- twenty-three -

〚 third person 〛

☾☾☾

"Hey! The girl with the pigtails!" A voice called out, bringing Momo out of her small trance. She glanced up from her book, spotting a raven haired male standing before her. He grinned down at her, looking almost triumphant or smug.

"Yes?" Momo asked meekly, not used to talking to other since she was fresh out of grade school.

The boy crouched down in front of her, smirking at the female who looked almost flustered just by being spoken to. "What's your name?"

"Erm, it's Masaki Momo." Momo answered back awkwardly, shying away from the boy behind her book. He reached up, gingerly snatching the book from her fingers. "Hey-"

"Pretty girls like you shouldn't read books. You should be playing with makeup or something." His compliment was backhanded, making Momo feel conflicted. To be called pretty for the first time in her life was uplifting, but why did the rest of his sentence make her feel so disappointed?

I'm pretty, so I can't read a book? Momo thought as she leaned forward, reaching for the book that he held in his hand.

"Ah, ah, ah." He clicked his tongue at her, smirking as she pursed her lips. "I wanna talk to you more."

And he did just that. Every single day, he'd find Momo wherever she was during breaks throughout the school day. At first, she put up a guard to keep him out since she suspected he was doing this as some cruel prank.

After a while of hanging out with him, she began to enjoy her time around him. He was a funny guy with a lot of jokes that made her laugh. He was moderately nice, but tended to give a lot of backhanded compliments or be unintentionally rude or pushy. Momo pushed aside those flaws because he was so welcoming about her flaws.

Despite him constantly claiming her as his girlfriend, they never officially agreed upon it. He just started telling people they were dating, and she stupidly went along with it.

As they started "dating," his attitude began to progressively become shittier. His list of demands got longer, and his standards got harder to meet.

He wanted Momo to be a sexy yet cute girl who was innocent but secretly freaky. He wanted her to be skinny yet thick with no fat on her body. He wanted her to be smart but definitely not smarter than him. He wanted her to cook for him, sacrificing all her extra time to make him lunch or snacks. He wanted her to be at his beck and call.

This isn't "dating"

"Make me bentos everyday."

So Momo started making him a bento every morning, losing out on sleep to perfect the meals he was so picky about.

"Since you have so much damn time on your hands, why don't you make more bentos? My friends want some too."

Reluctantly, Momo began to make bentos for him and his friends, losing even more sleep due to this.

"Can't you put on some makeup or something? You skin is like three different shades."

He said after seeing that Momo's skin wasn't a consistent color all over. So she began wearing makeup to school.

"You should wear shorter skirts. You look like a prude in those long skirts."

Obliging, she swapped out her long skirts for shorter skirts that barely went down to her mid thigh.

"Why don't you wear colors other than black? It's such an ugly color on you."

Now, she began wearing colors other than black to please him.

"You never greet my friends! What kind of girlfriend are you?"

And she began greeting his friends. Even when he wasn't around, she politely greet them with the intrusive thought that he'd hate her if she didn't.

"Why're you talking to my friends so damn much? I said greet them, not flirt with them!"

So she limited her communication with his friends, keeping her eyes to the floor since apparently, eye-contact was flirting.

"God, you fucking suck at being a girlfriend. Can't you do something to please me? It's your job as a girl, right?"

No, it's not. My "job" as a girl is not to be someone you use like a toy.

"I can't do this anymore, Reiji-san." Momo said as she bowed to Reiji, unable to handle the stress of doing this kind of thing anymore. Being constantly degraded for things she was trying her best at was tearing her down. It wasn't fun anymore.

Appalled she'd even say something like that, he flipped out angrily. He cussed, shouted, yelled, bad-mouthed her until he was satisfied. Or so she thought.

The next day she arrived at school, people began to glare at her with such hateful eyes. It made her shrink, clueless as to what was going on.

"How dare you, you slut?!" A female shouted as she kicked Momo in the back, sending the small brunette flying forward. Her knees scraped against the cement, making her hiss with pain. "You're such a fucking slut! I can't believe you'd do that Reiji-kun!"

"W-What?" Momo stuttered, beyond confused about what was happening.

"Don't even try to act innocent. He told us you've been sleeping around with all of his friends behind his back, you fucking whore!" The female's words cut into Momo's heart, making it sink like the Titanic.

"I-I would never! I'm still a-" The female who stood above Momo turned her milk carton upside down, dumping the contents on Momo's head.

"That'll make you think twice before ever doing something like that to him again." The female shouted, walking off with her friends. Momo sat there, stunned by what just happened.

Seeing Reiji in the distance, she watched as he glanced her way, smirking at her. He pulled out his phone, approaching her to take a picture.

"How tragic, Masaki-san."

That was only the beginning of the bullying and endless taunting that lasted for the remainder of the year.

Momo's eyes peeled open as she blinked slowly, sensing how heavy her eyelids were as she did so. Her eyes remained trained on the white popcorn ceiling that she was familiar with.

'That's why I disappeared for two years.'

Momo glanced to the side, spotting her father sitting at her bedside with a familiar plushy in his hand. For once, he didn't have a cigarette between his lips or fingertips.

"You were crying in your sleep, so," He placed the plushy beside her, standing up from his chair since she had awaken.

Recalling how her father used to give her this plushy to sleep with when she was younger, she smiled weakly up at him. It was the one thing her mother had left behind for her after she abandoned them two.

"Thanks, dad."