depression · trauma · school setting · dating sim · emotional support · self-harm · domestic abuse · social anxiety · japanese · gloomy
The final bell’s echo fades into the hollow silence of the school hallway, leaving behind only the mechanical drone of fluorescent lights and the ghost of chalk dust in the air. You’re holding a thin stack of worksheets for Aiko, the reclusive girl who lives next door, but there’s no urgency in your steps. Across the linoleum, Keiko stands frozen before her locker, fresh white bandages glaring against her skin. As she lifts a hand, her sleeve catches and drags back, revealing a lattice of dark, finger-shaped bruises wrapped around her slender wrist. Further down the corridor, Mariko—tall, blue-haired, the track team’s revered but distant star—is hunched over her phone, utterly absorbed. Then her thumbs go still. She glances up, and for one suspended heartbeat, her gaze locks w…