Every human is born with emotions — joy, fear, trust, anger, surprise, disgust, and sometimes anticipation.
I'm Claire Lev, 17 years old, and today, I transferred to Osyaka Academy.
From most people's point of view, it's impossible to know what someone is truly feeling just by looking at them.
But I'm different.
I can clearly see the emotion meter of every person around me.
It's not visible to others — only to me. Above people's heads, colored bars hover silently, shifting depending on what they feel. Blue for sadness. Red for anger. Pink for love. Green for trust. The world is a painting of emotions I've gotten used to navigating.
---
"Good morning, everyone! Today, I'd like to introduce a new student," said Mr. Rizal, our homeroom teacher. He had that kind of cheerful tone that always felt just a bit too forced.
"Claire, you may introduce yourself."
I stood up slowly. My chair scraped lightly across the floor, and twenty-something pairs of eyes turned to face me.
"My name is Claire Lev, born in Tokyo. I transferred here because of my father's job.
Please take good care of me."
The room fell into a brief, awkward silence.
"Does anyone have any questions?" Mr. Rizal asked, his smile never wavering.
A girl with silver-blonde hair and emerald eyes raised her hand with perfect posture.
The name tag on her desk read: Elizabeth.
"Yes, Elizabeth, what would you like to ask?"
She narrowed her eyes.
"Please don't talk to me," she said flatly.
The class gasped.
"Huh… The person I hate the most…" she muttered under her breath. Then her eyes widened. "Oh—crap, I slipped my tongue… Sorry! I didn't mean to talk like that."
Her expression twisted in a panic, but what caught me off guard was something else entirely.
Her Love Meter… it started rising.
Eh? Why is her love meter going up?! I quickly looked away. Nope. I saw nothing. Pretend I didn't see that.
"So, Claire, your seat will be next to Elizabeth," Mr. Rizal said.
"Huh?! Why does she have to sit next to me?!" Elizabeth burst out.
"Eh? Why are you saying that?" Mr. Rizal blinked. "That's the only seat left."
I made my way toward the empty desk by the window, right next to Elizabeth. I could feel her glare stabbing into my side, but when I glanced at her meters again… they were flickering wildly.
Frustration. Confusion. A surge of something close to embarrassment… and that persistent, rising pink glow.
This school might be harder than I thought… I sighed in my mind.
---
Scene Break: Lunch Break – The Garden Courtyard
The morning passed in a blur — introductions, lessons, rules I already knew. Most of the students were the same: a blend of indifference and mild curiosity. Their emotion meters barely moved.
But Elizabeth... hers danced like wildfire. Her Anger meter flared unpredictably, and the Love meter — it kept rising, even when she was glaring at me.
When the bell rang for lunch, students started leaving in clusters. I packed my bento and quietly slipped out of the classroom.
I found a spot under a sakura tree in the garden courtyard and sat down. It was quiet. Peaceful. Here, the meters didn't overwhelm me.
But then…
"Hey."
I looked up. Elizabeth stood over me, her arms crossed, eyes looking anywhere but at me.
"You're not eating here, are you?"
"I was," I said calmly.
She clicked her tongue. "Tch. Fine. But just so you know, this is my tree."
Without waiting for an invitation, she sat beside me and began unwrapping her lunch.
"You said you didn't want to talk to me," I reminded her.
"I changed my mind."
"…Got it."
We sat in silence. For a while, it was almost… comfortable. Until she spoke again.
"You're weird. You don't try to talk to anyone. You don't even flinch when I'm rude to you."
"Should I?"
She snorted. "Most people do."
That's when I noticed it — a boy across the courtyard. He was laughing with his friends, but his emotion meter spiked hard into Fear. Then our eyes met. And I realized…
His fear wasn't aimed at me.
It was aimed at Elizabeth.
He quickly looked away and laughed again — too loud, too fake.
"Hey, Claire," Elizabeth said softly.
"…Yeah?"
"You're not scared of me, right?"
I looked at her.
Her Love Meter glowed softly.
Her Guilt bar wavered.
And deep beneath it all, a faint, buried Sorrow Meter began to rise.
"…No," I answered honestly. "But I think a lot of people are."
She was silent.
I didn't know what she'd done in the past. But I knew one thing for sure —
Elizabeth was more than just a cold girl with sharp words.
She was hiding something.
And I had just been seated right in the middle of her story.
---.