[Year: 2016 | Ren: 9 y/o (Grade 4) | Haruto: 10 y/o (Grade 5)]
It started with a whisper in the classroom.
"Did you hear? Akihara from 4-B solved the teacher's equation in less than a minute."
"No way. Not even the teacher could do that without a calculator."
Whispers turned into rumors. Rumors turned into tension.
Ren Akihara had always been quiet, polite, good at school — but now, people began to notice something else. His answers were too fast. Too clean. He never asked questions, never hesitated. It didn't feel human.
Haruto, now in the class above, heard the talk during recess.
"Your little brother's a genius," a friend said, half-joking. "Maybe he's not even human, haha."
Haruto forced a laugh. But deep down, something felt strange.
That night, he watched Ren study. Nothing unusual. Ren flipped through a textbook like it was a picture book. He wasn't even reading — just… scanning.
"Hey, Ren," Haruto asked, "do you ever get tired of studying?"
Ren looked up. "No."
"Do you actually… like it?"
"I don't think about it."
There was no malice in his tone. But that made it worse.
Haruto didn't ask again.
The next day, their teacher announced a group assignment. Ren was grouped with two girls and a boy. One of them, a quiet girl named Kana, seemed nervous.
"Um, Ren-kun… could you help me with this part?"
Ren glanced over and gave the correct answer instantly. Kana smiled, but her hands trembled slightly.
People started pulling away. Not because they hated Ren — but because they didn't know how to be around him.
And yet, Ren noticed everything. The silence. The glances. The questions behind the smiles.
That night, he wrote:
"They fear what they can't understand.
But fear… is useful."