Chapter 43
“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to remain calm,” said the policeman who was sitting in front of Tomoki, Shuya and Iyori.
“Calm? She deceived me and manipulated me! And now she accuse me of all these things!” yelled Tomoki and stood up from the chair again, the officer letting out a sigh while he told him to sit back down.
While Tomoki kept arguing with the policeman, Iyori looked at Shuya, feeling a stab in her chest when she saw his beat up face. She didn’t even dare think about how the other parts of his body looked, he was having trouble walking to the police station, and even still, he kept a smile on the entire time. Even now, he barely looked like he was in pain, but it didn’t change the fact that Iyori felt like crying every time she looked at him.
“Iyori,” said Shuya and gently poked her shoulder, waking her from her dace.
“Mm... what?” said Iyori.
“Can you show the policeman those messages?”
“Ah... yeah sure,” said Iyori while quickly taking out her phone, unlocking it and going into her messages. Tomoki held his breath while the policeman scrolled through the endless amount of messages Tomoki had sent until half a year ago.
“That–” said Tomoki, without really knowing how to finish the sentence. The glare from Iyori and Shuya didn’t help on the matter.
“Thank you,” said the policeman and gave Iyori back her phone, whereafter he wrote something else in the report in front of him.
“So from my understanding, this isn’t just a case of assault, but a case of stalking as well.”
“Sir, there’s been a misunderstanding, I–”
“I have written everything down in my report,” said the policeman, completely disregarding what Tomoki was trying to say. “All you have to do now, is decide on whether you want to press charges or settle.”
“Why would she settle,” said Shuya immediately. “He needs to be punished for what he has done.”
“Is it really worth it, though?” asked Iyori, surprising both Shuya and Tomoki. “Officer, what are the options in settlement?”
“Well, you have to come to an agreement on the terms amongst each other,” explained the officer. “In addition, the police can also issue a warning to this man, in regards to the stalking, telling him to stay away from you and the places you frequent. In that case, you can always contact the police in the future if the stalking starts again and we can take it from there.” Iyori nodded understandingly and then turned to Tomoki.
“I hate you for what you did, especially what you did to Shuya, but I want to get this over with as quickly as possible, so what do you say? Do you want to settle?” asked Iyori.
“Iyori, that’s–” started Shuya, but he was quickly interrupted.
“What are your terms?” asked Tomoki, eyes cold as ice when he looked at her.
“You pay for the hospital bills in regards to Shuya’s injuries, you never contact me again and stay away from me and Shuya and our families.” Iyori spoke firmly and looked directly into Tomoki’s eyes, while Shuya watched from the side.
Iyori held out her hand and Tomoki looked at it for a few seconds before he shook it.
“Fine...” said Tomoki.
“I must remind you that all parties involved have to agree on the terms if the settlement can take place,” said the officer and looked at Shuya.
“Well...” said Shuya and Iyori turned to him.
“If you aren’t comfortable with a settlement, we won’t do it,” said Iyori quickly. “You were hurt the most because of this.”
“Physically maybe, but that doesn’t match the amount of psychological stress you suffered because of him,” said Shuya. “I don’t care about a few bruises, him paying the hospital bills is all but fine, but... are you really okay with this?” Iyori sent Shuya and smile and nodded.
“I’m completely okay with this, let’s get this over with,” said Iyori and held out her hand to Shuya who shook it in return.
The officer looked relieved when all the papers were signed and the three left the station. Iyori gave Tomoki one last glance when they stood outside the station.
“We’ll send you the bill from the hospital and after that we will never see each other again,” said Iyori and looked at Tomoki who just looked away.
“Sure,” said Tomoki and dashed off, not looking back even once as he disappeared.
When he was out of sight, it felt like a massive stone was lifted from Iyori’s heart and her body suddenly became weak. She grabbed on to Shuya, having a hard time standing on her feet, her vision blurred and her head dizzy.
“Iyori, are you okay?” asked Shuya concerned while he helped her up again. When he did, he noticed the tears that were falling from her eyes and he instinctively put his arms around her, only making her cry even harder.
“I’m sorry... you’re the one who’s hurt and I’m the one who’s crying...” said Iyori in between her sobs while she clung to Shuya like a child. “We really... should get you to... a hospital...”
“Now now, there’s no rush... I’m not hurt that badly,” said Shuya and patted Iyori on her back. “Just give yourself a moment. A burden that has followed you for about a year just disappeared. You’re bound to have some sort of reaction.”
“But... do you really think... do you really think it’s over?” asked Iyori. “He won’t contact me again? He won’t try to hurt me... or hurt you...”
“Yes, I really think it’s over,” said Shuya, “and you heard the police, if he ever contacts you again, all you have to do is contact them. It’s all in their files now, they will help you if needed.” Iyori’s cry intensified upon hearing Shuya’s words and he hugged her even tighter.
“It’s okay, just cry,” said Shuya. “It’s over now.”
***
When Iyori had calmed down a little more, the two made their way to the hospital where Shuya’s wounds were treated. A broken lip and a broken eyebrow that needed a few stitches, not to mention a lot of bruises and scraped that were treated. Iyori did her best to hold back tears and Shuya did his best to smile through it all, but in reality, his smile was making it even harder for Iyori to hold back her tears.
In the end, after leaving the hospital, Iyori couldn’t stop it anymore and the tears just started flowing again. Shuya stopped walking and looked at Iyori.
“Iyori, please don’t cry for me,” said Shuya and wiped away a tear. “It’s not your fault and it really doesn’t hurt that much. I only got a few stitches and–”
“If it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t have had any stitches, what is your mom gonna say when she sees you?”
“Oh... I hadn’t even thought about that,” said Shuya and started laughing, making Iyori look at him in confusion. “Man, what a story they’re gonna get.”
“Stop laughing!” said Iyori firmly, the tears still falling. “It’s not funny... why do you... even at the hospital... you just keep smiling... why do you keep smiling? It makes me feel so much worse about everything.”
“I’m sorry!” said Shuya and embraced Iyori. “That wasn’t my intention at all, so I’m sorry if it made you feel bad.” Shuya drew back again and looked at Iyori while holding onto her shoulders.
“I know it sounds weird, but I’m strangely happy,” said Shuya. “Not only did I keep you safe, I did it without resorting to violence. As I said, I kept my promise to you.”
“Stupid!” said Iyori and Shuya's eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Why are you thinking about that promise at a time like this? If someone comes at you like that again, you fight back! That’s called self defense, why do you have to listen to me in such a stupid way?” Shuya started laughing again while he stroke Iyori across her hair.
“I’m sorry, I’ll be better at protecting myself next time,” said Shuya. “But I’m still happy.”
“You’re crazy, because of that, you get to explain everything to your parents,” said Iyori firmly and wiped away her tears, whereafter she started walking again.
“What? No, come on, you have to help me,” said Shuya and ran to catch up with Iyori. “My mom will kill me when she sees the stitches.”
“Fine! Then she and I can kill you together.” Shuya grabbed Iyori’s hand and laughed.
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Hello everyone!
It's really over. The stalker case is done and resolved. I had to research a lot about stalker cases and such, because I really didn't know anything about what would happen in that situation. Turns out, there's not really much the police can do, settlement is probably the best option, even if it feels unjust.
But what did you think? In my opinion, this wasn't the most exciting or well written chapter and I'm honestly not really satisfied with this as being the last "real" chapter of the book, but here we are. I still hope you enjoyed it, let me know your thoughts in the comments down below.
Take good care of yourself and stay safe!
Love, Annalise~