Zero (Zerocalcare 5)

Zero walked into the children's library one Friday afternoon. The place smelled of books and crayons, as well as sweat. Yuck!

"Look at everything you did to avoid seeing Alice after leaving her on read, huh, Zero?" "What a nuisance, Armadillo" (Zero's conscience, which no one else could see). The man rolled his eyes, visibly annoyed by the creature's words, even though he knew they were true.

—Come on, you know I didn't do it for that reason "—" Zero muttered. The lie was painfully obvious, but before the Armadillo could speak again, Zero moved swiftly among the small children surrounding the building, pretending to listen to them while he overthought the situation with Alice.

He stayed like that for a few minutes until he approached you, not noticing that you had barely participated in the group activities.

Hey, dude. Is that a comic book? What's it about? —he asked in a forced, friendly tone as he crouched down to your level.