Sounds of screams and explosions distantly echoed in Kaneki’s mind while all he could see was pure darkness, the events after Kaneki passed out could only be described as a show of pure destructive power. The sounds continued to echo in his head as if he were in purgatory until the sound of a door slammed open woke Kaneki up and threw him back into the world. Kaneki opened his eyes wide and looked around to see a boy around 5 years-old standing in front of the doorway and staring at him blankly. His hair was light brown and ruffled and he had what seemed like yogurt all over his mouth. The two stared at each other for a brief moment before the boy called out.

  “Hannah, he’s woken up!”

  “Ok, I will be right there!”, a woman’s voice called back from the floor below.

  Kaneki immediately began to look around the room in panic, realising that he had woken up in a completely foreign setting; one minute he was in his house, running for his life after his father was killed, and now he’s woken up in a stranger’s house. Kaneki’s heart rate quickened, and his breathing became rapid, the events of the night before were flooding back to him. The pain, sorrow and terror, he was feeling it all again.

  “Where am I!?!”, Kaneki screamed at the boy, “Did you kidnap me? Why was I passed out?!”

  The boy jumped back; his previously blank expression had become overwhelmed with fear as tears welled in his eyes

  “I don’t know.” the boy whimpered in reply as his voice broke.

  Kaneki scanned the boy’s expression for a moment, realising he was scared beyond belief. ‘He probably has nothing to do with me waking up here.’ Kaneki thought to himself, clenching his jaw and looking down in shame. The two boys stayed in silence for a moment, the boy kept his eyes firmly on Kaneki, holding back tears when at that moment, a woman walked briskly into the room.

  “Aww, Stevie are you okay, darling?” the woman asked with a soft smile while kneeling down to reach his eye level.

  “He shouted at me!”, Stevie cried, bursting into tears and running into the woman’s arms.

  She turned her head and glanced at Kaneki with no obvious expression. Kaneki stayed silent and looked back at her with an honest expression of as if to communicate a silent apology.

  “It’s okay Stevie, he is just grumpy after waking up”, reassured the woman with a smile as he she turned her head back to the boy, “I am sure he did not mean to be rude.”

  “Okay” the boy mumbled, wiping the tears from his eyes and wandering out of the room and into the hallway.

  Kaneki kept his eyes on the woman cautiously as she pulled out a seat from under a bedside table and sat down in front of him.

  “I know you must be confused but there is no need to be afraid.”, she began, “My name is Hannah and I am an overseer in this orphanage.”

  “Why am I here?” Kaneki asked, keeping his cautious look.

  “Well we found you lying unconscious on our doorstep late at night.” Hannah replied.

  Kaneki kept silent but kept his gaze on her.

  “Do you think you can tell me your name?”, Hannah asked, leaning forward with a smile, “We mean you no harm.”

  Kaneki stared at her for a moment, scanning every detail of her. She seemed to be young, and her face was smooth and pale with rosy cheeks. She had long black hair and her eyes were light blue with a tint of green in the top left of her pupil. Kaneki stared into her eyes, mesmorised by the sheer beauty before deciding to trust the lady.

  “My name is Kaneki.”, he mumbled while looking down.

  “Well Kaneki”, Hannah began joyfully as she stood up, “Would you like to join us for breakfast?”

  “Sure.”, Kaneki replied, quietly.

  As he followed Hannah to the dining room, Kaneki inspected the hallways, the flooring was made of a soft red carpet that hugged his feet as he walked, and the walls were made of a thick concrete covered in the display of children’s drawings. It seemed like a luxury compared to his old home. When Hannah opened the door to the dining room, the sounds of children’s chatter exploded in Kaneki’s face – the room was filled with children of all ages sitting and chatting, waiting for breakfast to be served. But upon his entrance, all the eyes turned to Kaneki. He could feel the stares of the children on him as he picked a place to sit.

  “You can sit here!”, a boy called out from across the room, waving at Kaneki.

  Kaneki accepted the boy’s offer with nod and walked over to the table to sit down.

  “What’s your name?”, the boy enquired with his body turned to Kaneki.

  “Kaneki.”, he replied quietly.

  The boy looked around the same age as Kaneki and had ginger hair that was swept to the side. His eyes were dark blue, and he had freckles on his cheeks.

  “My name’s Tray.” he replied with a smile.

  Kaneki smiled back, remembering his lost friendship with Red, causing his smile to slowly fade.

  “Did you guys hear about the random explosion in that house in the countryside?”, a girl called from across the table.

  Everyone sitting on the table turned their head to the girl.

  “Apparently it was late last night and a house exploded out of nowhere, it was all over the newspaper today.”, she continued.

  “I heard about that!”, another boy called from another table, “They say when authorities arrived, there was nobody at the scene except a man who had been stabbed prior to the explosion.”

  Their voices blurred together, careless and distant, as if they were talking about a movie instead of his life. His face went pale and his heart rate quickened with the shocking realisation that his life had now permanently changed. He used to have a house, a family, a best friend, but now it had all been taken from him. The kids’ discussion of the explosion drowned out into distorted white noise in Kaneki’s ears as he stared blankly at the table. Despite the fact that Kaneki had lost everything, the world continued to turn and the worst moments of life had just become an interesting news story for the kids to talk about.

  “Hey, are you okay man?”, Tray asked, tapping Kaneki’s shoulder.

  Kaneki blinked as he snapped back to reality and turning to Tray.

  “You have been staring at that table for about 5 minutes now.”, he added.

  Kaneki looked around the room, noticing that the kids were still talking about the news story, he took a moment to collect his thoughts.

  “Yeah, I’m okay,”, Kaneki replied quietly as he forced a small smile, “I’m just new here so I’m still getting used to it being so loud.”

  “Oh, it’s cool, I’m new here too.”, Tray reassured Kaneki with a warm smile, “This is actually my first day here.” he added.

  A small smile appeared on Kaneki’s face after that notion, having found a friend who also was new gave Kaneki a sense of relief but the memories of his old friendship with Red would poison any happiness Kaneki would feel from talking to Tray.

  “Alright, breakfast is served now.” called a grumbling voice from across the room.

  Kaneki turned his head to find a large angry woman handing out plates of porridge to all the kids. Every time she would serve a plate, she slammed it on the table which caused a lot of the porridge to spill out the bowl and on to the table. Once she reached Kaneki and Tray, she stopped to analyse their faces and scoffed before serving them the bowl and moving on the rest of the kids.

  “What’s her problem?”, Kaneki asked, turning to Tray.

  Tray shrugged his shoulders and began eating the porridge. Contrary to the woman who was serving it, the porridge was warm, creamy and sweet, lifting Kaneki’s mood somewhat as he finished the bowl.

  As all the other kids finished their breakfast and left the dining room, Kaneki saw Hannah walking toward him and Tray with a smile.

  “So, are you boys settling in okay?”, she asked in a motherly tone.

  “Yes, breakfast was very nice.”, Tray replied politely with a smile.

  “Oh, Kaneki I forgot to tell you, Tray arrived here today, the same as you.”, Hannah said informed with a gleaming smile.

  “Yeah, he told me.”, Kaneki replied with slight nod and a smile.

  “You two should explore the place together and get to know each other.”, Hannah offered.

  “Well?”, Tray asked, standing up and looking at Kaneki.

  Kaneki nodded and proceeded to walk with Tray out of the dining room to explore the orphanage.

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  “So...”, Tray began, looking to the ground, “Do you mind telling me why you ended up here? I mean I know you’re an orphan, but I’m curious about your story.”

  Kaneki didn’t say anything.

  Tray turned his eyes to Kaneki, noticing his silence in response to that question.

  “Sorry, that was rude of me.” Tray said calmly.

  The sound of the other kids chattering and playing filled the air as the two boys continued to walk through the hall in silence. Memories of the night before resurfaced in Kaneki’s mind. The fight at Red’s house, Jiro’s power, the death of his father, what was it all for? Why have things ended up this way? He thought to himself, sinking deeper and deeper into his thoughts.

  “Are you okay, man?”, Tray asked, with a concerned look.

  Kaneki jumped slightly and looked at Tray.

  “You’ve been like this since breakfast. Is something wrong?”, Tray asked, tilting his head.

  “It’s nothing.”, Kaneki replied, slightly annoyed.

  “If you want, I can tell you why I’m here.”, Tray offered as he stopped walking, “It might take your mind off from whatever it is that’s troubling you.”

  Kaneki stopped for a moment and considered before giving a nod of acceptance.

  “Alright.” Tray replied with a small smile as the two started walking again.

  “My parents abandoned me after my older brother’s death.”, he explained, looking up.

  Kaneki looked at Tray in shock.

  “A couple nights ago I overheard them talking about how they can’t handle kids anymore, the next day they told me that I had to go and that I had to find some new and better parents.”

  “Well, how did you react?”, Kaneki asked in disbelief.

  “I had some trust for my parents, so I thought they just needed a break. I agreed to get in the car with them and they dropped me off here. Without a word they got back in the car and left. No goodbye, they just turned and left.” Tray muttered, looking down.

  “When was this?”, Kaneki asked.

  “Last night,” he replied in a monotone voice, “I arrived a couple hours before you did.”

  “How do you know they have abandoned you, Tray?”, Kaneki asked, in a slightly upbeat tone, “Maybe they just need some time to figure things out.”

  “They didn’t even say goodbye and they haven’t called, they haven’t sent a card and they haven’t tried to visit me at all. I haven’t heard a word from them. They meant what they said, they just can’t handle kids anymore.” Tray quavered, desperately holding back his tears.

  Kaneki looked forward and pretended to not notice Tray almost breaking down in despair.

  “My older brother killed my dad.”, Kaneki muttered with a slight break in his voice, continuing to look forward.

  Tray looked at Kaneki, not quite in shock but as if he had found what he was looking for.

  “I passed out, heard some explosions and I woke up here.” Kaneki continued with a lump in his throat, furrowing his eyebrows slightly, “That’s all I know.”

  Kaneki looked back at Tray.

  “You don’t seem as shocked as I thought you would be.” Kaneki said, noticing Tray’s expression.

  “So that’s why you were so uncomfortable earlier, when everyone was talking about the news story.” Tray replied, his eyes widening slightly.

  Kaneki nodded. He expected the pain of his loss to grow upon telling someone, but for some reason, his heart felt somewhat lighter. Like a ton of weight was crushing his soul, but sharing his experience lifted a single kilogram of that weight.

  “We should go back to your house.” Tray offered.

  Kaneki turned his head to him in shock.

  “If you aren’t sure what happened, then you should go back, and I'll come with you.” he continued in an upbeat tone.

  “Are you sure, are we even allowed to go back to a place like that?”, Kaneki questioned.

  Tray hesitated. “I mean… I don’t know if we’re even allowed to go. But…” He glanced at Kaneki, then straightened up. “We have to. For you.”

  Kaneki looked down and smiled slightly, despite everything that happened last night, the world still sent a kind friend his way. The boys continued to walk, their legs moving in synchronization.

  “Thanks, Tray.” Kaneki smiled.

  Tray smiled back.

  “We shouldn’t go there now though, the explosion just happened and there are probably lots of police around there.” Tray explained, “We should wait until they finish investigating, for now we should just stay here in the orphanage.”

  Kaneki nodded in agreement as the two boys turned a corner to find the scary lady from breakfast waiting for them and staring down at the boys with pure fury.

  “So where are you planning to go then?”, she barked, keeping fierce eye contact.

  They boys jumped back in fright.

  “If I tell Hannah that you two are planning to escape. She’ll send you both off to seperate orphanages far away from here and you will never see each other again”, she shouted, giving a cruel smirk.

  “W-we aren’t trying to escape!”, Tray stammered, “We were just talking about a game we played.”

  Kaneki stayed silent but kept his eyes on the woman, his heart was beating out of his chest and his breathing became shallow.

  “That better be the truth.”, the woman snorted before walking away.

  The boys took a breath as the tension diffused, the pounding in their ears fading into the distant sounds of children playing.

  “We probably shouldn’t talk about this out in the open,” Tray muttered, his voice still shaky. “If anyone else hears us…”

  Kaneki nodded, his mind still lingering on the dinner lady’s threat. Would Hannah really separate them? Could they even trust her? He swallowed the uncertainty and forced a small smile. “Yeah, let’s talk in my room.”

  As they made their way down the hall, the warmth of breakfast and Tray’s companionship felt like a temporary escape from the wreckage of his life. For a moment, it almost seemed possible to forget.

  But just as they reached Kaneki’s door, he felt a light tug on his shirt.

  He turned, instinctively tensing up. A girl stood behind him, arms crossed, her dark green eyes locking onto his.

  “Hello?” Kaneki said cautiously.

  She was slightly shorter than him, dressed in a checkered red and white dress, her long dark brown hair resting over her shoulders. Something about her stare made his chest tighten.

  “I saw what happened with you two and the dinner lady,” she said, her voice low but firm. “You’re planning to escape, aren’t you?”

  Kaneki’s blood ran cold.

  “I don’t think you heard us right,” Tray cut in, stepping in front of Kaneki slightly. His voice was calm, but there was an edge of nervousness.

  Kaneki kept quiet, his heart thudding against his ribs.

  Before he could think of what to say, the girl suddenly stepped forward, pressing her forearm against his chest and pinning him lightly against the wall.

  “I know what I heard,” she said, her voice lowering to a whisper.

  Kaneki stiffened, his breath catching. His first instinct was to shove her away. His second was to run. Instead, he stood frozen, his mind flashing back to the night before—being pinned down by Jiro, unable to move, powerless—

  But then he saw her eyes up close. Dark green with flecks of gold. Not angry. Not cruel. Searching.

  His chest tightened in a different way.

  Heat crept into his face, but he quickly averted his gaze, forcing himself to focus on the facts. Who is she? What does she want? His hands curled into fists by his sides.

  Tray pulled her arm off Kaneki’s chest and lightly pushed her back. “I don’t know what you think you heard, but I think you made a mistake, okay?”

  She hesitated before taking a step back, tilting her head slightly as if analyzing them.

  “Sure,” she said, her voice laced with doubt. She turned to leave.

  Kaneki let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. But before she could disappear down the stairs, he found himself blurting out:

  “Wait.”

  She stopped, flipping her hair slightly as she turned. Her expression was unreadable.

  Kaneki hesitated. Why did I stop her? He wasn’t sure. Maybe because she had seen through him when he wanted to stay hidden. Maybe because, for some reason, she wasn’t backing down.

  “What’s your name?” he asked, keeping his voice even.

  A small smirk played on her lips. “Skae.”

  And just like that, she disappeared down the stairs.

  Tray turned to Kaneki, raising an eyebrow. “That was weird.”

  Kaneki didn’t answer. He was still looking at the spot where she had stood, still feeling the weight of her stare lingering on his skin.

  Tray smirked knowingly and grabbed his arm. “Come on, let’s talk in your room.”

  Kaneki followed him inside, but his mind was still stuck in that moment—somewhere between fear, suspicion, and something else entirely.

  Despite their initial intention to discuss their escape plan, the boys found themselves talking about their lives instead. Their friendship had grown naturally, like a quiet warmth spreading through the cold uncertainty of their situation. Kaneki still felt Red’s memory creeping in, unshakable, but he forced himself to push it away. Even so, it lingered, tugging at him like an old wound refusing to heal. The idea of staying here forever felt unreal. Whenever the thought surfaced, his throat tightened, making it hard to breathe.

  They talked until sundown, only leaving Kaneki’s room to eat. Every meal was warm, a small comfort he never expected to cherish. Compared to the lifeless food he had at home, each bite felt like a rare indulgence. Yet, even as he sat among the other children, he couldn't ignore the feeling of being watched. Skae.

  He caught himself glancing at her again. There was something about the way she sat, the way she held herself—confident, observant, unreadable. Was she truly a threat, or was she something else entirely? He forced his focus back to his food, but the question gnawed at him, refusing to fade.

  As the sun dipped below the horizon, the boys prepared for bed when the sound of hurried footsteps echoed down the hall. Kaneki and Tray exchanged a glance before turning toward the door. It swung open, revealing Hannah. But this wasn’t the kind, warm Hannah they were used to. Her expression was unreadable, her posture tense.

  “Lola told me what you were talking about,” she said, her voice firmer than before.

  The boys stiffened.

  “Lola?” Tray echoed.

  “The lunch lady,” Hannah clarified, crossing her arms. “She told me you’re planning to escape.”

  A wave of cold fear washed over Kaneki. His pulse pounded in his ears, drowning out the silence that followed. Was she going to separate them? Just like that? Would he lose another friend—another person who actually cared? His breathing went shallow.

  Tray inhaled sharply before stepping forward, forcing himself to meet Hannah’s gaze. “Kaneki needs to go back to his house,” he said, his voice unsteady but determined. “The house in the newspaper… it’s his. He needs to go back to find some closure.”

  Kaneki looked at him, eyes widening slightly. Tray—cool, composed even under pressure—was standing up for him. His chest tightened. Would Hannah really understand?

  Hannah sighed, closing her eyes. The silence stretched, heavy, unbearable.

  Then, her expression softened.

  “Very well,” she said quietly. Her voice had returned to its usual calm, but it carried an unmistakable seriousness. “You deserve to visit your home, Kaneki. But I will come with you, and you cannot tell the other kids.”

  The boys blinked in disbelief.

  “You’re… not going to separate us?” Kaneki asked cautiously. “The lunch lady said you would.”

  “I wouldn’t do that to you,” Hannah assured him gently. “I understand that you need closure.” She paused, looking at him thoughtfully. “The way I found you unconscious on our doorstep… that wasn’t normal.”

  Kaneki’s breath hitched. He looked down, his throat tightening. A lump formed in his chest, thick and unmovable. Then, he felt it—Hannah’s arms wrapping around him in a firm embrace. Warmth. A steady heartbeat against his ear.

  Kaneki’s arms twitched. He wanted to return the hug. He wanted to let himself believe in this comfort. But something inside him held him back. His arms fell to his sides instead, limp.

  Tears blurred his vision, spilling silently onto Hannah’s shoulder. He clenched his jaw, willing himself to stay composed, but the warmth of her embrace only made the ache worse. He let his eyes close, listening to her heartbeat.

  Is this what it feels like… to have a mum?