Awake at Dawn

Aoi had a bad habit of fixing other people’s lives and calling it help. He sat in the back row, carried notes for older students, and made himself small enough that no one would ask what he wanted. Then he learned he could return a lost memory to the right person, and each gift took one of his own memories with it. That meant he could help Naoto remember things he had truly lost, but he also started losing the small pieces of himself that kept him steady. At home, his father kept waiting for him to step into the family path. At school, Naoto kept standing close enough to notice when Aoi forgot his own words. Aoi was the first one to realize where he belonged, even when it cost him the map.