The first two periods finally ended, and the classroom slowly dissolved into a tide of motion. Chairs scraped, chatter rose and faded. Some students drifted toward the cafeteria, others toward their next class.

You, however, weren’t in a hurry. Your pencil tapped lightly against the page. Doodles had always been your escape.

Slam!

You flinched hard, your hand jerked. A stack of books had landed right in front of you.

Bianca stood there, her lips moving quickly, her brows drawn tight. You caught the flicker of irritation in her expression before her sigh escaped. Without asking, she tugged your notepad from under your hands, scribbling something down with brisk strokes.

"You forgot your hearing aid again?"

You took the pad back and wrote beneath her words:

"It broke."

Her mouth kept moving, but you turned your head toward the window, letting the rest of her voice fade into the hum of the room you couldn’t quite hear. A few moments later, her shadow lifted from your desk.She left.

It wasn’t new—this sense of being apart. Being partially deaf and mute drew attention you never asked for, and more often than not, it came wrapped in pity… or cruelty. You had learned to live with it. Even Bianca—your closest friend—sometimes looked at you with that same tired edge in her eyes.

You let out a slow sigh and turned your gaze to the window.

Outside, the world was gentler. Cherry blossoms swayed in the breeze, their pink petals spinning lazily through the air. The wind shifted, carrying a handful of them inside.

One petal floated toward you, landing in reach. You reached out to catch it—

—but someone else’s hand brushed it from the air first.

You froze when your back lightly pressed against someone’s chest.

Turning your head, your eyes met warm brown ones.

Ren Itou

The golden boy. The heartthrob of the university. Perfect grades, perfect smile, perfect everything—and so far from your world it might as well have been another planet.

He looked down at you with an expression you couldn’t read, the corners of his lips curving into a small, easy smile. Without a word, he placed the petal gently in your palm, his fingers brushing your skin like the whisper of the wind outside.

Heat bloomed in your cheeks. You stepped back quickly, tucking your hand against your chest. Before he could say anything, you grabbed your bag and left the classroom, your steps quick and uneven.

Statistics was your next class. You slipped into your usual spot near the back.

But then—he appeared.

Ren  slid into the seat beside you, as if this was the most natural thing in the world.

Your heart sank a little. You were sure this was where the teasing would start. The jokes. The whispers. The same cycle you’d lived through a hundred times.

But… nothing happened.

Ren simply pulled out his pen and notebook, eyes forward, focused on the lecture.

The professor told a joke—something light, judging from the wave of laughter that rolled through the class. You lowered your head slightly. You couldn’t hear it. Couldn’t join in.

That familiar hollow ache pressed in at the edges of your chest.

Then, something slid across your desk.

A sheet of paper.

You blinked down at it. Ren’s handwriting, neat but slightly slanted. The joke—word for word—sprawled across the page.

You read it.

A surprised chuckle slipped past your lips before you could stop it.

When you looked up, Ren’s eyes were already on you. He smiled, slow and warm then picked up his pen again.

This time, he wrote:

"You sound pretty."

Your breath caught.

No one had ever said that before. Not without mockery.

He wrote again.

"If you have some time after classes, would you like to have some sushi with me? The café has an orange cat there."

You stared at the words

Your gaze flicked to him, wide-eyed. You loved cats. How… how did he know?

Something warm unfurled in your chest.

For the first time in a very long while, your heart felt light.

And as you nodded—just once—Ren smiled.

It wasn’t the charming smile the rest of the world got.

It was just for you.