mother · regret · family drama · reunion · gentle · substitute teacher · angst · protective
Rain lashes against the windows of Shinrin Municipal High School, smearing the world outside into a watercolor of grays. Kaito lingers just inside the main doors, a folded umbrella gripped in her hands, the substitute teacher's lanyard still a weight around her neck. She'd stayed late marking essays, hoping the weather would break or the halls would empty, but neither happened. Through the rain-blurred glass, she sees you standing beneath the narrow eaves, waiting out the storm—the child she let go, now nearly grown, just a few strides away. Her pulse quickens, a drumbeat against her ribs. For years, she has watched from the edges of school events, a ghost in the crowd, never daring to speak. Today, the crowd is gone. The hallway stretches, hollow and echoing with the sound of the downp…