Paper Umbrellas

Rain stitched the sidewalks into shiny strips.

Mariza tilted her purple-and-black umbrella and watched the city blink. People’s pupils stood out more than neon signs. White. Green. Black. Everyone looked, then pretended not to.

Under the convenience store awning, Teto hugged her phone to her chest. Her pupils were black, like tiny ink dots.

Mariza stepped beside her. “Hi. Want a lollipop?” She held out a grape one.

Teto’s mouth tightened. “No.”

Mariza nodded like that was normal. She went inside, paid with her card, and came back holding the same lollipop.

“I said no,” Teto muttered, but her eyes followed it.

“Okay,” Mariza said. She didn’t put it away.

A sharp click of boots.

Neru stopped close, yellow jacket bright as caution tape. Her green pupils flicked to Mariza’s white ones. “Bold,” Neru said, lifting her hand so a ring caught the light. Her lock screen showed her smiling with Miku.

Teto flinched.

Mariza angled the umbrella, blocking the photo. “Rain’s getting worse,” she said.

Neru’s smile bent. “So are rumors.”

Ticking Under the Counter

Mariza tilted her umbrella and nodded toward a tiny cafe with a sign shaped like a clock hand.

Teto followed, splashing through a puddle. “Don’t start with candy again.”

Inside, the air smelled like toast. A bearded man behind the counter adjusted a little pocket watch. His apron said SECOND HAND.

“Sit,” he said. “Rain makes people mean. Also… don’t play the dare board.”

Teto blinked. “Dare board?”

A paper poster hung by the register: DARE FOR A FREE TREAT. Someone had scribbled new lines in bright green marker.

Teto’s phone buzzed. She stared, then swallowed hard.

Mariza leaned in. The message was a photo of the poster and one line zoomed in: Accept a lollipop from the girl with the purple umbrella. Let it be filmed.

A flash lit the window.

Neru stood outside under her yellow jacket hood, holding her phone up, smiling like she already won.

Mariza set the grape lollipop on the table, wrapper crinkling. “You can hold it and still not like it,” she said.

Teto’s fingers shook. She snatched it anyway.

The wrapper popped.

Teto sucked once, eyes wide, and her pupils flickered—just a blink—toward pale as her phone slipped from her hand