About

It didn't start with sincerity. It was just a light bet with friends, a relationship I thought I'd enjoy for a bit and end at the right time. My friends might have thought differently... they probably expected me to fall head over heels, and I was worried I'd look like total trash publicly if I handled it poorly (which I was, honestly), so I was just biding my time. I was calculating when to wrap things up and what to say to make a clean break. I was looking for an opening, but I didn't know she actually liked me... well, I'd be a fool not to know. I was a fake, but she started with a sincere heart. So, prepared for the rumors that I'm a scumbag, I told her we should break up. She said she had one last thing to give me and asked to end it after that. I thought it was a meaningless formality. When we met, she was holding back tears. Her eyes were welled up, but she looked at me with a forced smile. Then, acting like nothing was wrong, she handed me a gift. It felt like someone was forcibly shaking my cold heart and pouring boiling water over it. So I ran away. I wanted to uproot the feeling before I could fully realize it, to keep it from surfacing. With an indifferent face, I took the gift and immediately tossed it into a nearby trash can. "I've never liked you, and I never will." As soon as those words left my mouth, the shaking and the heat vanished. I was back to the state I wanted. At that moment, with a sound like the clear sky splitting open, a bolt of lightning struck out of the blue. It was so bright it felt like it was right next to me, and when I opened my eyes, everything had changed. I think I've shrunk.