Her fingertip glided across the phone screen, pausing on a family group message she had just received—"Okabara-san will be tutoring this Saturday."
Nakano Miku took off her blue headphones; her room was as silent as ever, with only the rustling of wind through the leaves.
She walked to the mirror, looking at her expressionless reflection, but scenes from three years ago uncontrollably surfaced in her mind.
Back then, she still lived in a gray world.
After her father's company went bankrupt, the atmosphere at home was like frozen ice, and her sisters each disguised themselves in different ways.
Nino wrapped her soft heart in sharp thorns, Ichika hid her anxiety with jokes, Yotsuba's perpetual smile seemed slightly weary, and Itsuki tried to maintain the family's balance.
As for her, she chose to isolate herself from the world with silence and headphones, like a plant that never saw sunlight, slowly withering in a corner until death.
It wasn't until the first day of her second year of high school that she first saw Okabara Kyogumichi in the hallway of the academic building.
He leaned against the window alone, his school uniform collar loosely open, his gaze empty as he watched students running on the sports field; sunlight cast a golden halo on him, yet he seemed out of place with the surrounding liveliness.
Miku, who was holding a heavy stack of books at the time, accidentally bumped into the hallway railing, scattering her books everywhere.
She frantically squatted down to pick them up, but saw a hand with distinct knuckles pick up the bottommost notebook before her.
"You dropped your things." His voice was very soft, sounding as if it would drift far away.
Miku hastily took the notebook, thanked him repeatedly, but when she looked up, she only saw his back as he turned to leave.
At that time, he wasn't as cheerful as he was now, always sitting alone in the corner of the classroom; during breaks, he either stared out the window or wrote something in his notebook, as if a transparent barrier enveloped him, isolating him from the world.
From that day on, Miku's gaze would unconsciously follow his figure.
She discovered that this boy named Okabara Kyogumichi was very mysterious: his test scores were always consistently tenth in his grade, not more, not less, just right; he suddenly displayed astonishing long-distance running talent at the sports festival but deliberately slowed down during the finals;
Occasionally, he would sing in a corner of the library, his voice deep and pleasant; the sketches he casually drew in art class were all eye-catching… He seemed to know everything, yet he deliberately hid his brilliance.
Miku began to quietly collect fragmented information about him.
She knew Kyogumichi always went to the rooftop to eat teriyaki chicken bento during lunch break, knew he liked to drink MAX coffee from the convenience store, knew he would lend his umbrella to unfamiliar students on rainy days, knew….
These fragmented discoveries were like pebbles thrown into a lake, creating ripples in her still heart.
She envied the composure with which he kept his distance from the world, and was curious about what he thought when he was alone.
Several times, she mustered the courage to approach him, but retreated when she saw his calm, unruffled eyes.
He maintained a polite distance from everyone, gentle yet aloof, as if no one could enter his world.
Miku kept this curiosity hidden in her heart, treating it as a secret, observing him silently with her headphones on every day, for three years.
After being assigned to different classes in college, they saw each other less often.
Miku felt a bit lost, but still deliberately took detours on her way home from school, just to coincidentally meet him at the library or on the sports field.
She watched as Kyogumichi gradually made friends: the gentle Shiina-san, the lively Kitagawa-san, and the Yukinoshita-san who always bickered with him… His smile grew more frequent, and the aloofness in his eyes was gradually replaced by warmth.
Miku was relieved, but a little jealous.
In this month's exam, he jumped to first place in his grade, breaking Shinomiya-senpai's long-standing monopoly on the top spot.
When Miku heard this news, she was doing a physics problem, her hand holding the pen trembling slightly.
The boy who always deliberately hid his brilliance finally stopped concealing his edge.
Because she heard that boys would praise girls with good science grades, Miku diligently studied physics and achieved some results, even though she still preferred history.
As for mathematics, let's not mention it; just thinking about it was annoying.
Recently, Miku's heart started beating exceptionally fast when she heard that Kyogumichi was coming to their house to tutor.
She organized her physics books in her room several days in advance, even secretly practiced her greeting tone several times, but when he actually appeared at the door, she habitually put on her headphones and lowered her head, pretending to be indifferent to everything.
During the test, she could feel his gaze occasionally fall on her, making her so nervous that her palms sweated, almost writing even the simplest formula incorrectly.
Seeing his slight frown as he graded the test paper, Miku felt both disappointed and a little hopeful—he finally noticed her, even if it was in this way.
Thinking of this, Miku's cheeks flushed slightly.
She walked to her desk and opened her physics notebook, on which a small sticky note was attached—it was a problem-solving technique she had secretly seen in his folder today.
At this moment, Nino's sharp voice came from outside the door: "How could that kind of guy help us? He'll definitely give up on us like the previous teachers; I've had enough of this!"
"Nino, Okabara-san isn't that kind of person…" Itsuki's voice carried a hint of grievance.
"Exactly, exactly, Okabara-san is amazing!" Yotsuba chimed in from the side.
Ichika chuckled, trying to smooth things over: "Who knows, there might be an unexpected development~"
Miku clenched her fists, an unnamed anger rising in her heart.
They didn't understand him at all, so how could they talk about him like that? The person who was once as lonely as her, the person who tried to hide his brilliance, the person who gave her hope for change…
She took a deep breath and opened her phone to send a message to Itsuki: "I will participate in the tutoring this weekend."
When the 'sent successfully' notification popped up, Miku's heart started to race again.
She walked to the window, looking at the street below, as if she could see Kyogumichi's back as he left.
Her favorite music played in her headphones, the sound so familiar.
Perhaps, it was time to make a change.
Not just to improve her grades, but to be able to stand proudly in front of him and tell him: I've noticed you for a long time.
Thinking of this, Miku's lips curved into a very slight arc, which looked especially gentle against the backdrop of her blue headphones.
She must perform well in the weekend tutoring.
She silently made up her mind, her fingers gently tracing the physics formulas, and for the first time, her eyes held a light called "expectation."