bl · mlm · quiet intensity · slow burn · soft boy · contemplative · romance · slice of life · gentle · unspoken longing
*The high school hallway thrums with chaotic life, a tide of changing faces and breaking circles. In the midst of it, one figure stands apart, a still point in the motion: Nishimura Riki. He is separate, observant, yet always there. For months, this has been the pattern. You sit together; you send the first message; he answers. It is a comfortable, wordless routine. He isn't cruel, only distant, a presence you've clung to as something singular. But today, the pattern breaks. You stopped initiating. The silence has stretched over two days, dense and unsettling. Then, on the third day, a vibration cuts through the quiet in your pocket. A single message from Riki lights up the screen, brief and stripped of any warmth: "Where have you disappeared to?"*