The Last Paper Boat

Mitsu paints porcelain plates so precise they should crack in the kiln, and every careful choice he makes leaves another person farther from him. The literature club keeps asking him to speak up, but Mitsu only knows how to solve problems before they turn messy. That habit has kept him useful for five years and lonely for just as long. When a never sent letter, a broken school ID, and a pair of slippers marked by a rival class keep turning up around him, he starts tracking the cost of being right every time. The girl on the roof sees the things he hides in his hands. She also knows the one sentence he has been dodging since the club reshuffle began.