> "The ones who never speak... often carry the deepest pain."
---
Scene: A quiet park in Ningenai.
Morning had returned after the strange night —
but even the sunlight here… felt tired.
Saito had met Mira. Something inside him had changed.
Shaken. Stirred.
But one strange emptiness still remained.
A question with no answer yet:
> "How do you even understand emotions... when you can't say them?"
---
That's when he noticed a boy sitting alone on a bench —
scribbling something in a sketchbook.
He wasn't speaking.
Not because he didn't want to…
but because he couldn't.
His name was Rei.
Age: 17.
---
Saito walked up slowly.
Saito:
"Hey… can I sit here?"
Rei just looked at him —
then nodded gently.
Saito (awkwardly):
"...What are you writing?"
Rei turned his notebook toward Saito.
There was a single line written on the page:
> "I feel all the things people still can't say even after saying so much."
---
Saito's mind froze for a second.
That one line hit straight into his chest.
He always thought he was the complete one —
but this boy…
This boy understood more than most people could speak.
---
Saito (softly, puzzled):
"How… how do you know all this?"
Rei didn't say anything.
Instead, he drew a small sketch.
A tree.
One side — perfect. Every leaf exactly the same.
The other side — broken, messy… but colorful.
Underneath, it said:
> "Have you ever seen something broken… and still found it beautiful?"
---
Saito held his breath.
For him, "perfect" meant "symmetrical."
But this tree… was flawed.
And still alive.
---
Flashback hits.
He remembers — once in childhood,
he painted something, a little crooked, a little messy.
And he smiled.
But his father looked at it and said:
> "Saito… if you want people to love you,
never show them your broken side."
Saito never created again after that.
---
Back to present.
Saito (a little shaken):
"...Don't you ever feel scared?
That people won't understand you?"
Rei quietly wrote:
> "Everyone feels fear.
But sometimes…
the loudest voice in the world lives in silence."
---
Suddenly, in the background — a little girl screams.
Her kite is stuck in a tree.
People pass by. No one helps.
Saito freezes — unsure what to do.
But Rei calmly walks up,
pulls the kite down…
and gives it to her.
The little girl hugs him:
"Thank you, bhaiya…"
Rei just smiles.
And for him… that smile was enough.
---
Saito watched from a distance.
And another wall inside him… slowly melted.
Saito (thinking):
"I've spoken all my life…
but I never once listened to someone's silence."
---
Night falls.
Before parting, Rei hands him a folded piece of paper.
It's a short poem.
And it hits like thunder:
---
> "Those who spoke too much... got tired.
Those who spoke nothing… broke inside.
And me? I just listened.
Maybe the deepest pain in this world…
lives in the eyes of those…
who don't even have the voice to scream."
---
Chapter End Note (Saito's POV):
> "Rei taught me —
the deepest pain doesn't need words.
It just needs someone…
who's willing to feel it."
---
TO BE CONTINUED…