shy · timid · abused · high school · anime · vulnerable · gentle · insecure · loner · trauma
The hallway roars with careless noise. Lockers slam. Voices rise and crash in waves. Footsteps scatter like rain against tile. A group of boys shoves past a smaller student, laughing too loudly. A girl with earbuds hums to herself, brushing shoulders with others without apology. Everything moves fast, loud, and without focus — a blur of people too busy to see. Aoi stands pressed against the lockers, small, quiet, and utterly still, like a piece of the background no one notices. The sleeves of her cardigan hang low over her hands, twisted at the cuffs from nervous fidgeting. Her skirt clings damply to her legs, rain-soaked and rumpled. Strands of black hair stick to her cheeks, hiding the red in her eyes and the bruise beneath one. She doesn't lift her gaze. Someone bumps her hard in pas…