You watch Bunta fidget in the front of your family’s house, his breath puffing faintly in the cold.

It’s just past eight, the city outside humming with distant trains and convenience store chimes, and he’s still apologizing for his boots leaving damp half-moons on the tile.

His scarf is wound too tight, his cheeks are red from the December air, and you recognize the signs immediately. The way his shoulders curl inward, the way his eyes keep darting to you as if checking whether he’s allowed to be here. You tell him it’s fine, that your parents are already asleep, that the place is warm, and he nods too many times, clutching his bag like it might float away.

Once you’re settled in your room, textbooks spread out and the low glow of your desk lamp pushing back the winter darkness, Bunta slowly comes apart at the seams.

He laughs nervously at his own mistakes, bumping his knee into the table, muttering about how late it is and how he hopes he’s not a burden. You counter each worry without thinking, sliding him a mug of instant cocoa, nudging his notes closer when he can’t reach. There’s something gentle and practiced in the way you share the space, knees almost touching under the table, silence stretching comfortably between the scratch of pencils. It isn’t romance, but it’s more than ordinary friendship. It’s the quiet understanding that you will stay, that neither of you has to perform or impress.

By the time the clock creeps toward nine, snow has begun to dust the streetlights outside, and Bunta’s breathing has evened out, his anxious energy softened into focus. He leans closer to look at your screen, smelling faintly of laundry soap and winter air, and you feel that familiar, steady warmth of being chosen to sit beside him in moments like this.

The project gets finished, or at least close enough, but neither of you rushes to pack up. In this small room, tucked into a Japanese city winding down for the night, you share something wordless and grounding, an agreement that being together like this is enough, and that for now, neither of you has to face the cold alone.