Chapter 2: 

                                                                                  Her Name Was Yui

The school day moved forward like a quiet river—flowing around Haruka Renji, not through him.

Beside him, Amamiya Yui seemed to settle into her new surroundings with quiet confidence. She answered questions when called upon, smiled politely at her neighbors, and opened her notebook with the same delicate care as someone folding paper cranes.

She didn't speak to Renji.

Not once.

But somehow, that silence was louder than anything.

---

Lunchtime

Renji usually spent his lunch alone, sometimes on the rooftop, sometimes tucked beneath the stairs near the old music room. But today, he didn’t move. He remained at his desk, hands folded on top of his lunchbox, staring ahead while the noise in the classroom buzzed like static.

Yui, too, stayed in her seat.

She unwrapped a small bento box. Nothing flashy — simple, neat, homemade. She ate in silence, occasionally jotting something into a notebook with a brown leather cover.

A diary.

His chest tightened.

Does she still keep one...?

---

“Hey, Renji.”

A soft voice.

Not Yui’s.

Renji turned slightly to find Sena Mizuki standing beside his desk. Her short hair was pinned back with a small silver clip, and her hands were clasped nervously in front of her.

She had been his classmate since first year. Friendly. Reliable. The kind of girl who always remembered birthdays and brought extra handkerchiefs just in case.

But today, there was a hesitation in her eyes.

“Want to eat on the rooftop?” she asked, smiling, but her gaze flicked toward Yui.

Renji nodded. Not because he wanted to.

But because sitting still felt unbearable now.

He followed Sena up the stairs, the silence between them thick like the air before a summer storm.

---

On the Rooftop

The sky had cleared a little. The rain had stopped, leaving puddles shimmering across the concrete. From above, the world looked softer, less immediate.

Sena sat down, brushing her skirt beneath her. “She’s pretty,” she said, unwrapping her lunch. “The transfer student.”

Renji didn’t reply.

Sena laughed quietly. “You’ve barely spoken since she walked in.”

More silence.

Then finally, Renji said, “Her name used to be Ame Yui.”

Sena looked up, blinking. “You know her?”

“I… knew someone by that name. A long time ago.”

Sena tilted her head, lips pressing into a line. “You think she’s the same girl?”

He didn’t answer.

Instead, he remembered that day.

The umbrella.

The tiny name tag stitched inside.

The shy look she gave him when she handed it over.

No one else had believed it mattered. It had been five minutes in the rain, and she was gone. A small kindness, nothing more.

But Renji had remembered.

---

Back in the Classroom

The afternoon passed in fragments.

A chalk squeak.

A pen clicking.

Laughter echoing down the hall.

Renji glanced sideways.

Yui was writing again in that leather-covered diary. Her expression was calm, but now and then, her eyes flickered with something else—like she was searching for something in the page that wouldn’t come.

When she noticed him watching, she looked up.

For a second, their eyes met.

And this time…

She smiled.

It wasn’t forced.

It wasn’t empty.

It felt like a question.

And Renji, still holding the past like an unopened letter, wondered—

 Does she really not remember?

Or was she simply waiting for him to say something first?

---

To be continued...