Some people say loneliness fades with time,
but for some of us, it waits quietly,
someone like her, to find us...
1
The Accident
The sky was painted in soft hues of orange and gold. Sun is dipped behind the hills as a car sped down on the road. The trees waved their leaves like hands saying good bye to the day. Inside the car laughter filler the air, Satoshi a 8 years old boy who is returning home with his parents after enjoying his summer vacation. He smile faintly and said.
"Okay last one, if you get this riddle right, I admit defeat."
His mother who wore blue top and white jeans peeked at him through rear view mirror.
"I'm ready."
Satoshi lift a dramatic finger. "What is the thing we create but can't see?"
His father chuckled, both hand on wheels "this one again, you already told us this riddle three times."
"Yeah, but you forget the answer every time"
"That's because it's not a real riddle."
"It's imagination, right." His mother replied.
"No, you're wrong." Satoshi says with quite irritation.
"It's imagination, just accept your defeat" his father declared. "Ugh, I create a imagination and talk, sleep, eat with that and then I win."
"But before that, you are defeated" his mother said proudly.
"Can you guess Satoshi, what your mother wore on our first date even I forget it was a date?"
"She wore blue."
His mother gazed at him. "How did you know that?"
"You always wore blue when you really happy."
His father reached over and squeezed her hand. The moment fell perfect. Whole. It didn't need words. Satoshi leaned against the window, smiling to himself as the trees passed in a blur. "Hey, can we stop by the lake, I want to draw it again?"
His mother nodded. "If it's not to dark."
"I will draw fast this time."
His father gazed at him through the mirror. "You better not make me look bald again."
"I never make you look bald" Satoshi replied.
"You gave me two hairs and a leaf!"
"It was an artistic choice then!" Satoshi protested.
Then, both parents laughed again. The car roll on gently, the music of car beginning to hum outside. Suddenly, the steering wheel jerked. The tires screamed as the car swerved left. His father yelled something but it lost beneath the noise. The world spun. The metal twisted like paper, the window burst like ice, sparkling like diamond.
"Satoshi..." his mother reached towards him but pulled back by her seatbelt. The door become ceiling and then it become ground and finally stopped. Silence. Only the faint sound of birds startled into flight. Satoshi open his eyes with a thin line of blood running down his forehead. The old cheerful word still echoing in his mind "...if it's not to dark..."
He turned his head weakly. The front seats are still. Unmoving. "Mom..."
No reply.
"Dad..."
He came out of wreckage. The trees outside stood still. Like they were holding their breath. He looked at his wristwatch it stopped at 8:17. His teddy bear was smiling at him of course he always was. "Help"
He whispered, and that's when he saw her at first, he thought it was a blur of his eyes or the broken headlights catching something in the mist. But no, she was real or something like that. A girl in pale blue dress, standing still beneath a crooked tree, not rushing for help, her back facing him, her pale blue hair same as her dress. "Help me, please."
He whispered, barely audible.
Crack.
A sharp delicate sound broke the silence, made by a piece of wood underfoot. Satoshi lift his head.
The girl start turning slowly... slowly... but as soon as her chin came into view. Before he can glimpse her face. Satoshi swallowed by dark.
2
Through The Window
Beeping. Faint. Mechanical. That was the first sound Satoshi heard when the darkness peeled away.
A sterile, breathless smell stuck in his nose like antiseptic cream. His eyes fluttered open. White ceiling, wall reflect harsh light off everything. He tried to move, pain answered. His head, chest and knees pressed like weights, tubes tugged his hands, bandages wrapped him tight.
He wonder what he saw was a dream?
The crash. Shattering glass. His mother's hand. His father's voice. The girl. The crack and turning girl.
His eyes widened. He sat up too quickly. The pain ran through his spine.
"Waoh... waoh…!" A nurse ran towards him.
"You okay, just breath." She gently pressed him onto the bed.
"Where..."
Satoshi's voice cracked. "Where are my parents?"
She stood still, silent. And that silence told everything. Satoshi looked away after tasting the truth in the quite. She left after checking the machines. The silence came again but for a moment, a couple of voices of doctors ran Satoshi's ears one young other older maybe in her late thirties.
"Poor boy, both parents gone. Mother didn't make it to the hospital and father pass during surgery," one said.
"Miracle he's alive at all."
His eyes blurred again but this time it isn't the fog it is his eyes with tears. He faced the window and freeze.
A girl in pale blue standing under the only tree in the hospital's ground. The girl from his dream, still facing away.
"Nina..." He whispered.
He didn't know her name but it felt right. And then she start turning just like before in his dream, he probably understood it's not a dream. But before she can turn fully, she begin to disappear and perfectly fade in half turn.
"Wait." He whispered barely audible.
But she wasn't there or maybe never there. And then broken and exhausted Satoshi fell into sleep.
3
The Identity On C3
The alarm rang. Satoshi's eyes blinked open. He sat up slowly. Now 14. The cooing of pigeons, the faint hum of refrigerator, the dim light of sun passing through curtains, the ticking of clock beside his bed on his desk all are beautiful but hollow. The door creaked open. A young lady entered maybe 25. She introduced herself as her new maid.
"Hello I'm Aiko, your new maid. I prepare dishes and make sure your laundry's done."
She stand there maybe waiting for any question or at least a smile but Satoshi is already looking away.
"Breakfast is ready, when you are" she left the room.
He rose, take bath, put up his uniform, eat breakfast and leave. The passing trees through metro window.
A women throws a pineapple into the river to prove her devotion, leaving a needy man sitting next to her, hungry.
The bargening taxies and the street following the lilies and bougainvillea from entry of college to main building.
He entered his class, Rue-sensei stands there hands back, always gentle with her words.
"Good morning, Rue-sensei." Satoshi greets her.
"good morning Moto-kun, welcome back."
"Thank you, sensei."
"if you want I can shift someone to sit with you so when..."
"thank you, but I want to be alone."
"Okay."
Satoshi drifted on his seat, C4, there is a folded paper which reads:
"I saw you in my dream -the girl from old apartment."
He ignored it and put it in his notebook. The day passed through the flipping notes and lectures, nothing new. The last period came, computer class Satoshi go to lab. Faint blue screen reflect on his face as he take his seat.
The boy beside him - Tanaka, fiddling with the school Id cards program. He put his hands back on his head "hmm, I think it must be a glitch because seat C3 is always empty." Satoshi's eyes float through screen it reads:
Name: [Unknown]
Class: 9 A
Seat: C3
Visual: Pale blue hair, dress...
Description: The one who talk to trees.
"It's like system inventing someone" he said.
Satoshi just ignoring everything. Final bell ring. Satoshi in the corridor noticed by three boys.
One is chewing grass, another eating a melon and third one just kick a pebble like he bored with the world, he notice Satoshi first.
"Hey it is the ghost boy, isn't it?" He said.
"Did you saw her again, the one who talk to trees?" Another join.
"Maybe she was his new mother" the third one said, and they laugh together, hollow and cruel.
Satoshi's head down walking fast and at the corner of the corridor where it end he turned and collide into something, papers scattered in the air.
A girl of her age, maybe older.
Satoshi sat down, collect the papers and give her "sorry." "Hmm" she said, and that is all. She step forward as her hair dances in the air.
Satoshi looked back she is walking unknowingly. When he turn forward and walk.
She stops and turn back.
Their eyes didn't meet but something in the air seems to be tremble.
4
The Mysterious Visitor
The air in room full of the sound of running graphite on paper. Satoshi's hand running through his homework copy steadily and slowly. His vision take a drift on the page last time as he lifted his pencil, its done with preciseness and patience.
He stand and play the music which is playing in the car, before the accident when everything was good, everyone was alive.
He take out a diary from shelf bound by leather. The cover read a name he knew – his mother's.
Flipping the diary, passing through paintings of his own some messy some beautiful. He stopped to a painting of a girl standing under a tree facing away- Nina. The girl from his dream. He started again and stopped when its complete.
A girl. The girl he collide with.
Exactly like how she stand after the collision, the way she tuck her hair behind her ears, the way her eyes didn't quite meet his.
A faint smile touch his lips, he ran down the stairs, in the kitchen Aiko washing the dishes.
"Still awake?" She said when she notice him.
"I want breakfast for two, tomorrow."
"Why? Did you inviting someone?"
"Just two plates, please" he said without actual reason. Satoshi drifted up in his room. He lay on the bed and let the music kept playing with the diary.
Morning.
Alarm rang, sunlight peeped in through the window passing the curtains. Satoshi's eyes fluttered open. He sat up and froze. A girl in pale blue. The girl from his dream- Nina, stands there. She is smiling calm and beautiful. Real or something like that. Satoshi give a hidden welcome.
"Nina."
"Thank you" she said "for inviting me."
Satosih rise take bath and wear uniform she stood there. They took breakfast together after that Satoshi and Nina drifted to basin. They stood side by side but in mirror only Satoshi's hand splashing under the stream of the tap.
Something magical happen in that quite room.
They left for school as the morning show its maximum beauty. When they leave the two plates remained one is empty, other one is untouched, still full.
5
Ah! Its Different
Friday morning at Colvin Taluqdars' College felt different. A different hum in the corridor. For Satoshi, it's only another day. He walked through the corridors in standard uniform: black pant, white shirt, black tie and black polished shoes. Nina following him with exact match. Inside the classroom Rue-sensei stands, always smiling. She command
"homework, everyone."
Satoshi gives his notebook.
"Perfect as always Moto-kun" she said.
"Sensei, there's a new..." Satoshi want to tell something but half sentence struck in his throat like he remember something.
Rue-sensei wait a bit and then continue like she never expect him to finish. Satoshi take his seat, Nina slid beside him like it was her by rights. They talk between the class nothing new just like friends. The two boys behind them glared at Satoshi maybe because he is talking to himself. The periods passed one by one. As the last bell rang Satoshi and Nina make their way to the swings in the ground, chains creaking. Satoshi saw them the same three boys who teased him before his feet hit the ground. He jump from the swing and run towards them.
"The one who talk to trees" he said, chin lifted "is with me now."
Their interest flickered "where" one said.
He pointed towards swings only she wasn't there, only two swings one moving, another perfectly still.
"Don't waste our time" one of them push his shoulder, he fell down, and they left. He gazed at the swing, sauntered up and again sit on it.
Few seconds later another swing start moving like it was pushed by invisible hands. He turned his head, Nina was there.
"Where were you?" He asked.
"I feared them" she answered.
"I beat them if they tease you" he said. Nina burst into laugh before jumping from the swing bending backward toward him, her smile bright enough to erase the whole yard.
"Okay, let's go home but first a movie" Nina requested.
As they both walked Satoshi's eyes dropped on the ground, his brows lift. Nina's footsteps left no marks. He focused on them, slowly faint expressions began to appear like his will alone had pressed them there. In the half way home he saw the girl he collide with standing under a streetlamp, vision down, and as Satoshi saw her. Nina fade. Satoshi didn't saw it happen neither did that girl. No warning, no shimmer just gone.
[INTERVAL]
Satoshi's chest tightened, he glanced around. Maybe he knows where she was. Turning toward side street he spotted her at a ice cream shop. She is asking for a chocolate bar with a beautiful smile.
"Money" she said to Satoshi when he went there.
He give some coins to the vendor, the vendor went in the refrigerator and wake out a ice cream to her and they both took it. There are two ice creams but the vendor give only one. Maybe both ice cream are real but maybe one is real and other is another creation.
Where the road bend, at the corner that girl stand which Satoshi collide. Her eyes followed them sharing there ice cream as Nina throw the rapper of coffee bar, half hidden by the wall. Satoshi and Nina drifted to home as the night cover the earth, eat dinner and and drifted to room. Nina stayed with him.
"I'll do my homework in the morning" he said.
He get off his shoes "let me see yours" he said to Nina.
She set her shoes down, he studied the soles not neat, just round expressions.
"Ah!"
A secret smile touches his lips perhaps he only said this and nothing more. The house is still. The world outside silent. Two shadows beneath the blanket one is breathing, alive, another perhaps only a echo.
6
Taste Of Loneliness
The world is silent. The fan in the room of the old apartment decreasing the silence but not breaking. A girl, who collide with Satoshi, laying on her bed half sleeping or maybe pretending. Then, out of now where she start speaking not to anyone just in dark.
"My name is Eno Zohara." She whispered.
"I leave here alone, my parents don't like me, they don't like each other. There marriage is forced, they want divorce but before it happen there was me, an interruption."
A small smile visit her lips and gone.
"For me they have to live together until I become five. When I became five they took divorce but after that they can't leave me free they have to take care of me until I passes my high school. So, they send groceries, pocket money, paid my apartment rent, school fees. There is never a problem of money there's always problem of love. No one asks me whether I eat my breakfast or not, why I'm crying. Yesterday my mother came and said: You're a undesirable child, once your high school complete you have to live on your own."
She stops, rose, her face tanned, her hair loose around her shoulder. It was her birth day.
A white box tied with silver ribbon stayed on her desk it is a delivery she received that night since then it's like a decade had past but for the clock it's only ten minutes. Inside the box a chocolate, glossy cake with a shining sherry on top. There is only a wooden knife, no candles, no note, even not printed: Happy Birthday, like the shop keeper is also not interested in her birthday.
She take out some candles from her drawer and place them on the cake and lit them. She cut with the knife and blow of the candles exactly then a faint sound of applause and cheering came from next building.
Someone is celebrating their birthday but there is a lot of difference between Eno's apartment and the next one. She's taste the cake soft, sweet, perfect, but the taste of loneliness make it sour she ate some and the left put in refrigerator.
She again start "yesterday my mother came and said:" she repeat "you are a undesirable child once your high school ends you have to live on your own."
She pause "I had a dream when I was nine. I was standing facing a girl in pale blue under a crooked tree who faces my right side. Then out of now where a childish voice came:
help me, please.
I turned my head.
A 8-9 year old boy just screamed, a line of blood running through his forehead. I stepped back because I feared, yes I have Hemophobia.
When I stepped back something cracked under my foot, a piece of wood and that's when the girl turn slowly to me.
When she finally turned the boy fainted. Then the girl says:
don't refuse the friend request. Then I woke up but these lines I never forget. Yesterday I collide that boy in my school and I saw the thing in his eyes that tortures me, loneliness. I tell him that I saw you in my dream but maybe he ignored it.
Again today I saw him with the same girl in pale blue at a ice cream shop I want to tell him..."
her voice start trembling "I want to tell him: can we became friends."
She start crying "but I can't."
She finally complete and her voice burst into sobbing until it became the part of the night itself, as the hanged frame on the wall read: Sometimes the absence of parents is also the cause of loneliness.
7
You Know It Very Well
The calendar read Saturday and clock whispers 7:00. A beam of sunlight slipped through the thin curtains. Dust floating in it's path like tiny stars suspended in the air. Satoshi sat up as the alarm rang. Nina sat on his desk, her hand drifted through his notes.
"What are you doing" he asked.
"Doing your homework."She said without lifting her head.
He rose, take bath, dressed and join her for the breakfast there are two plates, one always stay full, warm for sometime and then cold.
They left for school in a bright morning, today is Saturday means house day. In the assembly the five houses stands in a row.
Nina brushed through the students but some are flinching from her like a warmth going to touch them, they can see her. why? Don't know, maybe lonely ones always could.
Ujjain, Taxila, Sanchi, Nalanda and Ajanta in Orange, Sky Blue, Dark red, Navy Blue and Yellow respectively.
Satoshi stood in Sanchi house and Nina in Navy blue belongs to Nalanda.
"Homework, everyone" Rue-sensei ordered.
A faint confidence rise in Satoshi's chest, Nina have done it. Rue-sensei flipped through the pages and glared at Satoshi.
"It isn't complete" she said.
"But it is" his forehead tightened.
Some student wonder it's first time his homework is incomplete.
"Next time be careful, Moto" she walked forward after this.
At first it felt perfect but halfway through the words simply stopped as if the pencil lift by invisible hands. They go to library, Satoshi take a book a myths from the shelf and read a myth randomly: 'Lonely people dream about a real place they once lived before.' The last bell rang they both drifted in the ground.
"You didn't finish the homework this morning."
Nina stand beside, her eyes calm, unreadable. Her voice came like a whisper passing through he water.
"You know it very well"
And then for a moment the wind still, the sun lower, orange and gold brushed her face. Satoshi sighed.
"Yeah, maybe I do." They both walked home through the dusty streets, flickered streetlamps, one by one. From across the street a boy whispers to himself when he saw them.
"Who's that girl, I never saw Satoshi with a girl." he wonder "I also want someone like her."
Nina, holding Satoshi's hand looked back and found that boy watching, she gave a small smile and turned her head. Satoshi lay beneath the blanket. Beside him Nina slept quietly, her hair shattered across the pillow. Her eyes were closed, her face peaceful, almost to peaceful.
Before drifted into sleep Nina leaned against Satoshi and pressed a small innocent kiss on his cheeks. Satoshi froze, his face flushed, his breath caught in his throat softly. Nina's voice came faintly through the dark, like a dream speaking back to him: "you know it very well."
And there is only the silence, the kind of silence that hold the fear and comfort in same breath. It felt like first time the night is not lonely.
8
Cause Of Loneliness
The night is heavy and silent. A boy sitting on a narrow balcony of his small apartment, eyes fixed on the sky. Stars are faint tonight like they afraid to be seen. Below, the streetlamp flickered again and again. He was sitting here for hours, the cold air pass through him, the cold climbing through the metal railing into his bones. He spoke,to no one just to the dark that never replied.
"My name is Sung Hayashi" he whispered "my mother pass the day I was born."
The lamp flickered like a bee refused to die.
He smile faintly "and my father, alive. He leave in the morning and came after midnight, fifteen hours a day, everyday, and I exist between that."
The lamp buzz again like it was mocking him. He stood up annoyed with the sound.
"Damn lamp" he whispers and glared at the streetlamp.
The faint orange light blinked below him, washing the street in a dull pulse like a heartbeat that had forgotten its rhythm. Behind him, hanging on the cracked wall of his balcony, a wooden frame caught the trembling light. Inside it, written in faded ink, were the words he hung there a few days ago: Loneliness isn't the cause of absence of parents, but the absence of love.
He looked at it once, then turned back toward the lamp and froze. Under the flickering lamp stood a girl.
A girl in pale blue and her hair follow the color of her dress. He can't tell she was real or imagination. It's like the nature forget to draw her shadow even under streetlamp.
"Nina"
He know her name, he saw her once before in the evening beside Satoshi and hear her name. The sound came next, a splash of water, somewhere from her right. A small ripple in the puddle, sharp and real. His chest tightened. He stepped forward, leaning over the railing, his voice barely audible carried by the wind. The girl under the streetlamp began to turn slowly, like time itself hesitated to let her move. Her hair shifted, revealing the faintest glimpse of her cheek.
Sung's breath stuck. He couldn't wait for her to face him. He turn, ran through the balcony, down the narrow stairs, barefoot. By the time he reached the street, gasping, she was not there or maybe never there.
Only the streetlamp flickered, humming softly as if nothing had ever stand there. Sung looked around, his pulse wild.
Then, something flickered in his eyes a shock, a flash of recognition, as though he had just remembered something buried deep inside.
The rain began again, light and thin, washing the sound of the lamp into the night. And the street stood still, holding its breath, as if it too was trying to remember what love forgets.
9
The Half Turn
The calendar read Sunday. The clock whispers 7:00. Alarm rang on it's time. Sunlight flinched from curtain and punch Satoshi's eyes, he change position, eyes blinked open. Door creaked open, Nina entered.
"I told Aiko that we'll take breakfast at 8:30 and then we'll go out at swing fair, cinema and park, but before that you have to complete your homework of Friday and Saturday." She smile.
Satoshi rose take bath change clothes and sat on his study table. Nina leaned over his shoulder, watching him write.
"Should I do your homework?" She asked with mock seriousness.
"No" he replied.
"Why not."
"Because I know it very well."
Satoshi replied as they both smile but for the world, only Satoshi is smiling. At 8:05, Aiko entered dusting her apron.
"Satoshi should I bring your breakfast."
Satoshi paused, pencil hovering over the book. "I'll eat at 8:30, didn't Nina tell you?"
Aiko blinked "who's Nina?" She asked.
"No one... maybe an imagination" he confirmed it.
"Okay, at 8:30" she close the door "I'll set it on the table."
Silence folded the room. Nina smiling calm and knowing. "I think you still didn't know it very well" she said gently "or you don't want to know."
Satoshi said nothing just write. When the homework was done, they took breakfast milk, toast and butter. Two plates. One always remained untouched. They left.
The fair is bright with light and laughter. The fireworks painted the sky colorful. For a fleeting second in the crowd Satoshi saw a silhouette.
Eno. Nina fades, no one notice it, no even Satoshi or he didn't want to. The day went on. By late afternoon, they both went to park: the one with the massive globe at it's heart.
Nina is glowing with cheer, more alive than ever. She spun, laughed, ran around Satoshi, her hand floating in the air. She took Satoshi's hand suddenly, pulling him forward.
"Come on" she said.
And they ran, Nina in front and Satoshi is following, until they leapt onto a bench, laughing breathlessly. Then Nina turned to him, still smiling.
"Satoshi I heard that parents are the first person a teenager felt most happy with so, where are your parents I never saw them?"
The question landed like a drop in still water. Satoshi laughter stopped. His face bright a moment ago – darkened. Shadows return to his eyes
"Who told you this?" Satoshi asked.
"You told me."
"I never told you this... I only thinking about it because I want to prove it wrong if... It's a fact."
"Are you fooling me" she said quietly "or acting like you don't know? You know that I know everything you think, dream speak, fear."
In the Distance, hiding behind a tree, Eno watched them silently. She followed them from the fair without letting them know. Her eyes fragile, curious. The same three boys who used Satoshi to tease, passed by and notice her.
"Hey, isn't it that girl from old apartment building."
"Yes" one snickered.
"What are you doing? Spying on them, maybe she like that weirdo – the one who talk to himself!."
There laughter grew, circling her like smoke.
"I think she's waiting for his imaginary girlfriend to say hi!"
"Aw, poor thing, even ghosts have better friends than her."
Eno stepped back, shaking her head.
"Stop it," she whispered.
Her voice trembling. But they didn't stop. One boy kicked a small stone toward her foot. "Look, she's crying already! How cute."
"Hey, go on - tell your invisible friend to save you!"
The words hit harder than stones. Eno's knees gave way, and she fell onto the grass. Their laughter burst louder, echoing in her ears until her vision blurred. When the boys finally left, still laughing, she sat there - small, silent, shaking. She covered her face with both hands and whispered.
"I just wanted to talk…"
Her eyes welled, her voice broke and her courage to speak to Satoshi shattered.
At that moment, Nina disappeared. Not for Eno, because Satoshi hadn't seen her yet. The world shuddered. A long, echoing glitch spread like cracks in glass. Scenes rushed backward through time:
The park. The globe. The fireworks. The laughter. The homework. Nina's voice: You know it very well. The boys. The sketches. The untouched plate. The first meeting. The hospital. The scream. The car. And his mother's voice, faint, trembling - "If it's not too dark." Then – silence.
We see it again. The accident. The car overturned. A boy. Younger Satoshi, crawling out, crying for help. Blood on his sleeve. Tears in his voice. He looks up and there she is, Nina. And here Nina was sent by older Satoshi into that memory a piece of comfort sent to a broken child. The boy screams.
"Help me, please!" Then, a crack of wood. Nina turns, not towards him, but towards the sound. Behind her stands younger Eno, trembling in a dream. Nina looks at her and says softly.
"I'm going. Don't refuse the friend's request." The younger Satoshi fainted. The memory shifts to the hospital room. The boy lies in bed, pale, silent. Outside, beneath a tree, Nina stands. Nurses' voices drift through the wind:
"Poor boy… both parents gone."
"It was a mistake while driving… mother didn't make it to the hospital. Father passed during surgery."
"But the boy"
"Miracle he's alive at all."
From the bed, the boy lifts his hand toward her.
"Nina…"
He whispers. He tries to touch her, but his hand meets only air. Then, under the tree, Nina begins to turn.
Back to the present. Eno tears still on her cheeks, walks slowly past the bench where older Satoshi sits. He sees her clearly. As she passes, Nina in that memory beneath the hospital tree, begins to fade, and fade perfectly in half turn.
This time, it feels like she chooses to. And when Eno vanishes from view, Nina reappears beside him. She sits quietly, leans her head on his shoulder. Neither of them speaks. The sun sets behind the park's globe, spilling light through the trees. For a moment, the world seems made of memory, fragile, glowing, unreal. Satoshi stares ahead, expression lost. Nina's voice comes as a whisper now, almost inside his thoughts.
"Because you're not alone."
Her form softens, light spilling away, but her warmth lingers on his shoulder, the weight of something no longer there.
Satoshi whispers, "Nina."
"Hmm?" Nina answers in her cutest voice.
Satoshi smiles faintly and said "Show me your birth certificate."
"What?" Nina gasps, then bursts into laughter, bright and free the kind that makes even silence smile.
"you are asking about papers now, I thought love was enough." She says between laughs. For a moment, even if her light fades, her laughter stays, soft, echoing through the park like wind through the leaves. And Satoshi, still smiling, whispers into the air:
Don't go too far.
THE TIME PASSED, NINA AND SATOSHI LIVES TOGETHER HAPPILY, EVERY TIME ENO WANT TO TALK SATOSHI TO BECOME FRIENDS HER CONFIDENCE BROKE SOMEHOW. THE MOMENT SATOSHI SAW ENO HE DIDN'T FEEL LONELY, AND NINA FADE.
THE ANNUAL FUNCTION AT COLVIN TALUQDARS' COLLEGE IS DECLARED AND SATOSHI IS INVITED.
10
And She Was Never There
The world was quiet that night. The kind of quiet that made even the ticking of a clock sound too loud. Through the half-open window, the wind crept in, soft and slow, carrying the distant laughter of people outside. Someone was celebrating somewhere. Music faintly echoed through the night air, muffled by walls. Inside Satoshi's room, the light was low. A single lamp cast its soft glow on the desk, the same desk where she had once sat, scribbling his homework with that bright, proud smile. Nina was there too. Quiet. Watching him. She sat on the edge of his bed, her hands folded neatly on her lap. The pale blue of her dress seemed lighter than before almost fading into the soft yellow light. For the first time, she looked… fragile. Satoshi sat by the window, chin resting on his knees, eyes following the faint lights outside. Neither of them spoke for a long while. Only the curtains moved.
"You're not going?" she finally asked.
Her voice was gentle, the same tone she always used when trying to sound casual.
"No," he said without looking up.
"Look what they have written: Satoshi Moto, you are invited to our annual gathering function at Colvin Taluqdars' College."
"Hmmm" He smiled faintly.
"And then in last: Only two parents are allowed at one card."
Still staring at the night.
"That's why you're not going?"
He said nothing. "It's too noisy out there."
"And too quiet in here," she said softly.
There was silence again but this one was heavier. A while later, Satoshi turned his head slightly. Nina was still sitting there, but her edges looked faint, as if the air around her was folding in.
The shadow of her body didn't reach the floor.
"Nina?"
"Hmm?"
"You're fading."
She looked down at her hands. They were still there, but not solid anymore. Her fingers shimmered slightly, like reflections on moving water.
"Oh," she whispered. "So it's time."
"Time for what?"
She looked up. The faintest smile touched her lips, sad, knowing, gentle.
"For me."
Satoshi's breath hitched. He stood up too fast, nearly tripping over his chair.
"No. You're not going anywhere."
Nina tilted her head slightly, her eyes soft. "I wish I could promise that."
She walked slowly toward the desk, her steps soundless on the floor. Her fingers trailed across the wood.
"You've grown," she said quietly, "You don't even ask me to remind you anymore."
He didn't answer.
"I used to think…" she paused, eyes flickering to him, "if I stayed long enough, maybe I'd become real.
Satoshi's throat tightened. "You are real," he said, his voice trembling.
"Am I?" She smiled through the tears forming in her eyes.
"You once said: Show me your birth certificate." He almost laughed, a choked, broken sound.
"You remember that?"
"How could I forget?" Her tears shimmered faintly as she whispered.
"Then, I said: you are asking about papers now, I, thought love was enough. But I want to say: birth certificate!"
she smiled innocently "you didn't give me a school ID."
Something broke inside him. "Stop," he said, stepping forward.
"Satoshi..."
"Stop!" he shouted, running toward her, reaching out as if the air itself could be held.
"Don't say that. Don't." His arms cut through emptiness.
The sound of the clock filled the room again, ticking endlessly, mercilessly. He lunged forward, trying to hold her, but his hands met nothing. Only the air. His knees gave way. He fell, hard, to the floor, the breath shattering from his chest. His palms hit the cold wood. He buried his face in his hands, trembling, sobbing, the kind of cry that had no sound, only air leaving the body in broken waves. And then, a whisper. Soft. Close. Familiar.
"I'm going."
Satoshi froze. His breath caught mid-sob. He lifted his head slowly, as though afraid to break the sound. But there was no one there.
"Nina?" he whispered.
Silence. The clock ticked again, steady, endless. He looked toward the window. The world outside was still glowing faintly with distant lights. The laughter from far away had faded. He sat there for a long time, breathing through tears, his hands still trembling. He closed his eyes. And for a moment, a very brief, fragile moment he heard her laughter again. Not through his ears, but through the memory that had become part of him. He smiled through his tears weak, broken, but real.
The clock ticked on. The night moved slowly. And though the world said she wasn't there, he knew the truth. Somewhere in the quiet, she still was. Then he smile faintly like trying to celebrate something and whispers. "Mom, I win"
11
The Ones Seen By Lonely
The night air was gentle when Satoshi stepped out of the metro. A soft wind drifted through the street. The world glowed in fragments, reflections on wet pavement, the hum of distant traffic, the slow glide of headlights over faces. He adjusted his bag and looked around, unsure why his heart was beating so fast. Then, through the thin crowd beyond the exit gate, he saw her. Eno.
She was standing beneath a dim streetlight, her shadow falling long behind her. The light caught the edge of her hair, turning it almost silver against the dark. She looked lost in thought, the kind of stillness that made her seem apart from everything around her as if she were quietly waiting for something that had never come. Satoshi hesitated only a moment before he ran. He reached her and stopped, heart racing, unsure how to begin. She turned to him startled, then curious. Satoshi lifted his hand, hesitating in the air between them.
"Can we…" His voice faltered, but he tried again.
"Can we become friends?"
The city noise seemed to fade, leaving only the quiet hum of the streetlight. Eno blinked, surprised at first, then smiled, small and tender, as if she had waited a long time to hear those words. She nodded, her voice soft.
"Yes."
Satoshi's hand trembled slightly as she reached out and shook it. Her hand was warm, real and for the first time in a long while, something inside him felt calm. Behind them, the digital clock above the metro entrance blinked faintly in red: 8:17.
Time passed.
Evening sunlight now spilled across the city like honey. The world was slower, softer. Satoshi and Eno stepped out of a cafe. They had become close, the kind of friendship that no longer needed words to fill silence. Eno walked ahead, twirling her cup playfully before tossing it into a bin. She turned, walking backward with a grin.
"Come on, Satoshi! You walk like an old man."
He laughed quietly, shaking his head, and followed. The wind carried the smell of roasted beans and falling leaves as they moved down the park's narrow path. And then Satoshi slowed. He turn around and gazed at a bench he just pass.
A boy sat alone on a bench, talking softly to someone beside him. From where Satoshi stood, only the boy could be seen, his head tilted, his lips moving gently in conversation. But the other person… there was no one.
Something about it made Satoshi pause, though he didn't know why. "Whom he talking to?"
"Hey," Eno called again, her voice teasing, full of warmth.
"You're staring again!"
Satoshi smiled faintly and turned to her, letting it go. He caught up to her, their footsteps fading together into the long orange light. The boy and the bench stayed still. The boy's words carried softly into the wind. Beside him, unseen by most, Nina sat, quiet, serene, her pale blue dress fluttering with the breeze. Nina turned her head towards Satoshi, smile faintly watching him with Eno and look back to sung Hayashi. Her eyes watched sung, calm and knowing. And then, Satoshi's voice came gentle, thoughtful, echoing from somewhere beyond time:
"Some people say loneliness fades with time.
But for some of us… it waits quietly for-
someone like her, to find us.
But I love the experience with:
The girl in pale blue.
With:
The one who talk to trees.
With:
The girl Who Wasn't There."
The evening dimmed to gold, then to silence.
The Novel Has Ended But The Story Is To be continued...
At midnight, a girl slept restlessly on her narrow bed, her breath uneven, her body suddenly flinching as if seized by a terrible dream. The darkness around her melted into another world. In that dream, she stood behind a silent girl in a pale blue dress, with pale blue hair flowing softly like mist. Fear tightened her chest as she took a step backward without thinking. Her foot splashed into a ditch filled with water, the sound sharp in the stillness. At once, the girl in pale blue slowly turned toward her and whispered, "Ah… it's same."