Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Akasaka Moon ❯ Grasshoppers ( Chapter 5 )

Spring

April 10th, 1946.

Grasshoppers

Juriko and Haruka confused me so much in those five years I knew them. The former was stuck in my head deeper than any knife. Many boys tried to do anything to get her to notice them at least once, but Juriko never showed a single shred of interest in them. I learned pretty quickly that I was the only one she had her nails deep into his heart. She would occasionally show a little affection towards me, but never further than a kiss on the cheek. I couldn't understand what she saw in me in the first place. Haruka took joy in reminding me of this.

“She's never going to love you,” she said many times. “You're just going to be her dog until she gets bored with you.” I took to jealousy at first, but she never would stop saying it.

“Why is that?” I asked one day in March 1946 as we were walking home from school. Haruka didn't even look up at me.

“She has no heart,” her sister said without missing a beat. “I know because I have no heart as well. We all have no real heart.”

“Aw, what are you talking about?” I asked, thinking that she was just messing with me. Haruka gave me the first smile that I had ever seen her give. I stared at her as my spine caved into trembling. Something in the way she smiled frightened me at the time. I couldn't figure it out why. I felt like I was looking at the devil's open mouth.

“We all are like that,” she said. “Mother, Juriko, all of the women in my family, and I have no hearts. We are just monsters. We use the people that love us. We make them fall in love with us and then we use them until they have nothing left to give us. We are all just parasites.” I tried to laugh it off.

“Oh come on, you're just kidding, right?” I brushed off. “Right?” Haruka kept her creepy smile and I shut my mouth. Despite the fear, my curiosity danced in laps around my head. I had to find out more about them.