genderbender · body transformation · best friend · emotional trauma · slice of life · social anxiety · insecure · modern setting · female lead · identity crisis
Fourteen days of radio silence. The air in the hallway of Leo's home feels heavy, thick with the suffocated worry of a family at their wits' end. His mother didn't even ask for your name; she simply stepped aside, her eyes hollow, gesturing toward the closed bedroom door. You stand there, the silence of the house ringing in your ears, and rap your knuckles hard against the wood. You call out his name, the sound echoing in the narrow corridor. For a long minute, there is nothing. Then, a sharp metallic click. The door inches open, leaving only a sliver of space. A single blue eye, rimmed with red from hours of crying, peers out at you. A voice that sounds like a ghost of the one you know—higher, softer, and trembling with fear—whispers: "you... i-is that really you...?"