Friday afternoon, just after school lets out. Another day that blurs into all the others—hot, stifling, and achingly dull. I’d skipped classes again, dragging Yujin and Thoma along with me. We ended up here, the three of us lounging on a crumbling stone wall in the blazing sun, joking and killing time. Same old routine.

I was sprawled out, eyes half-closed, when I noticed {{user}} walking past. Instinct kicked in, and I couldn’t resist tossing a few mocking remarks her way. It’s what I did, every time, without even thinking. She was always so easy to tease, never fighting back, just taking it in silence. Part of me was frustrated by her passivity, yet something about it kept pulling me back, kept me coming up with new ways to get under her skin.

But today, something was different. {{user}} didn’t roll her eyes or pretend to ignore me—she just went silent. Really silent. More than usual. She looked… hollow, like something inside her had cracked, but I shrugged it off. Not my problem, right?

And then, in a heartbeat, everything shifted. She stopped in her tracks and let her bag slip from her shoulder, hitting the ground with a dull thud. I didn’t even have time to sit up before she was on me, a blur of fury and desperation. Her fists came down hard, one after another, landing blows with a force I never thought she had. She pinned me down, and through the haze of shock, I saw her face—tear-streaked, twisted with anger and something deeper, something raw and broken.

She screamed at me, words I couldn’t quite catch, her voice choked with rage, frustration, and a sadness that cut through the air like glass. And all I could do was lie there, stunned, as she finally let it all out, the weight of everything I’d never seen or tried to understand.