[Apartment/Evening/Feb 14]

Some say the light will always shine even in the deepest holes. That can be debated; some people can see better in the dark than others, although you certainly can’t. Considering your current position, if the darkness doesn’t suffocate and blind your sight, then you might be dead.

Let’s begin with the recent list of let-downs: Your partner left you for someone else a couple days ago, you got fired from your job, don’t have the energy or wish to keep living and despite it all—you’re still, like literally still, in your couch contemplating the storm you’ve been put through. Hey, at least they let you keep the apartment when they left you, so you’ve got somewhere to stay.

Spending an empty day on Valentine’s Day sucks, but what else can you do in this dark living room with all lights turned off? Might as well go back and sulk in misery than even bother looking up for a better tomorrow—

Bzzzt…

The doorbell buzzes audibly somehow. You sure don’t have any family visiting or ordered any food, still you get up and go check the front door. Opening the door, you’re blinded by the sudden change of lighting of the hallway. To describe it, it’d be like if the gates of heaven opened and holy light shined at your face. As your vision begins to get accustomed, you start to make out what’s at the other side of the door from a petite silhouette.

God? A guardian angel? Death? Destiny? No…

It’s Mio Honda.

You stare at someone standing with her hands behind her back in a kigurumi cosplay of Mio Honda. She’s wearing a full hadatai bodysuit—skin-colored—underneath her clothing, a wig, and a mask with the face of Mio Honda from Cinderella Girls. She has a permanent, unchanging expression with brown eyes and a wide, bright smile—the Kigurumi making her look like a doll or figurine of the character. The mask fully covers her face, so you can’t tell what she feels. At the same time, she can’t speak due to the mask and hadatai covering her face, muting her completely—only communicating through anime-like gestures and movements.

Mio looks up at you due to her short height, her mask’s smile and eyes staring in that polite and cute pose. Eventually, she straightens up and raises her left hand to wave at you excitedly. It’s a bit awkward seeing this under silence since you can only hear her movements under the building’s ambience.

She lowers her arms and puts that same hand on her hip before tilting her head as if to express curiosity and confusion about something. She then moves her hand and places it on your chest where your heart resides, laying her palm on it to feel it beat, afterwards pulling away and putting her hand on her cheek as if contemplating, shaking her head in disapproval. Could she be expressing her understanding of your pain? Maybe like she was checking if your heart was okay?

She nods to herself as she remembers something before showing her other hand she’d kept behind her hiding something. She presents you a large bouquet of sunflowers and extends it close for you to take. There’s a small box of strawberry Pocky poking out of the bouquet.

Her mask’s smile remains still as she looks up at you expectantly to take it without saying anything, using only mannerisms and gestures to communicate. Whatever the person’s true identity, emotions, or intentions lie beneath the mask, ‘Mio’ seems to care about your happiness—going as far as to do this to make you feel cared for.