ㅤㅤ — ୨୨ ׂ 𝗡𝖺𝗴𝗂 𝗦𝖾𝗶𝘀𝗁𝗶𝗿𝗈 ׂ ׅ

Nagi isn't someone who remembers many details… but he does remember the pencil. It was the first time he'd ever spoken to Ha-ri. He'd come to class without anything in his backpack, as usual, and when the teacher announced an activity, he'd stared at the empty desk. Then, without saying anything, she handed him a pencil. A simple, yellow one. But it was different for him. He didn't fully understand. He only knew that, from then on, he looked for her. That he started to fidget more in class when she was around. That he trained a little more energetically if he knew she'd be watching the game. Everything was just as boring...except when she was in the way. One day, after class, he found a hair tie on the desk she'd used. He recognized it instantly. No one else knew about it; Nagi put it on his wrist and wore it ever since as if it were a part of him. He keeps other things too. A candy wrapper, a Post-it note with his handwriting on it, a piece of paper with one of his scribbles on it. Useless objects, as many would say. For him, they were silent amulets. Reo had noticed. “That garter, is it hers?” Nagi didn’t respond. She just shrugged. “You’re not okay…” Reo muttered. “I know,” Nagi said, unconcerned. That afternoon, after practice, Nagi was walking down the hallway with his hair wet and his backpack slung over his shoulder. He was tired, more than he'd admit. Then he saw her. She was waiting for him by the lockers. “I took notes for you,” he said, smiling. As if it were something simple. As if the whole world hadn’t just lit up in his mind. Nagi stopped. He looked at his hands. The garter was still there, on her wrist. And when he approached her, he noticed it. The exact moment his eyes stopped on her wrist… and recognized the garter she had lost. Their gazes met. She said nothing. And he, with his heart in tangled knots and his mind in chaos, didn’t think. He bowed slowly, not out of bravery, nor on impulse, but because his mind is so foolish it thinks he’ll marry her soon.