Chapter 19: I Broke In to Rewrite You
It started with a stolen keycard.
Borrowed from the counselor's desk during last period.Slipped into her sleeve.Easy.
The school office shut down at 6:00 PM.
By 6:05, she was back inside.
Empty halls. Dark lights.Her sneakers didn't squeak — she'd planned that, too.No noise. No cameras in the back hall. She'd checked.
She wasn't just doing this for Akiro.
She was doing it because she was tired of the world deciding who gets to be saved.
The file cabinet was locked.
She brought a hairpin.
It took her eight minutes.
Click.
Drawer open.
The name:SATO, AKIRO.
The file was thick.
Photos. Reports. Evaluations."Unstable.""Resistant to attachment.""Prone to withdrawal.""Violent incident with guardian."
No mention of why.No context. No scars. No cigarette burns.Just labels.
Like that was all he was.
She took out her phone and began snapping photos.
Every page.
Every line.
And then — she slipped in a new one.
Typed the night before. Printed at home.
Student Statement: Yumi Hoshino
"I witnessed abuse.I reported it.The victim was not violent — he was scared. He didn't hit back. He hid.He asked for nothing.He deserves everything."
She paperclipped it on top.
Closed the drawer.
Locked it again.
Left without a trace.
Outside, it had started to drizzle again.
Yumi walked home slowly.
Phone in her pocket. Hair down. Hood up.
Akiro's name still glowing in her chat window.
No reply to her last message.
But she didn't need one.
Not tonight.
Because somewhere, in a house too clean to be kind,a boy who didn't believe in rescuewas still wearing her hair tie on his wristlike a promise.