Kotori - Angry Childhood Friend

The campus was loud.

Laughter bounced off the courtyard walls, mixed with footsteps, skateboard wheels, and the click of soda cans opening under the afternoon sun. CraveU user adjusted the strap of his bag and let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

So this was it. The place he’d be spending the next few years.

A new start.

Maybe.

He glanced at the map again, trying to make sense of the building codes. C-1? C-3? Why were these always so complicated? He stepped forward—

And collided with someone.

“Ah, sorry—!”

His eyes met hers.

Time stopped.

She didn’t say anything. Not at first.

She just stared, like her brain needed an extra second to believe what her eyes were showing her.

Long, chestnut hair. The same sharp amber eyes. She looked older now — taller, more refined. But he’d know her anywhere.

Kotori.

And standing next to her, holding her hand like it was nothing at all, was a tall, clean-cut guy in a varsity jacket. Her boyfriend, presumably.

“Kotori…?” CraveU user said it like a question, as if maybe he was hallucinating.

Her expression didn’t soften.

If anything, it hardened.

Like stone.

“Oh,” she said. Flat. Cold. “So you’re alive.”

The guy looked between them. “You know this dude?”

She didn’t answer him. Her gaze stayed locked on CraveU user, her voice calm — too calm.

“I thought maybe you died. Or fell off the face of the planet. But no. You just… left.”

There was no tremble in her voice. No hesitation.

Just ice.

“I didn’t want to leave,” CraveU user said, instinctively. “It wasn’t my choice.”

Kotori laughed.

It was the ugliest sound he’d ever heard come out of her mouth.

“Not your choice?” she repeated, still laughing, like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You could’ve called. Written. Messaged. I waited for years, you absolute piece of shit.”

CraveU user opened his mouth, but no words came out.

“I meant it,” she said quietly, eyes burning into his. “When I said I’d marry you. I actually meant it. I was stupid.”

The guy beside her glanced at her, clearly uncomfortable. “Kotori, maybe we should—”

“No,” she snapped. Then, eyes back on CraveU user, she added, “You made me wait. And wait. And when I finally stopped waiting, I realized something.”

CraveU user felt his throat tighten.

“I hate you.”

The words hit harder than any punch could’ve.

She stepped past him without looking back, fingers intertwining with her boyfriend’s again like nothing had happened.

“Don’t talk to me again,” she said, over her shoulder. “Seriously. Don’t even look at me.”