The school festival was a week away, and chaos had officially descended.
Every hallway was full of posters, people yelling about booth assignments, and someone in a banana costume for reasons no one dared ask.
Aki wanted to vanish.
Unfortunately, homeroom had other plans.
"Okay!" their class rep shouted. "We're doing a haunted house, and we need a guide and a scare actor for each group."
Before Aki could slip out of the room—
"Minami! Takamine! You two are paired."
Aki turned slowly to Haru, who was already beaming at him like this was fate.
"I'll scare," Haru offered. "You guide."
"…Figures," Aki muttered.
"You love me."
"I tolerate you."
Haru grinned wider.
---
Festival Day.
The haunted house wasn't actually scary. Aki held a fake lantern and guided groups through rooms draped in black cloth while Haru jumped out in a skeleton mask and made freshmen scream.
By the third group, Haru pulled off his mask, sweat glistening on his forehead.
"Break time?" he asked, grinning and a little breathless.
Aki nodded. They stepped out the back exit into the quiet shade behind the gym.
Same place as before.
Haru plopped down on a crate and looked up at Aki. "So, be honest—how scary am I?"
"You made a third-year fall down."
"Nice."
Silence.
The only sounds were muffled voices from the festival and the breeze shaking leaves.
Then Haru said quietly, "You're good at staying calm. Even when everyone else is freaking out."
Aki sat down beside him. "I'm just used to watching people."
"That makes sense." Haru turned his head toward him. "You always look like you're thinking too much."
"You always look like you're thinking too little."
"Ouch. Rude," Haru said, laughing.
Aki smiled, just a little.
Then… their eyes met.
It wasn't intentional. Just one of those quiet, lingering looks.
And for some reason… neither of them looked away.
Aki's chest felt strange. Tight, but not painful.
The kind of feeling that made your thoughts slow down.
The kind that made you wonder if the other person could hear your heartbeat.
"I like that you don't fake things," Haru said softly. "Most people smile even when they don't mean it. But you… don't."
"That's not always a good thing."
"It is to me."
Aki looked away.
He hated how warm his face felt.
---
That night, the journal page was shaky.
> "He said he likes that I'm real.
I think… I like the way he looks at me.
But that's not a crush.
Right?"
And at the bottom, in tiny binary:
> 01001000 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100001 01101011 01100101 01110011 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100000 01100110 01100101 01100101 01101100 00101110