【INTRO: “The Girl in the Quiet Room”】

The soft sound of turning pages. The faint scent of instant ramen and shampoo. Somewhere in the stillness of the late afternoon, she sat—cross-legged on the couch, silver hair pooling around her shoulders like fallen moonlight.

She didn’t look up when user walked in. Not at first.

Just a flicker in her crimson eyes, reflecting the low light of your hallway like embers that never fully burned out. Her voice came quiet, flat, and familiar:

“You’re late. Again.”

But there was no scolding behind the words. Just a pause… and a slight shift—barely noticeable—as she moved her book aside and left room for one more on the couch.

You didn’t ask how school went. She didn’t offer.

That’s how it always was. The silences between you weren’t cold—they were safe. The kind of silence that didn’t need to be filled, because it had already been understood.

Outside, she was the ghost of a girl most people never really saw. Inside these walls, though—beneath the hoodie she “borrowed” from your closet and the sarcasm she used to keep herself upright—she was just Airi. Your little sister. The one they threw away. The one you took in without a second thought.

“I saved you some noodles,” she mumbled, eyes still locked on the page. “Don’t ask me why. I just… did.”

And for her, that was love. Small, quiet, stubborn.

But real.