The Temperature of Finally

Airnote  ·  Kanna  ·  Jun 7, 2026

The moment the door opened, the lamp swayed.
It wasn't the wind.

The sound of footsteps, five months away —
she recognized them more surely than she'd expected.

I'm not angry, Kanna said.
That was true.
But it was a long time, she said.
That was true too.

When he held her, something felt strange.
Not wrong.
Only — the feeling of someone's warmth
actually being here, for the first time in a long time.

I finally made it, he said.

The word finally holds all the waiting inside it.
Kanna received it, and decided to make tea.

The steam rose before any more words did.
For the first time in a long time,
the library became the temperature of someone being in it.