The hallway buzzed with voices, the rhythmic clatter of shoes against tile blending into a familiar background hum. The scent of cheap cologne, fresh paper, and cafeteria food filled the air. Another school day had begun at Sakaide High, but for some, it was just another battle to get through.
Aoi Takahashi smiled at her reflection in the girl's bathroom mirror, fixing her neatly cut bangs. Flawless. Just as expected. Her uniform was perfectly ironed, her white blouse crisp and pristine. She had to be perfect-there was no other choice.
"Aoi! You're so lucky, you're naturally pretty," a girl from her class gushed from behind her.
She laughed lightly, the kind of laugh she had perfected. "I don't know about that."
It was exhausting-always having to maintain the image of the smart, beautiful, well-mannered girl. It wasn't that she wanted to, but she had no choice. Her parents had spent years shaping her into an ideal daughter. The perfect grades, the perfect looks, the perfect life.
But perfection came at a price.
Late nights buried in textbooks, stomach growling from skipped meals, the constant feeling that if she slipped just once, everything would come crashing down. The pressure suffocated her, but no one could see that. After all, perfect girls didn't cry.
Riku Satou sat alone by the classroom window, tapping his pen against his empty notebook. He used to try in school-back when it felt like it mattered. But with his parents always fighting, bills piling up at home, and his part-time job eating up his evenings, studying felt pointless.
"What's the point of grades if I'm never going to college?" he muttered under his breath.
His phone buzzed. Another text from the landlord. "Rent is due. Your mother hasn't paid."
He clenched his fists. His father was gone, and his mother was drowning in debt. That left him to hold everything together. No one at school knew, though. No one noticed him at all.
Mei Fujimura sat in the back of the class, eyes downcast. She could feel the stares, the whispers.
"Did you hear? She got pregnant."
"I heard she doesn't even know who the father is." What kind of girl does that in high school?"
Her nails dug into her palms. They were wrong. She knew exactly who the father was. He was sitting two rows in front of her, pretending she didn't exist.
Haruto Yamazaki refused to look back. He knew what Mei wanted from him-acknowledgment, responsibility. But he wasn't ready.
How could he be? His parents would kill him if they found out. He could barely handle his own life, let alone a child.
Still, the guilt ate at him. It wasn't just Mei suffering alone. It was their secret, their mistake. But he didn't know how to face it.
Yui Nakamura scrolled through her phone, heart sinking with every notification.
@NakamuraYui is such a fake.
She's so ugly, why does she even try?
Someone tell her to just disappear.
Her fingers trembled as she locked her phone, her breath shaky. The messages weren't new. They had started a few months ago, and they never stopped. No matter what she did, someone always had something cruel to say.
She used to love social media.
Now, she hated it. But deleting her accounts wouldn't change anything. The whispers in school, the giggles when she walked by— they would still be there.
She gripped the hem of her skirt.
Why did they hate her so much? What had she done?
She had no answers. Only the overwhelming feeling that maybe, just maybe, they were right about her.
Kaito Miyazaki sighed as he ran a hand through his dark hair. Another test, another failing grade. His father would be furious.
"Do you think the world will wait for you to figure things out, Kaito? If you're not at the top, you're nothing."
Nothing. The word stuck with him.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't keep up. His father wanted him to be a doctor, but Kaito barely passed biology. He wanted to make music, to lose himself in the melodies of his guitar-but that wasn't allowed.
He felt trapped. He was supposed to be something he couldn't be.
And every time he failed, it felt like he was sinking deeper, drowning in expectations he would never meet.
The school bell rang, signaling the end of another day.
Aoi walked past Riku, their eyes meeting for the briefest second. He saw something behind her perfect mask-exhaustion, loneliness. She looked away too quickly, but he knew it wasn't just his imagination.
Mei stood outside the school gates, waiting for Haruto, but he never came. She felt the weight of her growing belly, the future she wasn't ready for.
Yui deleted her social media apps on the train home, only to redownload them five minutes later.
Kaito stared at his test paper, wondering if he would ever be
enough.
They were all struggling, alone in their own worlds. But they didn't
know that yet.
Not yet.
But soon, their paths would cross.
And when they did, everything would change.