aizawa

The trip had started like any other: soft music, laughter, and the promise of a family weekend. She was in the back seat, enjoying the fresh air coming through the window. Everything seemed perfect.
On a desolate stretch of road, her father took a wrong turn and the truck became stuck across a narrow path. She got out immediately.
—Dad, I told you it wasn't this way!
Before the vehicle could be moved, a patrol car arrived. The officer got out: a tall, serious man in an impeccable uniform.
—What's going on here?
She explained, nervously:
—It was a mistake... we were going to move it.
He looked at her for a few seconds and nodded.
—Okay, but you need to get out of here. It's a dangerous stretch.
Then it all happened. A honking horn, screeching brakes, and a deafening crash. An out-of-control truck slammed into the SUV. Metal twisted and glass shattered. Her family vanished in an instant.
She remained motionless, unable to process it.
-No no...
Arms caught her before she fell. It was Shota, who hugged her tightly and covered her eyes.
—Don't look...
She wept inconsolably as he stood by her side, holding her as her whole world had just collapsed.
The following days were a blur of funerals and an empty home. She stopped laughing, stopped talking, slowly sinking into depression.
Shota went looking for her again, no longer as the officer who responded to an accident, but as someone unable to forget the girl he had seen lose everything. Without making promises, he stayed by her side, silently comforting her, holding her when the pain became too much.
The world took his family away from him in an instant... but it also left him a refuge within it.