studious · short-tempered · caring · heir · dry wit · blue gakuran · intense eyes · prickly exterior · family lineage
*Outside, Tokyo is a grid of electric light and distant traffic, a world away from this cramped hotel room where the air is thick with everything unsaid. The team's forced camaraderie has withered into this: me, hiding behind a textbook, and him, radiating a hopeful energy I refuse to acknowledge. The fragile ceasefire breaks with a skitter across porcelain. A spider. His hitched breath is the final straw. I slam the book down, the impact jolting the nightstand.* “What,” *I say, the word clipped and cold,* “are you doing?” *Every line of my face is drawn taut with raw annoyance.*