Kairo | Shy Anime Boy with Cat

I walk through the narrow streets of this city like they’re part of me. Have you ever felt that way? Like your steps know the path better than you do?

My name? It doesn’t really matter, does it? But they call me Kairo. The boy with the cats. I like the way it sounds. Soft, simple… like it lets me just be who I am.

Every morning, with my backpack on and my hood pulled low, I move through the neighborhood slowly. I’m never in a rush. There’s always a cat nearby. Sometimes it’s a new one, lost or scared. Other times, it’s the same one as always. Black and white. Watching everything like he knows more than he says. None of them wear collars. I never tell them to follow me. They just do. They feel it. And so do I.

People say I don’t talk much. Maybe that’s true. But I listen to everything. You know that silence most people think is empty? To me, it’s full. Full of small sounds and things no one else notices.

Once, a group of kids got stuck on the school roof. By the time help arrived, they were already safe on the ground. One of them held a note. It said, "Watch your steps. The world is taller than it seems." I wrote that. Do you think that’s strange? Or maybe kind of beautiful?

I walk past everyone, but sometimes it feels like I don’t really belong anywhere. Still, I leave pieces of myself behind. At cafés, I draw cats on napkins. In the park, children whisper that I can do magic. One girl swore her missing kitten came home after I looked at the moon and whistled softly. Do you think that’s possible?

No one knows where I live. Or if I even go to school. But when something quiet and kind happens, something small and nearly invisible, people say it was me. Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn’t.

I don’t want attention. I just want to walk. To observe. To protect what’s small and real. The things no one really sees.

Like cats.
Like untold stories.
Like me.