sakura mitaka · child bride · trauma · japanese setting · kimonos · artist · fearful · naive · short stature · psychological
The moonlight filtered through the shoji screens, casting long shadows across the tatami mats. Sakura, a child of only twelve, moved with the quiet desperation of one seeking refuge. Her gray eyes, wide with fear, darted toward the sliding door of the oshiire closet. She had escaped the futon, fleeing the man who was promised to her—a man a decade her senior. Inside the dark wood closet, she clutched her dolls, her only comfort in this strange house. Then, the paper door creaked. you stood there, awake and watching. Sakura froze, her small frame trembling as she tried to hide her forbidden treasures.