Ryūta sat across from his guest, head bowed in remorse. He offered no excuses, but he didn’t apologize either. He had deceived the girl who trusted him. There was no justification for such a betrayal. Let come what may, he thought, not even noticing that Sanae’s face reflected not anger or disappointment, but rather surprise.   “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” she finally broke the silence.   “It’d be easy to say I was scared you’d think I was crazy, but I think it was more than that,” Ryūta began, trying to expin. “When Hime died, my life lost all meaning. I didn’t leave the house for days, just sat there wondering what to do next. But I knew she wouldn’t want to see me like that, so I forced myself to go back to school. That’s when I got to know Shinji better, and even though spending more time with him helped ease the loneliness, I still didn’t know what direction to take. Then he told me Hime’s body had disappeared, and they had no idea what might’ve happened. And then the nightmares began.”   His voice faltered, and tears welled in his eyes. He turned his head, trying to hide them, but in vain.   “In your dreams, Mafuyu… what is she like?” the girl asked hesitantly.   “She looks like you. Or at least I think she does. I rarely manage to remember, and even when I do, I still can’t see her face clearly. She’s too far away. All I know is that she’s sad and desperate, but no matter how hard I try, my voice never reaches her.”   Sanae gently cradled his head and pulled him to her chest.   “I know it’s hard,” she whispered, “but you can’t help me. I live in the bck tower.”   “What’s that supposed to mean?” Ryūta looked up in confusion from her embrace. She smiled softly.   “If you don’t know, then you haven’t seen the dark side of the city yet. And that’s how it should be. You don’t need to suffer anymore.”   Ryūta tried to resist, to stay focused, to keep the conversation on track. But Sanae’s whispering voice and the warmth of her embrace wrapped around him like a spell. Slowly, his resistance faded. His eyes grew heavier, and his thoughts began to dissolve.   “You must be really tired,” she said soothingly. “And it’s getting te. Maybe it’s time for you to sleep. Don’t worry, I’ll watch over your dreams tonight. I won’t let anything disturb you.”   She stroked his hair gently, and within half a minute, Ryūta had fallen asleep. True to her word, no nightmares pgued Ryūta that night. The rest of it passed in quiet peace for him.   He woke up early that morning, well-rested, earlier than usual. Strangely, he was in his bed. The apartment was completely silent. Still groggy, he crawled out from under the covers and checked each room one by one. There was no one there.   The futon, where he should have slept, was neatly rolled up. No clothes hanging on the drying rack. No dishes left to dry by the sink. Even the trash bin was empty. There was no sign that he’d had a guest the previous night.   “Maybe I dreamed the whole thing…” he mumbled, half-convinced, until he returned to his room and saw a handwritten letter waiting on his desk.   He picked it up and began to read:   “I’m sorry that I disappeared without saying anything. I know this must be hard for you, but this is for the best. I couldn’t bear it if something happened to you because of me. That’s why, from now on, please act like we don’t know each other. Like we’re just cssmates. For your own sake. Thank you for everything. – Sanae”   “That idiot... No… it's me. If I hadn’t acted like such a pathetic fool, she wouldn’t have made this choice,” Ryūta muttered, then set the letter back down on the table and started getting ready.   He made himself a sandwich for breakfast, but didn’t take a single bite. He just wrapped it up and returned it to the fridge.   Even after finishing all his morning tasks, he still had time before his usual train, but he couldn’t find any meaningful way to spend it. He was unable to focus on anything. Sanae was all he could think about.   Finally, he grabbed the letter and left early, catching an earlier train than usual. For once, he arrived at school before most of his cssmates.   He spent the time before the first css waiting by the school gate, hoping he might see her. But, unsurprisingly, Shinji showed up first and greeted him.   “Good morning!”   “Yeah... morning,” Ryūta replied, sounding a little defted. Shinji noticed right away.   “You don’t sound too enthusiastic. Did something happen?”   “Not really...” Ryūta stared bnkly into the distance, until eventually Sanae appeared.   Without saying a word, she walked past them, her eyes fixed straight ahead, as if she were deliberately avoiding eye contact.   “Something did happen, didn’t it?” Shinji repeated, more certain this time. Ryūta sighed and silently handed him the letter.   Shinji stared at the slightly crumpled paper for a moment, then adjusted his gsses. That small gesture was enough for Ryūta to assume something serious was coming, and he tensed in anticipation.   “She turned you down?” Shinji asked. But the second he saw Ryūta’s scowl, he realized now was not the time for jokes and shifted his tone.   “She stayed at your pce again, didn’t she?”   “Yeah...” Ryūta admitted. “But the circumstances were different this time.”   “No need to expin,” Shinji said, raising his hand. “I already told you how I feel about it, so I won’t lecture you again. It’s really none of my business anyway. And judging by that letter, it looks like Sanae finally got the message.”   “You don’t get it! It’s not like that at all!” Ryūta raised his voice, desperate to make his point clear.   “Then what is it?” Shinji looked at him, surprised.   “I think she’s in trouble.”   Although Shinji still had his doubts, seeing the determination and near desperation in his friend’s eyes, he realized he had to take him seriously.   “Then why didn’t she ask anyone for help?” he wondered.   “Yesterday she told me, ‘You can’t help me. I live in the bck tower,’” Ryūta recalled.   Shinji rubbed his chin, falling silent for a few seconds, then suddenly recoiled.   “Could that be a metaphor? Like about her home life? What if she’s being abused?!”   “No, I don’t think she’s that poetic,” Ryūta grimaced at the extreme suggestion, then eborated, “Judging by the gift she brought me, she’s living comfortably. And she didn’t say a bck tower, she said the bck tower. It sounded like she meant a specific pce.”   “You might be right. Did she say anything else?”   “I think she mentioned something about the dark side of the city… But that part of the conversation’s a little hazy.”   “How come?” Shinji asked, frowning as Ryūta averted his gaze awkwardly.   “I fell asleep. Like I said, the circumstances were different this time.”   They both sighed in frustration, their brainstorming session fizzling out with no real answers. In the end, Ryūta decided to stick with his original pn.   “I’m going to talk to Sanae,” he said firmly.   Shinji shot him a disapproving look.   “Didn’t she ask you to act like you don’t even know her?”   “Lately, I’ve become a lot more open to strangers,” Ryūta replied, then turned and started walking toward the school building.   “That’s true,” Shinji smiled and followed a few steps behind. But he quickly caught up, because Ryūta had suddenly come to a halt.   “What is it? Why’d you stop?”   “It felt like something touched me…” Ryūta muttered, inspecting his right side where the strange sensation had come from, but there was nothing there. “Must’ve been my imagination…”   When the two boys entered the cssroom, Sanae was already in her seat. Shinji took his pce as usual, while Ryūta walked over and stopped in front of the girl.   “Good morning!” he greeted cheerfully.   “Good morning to you,” she replied politely, then looked at him uncertainly. “You’re Kagayaki-kun, right? Is there something I can help you with?”   “Wow... she’s really sticking to the act,” Ryūta thought, then said aloud, “I just wanted to talk to you about yesterday.”   “Yesterday?” she echoed, clearly confused. “Did something happen yesterday?”   Her reaction filled Ryūta with unease.   “Yes! You followed me all the way to Miura, where we were nearly hit by a truck. After that, you stayed over at my pce. We made dinner together, got scared half to death by a cat in the middle of the night, we talked... and... a lot of other things happened…” he trailed off, biting his tongue as his thoughts drifted toward the more awkward parts of the night.   “What are you talking about? I’ve never been to your pce. I didn’t even leave the city yesterday,” Sanae replied, still looking at him with genuine confusion.   Her bnk expression shook Ryūta for a moment, but then he remembered the letter.   “Then what’s this?!” he snapped, not even sure why his voice had risen like that.   He immediately regretted it when he saw her flinch in surprise, and felt even worse when he realized he couldn’t find the letter in his pocket. His hand rummaged frantically, but the paper was nowhere to be found.   “What’s what?” she asked softly, a bit shaken.   Ryūta just stood there, confused and speechless.   He was sure he’d put the letter back in his pocket after showing it to Shinji, and the pocket was deep enough that it couldn’t have fallen out by accident.   Then it hit him. That strange feeling earlier, like something had touched him.   “It must’ve been then… But who? And how? When I looked over, there was no one nearby.” Ryūta was lost in thought until Sanae’s voice pulled him back.   “Are you okay? Should I take you to the nurse’s office?” she asked, uneasy from the growing number of cssmates whispering around them. That’s when Ryūta realized just how much of a scene he had caused.   “No, I’m fine... Probably just tired. Sorry,” he muttered, lowering his gaze before walking out of the cssroom.   On one side of the hallway were cssrooms, on the other, a row of windows overlooking the school courtyard. As he stepped outside the room, he walked over to the nearest open window and leaned on the sill with his elbows.   “What the hell is going on? She cut her hand, and the wound disappears. I open up to her, and she starts speaking in riddles. Then she leaves a letter, which vanishes from my pocket, and now she acts like she remembers none of it. This feels like some kind of weird dre–”   A soccer ball came flying toward him at full speed. He saw it, but too te. It smacked him square in the nose.   “OW!! Okay... probably not dreaming,” he groaned, burying his face in his hands.   “WE’RE REALLY SORRY!” a boy called out from across the courtyard, part of the team warming up for morning practice. But Ryūta ignored him and sank back into his thoughts.   “Let’s assume it all really happened. There was a letter in my pocket, and someone took it out. I felt it happen, but saw no one. And as much as I want to know who did it, and how… maybe what really matters is why. And Sanae… Could she really be faking all this? If so, why go to the trouble of stealing the note? She could’ve just denied everything. I’d have no way to prove she wrote it. Which means... Had she really forgotten everything?”   “Does it even matter?”   He turned toward the voice. A girl about his height, with long bck hair and dark eyes, stood with her arms crossed, approaching him with a serious and faintly pitying expression.   “President…”