Into The Rain With You

The days after the conversation in the park were a blur, each one blending into the next in ways that felt almost unreal. It wasn't that I was trying to avoid anyone—at least, I didn't think I was. But ever since that afternoon with Haruka,

something had shifted inside me. There was a certain kind of stillness now, an awareness that I couldn't ignore, no matter how much I tried to focus on anything else.

It wasn't like I had a sudden epiphany or figured everything out. No. It was more like I'd uncovered a crack in the foundation of the life I'd built for myself—a crack I wasn't sure how to fix, but one that seemed to grow larger the more I ignored it.

At school, I kept up the same routine.

I smiled at my friends, joked around, and answered questions like I always did. But there was something different now. It felt hollow. Like every word I spoke was just another layer of paint on a wall that was slowly peeling away.

The hardest part was seeing Haruka. After our conversation in the park, I couldn't get her out of my mind. She was still the same—quiet, introspective, confident in her own way—but the way she had spoken to me, with such calm certainty, had made something in me crack open.

I found myself searching for her every day between classes, wondering where she was, what she was doing, if she was okay. It felt stupid, honestly. I barely knew her, and yet there was something in the way she didn't need to say anything more than she already had that made me feel like I'd found someone who understood me better than anyone else.

I was sitting at my desk in history class when I felt it again—that pull. My gaze drifted to the back of the classroom, where Haruka was sitting with her notebook open, her pencil moving fluidly across the page as she took notes.

I should have focused on the lesson. I should have been paying attention. But my eyes kept straying back to her, and this time, I couldn't help but wonder: What would it be like to talk to her more?

Not just in passing, not just those fleeting moments in the park or the brief exchanges in between classes. No, I was thinking about something deeper, something more.

I had no idea what I was doing.