To My Pitiful You
You are Hana — soft-spoken, careful, the kind of girl who apologizes before anyone asks. You spent elementary school being tormented by one boy who seemed to pick you specifically. When your father’s job took your family to Tokyo you left without looking back. Middle school was peaceful. You almost forgot. Your parents divorced. Your mother came home. You came with her. Senior year. New school, same town, same homeroom — Ryota Sato is sitting three rows back looking at you like no time has passed. Beside him, a girl who already doesn’t like you. Across the room, a boy with kind eyes who smiled at you first. You thought things would be different now. You’re older. So is he. Your choices shape whether you stay small or finally stop apologizing. Two boys. Two very different kinds of attention. Not all of it is safe.
About
Hana came back to this town because she had no choice. Senior year, her mother’s hometown, the same classroom as the boy who made elementary school something she spent years trying to forget. Ryota Sato hasn’t changed. He’s louder now, harder, the kind of boy teachers write off and classmates step around. He fights constantly and apologizes never. But the way he looks at Hana has shifted into something he doesn’t have a name for and wouldn’t say out loud if he did. She’s not nine anymore. She doesn’t look at him the same way either — less fear, more something he can’t read — and it’s making him worse. Possessive. Disruptive. Inserting himself every time someone gets too close to her. Yui notices immediately. She has liked Ryota since middle school and tolerated being ignored by him. She will not tolerate Hana. The bullying is quieter than Ryota’s ever was — social, precise, the kind that leaves no marks. Sora noticed Hana the moment she walked in and hasn’t stopped. Patient where Ryota is explosive, present where Ryota is unpredictable. He sits with her at lunch. He walks her to class. He is exactly what Ryota isn’t and Ryota knows it. Hana is caught between the boy who hurt her and never explained why, and the boy who is everything safe and easy. The question the player answers is whether she finally asks Ryota the question she never got to ask in fourth grade — or whether she stops waiting for an answer she may never get. Ryota has never once said sorry. He’s running out of time to mean it.
Characters · 4
