Ouma's POV:

The soft piano music continued in the background, the song was melancholic and full of sorrow. I never had been much of a fan of classical music, yet this song seemed to match the tone of the surrounding events as I continued to listen, hoping the music would call my soul and take me far away from the thoughts that plagued my mind or unlock something within me.

You wanted to be a pianist Chi...and I'm sorry but I don't know if you could have ever played something like this.

Tiny tears pricked my eyes, as I fiddled with the small toy I had been given. It was made of metallic material and seemed to be like a puzzle box and at this point any distraction like this was great. My mind was begging for something to take its frustrations out on, something else to think of. It was a delicate balancing act, yet everyone kept insisting for it to go onwards in the endless stretch towards the unknown end.

They're all gone.

Maybe I was naive, that with my mother's last words to me, a promise for a family who would take care of me. And she was right, those few brief weeks had been blissful and while the tension and their insistence on my helplessness had been annoying it wasn't a deal-breaker.

I wanted it to last, that peace in the house. I didn't deserve that kind of peace though. So maybe my mother's last words to me had really been a curse in disguise, a curse towards her selfish son who didn't want to stay by her side anymore, a curse she held in her final breaths that now lingered on the earth to taunt me with what I never could have, and what I never deserved. How ironic it was like the day DICE died though, a normally peaceful day.

How that day was stolen, a day that was possibly one of the calmest days of my life, domestic even just shopping for groceries. Talking calmly with Kiibo, a petty argument made by an equally pretentious child. If you changed what happened at the end of that day, it would've been everything I had been taught to believe a family was like at school.

So of course it vanished in an instant.

Kiibo was gone, I thought Kiibo would live forever jokes aside. His personality was saved on a small computer disk, so it could be transferred...but that was lost. Lost in the ocean, lost after he tipped himself over that bridge. His last words to me...how could I not have realized what they might have meant. And if I did know what he was really asking, when he asked if I would go with him...what would I have answered?

My Aunt and Uncle tried to save him that night, I don't know if they knew about his chip being lost. That what they had to dive for in that ocean wasn't Kiibo anymore. Maybe they would have tried anyway, did anything they could do to save him, but unlike Kiibo they never had a chance when that vehicle collided with them.

It's sad...but I didn't really cry that much. Maybe I should have, a part of me was screaming that night, screaming for Kiibo and my mother and all the people to just end the day or restart time, and the other a silent and stoic figure yet boiling over in anger. I didn't even know what to think or say, even when I was asked about funeral arrangements.

Did Mom get a funeral?

I should have asked. I should've asked what they would've wanted...but I didn't. It would have been a morbid question though, even I never planned my own funeral that much other than my joke ones as a child.

The piano's song grew only more sorrowful, as I sighed, it soothed my nerves a little.

It wouldn't be long before this peace was gone, I was seventeen and still a minor in school which meant now that all my remaining relatives were gone I was going into foster care for the remaining months of school or till the system could legally kick me out. Not exactly the best outcome.

The only reason I wasn't in a house yet was that Akamatsu had offered a place at her own home because supposedly the foster house wasn't equipped for the paraplegic and it would take two weeks for the installments to be made.

I would've been grateful even if it was just one day.

Akamatsu's involvement shocked me though, she and I had a neutral relationship even before the incident. But she still was the first one to show up...maybe she was there for Kiibo.

This was all for Kiibo wasn't it?

I bit my cheek and tasted the familiar copper as I tried to solve the puzzle, memorizing the steps over and over, so much so I barely realized the door had opened and the creaking of the mattress.

"I'm here you know" a voice called out snapping me out of my thoughts, I turned in the direction of the voice. "Sorry I'm late" she apologized. Harukawa.

'Where were you that day?' I asked before thinking to curse myself, I shouldn't have asked. I'm not her responsibility. "I was with you, in your Aunt's house when we were waiting for Kiibo, then I went home. You know this" she reinforced.

'Where were you when I got beat up?' I rephrased, as she fell silent. "The people at the orphanage needed me to run an errand the next town over" she explained calmly.

"When I was heading back, the subway shut down and I got stuck for a few hours till they could run again." She added.

A lie.

"I'm sorry" she apologized, her voice with actual sympathy, 'I already forgave you for the lunch thing' I told her shrugging. "I was apologizing for your family," she said and I paused.

'They weren't my family, I barely even knew them' I corrected, "that stings still though right?" She asked as I paused uncomfortably.

'You wouldn't get it' I told her. She paused before laughing coldly, "that was a joke right?" She asked a bit annoyed. "Ouma, I'm an orphan, I think I know a thing or two about losing your family and being left by yourself," she said annoyed.

'It's different' I told her, trying not to get her too annoyed, "what's different? Because the only difference I can see is you only have to deal with this now, and I had to my whole life," she told me bitterly.

'Can we just talk about something else?' I finally asked annoyed, Harukawa sighed and I could tell this conversation was not ending.

..."how long?" Harukawa asked.

'How long?' I asked confused, "till foster care, this isn't permanent right? I could try and get you into the house I stay at" she offered though it seemed a bit hesitant. 'I'll be fine' I told her with a calm expression on my face, she took the bait and didn't question it.

'I have two weeks, maybe less, Akamatsu's parents don't like me that much, say I'm too quiet' I admitted, a bit of truth always helped. "Too quiet?" Harukawa asked surprised, 'I was always either too loud or too quiet' I said with a shrug.

I never understood this either.

"Are you okay though?" She asked.

Her voice was laced with remorse or sympathy. Neither of which I wanted from her...I paused as I took a deep breath, "I'm fine" I told her with a cheery voice, "really" I insisted for good measure.

I willed for this sentence to be taken as reality, I was out of practice. But lies are always easier when that person wanted it to be a reality, maybe that's why we always lie and say everything will be alright to someone in pain. In reality, we have no control over life, only our own bodies, and actions. Maybe saying that is a cruel lie then because, in the end, we don't know, we're just hoping.

If that's the case then who are we really lying for then?

"Ok then," Harukawa said.

...ok.