She knew she couldn't live like this anymore.
Every day, she wore a smile like armor, but inside, something had broken. Something that would never return.
A year had passed since that night, but the fear still followed her with silent and invisible. Her grandparents were kind, always treating her with love and patience, but… they didn't know. She never told them. She couldn't.
How could she explain something she didn't fully understand herself? How could she put into words the pain that had wrapped itself around her chest like a vice?
So she said nothing.
But one evening, as her grandmother folded laundry in the living room, Akari quietly spoke.
"Grandma," she began, keeping her voice even. "Can I join a boarding school?"
Her grandmother looked up and said in confusion, "Boarding school?"
"Just for girls," she added quickly and continued. "There's one not too far from here. I read about it."
Her grandfather looked over the rim of the newspaper and asked. "Is there something wrong at school?"
"No," Akari said with a small shake of her head. and said, "I just… I want to be more independent. And I think it'll help me focus to study. Maybe it's time I learned to be away from home for a while."
They hesitated. She was still so young. But Akari had always been bright and responsible, and they had no reason to doubt her.
After much pleading and soft persuasion, her grandparents finally want to agreed to her request. They didn't know what had truly happened. She never told them. All they saw was a girl who seemed quiet lately, more withdrawn, but eager to study at a good school. They assumed she just needed some space to grow, to heal from the divorce with their family, from the years with her father.
They didn't know about the dark alley, the night that fractured her soul.
After a long pause, her grandmother gave a gentle nod. "If that's what you really want, we'll support you."
"Thank you, grandma, grandpa" she whispered.
She didn't tell them the real reason.
That sometimes, even the kindest faces couldn't make her feel safe anymore.
That every time she walked outside and saw a man's shadow, her body froze.
That she just wanted to disappear into a place where no one could reach her.
And maybe, just maybe, she could start over there..
The Hoshikawa Girls' School and hostel was nestled in Hoshikawa, it is also a quiet part of the Tokyo city, its brick walls and tidy gardens giving off an air of safety and serenity. To the outside world, it was a peaceful haven for young girls to grow, study, and dream. For Akari, it was a place to start over.
The school was nestled on the edge of the town, surrounded by trees that whispered when the wind passed through. It was a peaceful place, almost like it belonged in another world. The kind of place where people smiled easily and waved at strangers.
Akari stood by the school gates, her bag slung over her shoulder ,her hands clenched around the strap. She was only ten, but her eyes carried the weight of someone much older.
She watched the other girls laughing and chattering, some holding their parents' hands, others running ahead excitedly toward the dorms.
She didn't smile. She didn't wave.
She just walked through the gate and didn't look back.
The dorm room was small, shared with another girl around her age. Her name was Haruka, and she had short hair and a voice that never seemed to run out of words.
"I've never had a roommate before," Haruka said brightly as she unpacked. "We're going to be best friends, I can already tell!"
Akari forced a smile. "Mm."
She wasn't ready to be anyone's best friend.
Not yet.
Days passed, then weeks. She attended classes, finished her homework, joined the library club. because, she like to read novel of super natural powers and also about their mythology. She was polite. Obedient. Quiet. Teachers praised her for her discipline. Girls invited her to games and group projects. She even started to respond, sometimes with a smile.
But no one ever got too close.
There were nights she'd wake up gasping for air, her hands clutching the sheets, her skin damp with sweat. She'd sit in silence, staring out the window at the moon, waiting for the fear to pass.
In the mirror, she practiced her smile. A perfect, practiced smile.
To the world, she became Akari—the cheerful girl with good manners, who always helped her classmates, who never got into trouble.
But behind that mask, she watched.
She listened.
And she remembered.
Even now, a year later in the hostel, that accident can create a sensation and still stirred in her chest at night.
"I want to smile again," she had whispered to herself that night.
And so she did. Every morning, she wore her smile like armor. She chatted brightly with the girls in her class. She helped teachers with chores. She always raised her hand first, always got her homework done early, always remembered everyone's birthdays.
But when night fell, and the corridors were quiet, she would curl up beneath her blanket and stare at the ceiling until her eyes burned.
No matter how hard she tried, the memories didn't fade. The laughter she gave others never echoed back into her own heart.
She made friends but, never let them close. She kept her secrets buried deep, smiling as if she had none.
One afternoon, while the other girls laughed in the garden, Akari stood by the window watching. One of her classmates, a cheerful girl named Mai, waved at her.
"Come join us, Akari-chan!"
Akari smiled and waved back. "I'll be there in a second!" she said.
But she never moved. She stayed by the window, gripping her sleeves tightly.
"I want to be like them,"
Akari thought. "I want to laugh without hurting."
But something inside her always whispered: You don't belong. You're broken. They'll leave if they know.
So she stayed where she was. Always smiling. Always pretending.
But a few days later, the truth quietly slipped in, like a cold wind through a cracked window.
She overheard them. those same girls who had smiled with her, laughed with her. They weren't talking to her anymore. They were talking about her.
the girls whispered, "did you see how she always forces that smile?" "She's so weird. Like a broken doll." "She acts like she's fine, but she's just desperate for attention."
Their voices echoed louder than any scream, bouncing in her mind long after they'd walked away. Each word felt like shards of glass, pressing deeper into the cracks of her already fractured heart. She couldn't breathe, couldn't move. She just stood there behind the hallway wall, fists clenched so tightly her nails left little half-moon imprints in her palms.
That night, Akari lay in her bed at Hoshikawa Girls' Hostel, staring at the ceiling. The room was quiet maybe, too quiet. Only the distant rustle of trees outside her window filled the silence, but inside her head, it was chaos. Their whispers wouldn't stop replaying.
"So even this was fake?" she whispered to herself.
She had hoped, truly hoped, that maybe here… in this quiet town of Hoshikawa, in this all-girls school where laughter filled the halls and uniforms were neat and mornings began with cheerful greetings—maybe here she could find peace.
But peace was just another mask.
She remembered their faces their carefully painted smiles, the way they pulled her into group activities only to mock her behind her back. It wasn't that they said it outright. No, it was worse. It was the quiet snickers when she walked past. The way they fell silent when she entered the room. The pitiful glances when she tried to speak. Everything was designed to break her down, slowly.
The next morning, she didn't wake up early to join the others for breakfast. She waited until the dining hall was almost empty, pretending she'd overslept. No one asked where she was.
In class, she stopped raising her hand. She stopped smiling at the girls who sat around her. When they cracked jokes, she forced a polite nod instead of joining in. The ones who had once sat beside her slowly shifted away. The desk beside her remained empty.
One afternoon, she found herself in the library, tucked in a corner behind the tallest shelves, pretending to read a book she didn't understand. But she wasn't hiding from teachers or schoolwork. She was hiding from them.
It wasn't long before even the librarians knew her name—not because she was friendly, but because she was always alone. Always reading. Always silent.
And yet, despite everything, she didn't cry. Not once. She had already cried all the tears she had back when she was nine. After the night everything changed. When her world was taken from her and no one saw it. No one knew it.
So instead, she learned to grow cold. Not angry. Just distant.
Better to be alone than mocked. Better to vanish than pretend.
But even in solitude, pain found her. During the night, she'd wake up sweating, her breath shallow. Dreams haunted her half memories, half nightmares. Faceless figures reaching out. Laughter that wasn't joyful. Silence that felt too heavy.
Sometimes she'd find herself outside on the hostel's balcony, wrapped in a blanket, watching the moon.
"I wish I could disappear," she'd whisper. Not dramatically. Not like someone begging for attention. Just a quiet wish from a girl who no longer wanted to be seen if it meant being broken again.
And still, every day, she went to class. She answered when teachers called her name. She turned in assignments on time. She kept her uniform neat and her posture straight.
Because if she didn't, someone would notice. And she didn't want that. Not anymore.
Mai, the cheerful girl who had once waved at her from the garden, tried once to speak to her again.
Mai-chan asked, "Akari-chan, we're doing a group project. Want to join us?"
Akari looked up, eyes tired, but she smiled gently and said, "Thank you, but I think I'll work alone."
Mai hesitated. Her mouth opened slightly as if to say something more—but then she simply nodded and walked away.
Akari watched her go.
In another life, maybe they could've been real friends.
She didn't hate them. Not really. She just didn't trust them. Couldn't. And trust wasn't something she was willing to gamble with anymore.
Weeks turned into months. Seasons changed. And slowly, Akari became invisible.
A ghost in her own story.
But she didn't know that deep in her silence, something was watching. Something far beyond her world. It didn't live in the halls of Hoshikawa Girls' School. but, lingering with her pure smile, which can't be placed in current Akari's face. It didn't wear a school uniform. But it had heard her whispers to the moon. It had felt her pain. And it waited silently until the time would come. the inner self of her thinks that there will be a day for her to shown up as she is.