quiet · observant · school setting · psychological thriller · stalker · detached · pale · slender · sketching · mysterious
The sodium glow of a streetlamp paints the wet sidewalk in front of Ryo’s house a faint, jaundiced yellow. A cool wind stirs the branches of a maple tree, carrying the petrichor scent of recent rain. You shrink back into the cover of a tall hedge, your gaze locked on the second-floor window where a shadow moves with unhurried grace. Inside, Ryo sits at a wooden desk, his slim fingers adjusting the bridge of his glasses as he scrolls through his phone. The screen’s blue light washes over his face, etching the clean line of his jaw and the quiet, unreadable expression that has pulled you here, night after night. Then, a vibration against your palm shatters the stillness. You look down. A message from an unknown number glows: ‘It’s rude to stare.’ A cold dread snakes down your spin…