The train lights shone down from overhead, illuminating every face in the car clearly.
The middle-aged man was still staring at his phone, his neck slightly forward, shoulders hunched inward, his posture as loose as a tree bent by the wind.
Several male students in school uniforms stood around him, but no one spoke, no one glanced his way.
The girl with the light brown hair kept her head down, her bangs falling forward to hide her expression.
Rinna opened her eyes.
She lifted her head from Hisaki’s embrace and rested her chin on Hisaki’s shoulder.
This position let her see the man’s face clearly and made sure her voice carried.
Hisaki felt the movement in her arms, looked down at her, but said nothing.
Rinna’s eyes—normally that clean, innocent amber, like honey soaked in sunlight—took on a biting coldness under the train’s pale, stark light.
That coldness wasn’t faked.
It was something from her past life, when she had been in an adult male’s body, facing too many unreasonable people and situations—something that had settled deep in her soul.
Now, crammed into the body of a frail, beautiful girl just over five feet tall, it looked especially jarring.
Her voice wasn’t loud.
But in this awkwardly quiet corner of the train car, every word fell clearly into the ears of those nearby.
Her tone was still Rinna’s soft, lazy voice, but the ends of her sentences no longer rose; they dropped, pressing down with a sharpness completely at odds with her small frame.
The man’s finger stopped scrolling.
“Hey, old man, are you so old you’ve forgotten basic manners?”
Rinna said this with her face slightly tilted up.
Her chin rose from Hisaki’s shoulder, revealing a pale neck and a delicate jawline.
Though her small body was completely sheltered in Hisaki’s arms, though she was bundled up tightly in her winter uniform, though her wrists were so thin they’d redden with a single squeeze—the presence she radiated in that moment was no weaker than any adult who’d ever slammed a table in an office argument.
The man turned his head, his expression awkward.
His brow furrowed for a moment, then quickly relaxed, as if he’d been yanked back to reality from his phone screen and hadn’t processed it yet.
His mouth turned down, his lips moved once, and he let out an uncomfortable cough.
“Didn’t I already say sorry?” His tone carried a hint of dismissive justification, his voice a little louder now, as if he was trying to make up for his weak position with volume.
“The train’s crowded. It’s not like I did it on purpose…”
“‘Sorry’ and that’s it?”
Rinna let out a scoff.
That laugh carried a “you must be joking” tone, precise as a glass marble shot out, smack hitting the man right in the face.
“Don’t your arms have eyes, or is it your brain that’s missing?”
Her tone was sharp and direct, no buildup, no subtlety. Every word was like a nut cracked cleanly open, thrown hard in front of him.
“The space is clearly this small, and you still stare at that dumb phone, shoving your elbow into people?”
Passengers around them began to glance over.
A salaryman carrying a briefcase shifted his gaze from the window reflection. A middle-aged woman in an apron-style uniform turned her head slightly. A college student wearing headphones took one earpiece off.
Eyes converged from all directions, like spotlights slowly being turned up, illuminating this small, awkward stage.
The air grew stiff, as if something were propping it up.
The man’s face darkened.
His eyebrows lowered, the shadow from his brow bone covered his eyes, the lines around his mouth deepened, and his lips pressed into a thin line.
His phone screen was still lit, shining on his chin, casting unflattering angles from below.
“Kids shouldn’t talk so harshly.” His voice dropped, taking on a “grown-up scolding a child” tone.
His chin pulled back slightly, and the skin on his neck wrinkled. “I didn’t do it on purpose. Are you really making such a big deal out of this?”
As he spoke, his gaze flicked to the side, probably checking if anyone would back him up.
No one did.
The girl with light brown hair stared wide-eyed at Rinna, her lips slightly parted, looking completely surprised that someone had stood up for her.
“So if you didn’t do it on purpose, it’s okay to bump into people?”
Rinna tilted her face up slightly.
The train emerged from a tunnel. The light outside the window suddenly brightened, and the last rays of sunset flooded into the car, coating her white hair in a thin layer of gold and red.
Her eyes shone even brighter, a small flame lit in that amber.
“Looking at how ordinary you dress, riding the train, buying groceries after work—your life’s pretty average, isn’t it?”
As she said this, her gaze quickly swept over the man’s polo shirt, his slightly protruding belly, and the old phone in his hand with scratches on the screen.
The scan was light and fast, but enough for him to feel he’d been weighed from head to toe.
The man’s grip on his phone tightened. His knuckles pressed against the case with a soft creak.
“Quite a temper you’ve got. Not much skill, just good at bullying people younger than you, right?”
***
The atmosphere in the car shifted completely.
The few who had been quietly watching now held their breath.
The salaryman with the briefcase moved his gaze back to the window, pretending to look at the scenery, but his ears were clearly still tuned in.
The middle-aged woman pulled her shopping bag closer to her chest and took a small step sideways, as if to avoid being caught in the crossfire.
The train rattled on, the rhythmic clanking of the tracks like some tense countdown.
The man’s face flushed red.
The redness started from his neck and spread upward, over his chin, over his cheekbones, until even the tips of his ears were bright red.
His lips moved, as if words were stuck in his throat, unable to go down or come out.
“What kind of kid talks like that?!”
His voice suddenly rose, more than twice as loud as before, echoing through the car.
Several people nearby instinctively shrank back.
He tightened his grip on the overhead handle, his arm muscles tensing, and leaned forward half an inch.
“I’m trying to talk to you nicely, and you just won’t let it go?”
“That’s right. I won’t let it go.”
Rinna shot him a flat glance.
When she said this, she didn’t even raise her voice. Her tone was calm, like she was stating an undeniable fact.
Her chin lifted slightly, her amber eyes looking up at him from below—a posture that said “I’m shorter than you, but I still look down on you,” executed with flawless ease.
“Anyway, there are so many people on this train. You can’t do anything. You’re just shouting at a little girl to feel important.”
The corner of her mouth curved slightly, a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
“Really interesting. Is this grown man’s happiness really that cheap?”