“Oh, Alexander. You’re here.”
It was a Sunday, with no school and no work scheduled, a day of utter boredom. Alexander was visiting the hospital room of Yun, who had been asleep for over a week now.
The person who spoke to her was the same psychiatrist who had been arguing with Yun’s physician the other day. Rolling up the sleeves of his white coat, he stood to Alexander’s left and peered at the face of the sleeping beauty.
“I’d heard the rumours, but she really does look like a well-made doll…”
Next to a tense Alexander, the psychiatrist wore a complicated expression. He then looked away from Yun and turned to face her, introducing himself.
“Come to think of it, I haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m the head of psychiatry here, Carlo Santos. A pleasure to meet you, Alexander Colt. I’ve heard a great deal about you from my friend, Lerner.”
“...L-Lerner?”
“Patrick Lerner. He was a classmate of mine at university. He was an elite who clawed his way to the top of the prestigious law faculty, but… for some reason, he went off the rails and now works as a detective and journalist. I hear he and your father are colleagues, chasing the Senior Technocrat Varlozzi case together.”
There were many points in his story that she wanted to challenge, but Alexander deliberately let the inaccuracies slide, a strained, wry smile twitching at the corners of her eyes. Her clenched fists were slick with an unpleasant sweat.
—This person is a friend of Patrick Lerner’s? So, it wasn’t a chance meeting during Yun’s episode, it was orchestrated?
“What’s the matter? You look pale. …Did Lerner do something untoward, by any chance?”
“Ah, oh, no, it’s just…”
As Alexander trailed off, countless questions were bubbling up in her mind.
“I see. So Lerner did do something, did he?”
—This psychiatrist, Carlo Santos, is suspicious. Is he really just a psychiatrist? And who is Patrick Lerner, anyway?
One question gave rise to a new sense of unease, which in turn spawned a new question. This chain reaction repeated itself several times in the space of less than a few dozen seconds.
And the questions bred distrust. Alexander forced an awkward, bewildered smile, trying to hide her suspicion.
“...No, it’s not that he did anything to me personally, but. I’m not a fan of him. He’s a tricky one.”
“Well, I can understand that. Even I, who have known him for a long time, am amazed by his arrogant attitude and harsh words. It doesn’t take a psychiatrist to imagine how he appears to someone who has only known him for a short time. But…”
“…”
“That man can lie as easily as he breathes. It’s quite amusing. Which means that most of the harsh words that sound like his true feelings are, in fact, lies. In reality, they are his own way of expressing gratitude or concern.”
“That sounds like a contradiction in terms…”
—Could it be that this psychiatrist really is just a psychiatrist?
“A contradiction in terms, you say. …Perhaps that is the most fitting phrase to describe the man that is Patrick Lerner.”
“...So, you’re saying that almost everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie.”
“Precisely. And his nature, which appears so twisted, is surprisingly straightforward. He’s not the scum of the earth you think he is.”
“I can’t believe that. Because he…”
Alexander was about to say something malicious, but she quickly swallowed her words. The psychiatrist’s words had given her pause for thought.
The psychiatrist, with a knowing smile, said, “A person is not made up of just one side. They possess many faces, clothes for the soul, that can be worn according to the situation. Just as we change our clothes depending on the time, place, and purpose, people change various things to suit the occasion. The way we speak, the colour of our underwear, our makeup—we change them all according to the TPO, don’t we? It’s the same with our faces, something everyone does naturally. And you, having seen a patient with dissociative symptoms, should understand this well. That a face can sometimes change into a completely different personality, with no trace of the original self.”
“…”
“That is why it is dangerous to try to judge a person’s entire character based on just one face. Therefore, one must know all the faces a person possesses. That is the main job of a psychiatrist. A detective’s job is similar, is it not?”
First, Alexander had a preconceived notion that ‘Patrick Lerner is a bastard’. Because her father had said so, she had come to think so herself.
And the man had a foul mouth, and her impression of him after actually meeting him was terrible. The awful first impression had reinforced her prejudice, and she had successfully labelled him ‘the worst kind of bastard’.
But, thinking about it calmly, his handling of Neil was an appropriate response. In fact, it was almost too kind. If what Patrick Lerner had said—‘None of this would have happened if you hadn’t interfered with my mission’—was true, then Neil was in a position where he could not complain even if he had been left in danger. After all, he had done something that foolish.
When she thought about it that way… —perhaps what this psychiatrist was saying was not wrong after all. It seemed so to Alexander.
“You’re right, I may have misunderstood the man that is Patrick Lerner…”
“‘I may have misunderstood.’ That kind of realisation is very important.”
The psychiatrist smiled, satisfied. He then placed a hand on Alexander’s shoulder and tried to recruit her.
“If you’re interested, that is. Have you any interest in psychiatry?”
“...Eh?”
“Or rather, to be honest… —we’re short-staffed. The dementia floor is particularly understaffed, and we’re having a tough time. So, we’re looking for staff to collect rubbish and help with meals. Even just on weekends would be fine. What do you think, are you interested?”
“But it’s all up to you,” the psychiatrist said as a final word, handing Alexander his business card and leaving Yun’s hospital room.
Alexander stared at the card she had been given and fell silent. Her heart was quietly, but profoundly, shaken.
The next morning. As the students lamented the start of another boring week, Alexander boarded the school bus alone.
Neil was in the hospital, Yuni was nowhere to be seen, and there were no other acquaintances to talk to on the bus. For the first time in a while, Alexander was having a quiet morning.
…Or so she had thought.
“Alex. There’s something I need to tell you.”
Feeling as though her name had been called, Alexander glanced towards the source of the voice—behind her. Standing there was a flashy-looking girl with bleached blonde hair. She was one of the cheerleaders who had been relentlessly bullying Yun.
But Alexander did not want to get involved in any trouble first thing in the morning. So, she brushed the girl off.
“...What do you want? I’m not looking for a fight this early in the morning.”
“Same here. I’m not trying to pick a fight with you.”
The bus was packed with students. The cheerleader pushed her way through the crowd and stood next to Alexander.
“Alex, you’ve been siding with Yun lately, haven’t you?” she said, glaring at her.
As she spoke, she gripped Alexander’s left shoulder tightly with her right hand. The grip and its strength were like that of someone wordlessly trying to stop a fool from jumping off a cliff without a parachute.
Alexander forcefully pulled the hand away and glanced into the large bag the girl was carrying. Placed right at the top, ready to be pulled out at a moment’s notice, was a student ID card. Alexander read the name on it in an instant.
The name was Abigail Yedlin. Gender: female. Date of birth… —what a coincidence, she was a Leo, just like Alexander.
“...It’s not like that. And even if it were, Abigail, what’s it got to do with you?”
Alexander averted her gaze and followed the scenery outside the bus window with her green eyes. Behind her, the cheerleader, with a suspicious look on her face, said, “It has everything to do with me. So I’m warning you. You’re better off not getting too involved with her. Or her sister, Yuni.”
“...Hah. Why does everyone keep saying the same bloody thing…?”
Don’t get involved with those sisters, Yun and Yuni. Alexander felt like she had been hearing that phrase a lot lately.
‘Keep her especially away from those twins, Yun and Yuni. …Or else your daughter will be devoured by the darkness.’
The one who had said that was Senior Technocrat Pellmond Varlozzi. What he had meant by it, Alexander had no way of knowing.
But she clearly remembered the low, monotonous tone of his voice at that moment, and she understood what it signified. Whether he was concerned for her safety or not, he had said it with the utmost seriousness.
And ever since, her father had started to say, naggingly:
—I don’t know the circumstances, but that’s what the Senior Technocrat said. You need to keep your distance from those sisters.
But Alexander was not obedient enough to simply comply just because someone else told her to ‘stay away from that girl’. And she could not bring herself to do something as callous as suddenly distancing herself from someone she had been close to without any reason.
“Yun Ertl. I think I understand her illness well enough. We used to be so close we called each other best friends.”
The cheerleader confessed this to Alexander. But Alexander did not readily believe her words about having been best friends.
“Right, so you were best friends. Then why would you do something like that?”
“Simple. Because I can’t stand her.”
The words were so blunt that Alexander could not help but look at the cheerleader with contempt.
“Because you can’t stand her? So that makes it okay to gang up on her?”
“...I regret what I did, and I’m sorry for it. I won’t do it again.”
“You swear?”
“Of course.”
“Shouldn’t you be saying that to Yun?”
“No way.”
“It’s not a matter of ‘no way’, you should apologise. If you know what you did…”
“I don’t want to see her face again. I never want to go through that again.”
“Go through what? Are you trying to say she did something to you that was worse than what you did to her?”
Faced with Alexander’s continued contempt, the cheerleader became visibly agitated. She stood there, jiggling her leg restlessly. Glaring at the slow-witted Alexander, she finally told her about the ‘terrible thing’ she had experienced.
“It was last year. I went to visit her in the hospital with some lilies. I went into that cell-like room, saw her sleeping as usual, and changed the flowers in the vase. Then she suddenly woke up, screaming…”
“She’d switched to another personality and couldn’t understand what was happening, I suppose.”
“Yeah, that’s right. Just like you said. I guess that’s what you call another personality.”
Abigail sighed. She ran a hand through her damaged, bleached blonde hair, then clicked her tongue in irritation.
She then began to recount the events of that day in a thorny tone.
“She attacked me. She pulled the lilies I had just replaced out of the vase, threw them on the floor, and chucked the vase at me. I thought I was going to be killed.”
“…”
“And until the doctor came, hearing the commotion, she kept saying horrible things to me. That I was a devil, to die, to stay away.”
“You said the same things to Yun, didn’t you? Doesn’t that make you even?”
“On top of that, she hit me! I told her to stop, but she wouldn’t listen, and she kept hitting me in the face, over and over again, while she was on top of me. I never did anything that bad to her!”
As the girl’s voice suddenly rose, a stir went through the cramped bus. All eyes turned to her, and feeling uncomfortable, she clicked her tongue again at no one in particular. Her face was pale, and her clenched fists were trembling.
But Alexander did nothing, simply watching the scenery flow by outside the window. There was nothing she could do, anyway.
“And to top it all off, she conveniently forgets everything. What she did to me, even who I am, she’s forgotten it all. …That’s why I never want to see her face again. I can’t stand her coming to school, appearing in front of me so casually. I can’t stand her pretending she doesn’t know anything, acting like a complete stranger. I hate her so much, I can’t stand it.”
The girl lowered her voice and, as if muttering to herself, grabbed Alexander’s shoulder again.
“And I can’t stand the thought of her finding someone new, someone other than me, and putting them through the same thing. That’s why I’m telling you… don’t get too involved with her.”
“…”
“She’s the devil. She draws people in with her bewitching personality and eats away at their kindness. And her twin sister, Yuni, she’s weird too. So, those twins…”
“You and I are different.”
The girl’s grip on Alexander’s shoulder tightened. But Alexander, with even greater force, pulled her hand from her shoulder.
Then, Alexander glanced back and glared at the girl. And she spat out her sarcasm.
“If you hate Yun that much, Abigail, why don’t you be the one to leave? Then she won’t appear in front of you anymore. And you won’t have to see her face. Right?”
“Th-that’s…!”
“And besides, I’d rather not see your face either. Could you do me a favour and never appear in front of me again?”
The girl’s bleached blonde hair swayed, and her garishly made-up face contorted with an emotion that went beyond anger or hatred—something closer to disgust, or fear. At the same moment, the bus gave a particularly violent lurch and came to a stop at the bus stop in front of the school.
Alexander pushed her way through the crowd and was the first to get off. She never once looked back.
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