Hello all! I used to post on here back in those heady days leading up to Tokimeki Checkin’s release.
Anyway, it’s been a very long time since I’ve purchased a b-game (my last one was Kana) and I’m really glad that I decided to…come back in to the fold, so to speak. I managed to finally dig in to YMK last night and was immediately taken with it just as I hoped would happen. However, and this is going to sound odd, but after I saw what I can only assume was Aeka’s Good Ending, I have no more desire to play the game. Basically, I feel that I got everything I needed to out of it.
Aeka’s story was heartbreaking. Every time someone would bully her I would wince. The scene on the roof top towards the end almost killed it for me because if she would have gotten raped I would have just flung the disc out the window. But the most…touching thing about the whole storyline (aside from the near rape) was that it reminded me of my senior year in high school.
I made friends with a girl who had essentially been ostracized from the “cool group” due to a very similar misunderstanding. She’d get pushed around in the halls, boys would write dirty notes to her, her locker was getting defaced, and life was just hell. We connected during our world history class when some of my friends started in on her and I told them to lay off. Later that night I saw her at a Walgreen’s and we started talking out in the parking lot. We stayed out there for hours sitting in my car. She let me in on the whole thing and we became really good friends after that.
Since I was an obnoxious high school punk rocker and she was formally a popular girl we made an unlikely duo but we were rarely separated. She still was picked on and sometimes I would intervene when I was around but only if it was getting out of hand. When I didn’t I felt like such a coward but I was really the only one who would stick up for her. I couldn’t do it alone and every now and then I became annoyed with her.
Eventually, towards the end of our school term things were getting worse for her so she ran away from home. She sent me an email before hand saying that she was leaving for good. Since I was at work I didn’t see it until I got off. I had never been to her house but I managed to get her address out of the school directory. When I got there I was actually surprised at how…shitty her house was. We went to a sort of large rural high school and her house was just on the edge of the district while I lived in town. The place was this crummy looking farmhouse with half of a wrap around porch missing. There were broken down cars in the front yard, beer cans and bottles just fucking everywhere, and a gross looking man was sleeping on the front porch. I walked up to the house and asked if she was home and the guy (I assume it was her dad? I still don’t know.) said “Nope, I ain’t seen her for a couple days.” I thanked him then went back home. About a week later some cops showed up and asked me if I had spoken with her at all and I showed them the email. I still don’t know what happened to her and she hasn’t made any effort to contact me. It’s been seven years almost exactly. I still look at the email when I’ve been drinking but that’s the only time I can look at it.
YMK made me feel that same empty feeling inside. I don’t exactly hate the game (quite the opposite!) but I really don’t want to play it anymore. I don’t want to turn down Aeka for someone else just so I can advance the story. I know that if I tried to I’d just end up following her path again for ever and ever. Just so I could see that happy ending come out of all those awful happenings. I guess I wish that’s how it would have turned out for us.
Thanks for bringing this over PP. This game (storyline?) really means a lot to me. Also, it’s nice to see the board is still populated with a few people I remember from waaaay back in the day!