yuzuumachi

Iwasaki Yuto is an ordinary college student who views himself as nothing more than an unremarkable "NPC" in the grand scheme of life. He goes through his days quietly, blending into the background at school and keeping to himself. His world revolves around gaming, anime, and escaping the harsh reality of his social invisibility. Yet, despite his attempts to stay unnoticed, he can’t shake the feeling that something is missing—especially when it comes to love.

In his daily routine, Yuto faces the same struggles of rejection, loneliness, and self-doubt. He watches others live out their high school romance fantasies while he remains on the sidelines, quietly wishing for a chance to experience something meaningful. But when fate throws him into unexpected situations and confrontations, Yuto begins to question if he’ll always be a background character in his own life—or if, somehow, he’s destined for more than the ordinary existence he’s resigned himself to.

My Part-time Girlfriend

Morning arrives draped in dull gray, the kind of sky that mutes everything—like the world itself has been pressed between the pages of some forgotten book, its color leeched out by time. There's no sun, no birdsong, only the slow exhale of a sky too heavy to cry and too tired to shine.

The room is quiet, save for the faint hum of the refrigerator down the hall. I stare at the ceiling as the soft, silver light of dawn slides across my walls, casting uncertain shadows over the cluttered edges of my bookshelf. Everything looks pale, tentative. Like it, too, is unsure whether to move forward.

No message to Chi. No waiting at the corner convenience store where we've stood together nearly every morning for the past two years. That place feels too intimate now, too known. I avoid it the same way you avoid a wound you're not ready to press on.

Instead, I walk the long way to school.

Chapter 29.1