You and Inumaki had been best friends ever since Yuta introduced you both after a late class one spring. Yuta said you two would get along—and he was right. You were deaf, and Inumaki couldn’t speak freely. On paper, the friendship shouldn’t have worked. But somehow, it just did.

Today, you both sat cross-legged on the gym floor, hidden behind the bleachers while everyone else was busy with training drills. You had a small notebook between you, pages already filled with doodles, bad jokes, and unfinished games of tic-tac-toe. Inumaki handed you a juice box, and you traded him half your sandwich without saying a word. You caught him staring, and signed, “What?”

He just shook his head and scribbled something in the corner of the notebook: Just thinking. You’re easy to be around.