The morning bell echoed through the school corridors as hundreds of students hurried toward their classrooms.
Among the crowd walked Caelum. His face looked as though he was always annoyed at the world, despite the fact that he rarely spoke at all.
As he passed, conversations quietly faded.
Whispers spread through the hallway.
Students stepped aside without realizing they were doing it.
No one greeted him.
No one stopped him.
To everyone else, he looked like the type of person who would start a fight over the smallest inconvenience.
But appearances had always been misleading.
Two second-year boys came running around the corner, laughing with each other.
Neither noticed him.
Just before they bumped into him, Caelum calmly stepped aside.
"Excuse me."
The two students froze.
"...S-Sorry, sir!"
They bowed so quickly they almost dropped their bags.
Caelum blinked in confusion before holding out a notebook.
"The teacher asked me to give this to you."
The two boys stared at him for a moment before carefully accepting it.
"T-Thank you..."
Caelum simply nodded and continued walking.
Behind him, one of the boys whispered,
"...He's actually polite."
The other slowly nodded.
"...Still scary, though."
Classes passed as quietly as every other day.
When lunch arrived, the classroom filled with conversations.
Caelum quietly opened his lunchbox near the window.
Outside, students laughed as they played on the field.
The smell of freshly cooked lunches drifted through the room.
No one asked to sit beside him.
No one tried to start a conversation.
It wasn't because they hated him.
They were simply afraid of him.
Caelum had long since stopped caring.
Or at least...
That's what he told himself.
School ended.
As the campus emptied, Caelum walked home through a narrow alley.
Waiting there were three older students.
"There he is."
The tallest of them stepped forward with a
grin, lazily chewing gum.
"Scary face."
The others laughed.
One shoved him against the wall.
Another grabbed the strap of his school bag.
"You think you're cool just because you're tall?"
Caelum remained silent.
His fists slowly tightened.
He knew he could fight back.
He simply chose not to.
Fighting back wouldn't change anything.
The punches came anyway.
A kick to his side.
A fist against his cheek.
When they finally grew bored, they laughed and walked away.
The alley became quiet once again.
Caelum picked up his fallen bag.
He brushed the dust from his uniform.
Then quietly continued walking home as though nothing had happened.
The apartment greeted him with silence.
He unlocked the front door.
No "Welcome home."
No footsteps.
No lights waiting for him.
Only an empty room.
He quietly changed his clothes, washed the blood from the corner of his mouth, and wrapped a bandage around his bruised hand.
Dinner was the same as yesterday.
A bowl of instant noodles.
He ate alone.
The only sound in the room was the steady ticking of the kitchen clock.
After washing the dishes, he walked into his bedroom.
On the small desk beside his bed rested a single framed photograph.
A smiling man.
A gentle woman.
And a little boy standing between them.
Caelum stared at the frame for a few seconds.
He gently adjusted it until it stood perfectly straight.
The smiles in the photograph hadn't changed.
Then, in a voice so quiet that only the empty room could hear, he whispered,
"Good night... Mom."
"...Dad."
He turned off the light.
And the room fell into silence once more.
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