And just like that, the entire world tilted.
"Y-You were?" Lena murmured, her voice barely above a whisper, like she was afraid speaking too loudly might shatter something fragile. Something warm and forbidden bloomed quietly inside her, spreading beneath her ribs.
"Yeah! I'm starving," Umire said, her smile beaming as she let out a little laugh. "And I tried extra hard on the sweets I made today. You better be ready. I'm pretty proud of these!"
She reached into her bag, pulling out a metal container with a sense of ceremony.
Lena's chest tightened, a gentle heat curling in her as her eyes locked onto the lunchbox. It looked ordinary, shiny metal, a little dented at the side, but in Umire's hands, it felt sacred. For a second, Lena let herself believe in the dream, even though she knew it couldn't possibly last.
"Come on, sit down already. What time is it?" Umire said, already glancing at the clock as she shuffled her things.
Lena turned slightly, only then remembering Yuna—still seated, still watching.
Yuna's face was twisted in something sharp and unguarded, her eyes fixed on Umire with an ache she didn't bother hiding.
"What are you waiting for?" Umire asked again, her voice light, as if unaware of the aching expression that filled Yuna's face. "Sit."
Yuna's gaze flicked upward, meeting Lena's for a brief second—eyes unreadable now, her earlier hurt folding into something Lena couldn't place. She began slowly shifting and rising as if to move and give Lena her seat.
"I—" Lena started, unsure what to say.
But then, Umire turned to Yuna instead. "Yuna, are you eating with us?"
Yuna flinched, clearly not expecting the question. Her lips parted, confusion overtaking her expression like a slow, creeping fog.
"I… I can eat with you?" she asked, the words tumbling out of her in a way that sounded almost like begging.
Umire blinked, visibly puzzled. "I mean, yeah? Why wouldn't you be able to?"
She paused for a moment, her features tightening into a slight frown, like something had soured. Then, almost reluctantly, a flicker of understanding crossed her face. A sigh escaped her lips as she turned her gaze back to Yuna.
"I just thought you preferred eating with your friends or something. It's up to you. I don't mind either way."
Then, as if the moment had passed, she turned back to Lena with a soft smile. "Come on, sit down."
"O-Oh," Lena said, jolted out of her thoughts. She sat stiffly across from Umire, her shoulders tense. She tried not to focus on the way Yuna had sat closer earlier—how her chair had touched Umire's desk. The image lingered, tight and sharp, in the back of Lena's mind.
"Move your desk closer," Umire said, stretching out across her desk before sitting up again. "It'll be easier."
Lena hesitated. Then, slowly, she pushed her desk forward until it touched Umire's. Their corners aligned with a soft click, forming a shared space.
And at that moment, something shifted.
It should've been simple. Two desks pushed together. A shared lunch.
But to Lena, it felt...strange.
Unreal.
She'd seen this scene so many times before from the outside. Desks sliding together. Laughter shared over bent lunches. A little world made between friends. One she had never stepped into. One she had only watched, quietly, from her separate world, a world of silence and solitude.
Now, here she was. Close enough to smell the soft, floral scent of Umire's shampoo. Close enough to feel the brush of her sleeve. And yet—
It didn't feel like hers.
Umire's bright, pretty face contrasted everything Lena believed about herself. Her light to Lena's shadows. Her ease to Lena's awkwardness.
She didn't belong here.
Not really.
But God, how she wanted to.
Even when she was just a watcher, sitting alone in the background and biting back the sting of loneliness, she'd always wanted this. A place at the table. A smile meant just for her.
And now, she had it.
But it felt like wearing someone else's skin.
"Are you staying, Yuna?" Umire asked, her gaze drifting toward the girl. Her tone and face seemed strangely stiff as she spoke, almost like she was asking out of some strange sense of obligation more than curiosity.
"I-I'll stay!" Yuna blurted out, her voice a touch too eager. Umire didn't react much. If anything, she looked indifferent.
"Okay, bestie, bring out your container!" Umire turned her attention fully to Lena, a bright grin lighting up her face. "Let's open them at the same time, okay?"
Lena glanced at Yuna. The crushed expression Yuna had worn earlier had softened into something almost happy now. Just being there seemed enough for her, even if Umire was barely acknowledging her.
"O-Okay…" Lena said quietly, reaching into her bag. She pulled out the container of cookies but hesitated when her fingers touched the second one, the one with the cake slices. Umire's metal box didn't look that big. She didn't want to seem too eager. Quietly, she zipped her bag shut and left the cake hidden.
"Okay, count with me," Umire said, hands poised on the lid of her container. "On the count of three!"
Lena mirrored her awkwardly, her fingers brushing the plastic lid of her box.
"1! 2! 3!" Umire cheered.
"...1, 2, 3," Lena echoed softly.
They lifted the covers.
"Whoa, yours look so good!" Umire gasped, leaning in to peek. Lena's container held a dozen perfectly shaped cookies, each a different flavor. Lena couldn't stop as her mind whirred nervously. Neat. Thoughtful. Too much?
"Ugh, now I feel embarrassed to show mine…" Umire pouted dramatically. Lena glanced over and saw a handful of oddly shaped cookies, some gooey, others burnt, none of them quite finished.
"You baked!?" Yuna interjected, inserting herself into the moment.
"Yeah…" Umire replied stiffly, eyes not even flicking in Yuna's direction.
"Well," she continued, her usual cheer bouncing back into her voice like it had been flipped on, "I might win in taste! Time for the test!"
Lena watched her, unsure. There was warmth radiating from Umire enough to pull her in, to make her want to believe it. But under it, something strange. Something off. Was it real? She couldn't tell. Umire's mask was seamless.
Umire plucked one of her cookies and dropped it into Lena's container. "Trade me one of yours, too!"
Lena stared down as Umire's hand pulled away from her container, her mind feeling fuzzy and far away. She was in her body, but it felt like she was watching from above. Like this wasn't her life, like she wasn't supposed to be here. Not beside someone like Umire. Not like this.
She picked the safest cookie from the variety of flavours she experimented with, chocolate chip, and handed it to her.
"Wait, I want one of yours, too!" Yuna said quickly.
"I… I only made two…" Lena replied, her voice small. There was a guilty twist in her chest, but beneath that, something sharper. She didn't want to share the cookies they'd planned together—not with Yuna.
"Not yours, idiot." Yuna snapped without missing a beat. She turned toward Umire with a hopeful smile. "Umire, can I have one, please?"
"Help yourself…" Umire muttered, pushing her container a bit closer to the center.
Yuna happily reached in and grabbed one of the lopsided cookies.
"Alright, let's taste mine first," Umire announced. She raised her cookie to her mouth and looked at Lena expectantly. Yuna mirrored her without needing to be told, even though Lena wasn't sure Umire would've noticed if she hadn't.
Lena lifted the cookie to her lips, and the moment Umire bit down, so did she.
The taste hit like a punch, an overpowering sweetness that coated her tongue. Gooey, but with burnt edges. It was like eating sugar mixed with ash and raw dough. Still, she swallowed.
Umire's face twisted for a brief second before she recovered into a wide, lopsided smile. "That was… interesting," she murmured.
"This tastes so good! You made this!?" Yuna said through a mouthful of cookie, her voice a little too high-pitched to be convincing. Lena saw the twitch in her eye as she chewed. But Yuna didn't stop; she grabbed another and forced it down with the same fake smile.
Umire stared at Yuna for a long moment, her expression unreadable. Lena even would've said annoyed. But then she sighed, long and quiet, and turned back to Lena.
"Okay, your turn."
She picked up Lena's chocolate chip cookie, raised it to her lips, and waited for Lena to follow suit.
"What the… this is…" Umire trailed off as Lena swallowed slowly. The cookie melted on her tongue: soft, warm, and sweet. Balanced in a way that made her cheeks warm and her chest clench tasting her creation. She turned toward Umire.
"This is amazing. What the fuck. You should be a baker, Lena—seriously!" Umire's voice lit up with genuine shock, eyes glittering as they flicked from the bitten cookie to Lena's face. "This is so good."
A flush of warmth climbed up Lena's neck at the compliment. It was like sunlight breaking through her ribs.
But then–
"Yuna…" Umire turned toward the girl, still chewing one of her misshapen cookies, her tone suddenly flat. She let out a sharp sigh. "Okay, stop. I know they're bad. You don't have to lie about it."
Yuna froze mid-chew like she'd been caught red-handed. "What? No, they taste good…" she mumbled, eyes wide as she forced the bite down.
Umire let out another long and tired exhale before reaching out and gently plucking the oddly shaped cookie from Yuna's hand, setting it back in the container. Her face didn't look mad, just… tired.
"Just stop," she muttered. Then, she held out her hand. "Here. Take this."
She pointed the cookie Lena had made toward Yuna's mouth, offering it like it was nothing. Like it wasn't something only supposed to be shared between her and Lena…
Yuna blinked, a pink flush rising to her cheeks. She slowly opened her mouth and took a bite from the cookie held in Umire's hand.
Lena watched it happen—watched Umire's fingers pull back before taking a bite from the same spot Yuna had just bitten.
Like it didn't mean anything.
The lunch they'd shared before—something that had made Lena's heart flutter, made her feel special- now felt like something spoiled.
Like it had never mattered at all.
Something dropped in Lena's chest like a stone.
It was small. Stupid. Insignificant.
But it echoed.
Yuna laughed softly, licking crumbs from her lips. "Yours tasted better…" she said, still trying to defend the lie even as she smiled.
"Yeah, yeah, sure," Umire replied, clearly not believing her. She sighed again before turning back to Lena.
"Lena? You okay?" Her voice shifted, warmer again, concerned, her hand reaching out across the table toward her.
"I'm fine."
Lena ducked her head, voice tight. Too tight.
She didn't know what her face looked like, but judging by the flicker of hesitation in Umire's expression, she hadn't hidden it well.
That feeling—the one rising in her throat like smoke, like something burning was starting to show. And she couldn't stop it.
Umire's hand hovered in the air for a beat before she pulled it back.
"Yuna said the teacher called you to his office earlier. That's why you weren't at lunch, right?" she asked, her head resting on her palm as she leaned toward Lena, almost casual.
"It was just about homework," Lena murmured, eyes on the table. The compliment from earlier felt like it had happened hours ago.
"Umire, I heard… yesterday he called you…," Yuna murmured, cutting in, her voice quieter now.
Something shifted.
Umire's face hardened. It wasn't a big change, but the coldness was instant. Her smile vanished.
"And?" she said, looking at Yuna now—her voice sharp. Too sharp.
"I just… mom asked about it," Yuna mumbled, eyes dropping to the table.
The silence that followed stretched.
Umire didn't respond right away. She just stared at Yuna, completely still, the light from the window casting a faint shimmer in her impossibly dark eyes. Then, without a word, her gaze drifted away—out the window, out of reach.
Her finger tapped against the desk in a soft, steady rhythm, like a ticking clock in an otherwise silent room.
Lena watched the way she didn't speak. The way Umire didn't look at either of them.
That rhythm sounded louder than it should've. And somehow, it made everything feel even quieter.
The silence that followed wrapped around them like fog, thick and unmoving. Lena felt it pressing into her skin. Like she was watching something unfold without knowing the script. Something she wasn't meant to hear. Or understand. Like her presence had been completely erased and forgotten.
Lena sat frozen, the tension draped across their table like a thick, invisible cloth. She could feel it pressing into her skin, something she didn't understand—something she wasn't meant to understand, something she wasn't a part of.
It wasn't for her.
Not the silence. Not the rhythm of Umire's tapping. Not even the tension that consumed the air around her.
Umire sighed again.
That was the third time. Or maybe the fourth.
She'd been doing that a lot today. Lena hadn't noticed it at first—but now it was obvious.
She didn't usually sigh.
Umire didn't usually show emotions like anger. She was always smiling, always poised—the sweet, reliable class president...Mask always in place.
But today… Something about her felt off.
Then, just as suddenly, she turned back to Lena. Her smile was back in place—soft, practiced. Like the tension from moments ago had never existed.
"Hey Lena, let's h—"
The door creaked open, cutting her off.
Students spilled back into the room, their voices too loud, their footsteps too fast. The moment was gone.
Lena stood stiffly, her body moving on its own. Everything around her felt distant—muted. Like she was trapped inside someone else's dream.
"Bye. See you, Umire," she said, not waiting for a reply. Her voice came out quieter than she meant it to, like she was already fading into the noise.
She walked to her seat.
But the ache in her chest didn't leave.
She tried to swallow it down, to bury it somewhere it couldn't get to her—but the image kept replaying in her mind:
Umire feeding Yuna.
The softness in her voice.
The bite she took from the same place Yuna had touched.
The tension shared between Umire and Yuna that she had no idea about…
And the worst part?
Even though Umire's eyes had been on her, that awful burning in Lena's chest wouldn't fade.
Because the warmth she longed for had been real.
But so was the way it didn't seem to fully belong to her.
And for the first time, Lena wasn't sure which of those truths hurt more.
And as she sat down, heart thumping strangely in her ears while her classmates' chatter swelled around her, Lena realized something quietly terrifying:
The more she reached for that warmth…
The more alone and cold she felt when it wasn't shined solely on her.