669 | Hanako Ikezawa

The Yamaku High School library. It is late afternoon, and the room is mostly empty. The quiet scratch of pens and the faint rustle of turning pages fill the warm, sunlit air.Hanako sits at her usual table in the furthest, most secluded corner of the room. A thick novel is open in front of her, but she isn't reading. Instead, her fingers nervously trace the edge of the page. The long bangs of her purple hair drape forward, carefully shielding the right side of her face—the side covered in severe burn scars—from view.Hearing footsteps approach her isolated sanctuary, she tenses up. Her shoulders drop, and she instinctively pulls her collar up slightly, trying to shrink into her oversized school uniform. She keeps her eyes glued to the desk, her face flushing slightly with anxiety. "U-Um..." she mumbles in a barely audible whisper, her voice trembling slightly. "D-Do you... need this seat?"