Yandere Beginnings
About half a year ago.
Vella had transferred into a certain man's university on her mother Varga's orders.
That man's name was Rai Hopeless.
The official purpose was to adjust to campus life, but her real mission was something else entirely: to keep watch over Rai from close by.
Varga had instructed Vella to observe his behavior and confirm whether he had any connection to the Akra.
"Honestly, she makes me do the strangest things..."
Muttering that to herself, Vella started school without any real complaint anyway.
And as it turned out, settling in wasn't hard at all.
Vella had always been the kind of person who got along easily with others.
She struck up conversations naturally even with people she'd just met, and when someone cracked a joke, she laughed along without missing a beat. Thanks to her trademark sociability and easygoing nature, it didn't take long before there was hardly anyone in the department who didn't know her.
"Vella, want to grab lunch together today?"
"Sure. What are you having?"
"Vella, sunbae! Do you know how to do this assignment?"
"Oh, I'll take a look at it for you."
People gravitated toward her naturally, and Vella enjoyed those relationships too.
But the person she was actually supposed to get closest to was a little different.
"Rai, sunbae."
"Yeah?"
"What are you doing after class today?"
"Going home."
"Um... that's it?"
"Probably a part-time shift after."
"What about dinner?"
"Something from the convenience store, I guess."
"........"
The conversations never lasted long.
Even when Vella spoke first, Rai's reactions were always lukewarm. He didn't dislike her. But he wasn't interested in her either. He answered when asked a question, and once the conversation ended, he simply stopped paying attention — as if he had no particular interest in anything in the world.
("What an odd person.")
That was Vella's first impression.
But as time passed, she began to notice something strange.
Rai wasn't actually indifferent at all. Quite the opposite.
When someone poured out their troubles in front of him, he'd pull an annoyed face — and then listen all the way to the end anyway.
"Sunbae, my stories are boring, aren't they?"
"Wh... what, all of a sudden...?"
"Then why are you sighing like that?"
"If I tell you, it'll take a while..."
".........?"
"I didn't say you were boring. Keep going."
And when someone asked him for a favor, he'd grumble and complain — and then help all the way through to the end anyway.
"Sunbae, could you possibly help me with this?"
"Huh... why me?"
"Everyone else is busy..."
"You've really got some nerve, working me like this."
Even as he said it, Rai's hands were already moving.
Vella witnessed that scene again and again.
At first she chalked it up to coincidence. But it wasn't just once or twice. Every time he helped someone, Rai's attitude was exactly the same. Annoyed. Grumbling. Making a show of not wanting to do it. And then, in the end, seeing it through to the very last.
And then one day, Vella got the chance to see it with absolute certainty.
A small information session was being held at school, and Vella was assigned to the preparations. Originally, several students were supposed to set things up together — but as the hours wore on, they started slipping away one by one.
"Sorry, I've got plans today."
"I'll head out first too."
"I've got a shift..."
"Can't we just do it tomorrow?"
By the time the sun had set, the only person left was Vella.
"If it was going to be like this, I should've just said I'd do it alone from the start..."
Sighing, Vella sorted through the materials. She moved desks, set up the signboards, organized the handouts. The hours kept slipping by.
And then—
"You're not done yet?"
A familiar voice came from behind her. Vella looked up.
"Rai, sunbae?"
Rai was standing in the doorway.
"What are you doing?"
"Preparing for tomorrow's information session."
"Alone?"
"Yes."
Rai glanced around the room.
"Where's everyone else?"
"They left already."
"What a bunch of conscienceless bastards..."
"It's fine. I'm the one who volunteered to stay."
Vella went back to sorting the materials.
"I can manage on my own."
"Doesn't look like it."
Rai studied her for a moment. Then, without making a thing of it, he rolled up his sleeves.
"Then I'll help too."
"What?"
"Where do we start?"
Vella's face went blank with surprise.
"Hold on. You're not even assigned to this, sunbae."
"I know."
"Then why..."
"Does it matter?"
".........."
"You work the evening shift at the convenience store, don't you? If you don't show up, I have to cover that time."
"What... kind of reason is that..."
Watching Rai scrape together excuses with transparent desperation, Vella let out a hollow laugh.
Whoosh.
As if it were nothing at all, Rai hoisted a box of materials.
"Where do I put this?"
"That storage room over there."
"Okay."
With Rai's help, the preparations moved along quickly. Vella spent a while just staring blankly at him.
"You really are a strange person..."
"What is?"
"Nothing."
"Then hurry up. I need to get home too."
"Yes, yes~!"
The two of them kept working late into the night, and by the time the last of the materials was sorted, it was already quite late.
"Phew..."
Vella straightened her back and let out a long breath.
"We're done...!"
"Looks like it."
Rai looked out the window.
Shaaaaaaa—!!
"It's raining."
"What?"
Raindrops had begun to fall outside without either of them noticing. At the sight, Vella hurriedly rummaged through her bag — and then froze on the spot.
"Ah... I left it at home... I don't have an umbrella..."
"Seriously?"
"Yes."
Vella gazed out the window.
"Nothing I can do about it. I'll have to run to the convenience store nearby and buy one."
At that moment—
"Hold on."
Whoosh.
Rai opened his own bag and pulled out an umbrella.
"Here."
Click.
The umbrella snapped open. Vella's eyes went wide.
"Sunbae, you had an umbrella?"
"I always carry one."
"Then I can too—"
The moment Vella stepped toward him—
BAM—!!
Rai snatched the umbrella and marched straight out the door.
"BWAAAHAHAHAHA—!!"
"Huh?!"
Rai turned back in the rain, grinning.
"Have a nice run~!"
And with that, Rai slowly vanished from Vella's sight.
Her eyebrows twitched at the sight.
"SUNBAE...!!!!!!!"
Left alone, Vella stared blankly straight ahead.
"Why did Mom tell me to surveil a weirdo like that...!!!"
She fumed, seething over Rai's atrocity. But then, a little while later—
Shaaaaaaa—!!
"Good thing you were still here."
Rai came back, scratching the back of his head.
"Sunbae...? You went all the way to the convenience store?"
"Obviously it was a joke. You're not actually mad... right?"
Whoosh.
Rai held out an umbrella he'd bought at the store.
"Take this."
"But—"
"You don't have to pay me back."
"Um... you're just giving it to me, all of a sudden..."
"It's fine. Anyway, I'm heading out. I've got a parasite at home to look after, so I need to hurry."
Vella looked back and forth between the umbrella and Rai.
"W-wait a second, sunbae?"
She called after him — to say thank you. And to apologize for doubting him.
"I said the money's fine. See you at the store in a bit."
Tap.
"Wait...!!!"
Rai was long gone. He simply broke into a run through the rain.
Vella stood frozen in place, umbrella in hand.
Shaaaaaaa—!!
The sound of rain filled everything around her. The sight of Rai's back, growing smaller and smaller in the downpour.
After staring at it for a long while, Vella murmured softly.
"It's strange... he really... really is a strange sunbae..."
That was the day it began.
The day Rai's existence became something a little different to Vella.
At first, he had been a surveillance target — someone she was ordered to watch because of her mother. Nothing more, nothing less.
But now, he was different.
Vella started catching herself looking at Rai even in the middle of class. Even when talking with friends, his figure kept drifting into her sight. The way he'd pull an annoyed face when asked for a favor, then help anyway. The way he'd act bored by other people's stories, then listen to the very end. The way he moved for someone else's sake with a perfectly casual face.
On the surface, he seemed like a bit of a dolt. Sometimes he even looked pathetic. And yet, in the moments that truly mattered, he moved for others faster than anyone.
Little by little, Vella began to take an interest in that Rai. The man who had been a surveillance target had, at some point, become someone she couldn't stop thinking about.
And Vella didn't yet know the exact name of that feeling.
Only one thing was certain: from the moment she had watched Rai's back disappear into the rain that night, the man called Rai, sunbae had begun to become special to her.
___. ___
Vella's recollection ended there.
"I..."
Vella started to speak, then stopped. Shalla looked at her with a puzzled expression.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"What do you mean, nothing?"
"It's just..."
Vella lowered her head slightly. As if to hide her reddening face, she swept her hair behind her ear.
"It's because I... treasure Rai, sunbae."
Shalla's eyes widened a little. Vella shyly looked away.
"That's why I don't want to see him struggling."
A brief silence passed.
"So..."
Vella looked carefully at Shalla.
"Please don't keep carrying it all alone either, Shalla."
Shalla had no answer to that.
"I don't know what happened, but..."
Vella's voice was calm.
If there's something you can talk about now, please tell me.
"......."
I'll listen.
Shalla lowered her head. And for a long while, she said nothing. But this time, she didn't run away.
She simply gazed at the warm canned coffee in her hands, and quietly parted her lips.
"Vella."
"Yes."
"I..."
Shalla's voice trembled.
"I said something... really terrible to Rai."
With those words, a single tear finally fell from Shalla's eye.