Into The Rain With You

It all came to a head one Friday afternoon, during lunch. I was sitting with Yuto and Aki, but I wasn't really there. My mind was somewhere else—on Haruka, on Kaito, on everything I hadn't said. And when Yuto looked at me with a frown and asked, "You alright, man?" something inside me snapped.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, the words automatic.

But Yuto didn't buy it. Neither did Aki.

"Kai," Aki said, his voice quiet. "What's going on? You've been… off lately. Not yourself."

I felt the knot in my chest tighten. I wanted to yell at them, to tell them to stop asking, to stop pretending like they cared. But instead, I just stood up abruptly.

"I'm fine," I repeated, more forcefully this time. "I don't need to talk about it."

And with that, I walked away.

I didn't hear them call after me. I didn't hear anything at all.

But as I walked down the hallway, a part of me felt like I had just lost something important. Something I might never get back.