Part 13 (2/2)

Aoyama had won by a fraction of a second.

Suddenly, the roar of the crowd returned. The noise crashed into her ears like an avalanche. Everyone threw up their arms and yelled as loud as they could. Her friend hopped over to her.

”We still made third place, Mariko!”

She rejoined the cheering with a smile upon her face.

Aoyama was president of his cla.s.s. He was a little on the light side, but excelled at sports. He was pretty articulate and was always quick to make people laugh. Mariko had never been in the same cla.s.s with him, but had been interested in him ever since fifth grade.

She never spoke to him, since he was usually found to be chatting animatedly with the throng of girls that seemed to follow him everywhere.

She felt they wouldn't get along anyway.

Being the sporty type that he was, Aoyama probably liked cheerful, athletic girls, Mariko had always a.s.sumed. She'd been in bad shape from dialysis, and now, she'd just had transplant surgery. And while she'd probably be able to do gym again someday, she couldn't be termed healthy at a stretch. She was short, and she had that scar on her side. She had to take drugs every day, like some sick person. It was hopeless.

Even so, she asked Doctor Yos.h.i.+zumi if she was okay now.

She wanted him to tell her she was cured for life, but his answer was quite the opposite.

If she forgot to take her medicines at all, her new organ would be rejected. Under no circ.u.mstances could she treat her situation casually.

Mariko simply nodded at the doctor's words. She knew he was telling the truth.

Why did she have to get kidney failure in the first place? She never hated her body so much as now.

She wondered how things might have been if she hadn't gotten sick. She'd have been able to play sports...

Still, she was happy enough to chance upon him in the hallway. After cla.s.s, she would go out of her way to walk past his homeroom and peek inside to get a look at him, even though it was in the opposite direction from where her locker was. After she pa.s.sed by his cla.s.sroom, she would turn around and go down the hall, taking the roundabout way, walking an entire lap through the school building. Whenever Aoyama was not there, she would act cool and continue walking. But if he was there, she could barely contain her happiness, and her steps would lag.

That was her mistake.

With summer vacation over and two weeks into September, everyone was just coming out of their hot weather daze.

Cla.s.ses were done for the day, and Mariko went over to look at Aoyama as usual. She craned her neck and scanned the cla.s.sroom's interior.

He was not there today.

She was about to continue on in disappointment when she heard a voice address her.

”What'cha doing there, Mariko?”

She stopped dead in her tracks.

When she looked in again, she saw two boys sitting on desks. They had huge grins on their faces. There were hardly any other students in the room.

”Why ya always take a peek?”

She had shared a cla.s.s with these two the year before. They were known for sticking their noses where they did not belong and being pushy towards girls. Mariko and her friends disliked them.

”So what if I did?” she shot back in a callous tone in an attempt to hide her embarra.s.sment.

But this only encouraged the pair. One of them cut to the point.

”Oooh, I get it. You like Aoyama. That's why you're always hangin' around here after cla.s.s.”

They'd figured her out.

Mariko felt her face turn completely red. She wanted to say something, but just stood there stuttering.

”Too bad, you just missed him. You know, he told us puffy-faced chicks aren't his type anyway.”

The two started laughing.

Mariko turned back on her heel, wanting to get out of there as quickly as possible, but just as she was about to run away, she heard those dreadful words.

”Hey, I heard you got a kidney from your dad?”

Her legs froze.

”Awww, it went breaky, so you had to get help from your daddy? How cuuute.”

Why were they saying these things to her? It had nothing to do with Aoyama. If only she could cover her ears and block their words. Her body had frozen and she couldn't move a finger. She wanted nothing more than to disappear at that moment.

But the boys went on.

”She's just like that Frankenstein monster, don't you think?” one of them said to the other.

”She wants to live, even if it means taking someone else's kidney. Aww, what a greedy little girl.”

”What a freak. I bet her body's all patched up.”

”Wonder if she can even take a p.i.s.s.”

Their guffaws rang in her head like horrid bells. She wanted so much to tell them to stop, to say that she wasn't a monster, that she wasn't put together from dead people like that creation of Dr. Frankenstein. But nothing came out.

”Stop it you guys!”

A voice cried out and, the moment she heard it, Mariko fell forward as the tension in her body snapped. Her head made an awful sound against the hallway tile. As she tried clearing her blurred vision, she saw a group of girls quarreling with the boys, but could not make out who they were.

She ran away. A voice called out from behind her, ”Mariko, wait!” but she ignored it.

The distance to her locker had never felt so long. She changed her shoes hastily and ran home with all her might, not stopping once on the way. By the time she got to her house, she was short of breath. Her side was in terrible pain, her surroundings distorted through tears.

When she walked in the door, she immediately removed all of her immunosuppressants from their pouch, tore open the packages, and threw the multicolored capsules and pills into the toilet. She pushed down on the handle and watched as they swirled around and flowed down the pipe out of sight, leaving only a gurgling sound in their wake.

I'm not a monster.

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