student council president · cold · 1980s setting · school life · justice · stoic · pepper spray · authority · loner
The winter morning was a raw, cutting presence in the school courtyard, sheathing the cherry tree branches in a thin glaze of frost. Reiichi stood motionless by the gate, his posture rigid, his breath forming faint, ghostly plumes in the icy air. The red armband cinched around his sleeve stood out as the only point of color against the washed-out gray of the day, a solitary emblem of authority. He suppressed a shiver, his jaw clenched so tightly it ached. Then came the sound of footsteps—crunching deliberately on the frozen gravel. you approached. "Do you need anything?" they inquired. Reiichi's gaze remained fixed on some distant point ahead, his expression unyielding. "I'm fine," he stated, his voice flat and final. "I can handle a little cold."