Hanako wasn't home when the knock came at her door. A female student on the other side asked if she was there, and after no response came, the girl left after an unheard invitation to join them at the park for games later. It was probably common knowledge to the other girls that she was usually in her room if not in class or the library. They were most likely offering her company because her friend Lilly was away visiting family, and they expected that she would be alone the whole time.
 
Twenty minutes later, the door opened and closed quickly, Hanako trying to draw absolutely no attention to her return. She silently put her bag of groceries against the wall by her desk, and sat with a sigh on the bed. Being in public had to be particularly stressful for her when she was alone, and paranoid of being confronted by someone. Lilly had encouraged her to try going to the store on her own once, since it would be good for her.
 
She rested a few minutes, then took a book from her shelf and laid out on her bed with it. She didn't read more than a minute at a time, though, without stealing glances at her chess baord that she'd gotten from Lilly at her birthday party. The two of them and Akira had some wine and cake, and enjoyed the time together before Hanako was left alone. Her and Lilly had used the antique chess board just once before Lilly left, and since then Hanako just used it with strategy books from the library.
 
After failing to complete two pages in her book over ten minutes, she marked it, stood up and took down her chess set. She sat it on the floor, and walked over to the shelf where her chess book always sat. This time she took me from the shelf.
 
 
 
We played before when she was a child, when she was avoiding other orphans instead of students, and didn't have a friend to spend time with. She chose me from some other stuffed toys in a way that seemed like an arbitrary choice, but when she started fiddling with the replaced stitching on my arm, I noticed the connection she saw. Most of the children there were gentle with toys, but she treated me as if I would break again at any time. I realized the first time that we played chess that she must have been learning the game at home before she arrived there and was clutching onto something from her last home.
 
She held her arms up to protect her face from the other kids back then, students now, and even reflexively with Lilly sometimes. She hid from me too, though, as if I was watching her. It meant to me that we were close, and that I was her friend. Maybe unblinking eyes of an object look to her as though they're staring. She hid from curious expressions the most in her time at the orphanage, and probably here as well, it's possible I look that way to her. Something different is that she didn't talk to me like she did those years ago, hopefully because Lilly made her a little more comfortable. It looked as though I could still help a bit, though.
 
This was our first game since her childhood, and it was clearly taking place because she was uncomfortable without Lilly.
 
"Let's play..."
 
So she was still willing to talk to me. It was spoken timidly to the empty room, as though someone might be listening through the wall and ask her who she was talking to.
 
Hanako moved her pieces and mine, looking carefully and trying to see if she could outsmart herself somehow. Would she be upset if I won?
 
 
 
A smile grew on her face each time my turn came up and she looked at me expectantly for a few seconds, treating me like a regular friend. The entire experience was nostalgic for her, but whenever I made a good move, she smiled a little bit wider. Eventually I won, obviously because she wanted me to. After a moment of looking at me and the board with a sweet look of satisfaction, she congratulated me for the first time in several years.
 
"Good game."
 
That night I was held tightly while she slept. I thought she'd cry because Lilly was away, but it looks like she'll be fine if I'm here when she needs me.