It was a Thursday morning.

Rika Saionji glanced at her phone and blinked a few times, making sure that she wasn’t hallucinating.

Congratulations. Your one-shot has been selected for publication in next month’s Rookie Collection.

"..."

"..."

"EH?!"

She screamed loud enough to shake her entire apartment.

Several birds outside quickly flew away.

She sprang off her chair and almost tripped over three sketchbooks and a half-empty coffee cup.

"I’M IN!"

She danced around with zero musical talent.

"My manga is getting published!"

After celebrating for nearly five minutes, she suddenly remembered something.

"Kuro!"

Without hesitating, she reached for her phone.

---

Kuro was just finishing his developmental psychology lecture when his phone started vibrating.

There were twenty-three unread messages in total.

From Rika.

Rika: KURO!!

Rika: ANSWER!!

Rika: THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!!

Rika: A GOOD EMERGENCY!!

He smiled and called her back.

She answered instantly.

"Kuro!"

"I suppose something happened."

"I GOT ACCEPTED!"

He kept smiling.

Then he said in quiet tone,

"Congratulations, Rika."

No grandiose words.

No unnecessary excitement.

Just sincere happiness.

For some reason...

It only made her happier.

"I..."

Her voice started shaking.

"I actually managed it."

"You did."

"I can’t believe it."

"I can."

These two words stung her eyes.

"You always believed that I could."

"I believed in your effort."

She laughed through her tears.

"You really know how to say what needs to be said."

---

A month passed...

The magazine came out.

She visited three bookstores until she finally got hold of it.

There it was.

Her name.

Story by Rika Saionji.

She gently touched the printed letters.

"...It’s real."

She bought five copies.

And another two.

"These are for... backup."

The cashier smiled knowingly.

"First publication?"

"...So obvious."

"You’ve been smiling ever since you’ve walked in."

---

That evening, she rushed to the café holding a shopping bag.

"Kuro!"

He looked up from his psychology notes.

"You bought the bookstore?"

She showed a magazine proudly.

"No."

"I bought my dream."

He gently took it from her.

For a long moment...

He simply looked at the cover.

Then at her name.

"...Congratulations."

She smiled.

"Hearing it from you feels even better."

---

The next weeks brought something new for Rika.

Reader surveys.

Online comments.

Letters.

They were mostly brief.

Some complimented the artwork.

Some liked the story pace.

One comment appeared again and again.

«The main character is unbelievably kind.»

Another one.

«I wish I had a friend like K.»

Another one.

«The protagonist feels incredibly real.»

She tilted her head in curiosity.

"...Really?"

She didn’t expect readers to appreciate that.

---

A week later, she had a meeting with her editor.

The editor adjusted his glasses, flipping the pages of her manuscript.

"Your artwork is outstanding."

She bowed in gratitude.

"Thank you."

"But your biggest strength..."

He gently pointed at the protagonist.

"...is this character."

"K."

"He feels real."

"He doesn’t pretend to help everybody."

"He simply listens."

"Readers adore that."

She blinked in surprise.

"...Really?"

"We would like your next serialization to have this atmosphere."

When she left the office, these words stuck with her.

Readers adore K.

---

That evening...

She went to their regular café.

"I have good news."

He closed his notebook.

"Another one?"

"My editor asks for a new series."

"Congratulations."

She laughed.

"Say something more exciting."

He thought for a minute.

"...Congratulations."

She sighed dramatically.

"Hopeless."

---

Talking with each other, Rika started drawing mindlessly.

Without looking.

Without thinking.

Simply drawing.

Kuro was reading one of her draft pages meanwhile.

Almost twenty minutes later, he looked at her notebook.

"...Who is this?"

She looked down.

And froze.

"...Huh?"

It was a picture of a man quietly reading a book while somebody kept talking next to him.

Black hair.

Calm eyes.

Gentle smile.

"..."

He looked from the drawing...

To himself...

Then to the drawing again.

"...Rika."

"...Yeah?"

"...Doesn’t he seem familiar?"

She stared at the drawing for a few seconds.

Then her face slowly turned red.

"N-No!"

"I mean..."

"Maybe?"

"It was unintentional!"

Kuro raised an eyebrow.

"It was?"

"I simply..."

She put both hands in front of her face.

"I draw people I know when I’m thinking!"

Silence.

Then he asked quietly,

"...So your protagonist..."

She slowly lowered her hands.

"...Might..."

"...be inspired by you."

Another silence.

He looked at the latest magazine.

Then at the sketch.

Then at the comments about K’s kindness.

Finally...

He sighed.

"So..."

"Everybody adores me unknowingly."

She laughed loudly.

"Don’t say it like that!"

"I’m serious."

She laughed even louder.

"You should see your face!"

Customers glanced at them suspiciously as she struggled to stop laughing.

He rubbed his forehead.

"I don’t know whether I should feel..."

"...embarrassed..."

"...or honored."

She smiled warmly.

"You should feel both."

For a while, they simply looked at the sketch.

Then he smiled.

"I hope that your next protagonist will be cooler."

She smiled mysteriously as she picked up her pencil.

"No promises."

Outside, cherry blossoms were drifting in the evening air.

Inside, surrounded by coffee cups, notebooks, and psychology notes, another Chapter of Rika’s dream was quietly starting.

And she didn’t realize that...

Her biggest source of inspiration for her stories wasn’t a fictional hero.

It was the young man opposite from her, who never stopped believing in her dreams.

A week later, she got a package from the editor of the magazine.

There were many surveys and letters from the readers in it.

She brought the box to the café.

"Kuro!"

He looked up from his journal.

"...Another emergency?"

She dramatically put the box on the table.

"The best kind."

He looked inside.

"Letters from your fans?"

She nodded enthusiastically.

"My editor told me I should read them."

She carefully took out an envelope and opened the letter.

"Dear Miss Saionji,

I was going through a rough patch in school recently. But reading your story reminded me of the power of being quiet and making a difference. Thank you."

Rika smiled tenderly.

She put the letter aside and opened another one.

"I hope Character K will come back. He is my favorite."

Another one.

"Unlike the other protagonists, your hero does not seem to be a superhero. He seems real."

She looked at Kuro.

"...They are all saying nice things about K."

He smiled faintly.

"He is popular."

"They love him."

"They really do."

---

She handed one of the letters to Kuro.

He silently read it.

Then another.

Then another.

Each reader seemed to have written almost the same thing.

How much they admired K’s kindness.

His patience.

His tendency of listening before speaking.

After a while, Kuro finally looked up.

"...It seems your readers noticed the smallest things."

Rika nodded.

"There are things which I wanted to emphasize when writing that story."

She rested her chin on her hands.

"I wonder why."

Kuro thought for a moment.

"It might be because kindness is unforgettable."

"In your stories?"

"In real life."

He quietly put the letters back into the box.

"Your readers remember characters who made them understand."

Rika stared at him.

"...You really don’t get it, do you?"

"What do you mean?"

She smiled.

"You just described why everyone likes K."

---

That night, on their way back from the café, they saw a bookshop.

There was a big advertising stand next to its entrance.

Several teens were browsing the very issue of the magazine which featured Rika’s one-shot.

Neither of them said anything.

They quietly observed them from a distance.

Some were laughing at a joke.

Some were nodding in serious scenes.

Then one girl smiled when she finished reading the last Chapter.

"I wish I had a friend like K,"

she said to her classmates.

"I think everyone needs a person like that."

Kuro accidentally heard her.

He quickly turned around, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"...Let’s go."

Rika stood there.

She slowly started smiling.

She was not smiling because her manga became popular among the readers.

She was smiling because she felt her readers understood it.

When they walked further, she glanced sideways at Kuro.

He was pretending nothing happened.

She quietly laughed to herself.

He would never be able to see how others perceive him.

But perhaps...

This was the reason why he inspired the most sympathetic hero she created.

Without knowing it...

The quiet boy, thinking of himself as ordinary, became a hero for so many people.

For Rika...

There could not be a better protagonist than this one.

When Rika got back to her apartment that night, she put the fan letters in a drawer instead of leaving them all over her desk.

Then she opened up the sketchbook and started brainstorming her next story.

As if without even thinking about it, her pencil started moving across the page.

First, she drew a pair of calm, familiar eyes.

Then she drew the gentle smile.

And finally she drew a young man who was getting drenched holding an umbrella over another person.

Rika looked at the picture before she broke into a soft laugh.

"...there you are again."

She rested her chin on the desk.

"I guess I can’t help myself, can I?"

Every time she thought of someone being kind...

Every time she imagined someone who listened without judging them...

Every time she sought out a hero...

Her heart drew the same person each time.

Rika smiled.

"Don’t worry Kuro."

"You will never know how many of my characters are actually you."

With a smile that indicated her satisfaction, Rika put her sketchbook away and found a blank page.

Rika still had to finish the rest of the story.

And when it was finished...

There would still be a gentle, kind boy coming to life once again inside it.