(Note: This story takes place 3 years ago from the present. All the italicized parts are narrated by Ren, while the regular format is general part of the story.)

Yuko always had trouble socializing. She did for a very, very long time. She has been like that for as long as I remember. Probably from birth. There was a point in our primary years and a bit of junior high when it was so bad that she nearly had anxiety attacks over placing an order. She would avoid going in public as much as she could. She had trouble opening up to me too back then.

Fortunately, she got better. Still, I couldn't leave her alone. She couldn't be trusted to be left alone. I was always worrying about her. But slowly, even I started trusting her more.

I trusted her too much. I was naïve enough to think it was cured. So we went through to our second year of junior high.

I have always been a very sociable person. I make friends easily and get along with people. The opposite of Yuko, when it came to friendships. That was the first major point.

I got too caught up in making friends, so mesmerised in my world of people, Yuko faded into the background. She became just another person. Before I realised it, I was seeing her less often.

Yuko never told me if she had problems. She never wanted to disturb me. However, her not telling me her problems disturbed me more. Or was supposed to. I had gotten too carefree. I ignored Yuko.

Unknown to me, Yuko's family was going through a financial crisis. Her dad lost his job, and the family was living on her mother's earnings, which were hardly enough. Her father looked for work, while doing odd jobs around town, trying to earn money. It took everything just to keep Yuko and her little brother going to school.

Soon, Yuko's little brother, Yuuki, fell sick. Very, very sick. The family strained worse than ever, paying for his hospital bills, and allowing Yuko to go to school. Yuko was losing hope day by day. I knew nothing.

Then one day, she stopped coming to school altogether. Because a human without hope cannot survive.

Yuuki. Poor, precious little Yuuki. He was gone. Gone. The moment they got back from the funeral, Yuko went straight to her room, and barricaded herself. Her parents just thought she wanted to be alone.

She didn't come out and didn't eat for two days.

Halfway through the third day, she cracked. And she cracked really bad.

She was sitting against her door, still in the clothes from the funeral. Depression. In her second year of junior high? Ridiculous. But that was exactly what it was.

She was alone. Ren left her. Yuuki left her. She was alone.

Her eyes moved to her bedside table. A picture of her and Yuuki.

Stop smiling like that. She thought miserably. Finally, the monster that had been asleep since the funeral had finally awoken. She finally cracked. Everything she was feeling was transferred to rage.

She yelled.

A loud, horrible yell. Tears were falling, but she couldn't comprehend them. All she knew was that she wanted to vent.

Coming home from school that day, I saw something. Something very unsettling. A broken dressing table, and a broken window. Both of them were Yuko's. The dressing table was thrown out from the window, and was lying upsidedown, splintered, in the front garden.

"Hey, Ren!" My friends called out to me. They didn't notice the unsettling thing. I, in the wake of my friends, did something worse. I disregarded it.

She was yelling, she was screaming. Her dressing table was gone now, too. She was going crazy. After nearly three days, the full realisation had sunk in. She ignored the hunger. She ignored the fatigue. All she knew was that Yuuki was gone. Her precious little brother, gone.

"Stop smiling like that!" she yelled at his photograph. She was insane. "You're dead, you hear me? Dead! So stop smiling at me, you're dead!"

She looked around her room wildly. She picked up a large, sharp piece of glass from her broken window.

"Yuuki, you left me! You left everybody!" she screamed. "If that's so easy for you, why don't I join you, too?!"

She positioned the glass to bring it down right over her chest. "I'm coming, Yuuki!" Her hands were about to move, but then she heard it.

"Yuko! Yuko! Please!"

Her mother. She was crying. Crying so loudly, so hard, and banging on the door.

"Don't go, Yuko! Don't go to Yuuki! Yuko!" She cried loudly.

Yuko's hands slowly sunk. If she proceeded, wouldn't she leave her mother and father in the same state she was? Could she really leave it at that?

They, at least she knew, loved her. They didn't want her to leave. She didn't want to pass more pain onto her parents.

But...

"Mom."

Her mother suddenly stopped crying. It had been three days since she heard her child's voice. Tears continued to roll down her cheeks, only silent this time.

"Yuko."

"Mom, I'm hungry." Yuko said through the door.

"Okay, my dear."

The mother cried. She cried the whole time she prepared something. She cried as she brought it to Yuko's room.

"Yuko, dear."

No reply.

"Yuko?" Her mother asked.

"Leave it, mom." Yuko said.

"Huh?"

But she understood. She left the tray by the door and retreated. After a few minutes, Yuko opened her door, took the food, and closed it again. When she was done, she kept it outside again.

That night, Yuko snuck out of her room and took a bath. She changed clothes. She brushed her teeth. Then she went straight back to her room, and cleaned her mess.

Still, except for her night trips to the bathroom, and to take and keep her food, Yuko never opened her door.

One time, her mother was coincidentially going for a night trip to the bathroom, and she passed by Yuko's room as she opened the door. They looked at each other, but Yuko closed the door again.

She still wasn't ready.

How long did this go on? Almost two months. I was a disgusting, unforgivable human being for almost two months. I would sometimes think to visit her house, but in the end didn't. Can you believe it? She lived right next to me, and I was like that?

Unforgivable.

Yuko's parents finally came to my house.

They told me everything. Every last thing. How Yuko was locked up, and wasn't talking to anyone. How Yuuki had died. How her dad lost her job. Every time they drew breath, I wanted to kick myself.

I was the worst human being.

"She is only a junior high student, and she is in depression and almost committed suicide." Her father explained, tears in his red eyes. "We don't know what to do. We've tried everything. We talk to her through her door, but she doesn't respond. She only listens. We haven't seen her for two months. You're the only person we can think of at this point, Ren. So please, help my daughter. We didn't want to bring it to this point, but we have no choice."

It runs in the Nishikawa family. The unwillingness of asking for help.

I went to Yuko's house without wasting anytime. I walked right to Yuko's room, and knocked on the door.

"Yuko." I said.

I heard something fall to the floor. After sometime, I heard a trembling voice.

"Ren?"

"Yeah." I sighed, tears forming in my eyes. "Come on out, Yuko. It's been a while."

Slowly, very slowly, the door opened. Yuko stood there, crying. Her hair was greasy. Her eyes had bags under them. She looked horrible. But all the same, she couldn't stop staring and crying.

I couldn't stop the tears. So I hugged her.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked her.

She only cried. But that was enough for me.

"Idiot." I muttered. "You're always so afraid to say something because you're afraid it'll disturb them. You've kept it inside you, now look what happened."

"Yuuki..." was all Yuko could say.

"I know, I know..." Ren said, patting her head. "Sorry."

That word was never enough. Everybody was crying that day. Yuko came out. She came back to school a week later.

I may have brought her out, but she was never fully healed. Rumours about her spread everywhere. It was horrible. At that time, Yuko hated herself more than anyone else, and I hated myself more than anyone else.

It was all my fault. I don't know how Yuko is now, but I know she isn't fully happy yet. I only saved her body, not her soul. Her soul still needs to be saved. Her wound still needs to be healed.

Yuko lost so much. All sorts of love. I need to bring it all back again. I need to make her happy again.

I'm never leaving her again. I'm never going to forgive myself.

Never, ever.

***

Takiyo could only stare at what he had heard. Yuko had a brother? She went through all that, that too in junior high? This was...horrible.

Somebody cleared her throat. Takiyo looked up.

Yuko.

She held up what she had brought and smiled that smile her muscles had forgotten.

"It's scary what a smile can hide, isn't it?" she asked cheerfully.