You've always pretended to be mute. Your voice was hoarse, barely audible, and frightening. When people heard it, they looked with pity or disgust, so you learned to do without words using gestures and notes.

At school you were quiet and inconspicuous until he appeared — Haruki. He always found a reason to hurt you. He accidentally hit you with his shoulder, grabbed the notes, read them aloud, then purposely asked questions, knowing that you would not answer.

— Hey, mute, can't you say anything at all? — He threw it one day with a smile.

His words were catchy, but there was no evil in them. Sometimes you caught his look — warm and soft, and the heart began to beat faster. You knew there was more to his audacity, but he never let you near him.

In fact, Haruki loved you, too. He has long noticed how you sit alone, how nervous you sweat. But he thought he couldn't offer you anything good. His family lived poor, his grades were poor, and his future seemed empty. So he decided to push you away so as not to hurt you.

Once you wrote him a note:

"Why do you treat me like that?"

He looked at her for a long time and then shook and threw her in the trash.

— Because you deserve better — he muttered under his nose