out of my throat before I could catch them. I covered my mouth with my hands as soon as I realised this, but the damage was done. Masao looked like he had seen a ghost as he helped Hana up.
“Why did you do that, Akane?” He asked.
That was something I wanted to know too. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, Aoki-san.”
“It’s okay.” Hana sniffled. “I-I’ll just change into my gym uniform.”
Hana was the one who got juice spilled all over her, but somehow, I felt so humiliated. Everyone in the canteen was looking at the scene I caused in shock, but I noticed that one of the students was smiling, as if the whole thing was entertaining to her. I didn’t even know that person, but her smile sent a shiver down my spine.
All the while, the notification on my phone kept going off in my pocket.
Masao took Hana to the classroom to get her gym uniform. I hid in the bathroom and checked my phone. Surely, there were more mysterious messages coming in.
And so it starts… Pouring juice is so cliche…
If I were the MC, I would have slapped that little fox when she giggled! GAHH SO FRUSTRATING!
I tried to reply to the text, asking who they were, but it wouldn’t let me send. I also tried to search what MC and ML meant, but I couldn’t find anything either. Who would prank me like this? It must have been someone in my class who was in the canteen, right?
I got out of the toilet stall and washed my hands. Feeling like being watched, I turned around to see a girl standing near the corner of the bathroom, staring at me.
She was smiling.
“What are you looking at?” I snapped. My heart skipped a beat.
“Sorry, Okamura-san.” The girl answered without blinking.
I couldn’t concentrate for the rest of the day. No matter what I did, there was always someone, somewhere, watching me. Be it a classmate, other student, or even a teacher, they were always there. By that point, I was really freaking out and was counting down the time until this horrible day ended. After school, I told Masao that I would skip club activities and went straight home.
Mom and dad were still at work. As always, it was just me in this unnecessarily big house. I locked myself inside my bedroom and tried to make sense of what happened, but to no avail. Could it have been stress? I had always pushed myself hard when it came to studying, especially in my last year of high school. After all, I had a big plan I needed to achieve.
The notifications had subsided. I hesitated for a bit, and turned off my phone.
I was doing homework when there were knocks on the door.
“Come in!”
“Hey, Akane!” Masao was there in his casual clothes, it looked like he had gone home to change. “Are you busy? Inoue-san let me in…”
I looked past him to Inoue-san, she was the housemaid and also my nanny since I was little. I had known this woman all my life, I even just said hi to her when I came home twenty minutes ago. But as she stood there in silence, just smiling at me, I felt like I was standing in front of a complete stranger.
Masao was clueless as I pulled him inside and locked the door.
“Masao, Did you see that? Why was everyone so weird today?” I gestured to the door, but Masao just sat down on my bed and started to fumble with my stuffed toy.
“So after you left, Akane, I actually ran into Hana again…” He said excitedly.
“Hana? You’ve only known Aoki-san for one day.”
“I know right! But I feel like I have known her for a long, long time!” Masao squeezed my teddy bear. “She’s so kind and interesting. As it turns out, we also like the same manga!”
I had known Masao since we were children. His house was literally next to mine. I could confirm, with the utmost certainty, that Masao was never into any form of manga. I had been inside his bedroom countless times, but never once did I ever find a single manga there. There were only video games and sports equipment.
“What do you mean? You never read any manga.”
“No, I’ve always loved manga.” Masao insisted.
Weird, I thought to myself, but nevermind that, I had more important stuff to pay attention to.
“Okay. Good luck with that. Can we focus on what I said earlier, please? Don’t you feel like everyone was staring at us today? First, Fukuda-san, then there was the girl in the bathroom, and Tanaka-sensei too. They are all creeping me out!”
“It’s probably just your imagination.” Masao rolled his eyes.
“I didn’t imagine it! Even Inoue-san was staring at me just now!”
“I didn’t notice that.” Masao shrugged.
Masao was clearly not interested in my concern. Some kind of best friend he was. He just went on and on about his little crush. I was annoyed, but I let him stay because I was too scared to be in the same house as Inoue-san alone. When Masao said he really should go home for dinner, I just grabbed his arm without thinking.
“Can’t you stay? Have dinner at my place tonight.”
“I really can’t. Mom’s going to be mad.” He said.
Disappointed, I walked him home. When I was back at my own home again, Inoue-san was done preparing dinner. She was no longer smiling like a menace; she was back to being the kind middle-aged woman I had always known. I sighed with relief as I walked to the dinner table, “What’s for dinner today, Inoue-san?”
“Oh, just some easy, simple sushi, dear.” Inoue-san said humbly.
I looked at a variety of nigiri on the plate. They all looked like they were prepared by a professional chef. Inoue-san never made nigiri at home; I doubted she even knew how. “Is today a special occasion I don’t know about? Did you get a takeout from somewhere?”
“Nothing like that, dear! They are all homemade. Just like everyday.”
I couldn’t believe a plate of nigiri would creep me out, but it did. There was something wrong with Masao and Inoue-san today. They kept insisting that they had always been doing something I had never seen them done before.
I turned on the phone again before bed. There were some new messages.
Akane you snake! Did you just regret friendzoning him for all these years, just when he’s about to fall for Hana? Too late girl!
I’m glad Masao left her like that lol
HANDS. OFF. MASAO.
That idiot Masao! I thought to myself. He was the only one who knew about this interaction. Why would he prank me like this? This was way too cruel. Calling me a snake and accusing me of friendzoning him? He must have lost his mind. I was fuming all night and could barely get any sleep. All I could think about was how I would confront Masao the next day.
As expected, Masao and I had a huge fight.
He firmly denied having anything to do with the mysterious texts, so I called him a liar. He then accused me of being unsupportive as a friend and that I was “making up stories and ignoring him.” In the end, I pushed him away and as I was making my way back, I crossed paths with Hana. Judging from how I startled her, she must have heard the whole thing.
I never felt so alone before. Nobody in my classroom could be trusted. I didn’t know who else was in on the prank, but by now I had caught almost half of them staring and smiling at me on different occasions. Masao also gave me the cold shoulder. He only hung out with Hana now, which seemed to slow down the rate at which I was receiving those nasty texts.
Despite me trying to reason with them, or even yelling at them, none of the pranksters would admit to their cruel joke. They just apologised and continued to smile at me. Outside of school was a little better, but not by much. Sometimes, strangers would stare and smile at me as I walked to school. I went to the police, but they were no help. When one of them stopped talking and started to smile, I just bolted out of there.
There was only one explanation for this: if people seemed crazy everywhere you go, that meant it was you who was losing your mind.
I should have taken myself to the psychiatrist, or at least told mom and dad about what I was seeing. But I was too scared that they would start smiling, too. I avoided my parents like a plague and tried to focus on my studies as a way of distraction, promising myself that I would do something about this terrifying hallucination after mid-term.
Weeks passed, and so did the mid-term exams. I was anxious the whole time. I didn’t want the mid-term to be over as I would have to acknowledge my problem just as I promised myself. But I needed to do something about it, and I needed to talk it out with Masao.
I tried to catch him in the classroom, but I was distracted by some commotion by the announcement board. Apparently, the mid-term results were out, although we literally just had the last test yesterday. My school had never publicly announced the score rank of each class like this, as they feared it might bring embarrassment to those students who didn’t do so well. But somehow, they decided to go with it this time.
My name was in second place, which was weird. I had never even made the top ten in my class. Above me was Hana, she got the highest score…
“Please calm down, Okamura-san!”
Someone touched my shoulder and I jolted. I turned around to see a student smiling at me, and the rest of my classmates were staring at me in horror as I felt a piece of paper crumpled in my hands. The score announcement had been ripped from the board, and I was the one who did that…?
When did I do that? It was like I blacked out for a bit there.
“W-what?” I dropped the crumpled up paper. “I didn’t do that!”
Hana looked concerned. “Akane-chan, please don’t be too upset by the test result. I’m sure you’re still much smarter than I am.”
Huh?
I swore that the moment Hana started talking, the smiling student turned to look at her instead of me. It was the first time I noticed that. I grabbed Hana’s shoulder.
“Aoki-san, no, Hana, I need to talk to you, please!”
The other students started murmuring nervously, but I could tell they were entertained by all this. Masao stepped up as if he was about to intervene, but Hana just gave him her signature sweet smile. “It’s okay, Masao-kun. Akane-chan and I won’t take long.”
Hana followed me to the courtyard while I tried to formulate in my head how I was going to break all of this to her. How come I never thought of this before? It all started on the day Hana was transferred here; surely this whole bizarre occurrence must have something to do with her. I decided to be blunt.
“Hana, have you noticed people staring at you while smiling lately? I mean, Ishida-san was doing that just now when we were at the announcement board.”
Hana tilted her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about Akane-chan.”
“Come on. You must have noticed it right? They… You think you could just walk in and steal Masao from me?” I screamed.
Wait, no. That was not what I was trying to say. Why-why couldn’t I control myself?
“Akane-chan! It’s not like that! I just wanted all of us to be friends.”
“How dare you! You don’t know Masao like I do! He and I were… Urgh… gahh… STOP TALKING!” I grabbed my own throat in a futile attempt to regain control of my own action. Panic swept over me as I struggled. Hana stared at me with horror; she was on the verge of tears.
That was when I felt a familiar sensation which I had learned to endure so well. Someone was watching us. I looked around the empty courtyard and there it was: a student was hiding behind a tree. She was not moving or blinking, she was just staring at me and Hana, as if she were an inanimate object of sorts.
“There’s one of them right there, Hana. Look!” I pulled Hana towards the tree.
“Please, Akane-chan, you’re scaring me. Stop it!” Hana’s voice was trembling. She tried to stop me with her strength, which was never powerful to begin with.
“I said look at her! Can’t you see it? Are you blind?”
I broke free and pushed Hana to the ground. It wasn’t a hard push, but somehow it sent Hana all the way down into the flowerbed. Hana shrieked and covered her cheek as if I just slapped her, when suddenly her demeanour changed completely.
She started to smile.
No. Not you too.
“Hana?”
“Just play your part. Accept your role.” She said, but it was not in her own voice. It was the voice of an older woman, emotionless, like a robot.
“Who are you? What do you want from me?” I grabbed her collar.
“The Spectators want a happy ending.”
“Stop it, Akane!” Masao yanked me away from Hana. I was in too much shock to be able to defend myself. Almost instantly, Hana stopped smiling and she went back to being who she had always been, a delicate fragile girl who never did anything wrong. She sobbed quietly as Masao helped her stand up.
“You’ve really crossed the line this time.” Masao glared at me. Other students heard the commotion and they started to come out of the building to see what was going on. “What did Hana ever do to you? This is not like you at all.”
“No, YOU were the one who was acting strange. Every single one of you!” I screamed, tears rolling down my face. “How could you pretend that everything was normal? Screw you!”
I got up and ran away as fast as I could. I caught a glimpse of students and strangers staring at me as I sprinted home. It has been four hours now but I refused to unlock my door for anyone, not even Inoue-san. Somehow I felt like I was still being watched, so I closed all the curtains and plucked out the eyes from all my stuffed toys.
The class chatroom was exploding with people talking nasty things about me, as they all witnessed me pushing Hana and grabbing her by the collar. They called me possessed which was truly ironic given what they had done to me. I wanted to destroy my phone, but it was the only thing that could give me further clues on what the hell was going on.
Of course, the SMS messages flooded in, and I couldn’t stop crying as I read each one.
You’re done f up girl. You showed the whole class your true colour!!
I’m annoyed with the MC, she should have stood up for herself and beat up Akane
Masao so pretty as always! *swoons*
Akane is the very definition of a narcissistic asshole. She always kept Masao by her side and friendzoned him, then acted like she was entitled to him when Hana came along. Very selfish. I hate a person like this the most.
bitch be crazy she just went batshit insane
I couldn’t stop reading the last message over and over. And between myself losing control of my own action and seeing a bunch of terrifying hallucinations, I thought they may be right.