Chirp! Chirp!
Yuuto Kurokawa, an average but loner boy, wakes up to silence, just like other days. No alarms. No yelling down the hallway. No banging on the door telling him to hurry up. Just the faint sounds of birds outside his window.
He stares at the ceiling while letting out a sigh before sitting up in his bed. The curtains were drawn, letting in a bright morning light. He rubbed his eyes, saying, "Haah, just another boring (lonely) day," then reached for his phone to check the time. The screen lit up: no notifications, no missed calls.
He didn't mind, being alone is better and simpler.
He stood and stretched his body, walking out of his room to the bathroom to get ready. After that, he goes to the kitchen, opens a cabinet, takes out a cup of instant miso soup, and two slices of toast. He ate at the table meant for four but used by one. The silence filled the room while he was eating. The apartment always felt more like a resting place than a home.
Then he gets out of the apartment and locks it before leaving for school. As he walked through streets that were filled with students greeting and laughing in pairs. He walked behind them, as he always did. Making distance to avoid attention and walking with headphones so that they wouldn't talk to him.
At school, everything was as usual. Don't pay much attention to anyone, just enters the class without anyone noticing him like he were using any stealth skill. His seat is in the back corner by the window, so nobody notices him. His name is also rarely called out besides the attendance. He deliberately gets average marks in the test so that he neither gets much attention nor is scolded by the teacher. He also exits and enters the class during lunchtime silently.
But lately, his attention kept drifting toward one girl, and that is...
"Hikari-chan~". Yeah, Hikari Amamiya, the class princess or model.
The first time he noticed her was when she approached him and greeted him, but he misunderstood that she was talking to the guy standing beside him and ignored her.
She is a cheerful and energetic girl who grabs everyone's attention when she walks into class. She greets everyone with a grin and says loudly, "Mornin', guys!" When she reaches her seat, almost the entire class surrounds her, especially the boys. She has blonde hair, a little messy but stylish, wears makeup, a skirt that's always slightly shorter than regulation, and her nails sparkle under the classroom lights.
At first, Yuuto just ignored the loud people who made his head hurt. People like her were exhausting just to look at.
But that opinion didn't work for her, and he doesn't know why.
Hikari wasn't just loud—she was loved. People didn't gather around her just because she was pretty or popular. They were also pulled by her spark, her kindness, the way she lit up the room without trying much.
Once, a girl tripped while walking to the front. Hikari laughed—not to mock, but to lift the moment—grinning, "Are you okay, girl?" The tension popped like a bubble.
Another time, a shy classmate stuttered during a presentation. Hikari called out, "You got this. Don't let 'em punk you!" Laughter followed, and the girl smiled like she had been handed a boost of courage.
People weren't just drawn to her. They felt better when she was around.
Yuuto saw all of this from the backside, his head low beneath his bangs, and whenever Hikari smiled at someone else, a small part of him wondered what it would feel like if she smiled at him like that.
He especially noticed her voice. Her voice will fill the room without trying - casual, full of slang, often teasing, but never cruel. She'd say things like "shit" and "deadass" in class, and somehow teachers also not get mad. It just... worked for her.
Sometimes, when she passed his desk chatting with her friends, her perfume lingered in the air. Light and sweet like citrus. Once, she turned around during a group shuffle and accidentally locked eyes with him.
Just for a second.
She didn't say anything. Didn't smile or did any moment, just blinked and turned away.
Yuuto quickly looked down at his notebook, his heart doing a weird little stutter. He told himself it was just a surprise. It didn't mean anything.
Still, for the rest of the class, his pencil didn't move.
And somewhere in that moment, something had already begun to shift, he just didn't know it yet.
To be continued...