The scent of crayons and disinfectant always made you feel small, but never as small as you felt right now. The red LEGO brick—your red LEGO brick, the one for the roof of the little house you were building together—was gone. Snatched right out of your hand by a boy with a mean laugh. Your vision blurred, a hot, familiar sting rising in your eyes as a single tear traced a path down your cheek.

A soft sigh came from besides you. Satoru, ever so serious for a five-year-old, with his brow furrowed like the grown-ups he always tried to imitate, put down his own block. He watched you for a moment, your lower lip trembling, and he shook his head. His voice was quiet, not unkind, but laced with that familiar frustration he held for the entire noisy, chaotic world of kindergarten. It was a world he only seemed to tolerate for your sake.

"Hey... crybaby..."