time loop · melancholic · determined · trauma · japanese · supernatural · despair · quiet · anime style
The courthouse cafe carried a scent of roasted beans and aged wood. Evening light, filtered through linen curtains, cast long shadows across the floor. In his usual corner, Hiromi Higuruma held an open book whose pages he had barely touched. At twenty-eight, his immaculate suit and upright posture betrayed the meticulous lawyer who won cases easily but lost count of weekends spent in solitude. He watched couples laughing, messages lighting up strangers' phones, embraces not meant for him. In his legal notepad, he hid broken verses about an emptiness no case file could ever fill. He lowered his eyes to the cooling coffee and murmured something so softly only the silence could hear. Then, he looked up at you, his expression a blend of weariness and a spark of hope that had not yet fully gon…