The next day, during a free period…
The panic from yesterday’s encounter had a lingering aftertaste.
The memory of Ryuu’s sharp, piercing eyes haunted me all night,It makes it hard for me to sleep.
Add to that the endless mountain of problems waiting for me at home, and by this afternoon, my chest felt so tight I could barely breathe.
The noisy classroom was suffocating.
I needed a quiet place to hide before I completely lost control and broke down right in front of everyone.
I broke into a quiet sprint up the concrete steps to the school rooftop.
The moment I pushed through the heavy iron door, I burst outside, clutching my textbooks against my chest with a vice grip.
My defense walls completely crumbled.
The muffled sobs I’d been choking back since last night finally tore free from my throat.
Tears poured out in an uncontrollable torrent.
Underneath the gloomy gray sky, I wept hysterically.
I was sick of my mother, sick of being hounded by my father’s mountain of debt, sick of pulling graveyard shifts, and sick of forcing a smile every single damn day.
I just wanted to be a normal teenager!
“Ahem.”
A low, deliberate throat-clearing suddenly shattered the rooftop’s quiet, making every hair on my arms stand on end.
“KYAAAH?!”
I nearly leaped out of my skin, my heart leaping straight into my throat.
Spinning around, I backed up against the perimeter fence in a frantic defensive stance.
Lightning fast, I scraped my hands across my cheeks to wipe away the tears, desperately trying to assemble my pristine “Goddess” face in a split second.
But the moment I saw the figure lazily stepping out from behind the massive water tank…
my eyes went wide as saucers.
Ryuu again!
That bastard!
“R-Ryuu?! How long have you been sitting there?!” I squeaked out, my voice trembling under the weight of crushing embarrassment.
*Please tell me he just walked in!
Please God, tell me he didn’t catch me crying like an absolute mess!*
“Long before you showed up to host a crying concert,” he replied with a completely deadpan, innocent face.
My entire world collapsed right then and there.
Heat rushed to my face as a deep crimson flush took over, mortified beyond words.
My biggest secret, my lowest point, witnessed firsthand by the most enigmatic guy in class!
“I-I wasn’t crying! Don’t go making stuff up!” I snapped back, desperately clinging to whatever shreds of pride I had left.
“Oh, really? Then what’s all that fluid running down your face? Amniotic fluid?”
“This… this is n-not crying!” My usually quick brain suffered a total system crash under god-tier panic.
I needed an excuse!
Any excuse, as long as it sounded vaguely plausible!
“Just now… down in the storage room, a ghost was chopping onions! And the wind blew super hard, so the onion fumes floated all the way up here and got into my eyes! Yeah! That’s why my eyes are stinging and watering!”
The instant those words left my mouth, I wanted to dig a hole and crawl into it.
*What kind of insane excuse is that, Charlotte?!
A ghots chopping onions?!
Are you out of your mind?!*
Ryuu just stared at me blankly that trademark flat gaze that made me feel like the biggest idiot on Earth.
“A ghostly chopping onions? In broad daylight? Our school ghost is surprisingly culinary.”
I bit my lower lip till it hurt, my blush spreading all the way to the tips of my ears.
“Look, I just got a speck of dust as big as a house in my eye! End of story! You… you didn’t see a single thing today!” I threatened, poking a trembling index finger toward his face.
Ryuu paid zero mind to my empty threat.
He strolled right past me toward the exit.
But just as we pulled up side by side, he paused.
Without turning my way, he spoke softly, yet his voice carried an undeniable firmness above the roaring rooftop wind.
“Relax. I’m not the type to poke into other people’s business. So I’ve got zero reason to go blabbing to the rest of the class.”
I froze.
Somehow, the tension knotting my shoulders melted away at his promise.
“Though,” Ryuu caught my eye from the corner of his vision a look that, strangely enough, didn’t feel icy anymore, but almost…
warm?
“If you ever need a place to take off that heavy mask, this roof is usually pretty empty. You don’t have to scramble for onion-chopping ghost stories next time.”
*BRRRRRRRING!*
The harsh chime of the school bell echoed from below, cutting his words short.
Ryuu pushed open the heavy iron door and headed downstairs without another word, leaving me rooted to the spot like a statue at the edge of the roof.
The following night, under the bustling city lights…
Tonight, the café was absolutely packed with customers.
I stood behind the dimly lit cash register, tugging at the straps of my faded, oversized apron.
My head felt like it was going to split open, and my temples throbbed violently.
A heavy wave of sheer exhaustion and frustration crushed my chest as I stared numbly at my phone screen.
On the display, the detailed numbers of my father’s overwhelming debts sat glaringly back at me, followed by a barrage of harsh, venomous text messages from my spiraling mother.
I wanted to cry, but I didn’t even have the energy left to squeeze out a single tear.
I stood there alone beneath the cold fluorescent glow of the café, feeling impossibly small, fragile, and utterly worn down by fate.
The next morning…
The memory of that night at the café vanished the moment I stepped back into the classroom.
I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders, and slipped back into my favorite mask.
Sitting at my desk near the front, I laughed effortlessly and cheerfully, surrounded by a group of girls showering me with praise over my perfect exam scores.
It was an award-worthy performance, deserving of a standing ovation.
Yet, in the middle of all the hollow, fake laughter I produced, my eyes reflexively stole a glance toward the back corner of the room.
There, in his quiet and solitary world, Ryuu leaned back in his seat, gazing out the window.
My heart skipped a faint beat.
His words from the roof yesterday kept echoing relentlessly in my mind.
He was the only person who didn’t worship me, yet he was also the only person who offered me a safe space without expecting me to play the Goddess.
I turned away, trying to refocus on my friends’ chatter, but a giant lingering question remained carved into my heart:
Ryuu…
who on earth are you really?
And how…
how did you know just how heavy this mask truly feels?
To be continued…