When Dazai came back with Suzu, Rue couldn't find a reason to be upset with him anymore... "Osamu..." She cooed, going over to he and Suzu who were standing in the doorway. "Did you have fun, Su?" 

Suzu nodded. "Yes! It was a splendid time. I will go to my room now..." She said, taking her phone out of her cute black bag with a bow on it and walking off. 

Rue watched her leave, then turned back to Dazai. "Would you like to stay for dinner tonight?" She asked, smiling up at him. 

"Of course." Dazai ruffled her hair, walking into the house. "What's with the arts and crafts...?" He questioned, looking at the papers spread out on the couch and floor below the piece of furniture. 

Rue picked them up, putting them on the coffee table. "Eliza and I did that." 

"Ah!" He examined them further, a curious look on his face. "You drew me? Hm... I don't think I'm handsome enough, but it's a start." He commented, smirking. 

Rue giggled, showing him Eliza's drawing of him among the other things she filled one of her papers with. "Look at Eliza's depiction of you." He was an evil looking little stickman, with a rat on his head. 

Dazai frowned, pretending he was upset. "Well, that's garbage. Why is there a rat on my head?" He raised an eyebrow, pointing to the rat on the stick man Dazai's head. 

"That is Gertrude. She insisted you were just like him..." Rue thought back on Dazai's reckless behavior, but pushed it out of her thoughts for now. She couldn't possibly be angry at him!

Dazai scoffed. "I don't like Eliza too much, she reminds me of Chuuya..." He was actually being honest about that.

Then Rue snapped, that's when she decided she could be mad at him. Now she couldn't find a single good reason to not yell at him. "You're wearing my patience thin, I'm tired." She said first, not wanting to lash out right away. She needed to control herself, to try. 

"Why are you pouting now?" Dazai seemed genuinely confused by her switch up. "You were giggling at me two seconds ago, are you sure you really hate me? I think you're just pretending." He teased, pinching her cheek.

"Get your hands off me!!! I really do hate you, you're disgusting. I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU SO MUCH, YOU MAY AS WELL BE SATAN'S SON!!" To be honest, Rue wasn't being so good herself at the moment. 

Dazai stood before her, flabbergasted. What was going on here...? She was truly so sweet and gentle with him, and used a no nonsense attitude only to pretend she disliked him. 

"You're so mean to me... do you even love me?" Rue began to cry, burying her angry face in her hands. "You ignore me, yet at the same time you're everywhere and overwhelming me. Will you stop?!" She felt an overload of different emotions for him right then. She'd somehow quickly went from loving him, to hating him, then to a mix of the two... and that resulted in a strange obsessive feeling. 

Really, almost nothing was healthy with these two. Dazai was driving Rue insane, and as of now their relationship felt like a joke to him.

"I need to calm down." Rue said through gritted teeth, going to the bathroom to try and get her emotions together. She didn't like saying mean things, it made her feel like she was killing the person she was saying ugly words to. Matthew 5:21-22.

Much to Rue's surprise, it wasn't really her she saw in the mirror... it was a younger version of her, in a short kimono. The young girl was covered in blood, a smile on her face as if she were unaware of the world's problems. "Hello." It sounded like her. 

"Who are you...?" Rue had asked that question to the mirror of all things far too many times. 

The younger Rue, that didn't quite seem to be her when she was a teenager, scoffed. "It seems that I'm you, no?" 

"Well, yes..." Rue nodded. Her mind was spinning, nothing made any sense. 

The strange version of her present in the mirror squinted at her. "You are very different from me. You seem to be the thing I would have become if I listened to Father." Her voice was cold, and she raised her gun to aim at Rue. "Have you insulted my Osamu?" Her face took on a intimidating appearance, one that Rue was sure she couldn't replicate despite them having the same face. 

"..." She did, yes. Rue began to shake in fear, her breathing speeding up. She didn't want to die! "Don't kill me, I do not wish for death!!" She cried out, tears in her eyes. Fear. She felt a great fear in her heart. 

"Then you and I are one and the same. I am going to live forever, but you seem to be what I don't want to become." The reflection continued to hold the gun up, eyeing the woman in front of her. "You're pathetic." 

Rue took a step back. "And I don't want to be similar to you... why do you ask if I've insulted Osamu?"

"Because I can smell your regret. I can feel it." She said bluntly, her face twisting into a crooked smile before her next words. "Anyone who disrespects my Osamu... will have their life taken by me. Only some have exceptions, but I have no space in my heart for the likes of you." She brought the muzzle of her gun right up against the glass, her finger right on the trigger. 

Rue put her hands to her head, cowering in fear. "Do not shoot!! Don't--!" 

"You bore me. I'm not in the mood for this game." Then, there was a gunshot. 

Rue squeezed her eyes shut, almost as though she were bracing death, but it did not come. She was alive. She slowly opened her eyes, and saw that the mirror was broken. "Oh..." 

Dazai came to the bathroom, wondering what all the noise was about. "Who are you talking to, Rue-chan?" He asked, a little smile on his face before he saw the broken mirror. "Oh..." 

"Oh..." Rue looked to him, a dazed expression on her face. 

Dazai gently put one of his hands on his girlfriend's back, leading her out of the bathroom. He closed the door behind them. "We won't tell Eliza about that." He laughed, bringing her to her bedroom.

Passing by Suzu's room, you could hear her talking on the phone with Atsushi on speaker. She seemed to be having a nice time. 

Dazai and Rue sat down on the bed next to eachother, silence filling the room. There were no words to be said. 

Except, there was something Dazai wanted to say. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it, multiple times. He resorted to patting Rue on the head in the end. 

Rue was full up of many emotions, unable to sort them out. She desperately tried to search for reasons to continue loving Dazai in her mind, miserably failing to find any.  Everything seemed to be going downhill, like Dazai was fire to plastic. She was melting, and yes, burning plastic does release toxins into the air. This just isn't good for anybody...

The only reason Eliza hadn't come to intervene, or complain about the fact Dazai was in her house, was because she was in her workshop, making some silly toys for children or something to that nature. 

The world continues to spin... Rue wondered why. She felt everything was upside down, nothing made any sense, and she was broken inside. "Despite it all, everything is alright." She thought to herself. It was a lovely lie.