(Mei Yamagishi's POV)
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There was a lie people liked to believe about girls like her:
That they didn't fall in love.
Not really.
Not foolishly.
Not first.
They were the ones who smiled knowingly. Who left before they were left. Who were admired and desired, but never desperate. Never shaken.
And maybe, once, that had been true of Mei Yamagishi.
But that was before she met Alex Aizawa.
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She noticed him last winter.
Not the way everyone else did — not for the jokes, or the lazy charm, or the high test scores he pretended not to care about.
She noticed the stillness.
That quiet sadness behind his eyes, barely visible beneath the way he tilted his head when listening. The way his smile never quite reached his cheekbones. The careful pause between laughter and silence.
People like Mei had trained their whole lives to read a room.
She could smell heartbreak like perfume.
And Alex wore it like cologne.
---
She approached him slowly at first.
A question here. A hallway comment there. She didn't flirt.
Not yet.
She observed.
And what she saw fascinated her.
Because he didn't react to praise.
He brushed it off.
Compliments didn't reach him. Attention didn't sway him. Nothing clung to him — like he had made peace with the idea that nothing ever could.
That intrigued her.
And unsettled her.
So she began testing the lines — casual conversations, subtle teasing.
He smiled, as expected.
But never leaned in.
Not like the others did.
> What are you hiding, Aizawa-kun?
> And why do I want to see it so badly?
---
Then came the piano.
She'd forgotten about it.
Until she heard him playing again in the music building last week.
She hadn't meant to eavesdrop.
But once she heard the first note — soft, trembling, almost frightened — she couldn't move.
He didn't know she was there.
Didn't know he was being watched.
And in that moment, she saw him for the first time.
> Not the boy everyone adored.
Not the smile.
Not the clever mask.
But the boy with trembling hands, pulling music from a place that hurt to touch.
---
After that, she couldn't stay away.
---
April 15th – Friday
She had timed it well.
Not deliberately. She wasn't that obsessive.
But when she found him at the lockers that morning, alone and distracted, she didn't hesitate.
> "You've grown taller again."
It was a test.
He passed — a small smile, a polite answer, a soft laugh.
He didn't flirt back.
That only made her like him more.
> "Walk with me?"
He agreed.
And for a fleeting moment, Mei felt something strange inside her chest.
Not conquest.
Not satisfaction.
But warmth.
The kind that scared her because it didn't belong in her world of perfect exits and elegant detachment.
---
She watched him during piano club, laughing at something Airi said, easing into the room more and more.
There was something magnetic about it.
About him — letting himself be seen again, piece by careful piece.
And Mei felt something she hadn't felt in years:
Envy.
But not toward Airi.
No.
Toward a girl who hadn't even walked into the room.
---
She saw her, of course. In the hallway.
Reina Aizawa.
Alex's stepsister. Quiet. Guarded. Distant.
Mei had always thought Reina was the type to fade into the background.
But now she saw something else in her eyes.
Fire.
Fear.
Possessiveness.
> So she's in love with him too.
That realization didn't upset Mei.
It excited her.
Because it meant this wasn't going to be easy.
And easy was boring.
---
Evening – Back at Home
Mei sat at her piano bench, staring at the keys.
She hadn't played in months.
Not since university applications had swallowed her free time. Not since student council work blurred her days together.
But tonight, her fingers ached.
She touched the first chord of the nocturne he'd been playing.
Felt it tremble under her skin.
Then closed the lid.
> He plays it better.
Not technically.
Emotionally.
Because for all her polish, all her poise, Mei Yamagishi had never known the kind of pain Alex Aizawa lived with.
And for the first time in her life…
She hated that she didn't.
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