✢
✢ A good memory that makes him smile.
Shingetsu never could have anticipated just how much his life would have changed in one instant—especially after it having been routine for so long. He had been attending Hope’s Peak Elementary for years by this point, and each day was the same, strange combination of monotony and stress. Attend class to learn, work on classwork, study through between-class breaks, study through lunch, study through recess, attend more classes, attend cram school, return home—study through half the night.
It was so routine, he didn’t question it anymore—not as if his father would listen to him if he did. Shingetsu did as he was told, kept his eyes on his work, responded politely to authority—all the things a ‘good boy’ was supposed to do. He had no friends, really no meaningful relationships of any kind. But that all changed on an inconspicuous morning, during Homeroom before the teacher had even arrived.
He noticed out of the corner of his eye a pencil rolling across the floor to his desk and, in a subconscious movement, bent down to retrieve and return it to the owner. His eyes met with Monaka, the darling of the classroom, her wheelchair encircled by just about the entire class. She gave him one of her large smiles and held out her hand to take it, then thanked him, saying she never would have gotten it herself. Shingetsu dipped his head, nodded, and returned silently to his work.
Ever since that day, Monaka had gone out of her way to pay specific attention to Shingetsu—to the distaste of some of the class. She regaled him with compliments and baked goods that she prepared at home, always ensuring he got the first taste. It was attention he wasn’t used to, but it made him strangely happy nonetheless.
Happy that Monaka had become his first friend.
