Shelly kept walking until she stood in front of Rin without saying anything. He watched her carefully, making sure she did not collapse.

Her unsteady gaze made Rin worry about her.

"Shelly, are you alright—"

She grabbed his shoulders before looking him in the eyes. Her gaze was red-rimmed, almost as if she had been crying all night.

"I cannot take it anymore. Why do you keep worrying me? And why do bad things keep happening to you? Rin, what am I going to do if you really die next time?"

Shelly looked desperate when she asked that question. Her wide eyes showed just how deeply this was affecting her.

Rin immediately felt guilty for pushing Shelly this far. He had never thought he would see her like this.

To him, she had always been that soft-spoken friend who stood by his side and gave him strength. So seeing her like this shocked him.

"Shelly, I—"

"Don’t speak. You are going to convince me that this is alright. But I know this is not alright! So I don’t want to hear a single word from you about this. I don’t want to be convinced by you."

Shelly was not even willing to listen to him anymore. Her grip on his arms was starting to hurt, so Rin decided to pat her back to comfort her until she found it in herself to pull away.

They remained in that half-embrace for some time before Rin gathered enough courage to speak again.

"I know it’s hard to believe, but it was never my intention to worry you like this. All I wanted was to make sure this world was safe enough for everyone to live in."

Rin told Shelly, trying to make her understand his point of view. But instead of looking relieved, Shelly looked even more distressed.

When she looked at Rin again, her eyes were red-rimmed.

"I know what you want to do, but I don’t agree with it. Rin, I don’t think I’ve ever told you this before, but I love you. I don’t think I can keep living if anything happens to you."

That confession hung heavily in the air.

Rin wanted to feel confused and surprised, but neither emotion filled his heart. Somehow, a part of him had already known that Shelly liked him.

The lack of surprise on his face made Shelly look at him with a fond expression.

"I knew you realized my feelings. But I also have a feeling you don’t return them. So I won’t force you to be with me. But can you at least think about me a little before you do something dangerous in the future?"

Shelly asked desperately as her grip tightened enough to hurt.

Rin opened his mouth to answer her, but he did not know what to say.

He liked Shelly a lot...or maybe he loved her too.

But he was not sure if his love was the same kind of love Shelly wanted from him.

"Shelly, I—"

"I don’t want to hear your answer. I just wanted to tell you my feelings because I was tired of hiding them. I am not the soft and sweet girl you think I am. In fact, I am far more jealous and cruel than you can imagine. Especially when it comes to you."

Shelly continued, stopping Rin from saying anything.

Rin allowed her to finish speaking as a sign of respect, and Shelly took that opportunity without hesitation.

"You might not realize it yet, but I am crazy enough to want to lock you away so that no one else can see you. I constantly want to tear apart anyone who comes near you until it’s only you and me left. Do you remember our lonely childhood? It was not a coincidence. In fact, I drove away anyone who tried to come between us. It was all me!"

Shelly confessed everything with a twisted look on her face. Rin was not even sure if she realized what she was saying anymore.

But Shelly seemed desperate to get it all out of her system, so Rin let her continue.

Honestly, the more he heard her confess, the more foolish he felt. He was beginning to realize certain things about himself as well.

’I...noticed all of this. Now that Shelly is confessing everything, I know I was aware of what she was doing all this time. I...did not want her attention shifting away from me either. Shit! I’m just as bad as she is...’

Rin fell quiet, but Shelly was not done yet. Her confession was still not over.

"Are you afraid of me now, Rin? I told you how twisted I am and everything I’ve done. But the thing is...I don’t think I can stop. I cannot change and become the kind of person you want me to be. Are you disappointed in me?"

Shelly asked in a steady voice. She tried her best to appear unaffected, but Rin could hear the anxiety hidden beneath her calm tone.

She had bared her heart to him, and now it was Rin’s turn to tell her the truth.

"Truthfully, I already noticed these things about you. But I did not want to make assumptions in case I was wrong. And as for being bothered by all this...I don’t think I could ever be bothered by anything you do."

Rin’s confession was just as truthful as Shelly’s.

While he knew his feelings were not the same as Shelly’s, he had lived his entire life with her in mind. She was such a huge part of his life that cutting her out did not even seem possible to him.

Still, it hurt to realize that Shelly had tried so hard to hide this side of herself from him and pretend to be normal.

Did he truly seem so unreliable that she could not even show him the "real" her all this time?

"You...don’t find me disgusting?"

Shelly asked with a hopeful tone Rin had never heard from her before. It made him feel terrible that she had become this insecure.

Rin needed to fix this as quickly as possible.

"I don’t find you disgusting at all. In fact, I think you’re really brave for confronting this side of yourself. The only thing I feel disappointed about is myself. I thought I had made it clear that you could always be yourself around me. But I guess I failed to get that point across properly."