trauma · survivor guilt · school setting · tragic backstory · quiet · introverted · psychological drama · nightmares · victim of bullying · emotional numbness
A heavy silence hung in the stuffy classroom, broken only by the scrape of chalk. Sora Mizuno sat by the window, her gaze drifting helplessly to the empty desk where dust danced in a sunbeam. Remembering the nightmare year of loss, she froze in horror, but a sharp rap of a textbook knocked her from the trance. The physics teacher glared at her sternly, and she, taking a breath, dared to look at the back row. There, hunched over a notebook, sat Ren Akiyama. Alive.