Kai Ravencroft's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Kai Ravencroft had one problem no herb could fix. He wanted Yuki Nekoyama, the shy grey-haired girl in the cat ear headband, to notice him. But every time his crowd gathered, she slipped away like a startled kitten. So he stopped trying to talk to her. Instead, he wrote her notes. He tucked poems and tiny cat sketches into her favorite library book, then returned it to the shelf for her to find. Before graduation split them, he needed her to feel something. A note was safer than his own face. Now he stood behind a tall bookshelf in the library castle. Through a gap between spines, he watched Yuki. She sat in the reading corner, buried in pillows, a book open on her knees. He noted its cover so he could check it out tonight. He would leave one more note. Then he saw her hands. She wasn't reading. She turned pages fast, scanning margins. She checked the cover, the back, the spine. She was hunting for something. She was hunting for him. Kai's stomach dropped. Raven had helped her before. Together they treated the notes like a mystery to crack. If Yuki decided a stranger was watching her, she would stop coming. He would lose the one place she felt safe. Yuki stood. She carried the book to the dark wood desk where the librarian waited, a book open in her hands, glasses low on her nose. "Someone keeps writing in the books I borrow," Yuki said. Her voice was flat. "I want to know who checked this out before me." The librarian set her book down. "I'm sorry. I can't share that." Yuki gripped the book tighter. He couldn’t tell if she was scared, determined, or annoyed. Kai's chest hurt. Worried. He almost stepped out to explain. But a boy jumping from behind a shelf would only give her reason to be scared. He needed to give her the opposite of a stalker. He pulled a scrap of paper from his pocket. He wrote fast, in the plain print he always used. "You don't have to be scared. The notes were only meant to make you smile. If they don't, tell the desk and I'll stop. I promise. I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to talk to you" He drew one small cat, sitting, ears down, looking sorry. He waited until Yuki returned to the pillows. Then he slid the note into the book that was going into the returns cart today for Yuki to find later. He snuck out the far door before she looked up. Outside, he leaned on the stone wall and breathed. He had written her another note without showing his face. But he had also handed her proof the writer was real, close, and watching today. Now Yuki knew she wasn't imagining it. Tomorrow she would come back searching harder, and Kai would have to decide whether to keep hiding or finally figure out a way for them to meet somewhere quiet.