She sat criss-cross on the floor beside me, picking up one of the books I'd stacked.
"Dengeki Daisy?" she read slowly. "What even is this? Is this guy a robot? Why are his eyes glowing like that?"
I gave her a look. "He's not a robot. He's... it's complicated."
She flipped through the pages backwards.
"Zani. That's the wrong direction."
She froze. "Wait. You read these things BACKWARDS?"
I nodded.
She stared at it like I'd handed her an ancient spell book.
"Okay, this is witchcraft," she muttered, squinting at the panels. "Why is this girl blushing while being yelled at? Is that... hot?"
I took the book from her and gently set it back down. "Please stop talking."
She grinned. "Nooo, I'm genuinely curious. This is like... your whole vibe. Depressed cartoons."
I blinked. "It's not cartoons."
"Sure, sure. Animated sadness with extra drama."
She leaned back on her hands, looking at me like I was some puzzle she couldn't wait to solve.
"You really like this stuff, huh?"
I shrugged. "It's quiet. It makes sense."
For a second, she didn't say anything.
Then her voice softened, just a little. "Maybe you could show me the one that makes the most sense to you."
I paused.
She wasn't laughing anymore.
"Maybe," I said.
She grinned again, bright and wild. "Cool. But if it has a tragic ending and I cry, I'm never forgiving you."
________
That afternoon was... chatty.
Too chatty.
School was over, and of course, she decided to walk with me again. She claimed she was "doing my lonely, boring self a favor." I didn't ask for favors. Or conversation. Or a chaos gremlin with glitter under her eyes.
"So, where are you from?... I mean, which part of Asia?" she asked, skipping beside me like she'd had three Red Bulls for lunch.
I let out a sigh, deep and weary. She'd somehow managed to make me talk more in one day than I had in an entire semester.
"Ethiopia," I said flatly.
She stopped walking.
Then came the laughter.
"I had no idea you had a sense of humor!" she cackled. "Oh my God, Shin! You—You got me!"
I blinked. "I'm Japanese."
She clapped. "I knew it! That heart-shaped face! That sad boy hair! Ugh, it all makes sense now."
She reached up and ruffled my hair like I was some kind of shih tzu. I flinched.
"Don't touch me," I said.
"Right, right," she said, totally not right. "I forgot Cloud Boy's personal space radius is, like, thirty feet."
She started walking again. "Well, I'm mixed. My dad's Black American, my mom's Puerto Rican, and I'm a certified hybrid of chaos and sugar."
She pointed at herself dramatically. "I cry at baby sloth videos and also once punched a boy in the face for stealing my pencil."
"Noted," I muttered.
"Also, I put ketchup on my rice, and I think water tastes better out of those hospital ice cups. You know the ones?"
"I don't."
"Well, you haven't lived."
I sighed again. She looked at me with those starry eyes and grinned.
"I'm gonna make you laugh again today," she said.
"Don't."
"I will."
"You won't."
"Watch me."
We walked in weird silence for approximately twenty seconds—which, in Zani time, was basically a decade.
Then, without warning, she screamed.
Like screamed.
Not in terror. Not in pain. Just… a scream. Full volume. Into the sky.
I stopped walking.
"What," I said slowly, "was that."
She exhaled dramatically, arms flopping to her sides. "I just felt like it."
"You screamed for no reason?"
"I had a reason!" she said. "I felt a little emotionally congested. Screaming clears the sinuses of the soul."
I stared at her.
She spun in a slow circle, looking up at the sky like she was in a Disney musical.
Then she added, "Try it."
"I will not."
"Come onnnn, Shin. Don't you ever feel like you've got a scream trapped inside your ribcage?"
"No."
"Well I do. Daily."
I took a small step away from her. "Are you okay?"
She stopped spinning. Looked at me with the most serious face I'd seen her make yet.
"No, Shin. I'm not okay. I'm awesome."
Then she skipped ahead like nothing happened.
I stood there, blinking. Processing. Reconsidering every life choice that led me to this moment.
And for some reason… I kept walking after her.
We hadn't walked more than a block when she suddenly gasped, loudly, pointing at the sidewalk like she'd discovered treasure.
"LOOK. A perfectly shaped leaf."
I blinked. "Okay?"
"No, Shin. Not okay. It's a sign."
"A sign of what?"
"That the Earth loves me. Duh."
She picked it up with both hands like it was the freaking crown jewels and then—without hesitation—tucked it behind my ear.
"What are you—"
"Shhh," she said, tilting her head like she was painting me in her imagination. "There. Now you're connected to the Earth. You look very nature-core."
I removed the leaf.
She gasped. "Shin. That's rude to Mother Nature."
"I don't want a leaf behind my ear."
"Fine." She dramatically tucked it behind her own ear. "You don't deserve this level of fashion anyway."
I thought we were done.
We were not done.
Next thing I knew, she was walking along the curb like it was a tightrope, arms out, balancing with exaggerated wobbling.
"I'm on a mission!" she declared. "Don't distract me, Cloud Boy!"
"You're going to fall."
"Then catch me, Shin!"
And then—like it was scripted in a chaotic indie rom-com—she did fall. Not hard, just a weird little tumble like a cartoon character. Then she lay there. Flat on the sidewalk. Not moving.
"…Are you okay?"
No response.
"Zani?"
Still no response.
I crouched slightly, poking her arm with one finger. "Did you die?"
She cracked one eye open.
"Just thinking about the void."
"I'm leaving."
"Wait—wait—I was being poetic...you know---like your vibes!"
"You fell off a curb."
She sat up, brushing imaginary dust off her sleeves. "Every great thinker needs a dramatic collapse. It's called aesthetic suffering."
I exhaled through my nose. Deeply.
This girl was absolutely unhinged.
But somehow, I… didn't hate it.
Which was weird.
Very, very weird.