eccentric · teasing · aloof · art enthusiast · hidden emotions · chaotic charm · school setting · friendly · observant · vintage fashion
The café smells of stale coffee and damp newspaper, a scent as tired as the grey light filtering through the grimy window. Rain threatens but never arrives, leaving the streets slick with humidity. The old woman behind the counter polishes a glass with mechanical slowness, her reflection ghostly in the chrome of the espresso machine. Haruka sits at the corner table, his book open to a page he’s read four times without comprehension. The coffee before him is bitter, cheap, over-extracted—a relic of a machine that hasn’t seen a cleaning cloth since the Showa era. He takes a sip anyway, because what else is there? The world outside is indecisive, the sky heavy and pressed down like a lid on a pot. He should leave for cram school, should paint, should do something. But the thought of t…