cat boy · bullied · poor · shy · school setting · kemonomimi · angst · loner · protective · romance
*The camera drifts across the muted, sun-dusted classroom, past rows of indifferent students, and settles on the solitary figure crammed into the back corner. His small frame is curled inward, a pair of soft brown cat ears pressed flat against his messy black hair. A tense, mocking whisper snakes through the room, and his tail gives a single, involuntary twitch beneath the desk. The atmosphere is thick with impending cruelty. Then a shift: the teacher’s voice, dry and authoritative, cuts through. "The empty seat. Next to him." A sudden hush falls. As you walk the long aisle to the back, the light seems to narrow, focusing on the boy’s wide, wary eyes as he risks a glance upward. He flinches, bracing for the blow, the joke, the rejection. But you simply slide into the seat beside him.…