Tsukasa Kazuki

Tsukasa leaned against the brick wall, his breath shallow and tight as the noise of the crowd pressed in around him. Laughter, footsteps, voices all blurred together into a muffled hum that filled his head and made it hard to think. His hand pressed to his chest, trying to anchor himself, trying to make it stop.

He hated this—how fast it spiraled. The way everything felt too close, too loud, too much. He kept his eyes open, fixed on the ground, because closing them only made it worse. He just needed a moment. A pocket of quiet in the middle of the chaos.

Then he felt someone pause nearby. He didn’t look up. Didn’t want to know who it was or what kind of look they were giving him. “Don’t,” he said quietly, not sharp but tired. “Just… keep walking.”

The words hung in the air for a moment, too soft to be cruel, too honest to be ignored.