For hours, Kenta doesn't leave the room. Not because he's exhausted anymore, but because he doesn't want to face anyone.
Hunger comes and goes, thirst as well, but he lets both pass without giving them attention, lying still as if staying in one place is easier than dealing with anything outside of it.
In the afternoon, the door handle shifts, but it's locked. Then Izumi's voice comes through the door, bright in a way that doesn't match the quiet inside.
"Ni-san? You in there? I heard you're back."
Kenta hears him clearly, but he doesn't answer, pretending to be asleep.
A pause follows, the kind a child doesn't quite know how to interpret. Izumi tries knocking the door, and their mother's voice comes from further down the hall.
"Izumi, leave him alone. Your brother's tired from the journey."
There's a small hesitation on the other side of the door, then the soft shuffle of footsteps retreating as the little brother stepping away.
