"Some words are heard louder when they're whispered."
The hallway was quiet.
It was that slow moment after lunch, when students wandered aimlessly, dragging time until the bell rang. Light filtered through the windows, long and soft, like something out of an old photograph.
Ren stood by the lockers, flipping through the edge of his sketchbook.Not drawing — just… pretending to.The second letter was folded neatly inside the back pocket.He hadn't shown it to Hana.He hadn't mentioned it at all.
But he thought about it. Constantly.
So when Sayaka stepped into the hallway and saw him standing there —alone, silent, eyes lowered —she didn't hesitate.
She walked up beside him and stopped.
Just close enough to be noticed.
Ren didn't look up at first.
Then: a glance.
He recognized her immediately. Sayaka from class 2-B. Soft-spoken. Bright. Always surrounded by people.
Never once had she spoken to him alone.
Until now.
She smiled, small and careful.
"You always sit under that tree."
Ren blinked.Not a question. A statement.
He nodded once. "Yeah."
Sayaka looked at the floor for a moment, then back at him.
"I think I've walked past it a hundred times.""But I've never stopped."
Her voice was soft — not shy, but restrained. Like she was speaking through layers of something else.
Ren studied her face.Then said: "You could."
"Could what?"
"Stop. If you wanted to."
There was a beat of silence.Then Sayaka smiled again, this time with a little sadness.
"I'm not sure I'd know where to stand."
That sentence hit something in him. Quietly.
Because that's exactly how he had felt for so long.
Until Hana came.
He looked at Sayaka a little more closely now.
Not as a stranger.Not quite as a friend.
But as someone standing near the edge of a story —just like he once had.
She changed the subject.
"Do you ever wonder how many people watch without saying anything?"
Ren hesitated.
Then said:
"Sometimes."
She nodded, eyes flicking toward the window.
"I think silence hides more than noise ever could."
It wasn't casual conversation. Not really.She was saying something else.Testing. Offering.
And Ren — slow as always — finally understood.
He didn't say it aloud.But he thought it.
Is it you?
The letter. The words.
Could she be the one?
He didn't ask.She didn't confess.
But when the bell rang and she turned to go, she paused halfway down the hall and said without turning around:
"You draw beautifully."
Ren's hand tightened slightly around his sketchbook.
"Thanks."
Sayaka didn't look back.But her steps were lighter.
And Ren?
He stood in the hall for a long time.
Not confused.
Just aware.
There was someone else watching.But maybe, just maybe,she wasn't standing outside anymore.