School — Meeting Komi After

The final bell of the day was a ghost. It rang, but no one seemed to hear it except me. The classroom erupted into the usual symphony of scraping chairs, laughing cliques, and the thunder of sneakers toward the door.

I knelt down in front of her. Not to worship. Just to see. Meeting Komi After School

I shrugged, a real, honest-to-goodness shrug. "Because you looked like you needed a friend. Not an audience." The final bell of the day was a ghost

I, Hitohito Tadano, was average. Perfectly, blissfully average. My plan was the same as always: pack my bag with robotic precision, put my headphones on (no music playing, just for the illusion of solitude), and walk the unremarkable fifteen minutes home. I knelt down in front of her

I panicked. "Oh no—I'm sorry! Did I hurt you? Was that weird? I'm so sorry, I'll just—"

I was the last one out of the classroom, as usual. The hallway was a long, echoing tunnel of fading sunlight. As I turned the corner toward the shoe lockers, I stopped.