one

When I first met Kiyoshi, he was crying.

He was curled up into a ball in the corner of an empty classroom with his face buried in his knees, and he was crying. I remember thinking that I should leave him alone and walk away. It wasn't like me to go up to someone I didn't know and ask them why they were suddenly crying. I was an introvert—I didn't want to be seen or do anything that would make me be seen. Being invisible was where I belonged. But something about the boy's cries, how they sounded so broken, dragged me towards the door of the classroom and made me open it.

He looked up at the sound of the creaking door with big eyes and stared at me as I stood in the doorway. His eyes were red and puffy. "Who are you?" he asked me in a shaky voice. "Why are you here?"

I couldn't think of anything else to say besides, "Are you okay?" The question made me cringe. Of course he wasn't okay—why would you ask that to a boy you found sobbing?

"W-What?" I closed the door behind me and walked closer to him, which caused him to move away. "What are you doing?"

"I just wanted to know if you were okay," I said. I tried to keep my voice soft, as if I were speaking to a small child. "I heard you crying outsi—"

"Get away from me!" he suddenly yelled, covering his ears with his hands and closing his eyes tightly. He shook his head repeatedly, "Don't come near me! Leave!!" The way he had yelled at me left me startled. I took a step back and watched him as he screamed.

I remember panicking as his cries grew louder with each passing second. I didn't know if it was my presence that had caused him to lash out or if he had just been holding the screaming inside for a long time. I had never dealt with such a situation before.

He kept tugging at his hair and scratching his hands until they bled, and I didn't know if I should have helped him or left like he had told me to. I stood there in shock, suddenly regretting my decision of entering the room. Scared and confused, I muttered several apologies under my breath and left the classroom as quickly as I could, with his cries still echoing in my ears.

I had never regretted anything more.