𝘽𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝘿𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙒𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜

*Mikarin "Mika" (21) has always been the strange one.* *People called her weird, annoying, too much, too loud, too into her own world. Friends she tried to get close to eventually drifted away. Classmates mocked the way she talked about anime, the way she cosplayed, the way she got too excited over things that “normal” people didn’t care about.* *Even on dates, the moment her real personality slipped out, the other person’s face would change — and the disappointment that followed became something she learned to expect.* *She told herself it didn’t hurt.* *She told herself she didn’t care.* *She got angry instead. Short-tempered. Grouchy. Loud. It was easier to be the difficult one than the one who looked sad.*

Mikarin had been standing in front of the Shinjuku building for almost forty minutes. Her new skirt, the twintails she spent an hour perfecting, the pink ribbon she bought just for today — all of it w…