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Chapter 27 - Chapter 27: In Ink and Intention

The air in the classroom was tense—crackling with nerves, silence, and the occasional desperate sigh.

Stacks of college application forms covered the desks. Guidance counselors moved from row to row, their clipped heels tapping across the floor like ticking clocks.

Ren Sakamoto stared at the blank page in front of him. Not a word written. Not a box filled.

Yuuji Aikawa, seated beside him, had already filled out half of his form in clean, confident strokes. His handwriting, Ren noticed bitterly, was always neat—even when his emotions weren't.

"You haven't started?" Yuuji asked without looking up.

Ren shrugged. "I don't know what to write yet."

Yuuji glanced over. "You mean… you don't know what you want to study?"

Ren stayed silent.

Rio Wilson, across the aisle, tapped his pen against his teeth. "I'm writing down 'Music Composition.' Just to make my mom choke on her tea when she reads it."

"Are you actually going to submit that?" Ian Moore asked beside him.

"I might," Rio said with a dramatic flair. "Or maybe I'll just elope with my violin."

Will Ethan piped in from the back, "Can I elope with your violin's hot cousin, the cello?"

"Will," Kenji Suguru said with a deadpan face, "shut up and fill out the damn form."

Laughter rippled through the room, but it couldn't fully erase the weight hanging over all of them.

Yuuji turned slightly toward Ren. "You told me once you liked literature."

Ren shrugged again. "That was before college felt like a countdown."

"You don't have to have it all figured out," Yuuji said gently. "Just write what you love."

Ren bit his lip. "And if what I love… doesn't look impressive on paper?"

"Then screw the paper," Yuuji said, finally meeting his eyes. "Do it for yourself. Not the version of you someone else expects."

Ren's stomach twisted. Yuuji always spoke like that—like he saw the version of Ren that even Ren couldn't always find.

---

By the end of the period, most of the class had at least filled out something. Some were scribbling down their final choices. Others were redoing their forms for the third time.

Ian glanced at Rio's form. "You really wrote music?"

Rio leaned close and whispered, "No. But I almost did."

"Where would you go if you could?" Ian asked.

"Anywhere that feels like home," Rio said. Then added, "Maybe somewhere close to you."

Ian's heart tripped over itself.

Will, meanwhile, was arguing with Kenji over whether writing "undecided" was a bold act of self-honesty or an excuse to procrastinate.

Yuuji had already sealed his envelope.

Law. Prestigious school. Near the city. Structured. Reliable. The opposite of his chaos.

But his eyes kept drifting back to Ren, who was still staring at his empty form.

After class, as the bell rang and the students started gathering their bags, Yuuji lingered.

"You don't have to rush," he said softly. "But when you're ready, I want to know what you choose."

Ren looked up, a flicker of warmth behind his hesitation. "Do you ever think about… where we'll be? Next year?"

"All the time," Yuuji replied. "And you're in every version of it."

---

That evening, in the quiet of the dorm common room, Ren finally sat down to write.

Ian was scribbling a draft essay nearby. Rio had his headphones on, eyes closed, swaying gently.

Yuuji wasn't there—but his words lingered.

Ren gripped his pen tightly.

Name. Date of birth. Intended major.

He paused.

Then, slowly, carefully, he wrote: Literature and Visual Arts.

He stared at the words for a long time.

He thought about all the nights he'd spent sketching instead of sleeping, and how stories always made him feel seen. He thought about Yuuji's voice telling him to choose for himself. And finally, he thought about how love wasn't always loud—sometimes, it was just the quiet belief that someone had your back even when you didn't believe in yourself.

He signed the form.

Ink on paper.

Intention made real.

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