Hanako Extra: Filling in the Gaps

Hanako Extra: Filling in the Gaps
Just a short Hanako story to refresh myself creatively. Hope you enjoy~
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One night, I found Hanako asleep, with a notebook and pencil clutched to her chest.

She's taken up writing lately, but refuses to show me what she's working on. Naturally, I imagine she was self-conscious about her ideas, so I didn't push it.

Yet... I can't seem to stave off the curiosity of what she's writing.

I know it's in bad taste to read someone's private work, but...

I mean, I love the girl. Since we've been together, there's little she doesn't share with me. The fact that she's keeping something as simple as a story from me drives me crazy.

I can't imagine anything that she creates would be something I'd dislike.

I'm just so damned curious.

Right now, she's asleep on the couch, with her writing pressed to the place I've been held so often. I'd dare say I'm jealous right now of how closely she's guarding whatever it is she's writing.

I wonder how I can get the book from her. Maybe if she slouches over, her grip might loosen on the notepad.

All I can do is lean over the backside of the couch and watch her sleeping peacefully. A gentle heaving of her chest and breathing accompanies the near silence of our home.

The quiet doesn't help my curiosity.

Gently, I nudge her ever so slightly. If she becomes off-centered, she'll eventually tip on her own. It becomes a waiting game.

When she finally does, the book skitters onto the floor without me having to do a thing.

I feel dishonest, picking it up. She never told me I couldn't read it, only that she wasn't finished yet. Nearly the same thing.

Well, what's the harm in it? Not like she'll know that I'm reading it. She's fast asleep; always has been a heavy sleeper.

I open it and read the first line.

"Without fail, all people have gaps and leaks in their heart that can only be filled by distractions."

Just below it are a lot of pencil smudges and crossed out words. Eventually it seems like she gave up on trying to fix the line of prose and settled for a new one.

"It never starts that way, though; life makes cracks in all of our hearts. Some big, some small."

I feel my hand moving instinctively towards my chest. It's a habit I have whenever I talk about it or the subject comes up.

I like being reminded that it in fact still works, no matter how defective.

"Some people never find out how to plug the gaps in their heart. The distractions never quite fit, or last for very long."

"Eventually, those people wind up finding that they don't fit anywhere, much like they can't find anything to fit in the aching spots where they have nothing."

"Thankfully, I was saved from that kind of life."

More scribbles and erasings, a lot of the lines I've already read having plenty of past sentences underneath them erased and rewritten.

I flip the page.

There's nothing else?

She's been working on this for at least a week, and all she has is one page? Returning to it, there's a little note in the margin.

"Ugh, this feels so tacky, like some kind of poorly written romance intro >___<'"

"...Maybe I shouldn't be using obvious sources. I just want to use it as inspiration so badly...!"

I smirk a little bit. I can see why she was unwilling to show me, even if whatever reasoning she has for being self-conscious is a bit off. The notion is pretty romantic.

There's nothing wrong about the writing, though. Felt like there was something missing from me for a long time, something I spent time distracting myself with sports or friends or just school in general.

When I had those distractions taken away from me, my life changed and so did I. Hanako changed me back, I'd say.

We do a good job of filling each other's hearts.

Placing the notebook back on the floor the way it fell, I pick up and cradle Hanako in my arms so we can both go to bed.

Maybe she'll finish that story, whatever she has in mind for it. Maybe she won't. I think that's alright, though. Sometimes things are fine exactly the way they are.