THE HAWFLAKE HERO Book One: A Sugar Glass Beginning by T.M. Rale He didn't mean to become a hero. He just ate the wrong candy. Bao Tang is tired—of school, of spotlight, of always having to be someone worth applauding. Then he eats an old haw flake. A translucent shimmer curls across his skin. Light bends. Surfaces glide. Bao discovers he can move differently—through the cracks of the city, through the quiet moments no one sees. But this isn't about flying. Or fighting. It's about seeing—and being seen. As Bao experiments with this strange new power, he stumbles through quiet acts of mischief and kindness, reconnects with the ordinary, and finds unexpected friendships with a dog, a clever girl, and a boy who knows more than he lets on. But when a gunshot breaks the calm of a hawker centre evening, Bao must decide: will he keep drifting unseen—or risk everything to step into the light? A shimmering debut about invisibility, quiet heroism, and the sweetness that lingers when the world finally slows down.