The White Room Troubles

Suzuki Shizuku SS: A tough decision

(I don't usually start chapters with this but I'm doing this for context. Pretend the image above is Shizuku but younger and has her hair in a bun. I couldn't find an accurate image with the way I described her appearance so this image is the only one that I deemed to work best. Anyway, enjoy this SS)

Suzuki Shizuku SS: A tough decision

Originally, I had never really thought that it would come to this.

Today was my birthday and I had now reached 10 years of age. If I were a normal child, I would be really happy.

But I'm not a normal child.

I'm a "subject" of the White Room.

I'm one of two remaining "subjects" in my generation.

Essentially, I wasn't a human being.

I had suffered so much in this place, physical and mental pain, losing many of my friends. Everything had caused me stress and pain.

However, despite all that, I continued to move forward in hope of leaving this place.

...I was so naive.

When I heard those instructors talking about me, I lost all hope in wanting to continue this curriculum. From there, I decided to end it all after weighing up everything.

"This doesn't feel nostalgic at all."

I had wanted to take a tour around the White Room and visit every room. Today was going to be my last day here so I wanted to put every room in my memory before leaving this world. When one had their last day somewhere, they would visit every place and create nostalgic memories.

Yet, this didn't feel nostalgic to me at all. Instead, it just made me feel nothing but the suffering I went through. It felt painful again, but I knew I needed to experience this before my time was over.

There were two more things left for me to do. One was to visit the rest of the remaining rooms here. The second was to find the one person I wanted to talk to before leaving.

As I approached the music room, I heard the piano being played and saw one of my objectives.

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, my very distant best friend, was playing the piano flawlessly and without a care in the world. I felt entranced by this that I decided to sit down on a chair nearby and listen.

When did he learn to play? And perfectly for that matter?

I'm his best friend... and yet I didn't even know this about him. I'm ashamed that I didn't know. This further showed how distant the two of us grew since the day I saw him change.

He completely watched someone have breathing problems without a care for that person. Normally he would be the first person to help them, but he just watched with indifference. Those eyes were so scary.

And yet, here he was playing Clair de Lune, a favourite of mine, with such a relaxed posture, despite his face not changing from an apathetic expression. I found myself swaying to his perfect piano skills.

When he finished, he opened his eyes and our eyes met.

"...Kiyotaka..."

"...Shizuku..."

I feel so awkward. No, it's more that the two of us are in an awkward atmosphere. We were so close, yet we grew distant a month after our curriculum started. This is the first time we met outside of the curriculum.

I felt unable to talk to him.

"...Is there something you need, Shizuku?" He asked with his monotonous tone.