Part 29: A Grey World

_{content warning: stalking, inappropriate relationship implications}

[BGM: Whispered Feeling]


A Gray World

The manga was gray.
The sky was gray.
Even the Happy Three Friends that had been playing on the screen looked gray.

For the past two days I had been faking a foot injury. I hadn't left the room at all. Even all of my meals had been brought home by Rocky.
I felt like a lump of sludge, rotting in front of the computer, staring at it all day.



Why would she spend her birthday with the art teacher, Mr. Wen?
Were they... a couple?

I closed the episode of “Happy Three Friends”.
I then logged into my secret blog.
All of the recent entries had been about her.
The most recent one had some pictures that I had taken on her birthday.

She had gone into a cafe with Mr. Wen. They then left together, rode the subway together; they even went into the same apartment building!

Even though I had soon found out that they were neighbors, it still felt like too much of a coincidence.
Did she move next door to him, knowing that he lived there?

I kept scrolling through the pictures, imagining that it had been me with her instead.
I had been looking at her from far away, but I couldn't summon the courage.
When I finally had my line ready it was Mr. Wen who got in ahead of me...

“Jimmy, I'm going to eat the last piece of the cake in the fridge if you don't,” Rocky yelled from the living room.

“Yeah, go ahead.”
I wiped my face hastily.

“THANK YOU~ I'll bring you more chicken legs tonight!”

Rocky had thought it was my birthday two days ago.
I had ordered the cake from Hong Kong. Thank goodness I hadn't put her name on it.



I took another glance at those annoying pictures, and clicked the “Delete” button.
The confirmation dialogue popped up.

Yet... I couldn't do it. (ಥ_ಥ)

I dragged myself to the bathroom.
I looked in the mirror. My face was horribly pale, my hair was all messed up and my eyes were so red.
Even the reflection seemed to be mocking my loser self.

I took a wet towel and went back to the computer.
I rinsed my glass with boiled water and poured some milk into it.
I grabbed the face cream and squeezed the container.
I held the glass up and stirred, then took a big sip.

I didn't realize I had just made a huge mistake.

I just thought the milk tasted bitter because of my horrible mood.
Yet it also had a minty taste.
And my tongue was feeling a little numb...



I looked at the bottle I had just used ------
“Smoothie” Face Cream – make your face smooth like a smoothie.

Then I remembered that I had run out of honey half a month ago.
I spit out all of the remaining “flavored milk” onto the computer.

But the real tragedy was yet to come.
While I was busy wiping my keyboard I accidentally pressed “Enter”.
I never had any back up for these pictures, as I had always felt guilty about them in the first place.

So now they were all gone.
ALL... GONE. (ಥ_ಥ)

Jimmy



_{god Jimmy sucks so fucking much} WILL is a land of contrasts and this letter just puts that in sharp contrast huh. Let's get this over with.



Thankfully, there are literally only two other endings beside this default one, because really there's not much to this puzzle! So we can get the fuck out of here real fast!



The sip of water I had just taken must have been sitting there for days. The next thing I knew I was feeling my stomach rumbling and hurting.

I rushed into the bathroom.
I was feeling like crap, and I had to suffer through this.
I couldn't have felt worse. (ಥ_ಥ)

“Jimmy, let me see your homework.”
“Yeah, it's on the computer, just check for yourself. No guarantee it'll be right...”
“Got it! Jimmy, you are the man! Let me know if I can help you out some time!”

…
Why did I never have any luck?

My Goddess of Fortune, where on earth are you... (ಥ_ಥ)



As fun as it is making Jimmy suffer, we need to get him to not drink face cream in order to get the S ending.



Again, this is a really simple puzzle. Just use the face cream last. C'mon, Jimmy. It's not that hard.



I eventually hit the “Cancel” button.
I still couldn't bring myself to do it. (ಥ_ಥ)

I couldn't tell if I was just too tired, or if it was because of the milk.
I hunched over the desk and fell asleep...



Well, who knows, maybe Jimmy still having these pictures will end up being relevant. Either way, we're done here.

…

[BGM: New Life]





NEW MESSAGE: Life Is Like a Box of Chocolate Milk



…

[BGM: The Darkness]


A Woman With Fiery Hair

Thursday.
On the side of a bush-covered hill two kilometers away from Tai O Road.

Through the scope of my M110, I was staring at a factory one kilometer away.
There was no other vantage point around the factory, this was the closest FFP available.

The wind speed was 4.3m/s, and there were no signs of that changing.
Mil-dot (4, -2).
I had laid out the bullets next to me in a straight line, warming them up in the sun.



2:10 PM.
A small, yellow sedan drove up to the factory entrance.

Loading.

The door opened, and a woman with a full head of fiery red hair got out of the car.
Her name was Lihua. She was the head of the firearm smuggling team in the Blood Gang.

Aiming.



I pulled the trigger.
The target was down.

I saw a flash from a window on the second floor of the factory. There was another sniper aiming at me!
A bullet pierced and shattered the scope.

I jerked myself to the side.
The bullet didn't go through my eye as my opponent had hoped, but it did give me a severe injury.
The right side of my face was burning, it felt like it was on fire.

I lowered my body and slid down the other side of the slope.
I got onto the motorcycle that I had prepared in advance.

However, on the way back my consciousness began drifting away; I lost control of the vehicle.
The bike tumbled head first into a ditch.
Blood was mixing with the muddy water of the ditch. It was black and red everywhere.



While Lihua had been killed, completing a mission like this was rather embarrassing...
Perhaps... this wasn't the right job for me after all...

Alicia