"If I stepped closer… would the silence break?"
The wind had changed.
Not much. But enough for Ren to notice it.
It no longer whispered softly through the branches. Now it carried a quiet kind of weight — like something was waiting to fall. Or to be said.
Ren sat on the bench again. Same time. Same tree.His sketchbook was open, but the page was blank.
For once, he wasn't sure what to draw.
Hana came late that day.
Her steps were slower. She looked thoughtful, almost distracted — like something lingered in her mind that she hadn't been able to shake.
When she reached the tree, she looked at the mailbox.Then at him.
And for the first time… she walked directly to the bench.
She didn't sit. But she stood close enough that the edge of her sleeve brushed against the wood.
Ren looked up.
No words.
Just a breath.
A pause.
And then she reached into her schoolbag and pulled out a note. Folded in four. No heart this time.
She handed it to him.
Not through the box. Directly.
He took it, careful not to brush her fingers.Unfolded it slowly.
Inside, in small careful writing:
"Do you ever wish we could just speak?"
Ren looked at her. Her eyes didn't meet his. But her cheeks were warm.
He took his pencil.
Beneath her words, he wrote:
"Every day."
Then passed it back.
They stood in silence. But it felt like speaking. Somehow.
Then Hana reached again into her bag and pulled out something small — a wrapped piece of candy.
She placed it on the bench between them. Gently.A soft gesture.
Ren didn't move.
She smiled — not at him, but at the space between them.
Then she said the first real word he'd heard from her lips:
"Ren."
His breath caught.
She didn't say anything else.
Didn't wait for a reply.
Just turned and walked back toward the tree, where her book lay in the grass.
Ren looked down at the candy.
Then at the spot where she'd stood.
And then, for the first time in days, he spoke.
A whisper. Barely a breath.
"Hana."
He didn't know if she heard him.
But he hoped she did.
In a classroom window above them, Sayaka watched.
Not spying. Just… noticing again.
And this time, she saw something different.
Not just a boy and a girl.
But a distance closing.
And she wondered:Where was her place in this story?
She didn't know yet.
But she intended to find out.