The Wish I Left at the Target

Mio kept her hands steady on the bow, even when her chest felt too tight for air. She could hit the center from far away, and everyone around her treated that like a gift. Mio knew better. It was a kind of trap, because if she was this precise, then every choice she avoided stayed sharp in her mind. At school, she cleaned classrooms after the homeroom rotation, bowed to teachers, and let older staff speak for her. After hours, she met Yuna in tiny stolen moments and told herself she was being careful. The problem was that Mio understood exactly what she wanted, and she kept choosing not to reach for it. When one private mistake at the end of the year forces her to face her own silence, the f...