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A pink-polished finger pokes itself into the water down below, as ripples radiate outwards from where the two meet. The blue of the water more-or-less matches the eyes of the boy gazing endlessly into it.
Even after an extra body dropped and a new floor opened in response, Whit still found relaxation in just staring into the pool of water.
Sure, there were fewer minnows in the pool, due to the room playing a major part in yesterday’s murder plan, but what’s life without some extra bitterness to swallow down? Plus, all the more of a chance to stare at his handsome face even more!
The tapping of footsteps snaps Whit out of his self-admiration.
Looking up from his crouched position, Whit saw David Chiem staring back at him.
Or, really, the new David Chiem that shattered almost everybody’s perceptions of the David Chiem they all knew and loved. A “lying, manipulative, scumbaggy piece of sh*t”, in his own words. Someone whose status and career Whit swore to protect, even if it was rendered meaningless in the trial.
At an uncharacteristic loss of words, Whit could only awkwardly wave to David, to which the disgraced motivational speaker shrugs off and ignores, in favor of walking towards the bridge. Once he reached the center of the bridge, David slouched forward on the railings, emptily staring into the water below him, much like Whit was doing beforehand. A long period of silence soon followed, as the two boys seemed to do nothing apart from either staring at their own reflections in the lifeless pond or occasionally taking a glance at each other.
Until David broke that silence.
“The secret…”
“Hm? What about it?”
“Why would you ever try to hide the fact that I’ve been manipulating you all from day one?”
Looking back up, Whit saw David’s face contorted in bitterness, with the motivational speaker’s eyes not leaving his equally-contorted reflection in the pool. It might have been the matchmaker’s imagination, but it was almost like he could see the gray of the bluenette’s eyes rapidly darkening and darkening.
“Well, like I’ve said back in the trial, I thought that your career was important to you, being your Ultimate and all. But I guess, based on that whole show post-exposed you performed, you didn’t really have any positive feelings towards it…”
For a moment, the stars in David’s eyes returned. But, based on the statement that came packaged with them, they were what Whit coined “the star-casm stare”.
“Wowee, look everybody! We got ourselves a new Ultimate Detective in the building! No sh*t, Sherlock…”
“But also, deep down, I just thought that there was still some good in you.”
“...What?”
David stared at Whit’s face for a hard second, trying to find any sense of his standard mockery written on his face.
To no avail.
“Sure, that secret painted you as some liar who exists only to manipulate others. But MonoTV could just be trying to use some tricky phrasing to make us seem bad and break up our bonds with all this high tension. Maybe this whole “manipulation” thing was just a one-time gig that you stopped doing a long time ago, or all this junk could just be the most negative way to describe what you do for a living. And even if you remained this manipulative monster well into the killing game, well, now’s a good time to move past that and turn over a new leaf.”
At this moment, David shot up from his slouched posture to glare daggers into Whit, wiping off the matchmaker’s placid smile in an instant. In contrast to his previous apathetic stance, Whit could see the anger radiating off from the motivational speaker. It almost calls him back to the conversation he had with Charles in the kitchen.
“Are you seriously that stupid?! As-f*cking-if I’m taking this sort of bullsh*t from you! Have you seriously forgotten that I said time and time again that people can’t change?! That people born lazy, useless, and stupid would stay that way until they die? That if you’re born bad, then there’s no hope for you to ever get better? Did any of that register in that empty skull of yours?! Or are you too busy blocking out everything that doesn’t fit into your fairytale view of the world? Open your eyes and ears to everything that has happened so far: Xander was a good person. He tried to stop the killing game by offing the obvious mastermind behind this. And where does that get him? Dead! Min tried to play hero and save Teruko, and where does that get her? DEAD! Arei tried to be a good person, and where does that get her? F*CKING DEAD! I’m not even going to tell you about the culprit, because I think even someone as completely braindead as you could get it. No, wait. Let me spell it out for you. F*CKING D-E-A-D!”
As David continued his tirade, he stepped off the bridge and marched closer and closer to Whit, until he was outright screaming into the matchmaker’s ear, all with a bitter smile unnaturally stretched out across his face. The blonde winced, tears threatening to prink the edges of his eyes. Whether it was from the volume of the David’s voice or the sheer bitterness emanating from the bluenette, it didn’t matter to Whit, and all he could do was stare up and continue to soak in all of the bitterness, like a sponge soaking up black coffee.
“Don’t you finally get it? We can’t escape the killing game alive! And people. Can’t. Change. And if you dare try to change anything in this killing game, you’ll be the next person on the chopping block. Just like Xander! Just like Min! And just! Like! Arei!”
With David’s hands firmly grasping Whit’s shoulders, neither boy dared to move. The blinding yellow swimming in the practically-black pools of David’s eyes, only caused Whit to recoil further, his smile seconds from breaking away and his voice barely managing to choke out a response to David’s toxic diatribe.
“Woah, D-David…to think you really believe that about us…”
“You honestly think I want to believe this? Well newsflash, dumb*ss: I don’t.”
David’s smile fell into a scowl and the yellow in his eyes instantly faded into the grey, as he let go of Whit’s shoulders, and turns away from him. But unlike all of David’s previous scowls, which were filled with either apathy or misanthropic rage, this scowl seemed to be filled with a different kind of negativity. One of genuine sorrow and self-loathing.
“But it’s true. From the start, my very career dictates that I should just tell people what they already know and what they want to hear. No reason for them to change anything about themselves, because it was “inside them all along”. All the better reason for good people to stay good people and bad people to stay bad people. If people want a hero or villain, that’s what they’re gonna get from me. So not even I have the power to change people’s minds. Especially in this scenario. I thought things would finally be able to change, once I started to take charge during this whole secret motive. That I could be something other than some…lying fraud. And I managed to at least momentarily help Arei. But Nico threatened and almost killed Ace, Arturo ended up threatening Eden’s life, Arei, and eventually everybody else, ended up learning what my secret was, and Arei died.”
David’s head hung lower, the further he continued on.
“Arei was right. Because of my stupid plans and need to play the hero, we only lost two more people and tensions are higher than ever. And worse of all, all of those people who died only wanted to change. Whether that’ll be themselves or the people around them. To be good people. But they were already good people, and always will be. And how does this game reward them? With death. And all this sh*t does is prove my worldview right. That people can’t change, and trying to do so would only make you suffer. Once a lazy useless fraud, always a lazy useless fraud…”
On the last statement, David’s voice broke, almost as if his emotional dam kept forming cracks that continued to form and grow. And as David turns back to face Whit, judging by his hands moving upwards to harshly tug at his own hair, his emotional dam is seconds away from completely crumbling down.
“And what do you know? People still buy all of the bullsh*t I keep hacking up! Especially Xander! Ugh! I can’t stand it! Throughout this whole time I’ve known Xander, I wanted nothing more than to speak the truth! That he would never be able to make the world a better place! That he never needed my speeches to be a good person! That he already was a good person! That he was worshipping to a good-for-nothing liar! Nothing but a bad person! I should be the one looking up to him!”
By the time the subject switched over to Xander, the rage and bitterness in David’s voice was quick to get replaced by a profound sense of sorrow. His hands loosen thier grip against his hair, as he emptily glances down at them.
“So, then…why?”
David’s hands started balling up into fists, as tears started to make their way down his cheeks.
“Why did Xander ever think I was a good person to begin with? What did I ever do to deserve that?”
And once again, David’s hands went straight for his hair, as tears continued to stream down his face and onto the floor below him. His voice spiked in volume, wracked by sobs.
“I want so badly for people to be able to change! For good people like Xander to exist! But it's not possible! They can't! So why does he think he can just march around and make change happen just like that?! Why does he still look up to me?! How does he even view me a role model, when he's done more than I could ever accomplish?! What sense does that make?! Why does he get to be born a good person, while I'm just stuck as this villain?! It's! Not! Fair!”
And much like Arei did before him, David sank to his knees and sobbed his heart out. He tried to wipe away his tears, only for them to continue spilling out of his person.
Through the sobs that continued to spill out of his mouth, he futilely tried to verbally push Whit away, but Whit was not prepared to leave anybody hanging. Not Charles, not Teruko, nobody.
Whit got down on his knees, directly facing the sobbing boy.
I always loved it when Mom did this.
Whit cupped David’s hands on his own, occasionally giving them a calming squeeze, which seemed to do the trick in catching David’s attention. Tears and snot continued to trickle down the motivational speaker’s face.
“No. You’re wrong, David.”
“H-Huh?…A-About what?…”
“About everything. People can’t change? You’re born either a good person or a bad person? Heh! What complete bullsh*t. People aren’t monoliths, David. Even the most hard-working people in the world have their lazy and useless days. And even the smartest people in the world have their stupid moments. The way I see it, good and bad are nothing but boxes that couldn’t house a full person in them. We may make mistakes and act callously, especially in this killing game. But in the end, we’re just people, trying to live and see another day. People, with our individual strengths and weaknesses. Nobody is born one way or another, and to think that is the worst way to live. And the sooner we all stop putting each other on imaginary pedestals, the better this whole experience will be.”
Through his teary vision, David tried to scan Whit’s face for any sign of his usual mockery. But he only found warmth and sincerity, even as his tears dried up and his vision cleared up.
“But…the trial…people still hate me…they think I’m a villain…which I am…”
“C’mon, David! Sure you’ve lashed out at the trial, but that doesn’t make you a villain. That just makes you human. And if they can’t see the beauty in that, then that’s their problem.”
Standing up from his crouching position, Whit helped David back up to his feet.
“So count your lucky stars, David, for I'm gonna prove you wrong one of these days! That all of these "black-and-white", "born-good-or-bad" beliefs are the worst way to live. And until then, you can say that people changing is "complete bullsh*t" and that I'm just some stupid and overly-naive moron all you want! But one day, you’ll soon see that the world isn’t as black-and-white as you were led to believe. Now, if you excuse me, I’ll be off in the kitchen cookin’ us some grub!”
Even though Whit put up that goofy front again, David couldn’t find it in himself to be irritated. Instead, he only felt a strange yet calming feeling stirring around in his stomach, before extending to the rest of his person.
Eh. He’s probably just hungry. Hadn’t eaten anything all day after this whole chain of events.
“Wait, Whit!”
“Hm?”
Their bodily warmth meshed together, as David held Whit close to him, his head buried in the blonde’s shoulder.
“Thank you…you’re…nice too…”
“Anything to help a new friend! Anyway, let’s get ya to the kitchen!”
Friend.
That sounds nice actually.