Transmigrated into a World of Reversed Roles

60

Yuri’s eyes met mine.

With no more passengers boarding, the train began to glide forward, swaying just enough to throw off my balance.

We kept staring.

Then, before I could take a single step, Yuri dropped her PSP and bolted toward the next carriage.

“Yuri!”

I ran after her, and so did she. Most of the passengers were either asleep or lazily fiddling with their phones, making it easy for her to move around.

Meanwhile, I was slightly hindered because people were starting to wake up and get annoyed by the commotion Yuri was causing.

“Hey! What’s all this noise!?”

“Excuse me!”

Continuing the chase, luck was on my side. The number of carriages was, of course, limited, so before long, Yuri hit a dead end, and in a rush, I managed to grab her wrist.

I was panting for breath.

“Yuri… I’ve already heard the story from Kuro.”

She didn’t answer right away. Chuckling bitterly, with her free hand she kept turning the handle of the last carriage door back and forth, though it was clear it was already locked.

Realizing the futility of her actions, her chest rose and fell, and a voice finally escaped her lips.

“…In that case, please let me go.”

Maybe because I was panicking, maybe because I was afraid she’d run away the moment I released her, hearing Yuri’s request only made my grip on her tighten.

As a result, she let out a whimper.

“It hurts…”

A fog clouded my head. All sorts of unclear thoughts made it hard to focus on anything.

Sweat trickled down my cheek slowly, accompanied by a coldness that seemed to freeze time.

My mouth moved awkwardly.

But only one word came out, and even that was clumsy.

“S-Sorry…”

With that, I let her go.

Yuri rubbed the part of her arm where I had been holding her. Her bangs once again covered part of her face, along with her expression.

“L-Listen, I’m sorry if this sounds like I’m lecturing you, but I don’t think this problem will be solved if you keep running away…”

What exactly… was I trying to say?

I didn’t even understand myself. All I knew was that random words kept coming out whenever I thought they might calm her down.

“Will it be solved if I go back?”

Of course not. There’s no way something like this could be resolved just like that, right?

A slight jolt ran through the train as it sped up. It tapped lightly against my chest, and I took a deep breath, trying to clear my head and find the right words.

“But Yuri… what will you do if you run away like this? Kuro was really worried when he was looking for you earlier. Your mother must also—”

“That woman would never worry about me!”

Yuri shouted, freezing my body again.

Her shoulders trembled, and the grinding of her teeth was loud enough for me to hear from here.