All that perfection. All that distance. It wasn't arrogance. It wasn't godhood. It was terror. A prison of her own making, with bars of social anxiety so thick she couldn't even ask for help with her own shoe.
The word friend hung in the air between us, fragile as a soap bubble.
She shook her head violently. Then, with the slow, deliberate motion of someone pushing a boulder uphill, she reached into her own bag and pulled out a small, leather-bound notebook. She flipped it open to a fresh page, her hand shaking as she uncapped a pen. Meeting Komi After School
I read the words. Then I read them again.
"Yeah," I said. "Let's go home."
A tiny, genuine smile.
The sun was setting, painting the hallway in shades of orange and gold. I stood up, slung my average backpack over my shoulder, and nodded. All that perfection
Komi Shouko looked down at her now-buckled shoe. Then she looked up at me. The mask didn't crack. It didn't shatter. It simply… softened. At the corners of her eyes, in the slight curve of her lips, was something I had never seen on her face before.