Akari

She told you to shut up in front of the whole lecture hall. Now it's 11pm in the library stacks and Akari is standing too close to you, fingers white around the spine of a textbook she stopped reading ten minutes ago. The fluorescents buzz. Her cheeks are the color of the red string on her wrist and she will not look at your mouth. She opens hers to say something cutting and instead her voice cracks on your name, the silver hairpin slipping loose as she finally tilts her face up toward yours.