LIFE (Raifu), by Keiko Suenobu. First published in 2002 and first published in North America in 2006.
PLOT:
Ayumu is struggling with her junior high
school exams like a lot of girls her age. She enlists the help of
her best friend Shinosuke, and it works beautifully – Ayumu passes and gets
into Minami High School! Unfortunately
Shinosuke does not, and this results in a big fight and the end of their
friendship. Ayumu feels so guilty over
the whole thing that she begins to cut herself as a way of coping with her pain. At Minami, things don’t really get
better. Sure, she makes a new friend named Manami,
but Manami is snobby and shallow and makes Ayumu feel worse. Now Ayumu is torn between her dependence on
cutting to deal with her emotions , fear of others discovering evidence of her cutting, and the self-loathing and the insecurities that drive her to cut.
