Deep in the darkness, cold and filthy malice spread like a physical substance, resembling aged bloodstains seeping into the grain of wood.
Kayako's eyes stared at the four women who had intruded into her home.
They possessed identical, abominably beautiful faces.
Were they quadruplets?
She didn't know, nor did it matter.
She simply loathed them.
She loathed their smooth skin, their graceful figures, and that vitality and coquettishness that seemed ready to spill over.
Such women must have been held in the palms of their parents' hands, surrounded and cherished by men like stars around the moon, growing up recklessly under the sunlight, right?
Just like the popular kids in the classroom, they could laugh and talk loudly, without scruples. It didn't matter if they offended others, because there was always someone to tolerate them.
Completely different from herself—the opposite extreme.
Since birth, she had always lived in pain.
Ignored by everyone, forgotten, unneeded... like a small bug surviving under a roadside stone.
Unforgivable! ...Unforgivable, unforgivable, unforgivable!
Why was she so unfortunate? Why could others obtain happiness? She absolutely could not forgive this unfairness!
Grudge, grudge, grudge. Completely unable to suppress it, nor did she want to suppress it.
She wanted to make them feel the same misfortune as herself!
Kawakami Tomie rubbed her sore wrist, pouting as she walked into the first-floor bathroom.
She turned on the faucet. The cold water rushed out with a splashing sound, and the coolness from her fingertips slightly calmed the irritability in her heart.
"Honestly, this broken place..."
Kawakami Tomie rinsed her hands with cold water, then cupped some water and patted it onto her face. A few drops slid down her neck and into her collar.
Turning off the faucet, Kawakami Tomie leaned in close to the mirror to check her makeup.
The mirror surface was somewhat blurry, reflecting her slightly impatient cheeks. Her air bangs stuck to her forehead due to the cold water, so she raised her hand to arrange her beautiful hair, her fingertips flowing smoothly through the jet-black, silky strands.
Suddenly, the tactile sensation at her fingertips became somewhat strange.
Mixed within her soft black hair were a few strands of particularly dry hair, like split ends that hadn't been cared for in a long time.
Kawakami Tomie frowned, hooking her finger around those few disobedient strands, wanting to smooth them out.
However, the sensation grew worse and worse. Those hairs were abnormally withered, even slightly prickly to the touch. Moreover, the more she pulled, the more of them there seemed to be; they didn't feel at all like hair that should be growing on the head of a beauty like her.
Kawakami Tomie pinched a clump of dry, knotted hair and pulled it before her eyes.
"What is this garbage? Such an ugly thing!"
Seeing that clump of hair, Kawakami Tomie subconsciously roasted it.
This was definitely not her hair.
Her hair had always been as smooth as silk, carrying a carefully maintained luster. But the clump in her hand was withered, yellow, and rough, and it even emitted a strange smell.
Kawakami Tomie sniffed it. It was a moldy smell like dust accumulated in an old attic, mixed with a trace of damp, fishy stench.
"So disgusting!"
As if she had touched something dirty, Kawakami Tomie hurriedly shook off the clump of hair and looked up at the ceiling.
On the white paint at the top of the bathroom, unbeknownst to her, a large patch of filthy black marks had spread out. It looked like water stains that had leaked for years, or perhaps the residue of some viscous liquid after it dried.
From that black stain, a massive amount of hair dripped down like sewage, scattering over the top of her head as if weightless.
When Kawakami Tomie looked up, the hanging strands brushed past her cheeks. The sensation was cold and slimy, carrying a strange smell mixed of dust and mold, like dead bugs crawling over her skin.
"Wha—!"
The next moment, a cold binding sensation violently choked her neck!
The hair scattered on her shoulders tightened instantly, almost cutting into Kawakami Tomie's flesh. She only had time to let out a gasp before her feet were lifted off the ground by a massive force, her body forcefully hoisted into mid-air.
Her windpipe suffered intense compression. Kawakami Tomie's eyes bulged, her legs kicked wildly, knocking over a nearby bucket. Her hands frantically scratched at her neck, her fingernails gouging out bloody marks, yet she could not shake those strands of hair in the slightest.
Her beautiful, glamorous face rapidly filled with blood and turned purple. Her mouth gaped open, but she couldn't inhale a single wisp of air.
Gradually, Kawakami Tomie's convulsions weakened.
Finally, like a broken doll, she hung motionless in the center of the bathroom, casting a swaying shadow under the dim light.
At the same time Kawakami Tomie was killed by Kayako, in the master bedroom on the second floor, a Tomie pulled open the drawer of the bedside table. A coffee-colored notebook and several photos appeared before her eyes.
The person in the photos was a woman with long hair, wearing white clothes.
"Is this ugly woman the previous resident?"
Kawakami Tomie picked up the photo, took one look, and threw it onto the floor with a lack of interest.
She opened the notebook with great interest. The content was written in not-very-pretty handwriting and included a few poorly drawn illustrations.
—Kobayashi.
The first page of the notebook was filled with the word "Kobayashi."
Kawakami Tomie raised an eyebrow and flipped through it casually.
"...Locked eyes with Kobayashi again today, it felt like my heart was about to burst... Kobayashi was reading manga at his usual bookstore again today. That's the shop Kobayashi visits often, so I always go around to the front to wait for him... Today, Kobayashi didn't come to school. Because I was worried, I went to check his apartment. Although I bought a bouquet, I really didn't dare to knock on the door, so I just stood outside Kobayashi's window for several hours..."
"Hah? What the hell is this? A simp diary?"
Kawakami Tomie laughed unceremoniously. The other two Tomies also gathered around. Stepping on Kayako's photo, they squeezed to Kawakami Tomie's sides, stretching their necks to look at the notebook's contents.
"...That woman named Midorikawa Manami, I can't stand her seducing my Kobayashi. It's impossible for Kobayashi to like that kind of vain woman...
Kobayashi threw up a mess on the street in front of the store yesterday, but I couldn't help him pat his back. However, I hope he knows that even if it's Kobayashi's vomit, I can eat it. Midorikawa Manami definitely can't, but I can...
I'm different from that woman, so I can't approach Kobayashi as blatantly as she does, but Kobayashi should understand my feelings..."
"Hahahahahahaha!"
"Clown! This clown is too funny!"
"She's a thorough pervert."
"You're kidding, right? Does such a clown really exist in the world? I thought only those men chasing me would do such ridiculous things."
"After all, she's an ugly woman. Even if she's chasing ugly men we wouldn't look at, she has to be even more humble."
...
The Tomies erupted into unscrupulous laughter. They laughed until they leaned back and forth, pushing and shoving each other, successively collapsing onto that double bed covered with gray, old sheets, mocking the room and the owner of the notebook without any taboo.
____
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