Suzu arrived on time. That alone already felt suspicious. Usually she was early. Early enough to claim a seat, settle her things, and slowly transition into being a quiet piece of furniture no one questioned until attendance.
Today she was just… on time. Which meant the classroom was already alive when she walked in. Suzu slowed near the doorway for half a second, scanning for anything unusual.
She stepped inside and made her way to her seat with careful neutrality. Her bag hit the floor. Her notebook came out. Her pen followed. Everything was normal. Almost aggressively normal.
Then she looked down at her desk. A sticky note sat there. Plain yellow. Folded once, like it had been placed with intention rather than accidentally.
Suzu didn't touch it immediately. That was her first mistake. Because the moment she saw it, her brain already understood what it was going to say. Carefully, she peeled it open.
The handwriting was neat.
You skipped class because of me, didn't you?
Suzu stopped breathing.
For a moment, the classroom sound dropped away. Not because it disappeared, but because her attention refused to process anything that wasn't that sentence.
She read it again. And again. Each time hoping it would rearrange itself into something normal. But it was hopeless. Her fingers tightened slightly around the paper.
"No," she whispered automatically.
Her eyes flicked over towards the back of the room, where not too far away, Reina sat. She wasn't looking at her, nor doing anything suspicious. Just sitting at her desk like a normal person in a normal classroom doing normal morning things.
Suzu looked back down at the note. Her thoughts started moving too fast to organize properly. This wasn't possible. People didn't just… do this.
Suzu pressed the note flat against her desk and glanced over again, slower this time. Reina still wasn't looking at her. That detail should have been comforting. But it really wasn't.
"I didn't skip because of you," she mouthed silently.
But even as she thought it, her brain immediately betrayed her with a second thought. She couldn't hide from the truth.
…but I did skip because of you.
The note wasn't wrong at all. It was just too direct. She placed it at the corner of her desk, aligned perfectly with the edge.
Around her, class continued assembling itself. Teacher at the front. Morning announcements fading out. The soft scrape of notebooks opening. Suzu sat down and exhaled.
"Okay. Fine. If Reina wanted attention, she would get it. Just not now. I'm going to confront that psychopath..." she thought.
Picked up her pen. And for the first time in what felt like her entire life, she did not immediately start drawing margins full of thoughts she wasn't supposed to be having. Instead, she stared at the board. She absolutely no longer had a desire to read yuri in class. She had to force herself to pay attention.
Suzu adjusted her grip on the pen. Then forced herself to write the date at the top of the page, slowly, neatly.
"…Okay," she muttered under her breath.
This was going to be a long class.
Finally, after many tiring hours, the final bell rang. It was time to find Reina. Because this couldn't continue. She couldn't spend every day wondering when another note would appear. Or whether Reina would walk up behind her. Or how much of her life had somehow become visible to a girl she'd barely spoken to. A conversation had to happen.
Suzu sat perfectly still and mentally rehearsed the same opening sentence over and over.
Hey, what is wrong with you?
Too aggressive.
Why were you in my bag?
Too accusatory.
Hello. Please stop psychologically tormenting me.
Surprisingly accurate. Unfortunately, probably not usable.
By the time she'd rejected her seventh imaginary opening line, she realized something was wrong. The classroom was emptying. Suzu's head snapped up.
"I need to get this over with..." she muttered.
She swiftly packed her things and hurried toward the door. The hallway outside was a river of students flowing in every possible direction. Suzu immediately regretted every decision that had led her here. How exactly was she supposed to find one person in this? She wasn't even entirely sure where Reina went after class.
She moved through the crowd anyway. Suzu hurried down one hallway. Then another. Students brushed past her shoulders. Conversations floated around her in fragments. Meanwhile Suzu was conducting what felt increasingly like a manhunt.
What do I even say when I find her?
The question appeared again. She still didn't have an answer. She turned another corner. Nothing. The crowd was thinning now. Students were beginning to leave campus. For the first time, doubt began creeping in. Maybe she should forget this and go home. Maybe tomorrow would somehow fix itself. The idea lasted all of three seconds. Then she spotted her. Near the far end of the courtyard, walking alone.
Suzu's feet started moving before the rest of her agreed. She picked up her pace very quickly, rushing to get to her.
"Reina!" Suzu shouted out.
Reina glanced over her shoulder. The moment their eyes met, Suzu nearly forgot what she was doing. Not because Reina looked intimidating. Because she looked completely unsurprised. As if she'd expected this. As if this conversation had been inevitable from the beginning.
Reina slowed to a stop. The courtyard around them had grown quieter. Most students had already moved on toward buses, parking lots, and after-school plans. It was just the two of them.
"You," she began.
A brilliant opening. Reina waited. Suzu could feel the rest of the sentence refusing to arrive.
"I..."
Still nothing. Great, she'd finally cornered the source of her problems and her vocabulary had abandoned her. Reina tilted her head slightly, waiting for her to say something.
"Yes?" she asked.
Suzu swallowed.
"We need to talk."
The moment the words left her mouth, she regretted them. Reina's lips twitched very slightly.
"Do we?"
"Yes! One hundred percent yes!"
Reina fully turned toward her and smiled.
"So, did you skip class 'cause of me?"
"No— I mean yes— I mean it wasn't just you—"
Reina narrowed her eyes and stepped increasingly closer to her. She put a hand on Suzu's cheek.
"Wha—?"
"Shh. Quit being a baby and admit it. It's obvious that you didn't want to be around me. I know I made you terrified."
Suzu couldn't think of anything to say to argue against her. Reina was gaining control over this conversation. However... she wasn't going to let her win. She shook her head and smacked Reina's hand away.
"Why did you look through my bag?!" Suzu blurted out.
"I've been observing you. I wanted to know what you're into."
Suzu was becoming visibly flustered. Reina tilted her head a little.
"So," she said finally, almost lightly. "You like that stuff?"
Suzu blinked. It shouldn't have been a difficult question. She was the biggest yuri enthusiast anyone could ever meet. She shifted her weight slightly, suddenly very aware of her hands. She then put one behind her back for no reason she could explain and immediately felt worse about it. After a deep breath, she managed to say it.
"I do. I... yeah. I love reading yuri."
Her mind was racing. She closed her eyes shut and looked away shyly.
"That's... interesting. So, you like seeing girls fall in love with each other?"
"I guess..." Suzu muttered out.
Reina nodded once, as though she'd expected exactly that answer.
"You've read a lot of it."
Suzu hesitated before giving a small nod.
"...Probably."
"'Probably?'"
"I don't... keep count."
"What do you actually like about them?"
Suzu frowned. "The stories."
"What about the stories?"
"I..." She searched for something that didn't sound embarrassing. "The characters."
"What about the characters?"
"They're..."
Again, her thoughts raced far ahead of her mouth.
"They're... emotionally complicated."
Reina stayed quiet. Suzu hated when people stayed quiet. Silence always made her keep talking.
"I mean..." she continued, "they're honest in a weird way. Even when they're making awful decisions, they're at least honest about how they feel."
Reina studied her for another moment.
"So you like obsessive people."
"What?"
"The girls in your books."
"I mean..." Suzu rubbed the back of her neck. "I don't think I'd like them if they were real."
Another pause. Then Reina asked, almost absentmindedly, "Have you ever wished someone loved you like that?"
"Wha...?"
Reina's voice remained calm. "The girls who can't stop thinking about one person. The ones who'd do anything for them. The ones who make terrible decisions because they can't let go."
She looked directly into Suzu's eyes with a small smirk.
"Have you ever wanted someone to feel that way about you?"
"No," she blurted.
The answer came too fast.
"You didn't even think about it, did you?"
Suzu squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists. She simply couldn't handle it anymore.
"Just be quiet already!" Suzu shouted.
For the first time since they'd started talking, Reina actually did. The courtyard fell quiet. Somewhere across campus, a whistle blew from one of the sports fields. A few students laughed in the distance before their voices disappeared behind the school building.
After a few more seconds of silence, Suzu gently opened her eyes.
"...Why aren't you saying anything?"
"You told me to be quiet."
"...I didn't mean permanently."
"I know."
Suzu sighed, rubbing at her forehead.
"This conversation is... catastrophically uncomfortable."
"I noticed."
"Please stop noticing things."
"I can't."
"...What do you mean?"
Reina met her eyes without hesitation. "I keep noticing you."
The words came out so naturally that Reina didn't seem to realize what she'd admitted.
"...Why?"
Reina frowned slightly, as though the question genuinely puzzled her.
"I don't know," Reina said. She frowned, as though dissatisfied with her own answer. "I thought it'd stop eventually, but it didn't."
Suzu stared at her, not knowing what to even think at this point.
"I'll be sitting in class, and somehow I know where you're looking. I know when you're pretending to pay attention. I know when you're hiding your book. I know when you're about to laugh before you do."
"I'll be sitting in class, and somehow I know where you're looking. I know when you're pretending to pay attention. I know when you've switched from taking notes to writing in the margins. I know when you're trying not to smile at whatever you're reading."
Reina looked away for the first time since the conversation began.
"...I don't know why."
The words settled between them without anywhere to go. Suzu didn't answer. She couldn't. She had expected Reina to say almost anything else. Another smug remark. Another question she wasn't prepared for. Some clever explanation that would somehow make this entire conversation feel like one long prank. Instead...
"I don't know why."
That wasn't the kind of thing people said when they were winning an argument. Suzu stared at her. The silence stretched just long enough for her own thoughts to begin filling it.
...What?
No. Seriously.
What?
Her brain immediately reached for the safest explanation available.
She was lying. That had to be it! She was just trying a different approach. Maybe this was psychological warfare. Maybe she'd watched one too many crime dramas and decided the best way to ruin someone's day was through emotional confusion.
That sounded ridiculous. But it also sounded slightly more believable than whatever had just happened. Suzu glanced at Reina again. She wasn't looking back. That bothered her more than she wanted to admit. Ever since this conversation had started, Reina had met every glance head-on. She hadn't hesitated once. She'd answered every question immediately, spoken every sentence like she'd already rehearsed it in her head. Until now.
For one brief moment... She'd looked away. Suzu's stomach tightened.
Why did she do that?
She replayed the conversation without meaning to.
I keep noticing you.
I've tried not to.
...I don't know why.
Those weren't things a bully was supposed to say. They weren't things someone said if they were just trying to embarrass another person. Unless...
No. Suzu stopped herself before the thought could finish.
Absolutely not. She wasn't going to start inventing motives for the girl who had gone through her school bag. That felt like giving extra credit to someone who had committed a privacy violation. Still... The thought refused to disappear.
She sounded... genuine.
"...No," Suzu whispered to herself.
Reina looked back at her.
"Hm?"
"N-Nothing."
She had said that out loud. Wonderful. She considered apologizing. She considered running away. She considered pretending she'd suddenly remembered an urgent appointment somewhere very far from this courtyard. Instead, she stood completely still while her thoughts sprinted in circles.
Think.Think like a normal person. Actually... I don't know how normal people think. Think like one of the girls from class. No, that's impossible. Okay. Think like... someone with functioning social instincts.
Nothing. Her brain offered no useful guidance whatsoever. Instead, it decided now would be the perfect time to remember every strange feeling she'd had over the past week.
The shadow that had crossed her desk during class. The odd sensation that someone had been looking at her before she'd ever looked up. The red-haired girl she'd occasionally noticed in passing but never really paid attention to. One memory by itself meant nothing. Together, they suddenly fit together a little too well. Suzu felt something cold settle in her chest.
"...How long?"
The question escaped before she'd fully realized she'd chosen it.
"What?"
"...How long have you been..." She gestured vaguely between the two of them, immediately regretting how little that clarified. "...doing... this?"
"This?"
"...Watching me."
For the first time, Reina didn't answer immediately. She seemed to think about it. Not because she was deciding whether to tell the truth. Because she was trying to remember.
"A while," she said.
Suzu stared.
"'A while' isn't a measurement."
"No."
"So... what? A week?"
Reina shook her head.
"Longer."
Suzu laughed once. It wasn't really a laugh. More like her brain rejecting the answer.
"...A month?"
Another small shake of the head.
"...You're joking."
"I'm not."
The courtyard suddenly felt much larger than it had a minute ago. Suzu stood rooted to the pavement, staring at a girl who had just calmly informed her she'd been observing her for longer than Suzu could comfortably imagine.
"I'll... I'll see you tomorrow," Suzu said before turning around and walking off.
An uncomfortable realization crept into her thoughts. She spent so much time watching fictional girls fall hopelessly into each other's worlds. She had never once considered what it would feel like if someone quietly wandered into hers.