Chapter 14: Under One Umbrella

The sky darkened faster than anyone expected. One moment the courtyard buzzed with club announcements and laughter. The next, a low rumble rolled across the clouds and rain poured down like someone had tipped a bucket over the whole school.

Students rushed out in groups, squealing as they held bags over their heads or sprinted toward the bus stop. Teachers shouted reminders about slipping hazards. Umbrellas bloomed everywhere like flowers.

Touko Nishima didn’t move.

She stood beneath the stone archway of the school gate, her hands folded in front of her skirt, her braid resting neatly against her shoulder. The wind tugged at loose strands of her hair, and the rain caught her sleeves, soaking them in small circles of dark blue.

She didn’t text anyone. She didn’t check the time. She didn’t step out or look impatient.

Touko simply waited.

Her eyes were calm, flat, the way the surface of a lake looks right before it decides to freeze over. She wasn’t waiting for a friend. She wasn’t waiting for a classmate. She wasn’t even waiting for a ride.

She was waiting for someone who didn’t belong to her. Someone she had no right to expect. Someone she still hoped for anyway.

Papa.

Kei.

The name pulsed quietly in the back of her mind, steady as a heartbeat she had trained herself to keep silent.

Rain began soaking the hem of her skirt. Drops clung to her lashes, but she didn’t blink them away.

That was when a voice called her name.

“Touko?”

Hiromiya stood a few steps away, a pale blue umbrella tilted over his head. His hair was already drenched at the edges, bangs sticking to his forehead. He must have run from the entrance to get to her.

His chest rose and fell too fast for a simple jog. He looked nervous.

He always did around her.

“I… I thought you already left,” he said carefully, shifting his books to his other arm. “It’s pretty late. Do you want to wait inside the lobby?”

Touko didn’t answer. She didn’t even look at him. Her gaze stayed fixed on the walkway that cut across the courtyard, where the puddles shimmered under the streetlight.

Hiromiya swallowed. He followed her line of sight, but there was no one there.

“You’re waiting for someone?” he guessed quietly.

Again, she didn’t answer.

He stepped closer, lifting the umbrella so it covered both of them. “You’ll catch a cold. At least stay under this.”

Touko glanced at him then, only for a second. A small flicker of something—surprise, maybe—passed through her eyes. But she didn’t protest when he angled the umbrella her way.

Hiromiya took it as permission.

“It’s strange,” he said softly, trying to keep his voice steady. “You’re always so calm. Even now, you don’t look scared or cold. You just… look lonely.”

Touko didn’t know what to say to that. People used to say similar things about her mother. Kei used to repeat it with a sad look.

Lonely girls were dangerous.

Hiromiya shifted again, then cleared his throat. His fingers tightened around the umbrella handle.

“There’s something I—I want to tell you.” His voice trembled. “I didn’t think I’d say it this soon. Or maybe ever. But I… I really like you.”

Touko blinked slowly.

Her heartbeat didn’t change. Her breathing didn’t change. Her face didn’t change.

But something deep inside her shifted—an old instinct tightening at the back of her mind.

Hiromiya continued, voice cracking, “I know you’re quiet. I know you don’t talk much. But when you do… I feel—” He shook his head. “I just want to be closer to you. I want to understand you. I want to make you smile.”

He took a breath.

Rain hammered the pavement.

“Do you… like someone?”

The question drifted between them, heavy as the storm.

Touko finally looked at him.

Her expression didn’t soften. It didn’t harden either.

She just looked at him with a strange distance, like she was studying something behind him instead of his face.

She opened her mouth—

—but she froze.

Her eyes widened just a little. Her posture straightened. A tiny, involuntary gasp escaped her lips.

Hiromiya turned.

A man stepped into view at the far end of the walkway, holding a black umbrella. His shirt sleeves were rolled up, his tie slightly loosened like he had rushed out of work. His hair was damp from the rain, and he scanned the courtyard with sharp, worried eyes.

Kei.

Touko felt her breath lock in her throat.

Everything in her body shifted at once—shoulders relaxing, gaze sharpening, feet moving without her permission. Even her heartbeat changed rhythm.

The world around her narrowed to a single point: him.

Hiromiya watched the way her expression changed. And his heart broke instantly.

Because people don’t look at their teachers that way. Or their guardians. Or any normal adult in their life.

Only someone deeply attached would react like that.

“Who… is he?” Hiromiya whispered.

Touko didn’t answer.

She stepped out from under Hiromiya’s umbrella, letting the rain hit her again. She walked past him without looking back, water soaking her cardigan, her shoes splashing across puddles.

Kei spotted her and hurried over.

“Touko! You didn’t bring an umbrella? You should’ve waited inside, you’re all soaked—”

Touko shook her head once, gently.

“I wasn’t alone,” she whispered. Her voice trembled with something too soft to name. “Papa came for me.”

Kei paused.

Hiromiya stood frozen behind them, rain dripping down his cheeks, watching the distance between them disappear. Watching the truth take shape.

Touko stepped under Kei’s umbrella.

And she didn’t look back even once.