Kono Su Qingrashii Shi Jieni Bao Yanwo-wo Shi Tingsurugogoanimede Di1huawo Wu Liao Shi Ting -

She smiled. Or maybe she didn't.

It was him again. The boy with the broken Japanese and the Mandarin that slipped through the cracks like water. He called her Jieni —the way her name sounded in his mouth, soft and foreign.

" Kono su… qingrashii shi… " the voice on the other end crackled. She smiled

The air in Jenny’s tiny rental room tasted of instant coffee and dust motes dancing in the 4 PM light. She lay sprawled across her unmade bed, phone pressed to one ear, earbud dangling from the other.

Jenny closed her eyes. She didn't answer. She just listened to him listen to her. Outside, a truck rumbled past. A dog barked twice. Somewhere, an episode of some forgotten anime played its soft ending credits—but neither of them was watching. The boy with the broken Japanese and the

Afternoon Static

He was bored, he said. So bored that listening to her breathe on the line was the only thing keeping the silence from eating the walls. The air in Jenny’s tiny rental room tasted

" Jieni bao yan wo— " he said, and she imagined him hugging the air of his own lonely apartment, two cities away.