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People love wishing that they could be different and stand out from everyone else. They think being special is some kind of prize that gets others to acknowledge them and validate their existence.

I used to think the same as well. But then I learned; being different is just putting a target on your back. If you’re too quiet, they forget you exist. If you’re too loud, they think you’re annoying.

Being special, just means you’re weird. Being special means people stare a little too long, whisper a little too loudly, and laugh at you just quiet enough that you can still hear it. Standing out is just a fast way to get hammered down.

Sitting alone in a corner of the classroom was Mikazuki Kuya, a student seldom seen anywhere else throughout the school day.

As the teacher ended the lesson and the bell signalling the lunch break rang, the other students naturally gravitated away from Kuya and grouped up together in their own circles, making him seem all the more isolated.

Kuya was, of course, well-aware of his position within his environment and had long since stopped caring about changing it. He’d resigned himself to facing this situation for the next three years of his high school life.

Partway through the lunch break, as the noise in class got particularly loud, Kuya decided to leave the classroom in search of a nice and quiet spot to wait out the rest of the break.

The school Kuya attended was an old private academy built on a slope that caught the last of the sun. With halls that felt constricting and tight when used by groups of people as a space to talk with friends from other classes in between lessons.

After wandering around these halls for a good five minutes or so, Kuya decided to check the courtyard behind the school building. He’d heard people seldom go there in recent years, so it sounded like an ideal spot for him to kill time.

Making his way behind the school building, he found the courtyard grew a little wild. Grass grew unevenly with dandelions and clovers dotting them. Nearby bushes leaned out with no one having trimmed them recently. The walls had moss growing on them, and the air felt quiet, as if cut off from the rest of the world.

Deciding it was a good spot to waste time without anyone disturbing him, Kuya started heading towards the courtyard. However, as he turned the corner and looked behind one of the overgrown bushes, he saw a girl standing in the middle of the courtyard. She had medium-length light blonde hair, and wore the girls uniform with the tie worn by second years, a remnant from the school's older traditions, which meant that she was his senpai.

But what shocked Kuya most of all, was that there were various stones and shrubbery floating around her.

A few moments later, the girl turned around and froze, noticing Kuya.

“Ah…”

“…”

“…”

All of a sudden, the objects that were floating around the girl fell, with one almost hitting her foot which caused her to flinch dramatically. In the next moment, while the girl was distracted by the fallen objects, Kuya quickly turned around and ran as fast as he could.

She seemed to try to say something as Kuya fled, but the speed at which Kuya ran prevented him from making out her words.

Although Kuya was still confused as to what exactly he saw, he quickly judged that it was something he didn’t want to get involved with. Thus, he ran back inside the school building and kept running until he reached his classroom. Ignoring his classmates’ confused stares, he sat back down in his seat, as if hoping that returning to his normal routine would prevent any other abnormal happenings from approaching him.

Who the heck was that?! Why was there someone in the courtyard and more importantly, what were those floating objects next to her?! Some sort of magic trick? Like she’s using strings or something? But they were moving up and down… and that doesn’t explain what she was doing there in the first place as well.

As Kuya went in circles in his head, the lunch break ended and classes resumed. For the rest of the school day however, most of the teacher’s words didn’t reach Kuya’s ears as his mind was preoccupied by the events in the courtyard.

Once Kuya heard the sound of the last bell, signaling the end of the school day, he sighed in relief thinking perhaps he had successfully prevented himself from getting involved in something strange.

The saying “let sleeping dogs lie” was one that Kuya believed to be true. He decided that if simply avoided ever meeting that senpai and the courtyard, then he could move on pretending nothing ever happened.

He then started packing up his stuff getting ready to make his commute home as part of his normal routine. He collected the scattered stationary on his table and placed them in his pencil case. He then stacked his books on top of each other, ordering them by size, and then placing them into his bag. Finally, he grabbed his pencil case and checked the tray below his table for any items he might’ve forgotten before shoving it into his ba—

*CRACK!

A sudden loud cracking sound resounded in the classroom.

Students in the classroom looked toward the corner of the room where the sound came from, but found nothing except for Kuya’s empty table and seat. Kuya, who had been there just a few moments ago, was suddenly gone…