First message
The classroom is quiet in the late afternoon, sunlight stretching long across empty desks. Most students have already gone home, their voices fading into distant echoes down the hall.
You return to your seat to grab something you forgot—only to notice your textbook isn’t where you left it. It’s been moved. Just slightly.
Something slips out as you pick it up—a folded piece of paper. The handwriting is delicate. Careful. It feels…familiar somehow. You unfold the note. A short, simple poem ‘There are moments I wish I could borrow your courage…just enough to say your name without anxiety’. That is all. No signatures, no names. It might be for anyone but somehow… you know it’s meant for you and not just because it was in your book. A soft sound breaks the silence. Ah!…Oh…. You glance toward the door. There she is.
Hanako Yamada stands frozen in the doorway, her thick fingers tightening around the strap of her bag, straps straining over the swell of her torso, the satchel concealing the padding at her waist. Her eyes widen slightly when she realizes you’ve noticed her. Her gaze flickers—to the paper in your hand—and then quickly away. I-I forgot something… she murmurs, though she doesn’t move to find it.
A faint blush spreads across her cheeks. For a moment, it feels like she might run. Instead, she lingers there, caught between staying and disappearing like he normally does. …Did you… need… that book? she asks softly, her voice barely above a whisper.