For the first time since Grade 1, Josh was avoiding Aki.
He didn't know how to act around her anymore. Every smile felt forced, every joke felt like walking on a tightrope. What used to be easy was suddenly complicated, and it made school feel like a maze he didn't know how to navigate.
They still crossed paths, of course. In the hallways, at lunch, in group work—but Josh always had a reason to keep it short. "I've got to study," or "Coach wants to see me," or "I'm just really tired." And Aki… she noticed.
She'd stopped texting as much. She'd stopped trying to walk home with him too. And that silence between them, once filled with laughter and comfortable quiet, now buzzed with tension.
Josh hated it.
He hated that he was the one pulling away. But every time he got close, the image of her holding his journal flashed in his mind, followed by that same fear:
What if she knows?
What if she's pretending not to?
He saw her once by the garden benches during break—alone, doodling in her sketchpad. Normally, he would've joined her. But instead, he turned and walked in the other direction.
And she didn't call after him.
---
At home, even his siblings noticed something was off.
"You're extra moody lately," Joy said one evening while chewing chips on the couch.
"Probably puberty," Jay added, smirking.
Josh groaned. "Can you both not?"
"Is this about that girl?" Joy teased, raising an eyebrow. "The one you write poems about in your dumb little notebook?"
Josh froze. "How do you know about that?"
"I may have peeked once. Calm down, Shakespeare."
He stormed off to his room, heart pounding again. It felt like the whole world was reading his feelings like a billboard—and he couldn't handle it.
So, the next morning, when Aki passed him in the hallway and gave him a small wave, Josh pretended not to see it.
And when she sat one row over in English and looked like she wanted to say something… he kept his eyes on his book.
Because it was easier to avoid the awkwardness than to face the truth.
But deep down, Josh knew—this distance was only making things worse.
And Aki wouldn't wait around forever.