Policeman
My relief was short-lived, as I tensed up my face once more.
“I’ve got one more suggestion for you, but just hear me out for now, okay?”
“What is it?”
“It’s about the obsessive nature of people who commit domestic violence.”
Basically… up until now, Hayashi’s boyfriend had shown her a considerable amount of possessiveness, so if she suddenly disappeared from his sight, it was obvious what he might think.
“I’m worried your boyfriend might hold a grudge against you and try to get revenge.”
To begin with, I didn’t think he’d just accept it if she simply said they should break up. The moment she brought it up, it wasn’t hard to imagine him resorting to force again. I didn’t want her to have to spend the rest of her life running from him.
“…Yeah.”
“That’s why I’ve got this one suggestion. The goal is essentially to make your boyfriend think he doesn’t want anything to do with you anymore.”
“What? You don’t mean like lynching him or something? I wouldn’t mind, though.”
Maybe because of her personal grudge, Hayashi ended up saying something outrageous at the end. It felt like a bit of her reckless high school self was coming back. But for now, I decided to ignore that.
“There’s a place I want to go.”
“Where?”
“The hospital and the police.”
“The police?”
Hayashi’s eyes widened. Lynching was fine, but the police weren’t? I didn’t quite get that mindset.
“Let’s file a criminal complaint against your boyfriend. Even he won’t be able to approach you anymore if he’s under police watch and ends up with a criminal record.”
“W-wait a second. Do we really need to go that far?”
She’d been considering lynching, but apparently hadn’t planned on involving the police, as Hayashi looked a bit troubled.
“…Your body’s covered in bruises, your means of contacting friends have been cut off, and he’s even the reason for your disownment by your parents. He’s isolated you completely… to take away any escape routes you might have.
…And after all that, you’re saying we shouldn’t involve the police?”
As I listed out each thing that had been done to her one by one, Hayashi’s face clearly clouded over. She probably accepted it.
“…Okay. Let’s go.”
“No time like the present. Let’s head to the hospital first. If we get a medical certificate there, the chances of the police report being accepted go way up.”
“Got it.”
“By the way, where’s your house anyway? I don’t want to run into him.”
“It’s fine. It’s about three stations away from here.”
“Three stations?”
If it was three stations away, that would be quite a distance from the convenience store I stopped by this morning. So why had Hayashi gone to that particular store?
“…Honestly, I didn’t want to go back to that house.”
She’d been beaten and kicked, her body never free of bruises… and mentally dominated too. Thinking about it, her mind must have been on the verge of breaking.
“But I’m weird, aren’t I? After you laid out all the hard truths so bluntly, I almost got stubborn about it.”
“…The most important thing isn’t the process, but the result. As long as you get the outcome you want, it doesn’t matter what path you take.”
“…Yeah.”
“Alright, let’s go then.”
And with that, we left the house.
We mainly used the train to get around, but luckily, we didn’t run into Hayashi’s boyfriend. It had been about half a day since Hayashi stopped going back to the house she shared with her boyfriend. I hadn’t told her, but he was probably frantically searching for her right now.
If we were spotted along the way… there was no telling what her boyfriend might do to her.
Paying close attention as we went, we made it to the hospital and successfully got the medical certificate. Hayashi didn’t just have bruises all over; her pale wrist turned out to have a stress fracture. She was laughing about it. I think she had no choice but to laugh. Since I didn’t know Hayashi all that well, I didn’t feel any anger rising up… but I couldn’t help wondering why she had to go through something like this.
Next, we headed to the police station.
We didn’t encounter that cruel man on the way there either, and Hayashi went off alone inside the station to get her police report processed.
“Good work. How’d it go?”
Since she didn’t have a smartphone, I’d been waiting for her on a chair on the first floor of the station the whole time.
After about thirty minutes, she came back. Her hand was bandaged from the hospital.
“They accepted it. I can relax now.”
“That’s good. Great news.”
“Yeah. …Really, about all this… thank you.”
Hayashi bowed deeply to me.
“It’s fine. I told you, right? I didn’t do this for you. It was all for my own sake. So don’t worry about it.”
“…Yeah. Thank you.”
“Did the police say anything?”
“…Ah, yeah.”
“What’d they say?”
“…There’s one thing I want to talk to you about.”
“Talk?”
“Yeah. …So, first, I told the police everything about my situation without holding back. That my boyfriend’s been violent with me. That he’s cut off my contact with friends. And that I’m living with him.”
Hayashi seemed to say the part about living together with some implication. It hit me then. If her boyfriend was still in that house, she couldn’t go back there. How long would it take for the police to contact the perpetrator after accepting the report? Damn, I should’ve looked that up properly.
“So, I don’t have a place to stay, right?”
“Yeah.”
“The police gave me two suggestions.”
Two, huh.
“One is to consult with the police or a domestic violence support center. If I talk to places like that, they can protect me.”
“And the other?”
“To rely on acquaintances or family.”
Acquaintances, huh.
“Hey, Yamamoto.”
“Yeah?”
“I’ve got a favor to ask.”
“…No, that won’t work.”
I knew what Hayashi wanted to say without even hearing it. She probably wanted me to hide her for a while. After all, she’d been disowned by her parents, and her means of contacting friends had been cut off. Right now, the only person she could rely on was me.
“…Wait, don’t look at me like that. It’s scary.”
Hayashi used glare. My defense dropped. This wasn’t the time for jokes.
“You wouldn’t want that either, right?”
“Want what?”
“…After being treated so horribly by your boyfriend. You’d be distrustful of men, wouldn’t you?”
“It’s fine.”
“No, it shouldn’t be.”
“…If anything, right now I want to be with you.”
For a moment, my heart skipped a beat.
“In all this, the one who’s been the most reliable is you. Not the police, not family, not friends… you.”
“…But that’s”
“I don’t mind if it’s for your own reasons.”
She beat me to it, and I lost my words. Despite how I look, I’m weak at improvising.
“…Whether it’s for your own reasons or whatever, the fact is you protected me. When you told me at the convenience store to come to your house… deep down, I was really happy. I thought I might be freed from hell.”
If that’s the case, why didn’t you just listen from the start? Why did you resist? I don’t get women’s hearts.
“But even so”
“I’ll do anything, you know?”
Anything. What an alluring phrase.
“You don’t need to do anything. As long as you’re okay, that’s all that matters to me.”
“Then, if you protect me, that’ll make it certain, right?”
“True.”
No, that’s not right. I accidentally agreed.
…What do I do, what do I do? At this rate, the conversation’s leading to Hayashi staying at my place. I invited her over temporarily to help her, but that was just for the moment.
I didn’t want anything more than temporary, which is why I let her stay briefly. Even then, protecting her at home would only be until her boyfriend gets arrested or she gets her disownment lifted—still temporary.
To begin with, why don’t I want to invite her over? Because she’s distrustful of men? But I told her that, and she said it’s fine.
Ah, damn, I’m so confused I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore! Damn it!!!
…This is getting annoying.
“Fine. I get it…”
“Really?”
“…Yeah, just temporarily. Really just for a short time… I’ll hide you at my place.”
“Thank you, Yamamoto!”
Dozens of hours after our reunion.
Faced with Hayashi’s biggest smile yet, I didn’t return it with a smile of my own, but let out a dumbfounded sigh instead.
And so, after that intense ordeal, a strange houseguest came to stay at my home.
