Chapter 17: I Spoke, and No One Listened
Yumi didn't sleep.
Not really.
She tossed. Sat up. Scrolled through their old texts. Re-read every dumb insult he ever threw at her like they were poetry. Her chest ached in that hollow, quiet way grief does when it's just beginning to rot something inside you.
In the morning, she went straight to the office.
No makeup. No filter.
Just purpose.
"I want to talk about Akiro Sato's transfer," she told the secretary.
The woman blinked. "Are you a guardian?"
"I'm the only person who gives a damn whether he disappears."
Ten minutes later, she was seated in front of the guidance counselor — a man who always smiled too wide and spoke like everything was fine, even when someone bled on his floors.
He folded his hands.
"I understand this is difficult—"
"No, you don't."
He cleared his throat. "Yumi, sometimes placement changes are what's best—"
"Did he ask for it?"
A pause.
"Did you ask him what he wanted?"
More silence.
Her voice cracked, but she didn't stop:
"You think moving him will fix everything? You think taking him away from the only place he's finally opening up in will undo the years he spent being treated like trash?"
"Yumi—"
"I saw him after his father left him on the floor. I heard him cry through the door. Did you? No. You read the report and filed it under 'tragic case number 104.'"
He sighed.
"We're trying to protect him."
"You're trying to erase him."
They didn't listen.
Of course they didn't.
She left the office with shaking fists and fire behind her eyes.
Reiko found her on the stairs after lunch.
"Hey."
Yumi didn't answer.
Reiko handed her a folded note.
"He told me to give you this if you fought for him."
Yumi blinked. "He knew I would?"
Reiko shrugged. "Guess he still believes in you more than he says."
The note was short.
Written in Akiro's awful, jagged handwriting:
If I go, I want you to keep the hoodie.Not because it matters.But because you do.
A
And Yumi?
She smiled.
A broken, furious smile.
Because she wasn't done.
Not even close.
If the world was going to take Akiro from her, it would have to fight for him.