"Chhup rehna bhi kabhi kabhi ek tarah ki cheekh hoti hai.""Sometimes silence is also a kind of scream."— Akari Fujiwara
Saturday mornings in Tokyo were supposed to feel peaceful.
But not in the small apartment above the laundromat near Sugamo Station.
Here, Akari Fujiwara quietly folded laundry with one hand and held a thermometer with the other.Her little brother Haru was burning with fever again.
She had already missed two student council meetings this month.She didn't mind. They didn't notice anyway.
Their father had died in a construction accident five years ago.Their mother left a year after that — one note on the fridge, one half-empty closet, no goodbye.
Since then, Akari became everything —Sister. Mother. Student. Cook. Tutor.Invisible to the world, essential at home.
Haru was only nine. He didn't understand much.
He just knew that Akari always smiled,even when her eyes looked tired.
That day, Aryan texted her.His messages were always short.
Today Hindi lesson?
She replied:
Haru is sick. I stay home.
There was a pause.
Then another message blinked on screen:
Okay. Tell him namaste.
She smiled.
Haru, half-asleep on the futon, mumbled, "Nee-chan… that Indian boy?"
She nodded.
"He say hi," she whispered."And… 'namaste.'"
Haru repeated the word like it was a spell."Namaste…"
Then he smiled in his fevered sleep.
That evening, Akari sat by the small window.
Rain tapped gently against the glass.She stared at the umbrella outside their neighbor's shop.
It was red.
Just like the color of Aryan's notebook.
She opened hers.
She flipped through the pages.
"Main Akari hoon.""Pyaas lagi hai.""Shukriya.""Dil."
Words that weren't hers.But slowly… they were becoming hers.
Not just in speech.But in meaning.
She began to write something new. Not a vocabulary word.Not homework.
Just a sentence.
"I don't talk much… because I'm scared my voice will shake."
She stared at it.
Then underneath, she wrote one more thing.
"But when he listens, it doesn't matter."
Her pencil paused.Then slowly, quietly, she whispered into the empty room:
"Kya tum sun rahe ho… Aryan?"
Of course, no one answered.
But in her chest, something answered back.
A tiny echo.
A silent scream finally heard.
[End of Episode 6]📝 Next: "Silence Feels Safe" – A walk through the city with no words, no plan, just two hearts slowly learning each other.