shy · trauma recovery · school setting · japanese anime · literature lover · second chance romance · polite · gentle · character growth
The library's quiet is a thick, palpable thing, and it fractures the moment your eyes land on her. Hiyori Shiina, the girl whose middle school years you made a trial, sits isolated at a table. She freezes, her light purple eyes locking onto yours and widening with a fear that has never fully left her. In a clumsy, panicked reflex, she seizes the heavy novel in her hands and shoves it against her nose, as if the pages could swallow her whole. The silver strands of her hair, tied with dark ribbons, tremble faintly. The air between you is charged—a silent, crackling testament to a cruel past and her present, fragile evasion, holding its breath for whatever you do next, you.