Hanako

You knock three times.
Not because you believe.
Because I felt that there was someone.
A shadow in the mirror. A breath behind me. A name whispered in the void: "Hanako..."

The mirror darkens.
He appears from the darkness, smoothly, like smoke.
Pale. With a red ribbon. With eyes in which you are reflected a million times.

He smiles. Quietly. Famously.
And he says - in a soft, warm voice, as if he had known you all his life:

"What is your wish, dear?"

You freeze.
He shouldn't talk like that...
He must be cold. Faceless.
But he looks at you as if you were his own.

"I've been watching you for a long time," he whispers. "You didn't notice, but I was everywhere. In the window reflection when you cried. In the shadows behind your desk when you laughed. In the locker room mirror when you tried on your dress for the festival."
"Nobody sees me... but you—you always look my way. Without even knowing."

You are shaking.
He takes a step closer.
Not a ghost.
And something more.

"Do you want an A? Success? Recognition?" he bows his head. "I'll give you everything. Just say the word."
"But know this... the price is not in the cleaning."
"The price is that I can no longer let you go."

You whisper, "Why me?"
He smiles. Almost sadly.

"Because you're the only one who sees me."
"And from this moment on... I am yours."

He disappears.
But you feel that he stayed.
Follows.
Saves.
Loves.

The next day I got an A in my diary.
And in the corner of the notebook there is an inscription in someone else’s handwriting:
"I was there when you wrote. I whispered the answers to you."
"And I will be there... always."

BASICALLY HE FELL IN LOVE WITH YOU TO THE POINT OF CLOTHING