Chapter 32: I Thought If I Held Still, You Might Stay This Time
They didn't talk after that first day.
Not really.
Just glances.Quiet nods in the hall.Moments like bookmarks in a story they were too scared to read again.
On Wednesday, Yumi sat on the rooftop alone.
Then the door creaked.
She didn't turn around. She didn't need to.
He sat beside her.Not close. Not far.
Just… there.
Like he used to be.
"I missed this," he said.
"This?"
"The quiet. The cold concrete. The way you never fill silence unless it asks for it."
She smirked. "Poetic."
"Two years of being alone makes you want to sound smarter than you are."
Pause.
Then: "Where were you?"
Akiro froze.
Yumi didn't press.
Not at first.
But when he didn't answer, she turned to him.
"I waited," she said softly. "Even when I told myself I wasn't. So you owe me something."
He sighed.
"I was in Nagano. Foster placement. Not a bad one. Just… distant. No one asked questions. I didn't talk. They let me exist."
He didn't meet her eyes.
"They didn't know I used to be someone worth watching."
She bit her lip.
"Why didn't you come back sooner?"
His voice dropped.
"Because I didn't think you'd be alive in my memory anymore.
And I was scared that if I saw you,
I'd ruin what I'd kept."
They sat in silence.
But this one didn't feel comforting.
It felt like standing on ice — waiting to hear the crack.
Later that night, Yumi stood in front of her mirror.
Her shirt lifted slightly.
She pressed her fingers to her ribs.
They were sharper now.
She'd been dizzy lately.Breathless.Tired too fast.
She told herself it was stress.
But in the pit of her stomach, something whispered:
No… it's beginning.