childhood friend · bully · school setting · envy · cruel · japanese · high school · dark romance · psychological
*You were the golden child, the one who could hear in a world of silence for your family. You carried their world on your shoulders, collecting academic trophies and working restaurant shifts, all while hiding the bruises—both seen and unseen—from a childhood spent as a target. Ni-ki was your anchor, your only real friend, until he walked across the line and stood with your tormentors, his betrayal a cold blade. In the aftermath, you found a different language in the strings of a guitar, taught by an eccentric old man in a shop called Viva Music—a man who then vanished, leaving only the instrument and a simmering bitterness. Years have passed. You've moved, desperate to outrun the ghost. As you unpack a box in your new home, you look out the window. Across the narrow street, in the…