Aera felt her own heart crack.
— Okay. Okay, alright… come.
She grabbed her arm with a gesture both gentle and firm.
— We're going to eat!!
She forced a huge smile, too bright, too exaggerated, precisely to try to bring a bit of color back into Nari's grey world.
In the car, Nari stayed silent.
Eyes fixed on the window.
The scenery passed by but she didn't seem to see anything.
Her breathing was short.
Her hand cold, unmoving.
Aera placed her own hand over it, slowly.
A reminder.
An anchor.
A presence.
— I'm here, she whispered. I'm here, okay?
Nari simply nodded, without lifting her eyes.
They arrived in front of a small all-you-can-eat restaurant, a colorful place filled with the smell of warm food, orange lights, a comforting bustle, almost family-like.
The kind of place where people laugh loudly.
Where life is simple.
Where the world does not collapse.
Aera pulled Nari inside, one arm around her shoulders.
— You're going to eat like a princess, okay?
Aera was trying.
With all her strength.
She continued:
— Look, they have sushi! And noodles! And fried chicken! OHHH A CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN!
She opened her mouth wide, exaggerating her expression like a comedy actress.
Nari looked at her for two seconds.
Then lowered her eyes again.
As if an enormous weight pulled her toward the floor.
Aera didn't get discouraged.
— Come on, we're going to make our plates! I even promise I'll let you steal three spring rolls from the guy next to us if it makes you smile.
She gently tugged her hand.
But Nari walked like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
A slow walk.
Empty.
A soul absent inside a moving body.
Aera made a thousand jokes.
Faces.
Ridiculous gestures.
She even attempted a bizarre dance near the buffet.
— Look Nari, I'm doing the dumpling dance!! Tududududu—
She took an empty dish to the head.
She put her hand on her forehead, complaining:
— Oh! Low blow!! Who attacks a unicorn??
She turned toward Nari to catch a smile.
A tiny one.
Nari lifted her eyes.
Her face didn't move.
Not a muscle.
Her eyes remained empty, distant, as if she were listening through a wall.
As if the whole world sounded muffled.
She picked up a small cube of melon.
Placed it on her plate.
Then stared at the plate.
Without doing anything else.
Aera felt a wave of sadness rise inside her.
A bitter sadness.
Because she saw.
She understood.
Nari wasn't here.
Only her body was sitting in this restaurant, lit by warm lamps, surrounded by life.
Her mind, though…
had stayed in the apartment.
On that cold floor.
Between the screams.
Between the tears.
Between the end.
⸻
Aera leaned toward her, placed her hand on hers, squeezed gently.
— You're not alone.
Her voice was low.
Sincere.
— And I will never let you fall.
Nari nodded.
A tiny movement.
A shadow of an answer.
But her eyes remained lost.
Lost in the shadow of the man she still loved.
Lost in the pain consuming her from the inside.
7:30 p.m.
The Black Orchid vibrated faintly under the red neon lights.
Kai and Ryo were talking near the bar, two silhouettes leaning toward each other in the semi-darkness, when—
CLACK.
The front door opened.
And silence fell.
In a second.
As if someone had cut the world's sound.
Aera appeared first…
then Nari.
Nari, held by the arm, literally supported, like someone returning from a war, someone who could collapse at the slightest breath.
A pale Nari.
An emptied Nari.
A Nari who seemed to weigh nothing anymore.
Her T-shirt looked too heavy for her.
Her eyes were empty, dead, extinguished.
She walked without looking where she was going.
Like a ghost searching only for a place to fall.
Ryo's eyes widened.
His mouth opened slightly.
Kai, meanwhile… froze.
Nari's gaze — empty, without light, without emotion — sent a shiver down his spine.
Ryo rushed toward them, alarmed.
— Uh… Aera? What… what's going on?
He looked at Nari, panicking.
— Hey, Nari? Can you hear me? You want us to sit you down?
Aera shook her head, a quick, nervous gesture.
— Just help me put her on a chair.
They sat Nari on the bar stool.
She didn't react.
Not a blink.
Not a stronger breath.
Aera then grabbed Ryo by the arm and pulled him a few steps away, but never too far.
She kept glancing at Nari every three seconds, like she feared she'd disappear if she looked away.
Her voice came out in bursts:
— Listen, Ryo… you need to be careful… really careful… Nari… she… she's really not okay.
— But what happened? Ryo whispered, panicking.
Aera swallowed hard.
— I can't get into details now but… she's… broken. Completely.
She trembles, she isn't eating, she isn't speaking, Aera whispered, her hands trembling.
She spoke quickly, too quickly, like the words were slipping out of her.
— It's… complicated. She went through something… something really bad last night. She almost…
She swallowed nervously.
— She's not okay. You just need to… watch over her. I'd rather have her here than alone at home, you know?
Ryo looked at Nari — collapsed on the chair, arms limp over her thighs, eyes open but empty.
He turned pale.
— Damn…
— I swear, Ryo, if you bother her, if you make one wrong joke, I'll rip your hair out one by one, okay?
Ryo immediately nodded.
But Kai…
Kai hadn't moved from his stool.
He stared at her.
Fists clenched.
Veins in his neck pulsing.
His gaze darkening, heating.
He felt anger rise — a dark, dull, uncontrollable anger.
He had never seen Nari like this.
Never.
And if there's something Kai hates: it's helplessness.
— AERA.
His voice cracked through the air like a slap.
Aera jumped, locked eyes with him…
and quickly walked toward him.
— Yes, sir Kai…
He never looked away from Nari.
He had seen her face.
Her paleness.
Her absence.
Her dark circles.
Her trembling breath.
And he was scared.
A fear he transformed into rage.
— How is she?
His voice was low.
Almost animal.
— And what happened?