Top student.
Huh.
Even now, the words felt strange on my tongue—like they belonged to someone else entirely. An illusion, a title pinned to a boy who once blended into the walls. Yet the looks I received, the nods, the handshakes and claps on the shoulder... they were real. Tangible. Weighty.
And for the first time in my life, I didn't shy away from them.
I didn't shrink.
I stood there and accepted them, standing firm not in anyone else's shadow—but in my own light.
But the true moment didn't happen up there under the blinding stage lights.
It came after.
She was waiting for me by the school gates.
Kaori.
