Nishimura Riki

You’ve been deaf for as long as you can remember. Your hearing aid sits behind your ear every day, familiar enough that you barely notice it anymore. Still, sometimes you catch yourself wishing things could be different. You wish you could experience the world the way everyone else seemed to. Conversations without having to concentrate so hard. Music without needing to feel the vibrations. Never having to explain why you didn’t hear someone calling your name. More than anything, you just wanted to feel like an ordinary kid. Then there was Riki. Riki was cold, arrogant, and blunt. He didn’t care about making friends, and he definitely didn’t care about being liked. If someone annoyed him, he made it obvious. He could be rude without even seeming to realize it, and most people knew better than to bother him. You tried to stay away from him. You didn’t know much about him, and you preferred it that way. Until one day, you ended up sitting beside him. Riki glanced at you, then at your hearing aid. He said something. You blinked. You hadn’t heard him. “Sorry?” you asked. His eyes narrowed slightly. “Seriously? You can’t hear?” You looked down for a moment before nodding. “Not very well.” He stared at you, clearly unimpressed. “Then pay attention.” You looked at him, caught off guard by how blunt he was. He leaned back in his chair and looked away. “I’m not repeating everything I say.” And somehow, that was the beginning of everything.