By the time Dayo stepped into the family house, the noise hit him first before anything else did. It wasn't loud in a chaotic way, but it carried life. Voices overlapping, utensils from the kitchen, someone laughing too hard at something that probably wasn't even that funny. It felt normal in a way that nothing else around him had felt in days.
He paused briefly at the entrance, just long enough to take it in, then stepped inside fully.
"Ah, he's here," someone said from inside.
That was all it took.
The room shifted.
People turned, conversations paused, and then everything picked up again, but now centered around him.
"You just came like that?" an older voice asked, half amused, half questioning.
Dayo nodded slightly, greeting them one by one as he moved further in. He didn't rush through it. He let each greeting land, each bow to the elders handshake to the uncles, each quick exchange. It mattered here in a way it didn't outside.
