c1 (1/2)

Track No. 01 – Whisper of Angel (Opening)

Smash.

The sound of the phone smas.h.i.+ng was duller than I had expected. I didn’t know if it was because we were in a park where there weren’t many people, or if it was just because it had hit a stone railing.

Either way, it was certainly different from what I had imagined.

In my imagination, the cause for the end of the phone would only be as extreme as me dropping it on the ground or in water, either as a result of my own mistake or a collision with another person. Of course, it wasn’t like I had never thought about things like breaking it on purpose. However, I did not have the guts to do that. I couldn’t just do it in the hopes that it would be reluctantly replaced for a new one if this one was gone. As a matter of fact, it was not difficult to find others who had lost or broken it and had to continue living just as is.

All I could manage was to be subtly harsh – merely placing it down on my desk with a tad more force, or habitually and repeatedly opening and closing it.

To complete my misfortune, the old-fas.h.i.+oned folder phone boasted a fantastic durability, fitting of its appearance. Sometimes I even wondered if mine was exceptionally strong.

Although smartphones were widely spread amongst the students, students who did not fall into that category, like me, also still existed.

‘I’ll replace it with a new model for you if you enter a good university.’

This sentence that seemed to be the parents’ slogan against high school students caused no problem in understanding, even when the part about entering a university was changed into things like receiving a certain grade or achieving a certain something. Also, if one lost in this war that wasn’t really a war, they would have to uncomplainingly use an old-fas.h.i.+oned phone like me.

This push and pull, love-hate relations.h.i.+p was mercilessly crushed by the hand of a girl whom I had just run into.

“Hey.”

It took me a while to realise that that was my voice. Shock and rage tangled together to turn the inside of my head completely white. However, Kim Ahyoung cautiously looked around, without paying a single attention to my remark. After confirming that there were no signs of other human beings, she threw the remaining shards of the phone into the bush.

“I’ll buy you another one.”