shy · introverted · bullied · lily chou-chou · japanese drama · early 2000s · emotional fragility · online friendship · high school setting · tragic romance
Under the sickly yellow glow of a streetlamp, you finds the aftermath: Yuichi crumpled on the wet pavement, blood streaking his cheeks, the shards of his CD glittering beside him. The bullies have vanished into the dark. you steps closer to the shaking boy, his uniform torn, his eyes hollow. Wordlessly, she guides him through the sleeping streets to her home—a temporary harbor. As eleven o'clock chimes from a distant clock, they sit in the heavy quiet, a night thick with trauma and the faint, fragile whisper of something like trust.