While I was looking for more information about the movie release, I saw him come out of the school's main entrance. I looked at him and signaled him to come over. I noticed he was alone. Evidently, the other boy was still inside the building.

This time, we headed home together. What had happened at school no longer gave any reason for my many thoughts about our acquaintance to exist.

On the way home, my eyes were involuntarily drawn several times to his face, covered in wounds and bruises. Most likely because I was the cause of that scuffle and, indirectly, also the main culprit. Not that I didn't appreciate the gesture he made to defend me, but the use of force could perhaps have been avoided.

I wanted to say something, anything, to thank him and apologize, but I felt too guilty, and the words wouldn't come out. In the end, to fill the awkward silence that had formed, I brought up the first thing that came to mind.

"What did they say? Will they take measures?" I asked.

"Not this time. Given the isolated incident and the fact that I'm a new student, they said they won't inform anyone at home. But if it happens again, they'll take measures."

Walking along, we came across a children's playground. He stopped in the middle of the park and pointed with his finger to a spot a little further ahead.

"Let's sit on the swing," he said simply.

We sat down and fell back into the same awkward silence as before. My question had been useless. I gently swung on the swing. He was the one to speak first this time.

"How long have they been bothering you like this?" he asked me with a weary air, turning his head toward me.

"Well... let's say I've gone through various phases. Don't worry about it."

"HOW CAN YOU STAY SO CALM!?" he said angrily, raising his voice.

"It's always been like this. I'm used to it by now."

"Don't talk nonsense. Why have you never rebelled? Does your aunt know? I bet the teachers don't know anything about this, otherwise they would never have allowed it. They wouldn't even have taken your backpack."

"How do you know about the backpack?"

"As I was leaving the classroom, I saw someone throwing something out the window, but I didn't get there in time to see who it was. Right after, I saw you running toward the courtyard and put two and two together. Then, while I was heading to the rooftop, I saw you with that idiot. It's useless to tell me it's nothing; I saw how you were trembling with fear. It's because of these acts that you were about to sui..."

While he was talking, I looked him straight in the eyes and, without realizing it, warm tears began to streak down my face. I tried to stop them and wipe them away, but they refused to stop. I was so happy to hear such kind words directed at me. I was so happy that I felt my heart in my throat.

"Tha... thank you," I said, sobbing.

What else could I say to him? Finally, a ray of light had come to illuminate my solitary path of growth. Finally, I had found a person with whom I could be myself and open up without being judged. For a moment, I thought about telling him everything I had been carrying for years. It was something I had kept inside for too long, and he, in my eyes, had become the only trustworthy person I could tell it to. But at that moment, the only word I kept repeating was one.

"Thank you," I said once more.

"You shouldn't thank me. I'm your friend, so it was natural for me to help you."

"That's exactly why I'm thanking you. No one had ever stuck their neck out for me like that, and no one had ever considered me a friend. But you did. But now that I'm so happy, I'm also afraid that they'll go after you and that you too, as has happened in the past, will abandon me."

"Do you want to tell me about it? I want to know more," he asked.

"What exactly?"

"Everything. I want to know everything. Maybe I'll seem pushy, but I want to know what's inside you. Actually, there's something I've wanted to ask you for a while, but I haven't had the courage to."

"Which is?"

"Why do you live with your aunt? Where are your parents?"

That question was like an arrow to the chest. The greatest burden I carried was the memory of what happened to my parents and my family.

"You know, the reason I live with my aunt and the reason I was and still am bullied are, in a way, connected, even if indirectly."

While Yuto-kun paid extremely close attention to my words, I began to carefully observe the sky.

"For as long as I can remember, there have always been problems in my family, but over time things got heavier and heavier. During my adolescence, especially in middle school, we had financial problems, and my father struggled to find work. During that period, food was a way for me to vent, so I started gaining weight. Needless to say, I was targeted for this. I had a friend, but she also started receiving the same treatment just because she was on good terms with me, so to be left alone, she started tormenting me just like the others."

"Is that why you didn't want others to find out that we already knew each other?"

"Yes, exactly that. But that wasn't the thing that destroyed me the most. One evening, my father came home, and during yet another argument with my mother, he killed her. He stabbed her."

I turned my gaze toward him to see his expression. He had an incredulous and sorry look, the look of someone who didn't know what to do after hearing such a story. The only thing he could do was stay by my side and keep listening. Crying harder and harder, I told him:

"When he killed her, I didn't hear anything; I was sleeping. The next morning, when I went to the kitchen, I saw my mother's body with a knife stuck in her chest. My father wasn't there; he had only left a note on the table that said: 'See you soon, sweetheart.' I haven't heard from him since. The police never found him."

I crossed my arms, hugging myself tighter and tighter, and lowered my gaze to the floor.

The weight I carried was also due to the fact that on the day of the accident, I had felt useless. When all this happened, I was sleeping peacefully in my bed, unaware of everything. I didn't even hear my mother's screams. I couldn't do anything. Sometimes I wondered what would have happened if, by chance, I had woken up. If in that case I could have done something.

Maybe if I had shown up in the kitchen a few minutes before that argument, my parents wouldn't have fought. Maybe things would have gone differently; my mother would be here, and we would all three live in the same house, overcoming all our problems. The memory of the three of us eating at the same table like a happy family had crossed my mind many times. The mere thought that he might come back made my blood run cold. In that case, I wouldn't know how to behave. Thinking that I could still meet the gaze of the man who killed my mother terrified me.

"I still live with the fear that one day he might come back. I was taken into custody by my aunt, even though she wasn't really my aunt but my mother's best friend. Even though she was divorced and had a small child to take care of, she took me into her home and did everything to make me feel good and not lack anything. She asked me to spread the word about this as little as possible. When I started high school, I found most of the kids from my old school there. They started spreading rumors about me and my supposed relationships with older men. So my reputation sank even before I began my high school journey." I got up from the swing. "My pain comes from a greater pain," I said.

I turned toward him and looked him straight in the eyes. Because of the tears, his face appeared blurry to me.

"You've seen what's inside me? A complete mess."

He suddenly got up from the swing and came toward me. He opened his arms and wrapped them around me. He was hugging me. I was confused by his gesture and blushed slightly from embarrassment.

"I'm sorry. It's the only thing I can do," he said resignedly before pulling away. Then his eyes took on a more determined expression. "No, actually, I can do something else. It doesn't matter if they decide to target me; I have no intention of turning my back on you. This time you won't be alone; there will be two of us. Got it?"

I stared at him for a moment, stunned by his words.

"Thank you," I said, then burst out laughing.

"And now what's gotten into you?"

"Sorry, but I can't take you seriously with your face looking like that."

"Well... you ruined a nice moment," he said, sighing, while I kept laughing.

The next day at school, everyone was talking about nothing but what had happened the day before. In the hallways, all anyone talked about was the fight started by the boy who had just transferred, as if the other boy hadn't done anything. Fortunately for me, no one had directly addressed me yet to talk about what happened; everyone just gossiped. That same day, once the bell signaling the start of lunch break rang, Yuto-kun did something unexpected. At the end of the lesson, instead of going directly to the rooftop, he came to my desk while I was putting my things in my backpack.

"Ayame, hurry up! Grab everything and come with me."

"Hey, what's wrong? Why..."

"Grab your things and come on, hurry!"

I hastily threw the last things left on my desk into my backpack and followed him—or rather, I was forced to follow him because he took me by the hand and started running, dragging me through the whole school. I didn't understand the reason for all this haste. I thought something had happened regarding the fight from the day before, that we were in trouble and that's why we were rushing to the principal's office or the teachers' lounge. But instead, Yuto-kun dragged me down the stairs, then outside the building, and into the center of the school courtyard. I was out of breath; I bent forward slightly to catch my breath. We had literally landed in the middle of the courtyard when, at a certain point, in the middle of the kids eating lunch peacefully, he started shouting at the top of his lungs:

"LISTEN UP! I AM FRIENDS WITH MAEDA-SAN. ANYONE WHO DARES TO DO ANYTHING TO HER WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH ME. LET'S SEE IF YOU'LL HAVE THE COURAGE TO PICK A FIGHT WITH SOMEONE WHO CAN STAND UP TO YOU!"

The kids, including me, were stunned by the scene. Some started murmuring among themselves, others got up and changed places. My eyes widened and I stared at him.

What had gotten into him?

Why had he done something like that?

It was as if he had openly declared war on the whole school.

Still holding my hand, he led me to the shade of a tree in the courtyard. We sat down there and started eating.

"Why did you do it?"

"I told you. There will be two of us. You won't be alone this time."

Eating at school in the presence of other people felt strange to me, but it wasn't so bad; it made me happy. No one came near us during that time.

While we were eating, Yuto-kun, as if surprising me had become a habit, asked me an unexpected question.

"Would you like to go out with me this Sunday?"