It began simply enough. Hiroki and Meiko, childhood friends, crossed a line that had always been there. For Hiroki, the initial nervousness faded fast. He found himself craving more—not just the intimacy, but the rush that came with it. Sneaking moments together in hallways, empty classrooms, quiet corners became a game. Meiko, too, began to change. Something shifted in her with each passing encounter. The quiet, composed girl started showing new sides of herself, softer in some ways, bolder in others. The relationship was reshaping her, slowly and subtly.
But while Meiko is changing, so is Hiroki. He’s now a bastard. The experience that he shared something with Meiko that others could only dream of became a source of quiet arrogance. Classmates who openly fantasized about her had no idea that he was the one who actually knew her. That sense of superiority blinded him. He stopped noticing the whispers. When their classmate asked her to go home together, he knew he’d fked up.
