~Diving too deep does not lead to truth—it makes us drown alongside its shadow.~
There is a reason why being near Misaki makes my breathing falter, as if the air slowly thins without me realizing it. My fear is not only because of her words… but because I do not know who she truly is.
If I lean on logic, everything collapses. The facts I thought I understood turn into fragile flooring that cracks beneath my feet.
But if I lean on her gentler side—the side everyone knows—I fall even deeper into a pit of false hope. Kindness that is not entirely real is nothing more than an elastic rope that will tighten around my own neck the moment I depend on it too much.
That night… after Misaki insulted me with words so bare and cold, I kept thinking about what she said. Not the mockery—not the humiliation that scraped against my pride.
What kept me from sleeping was her energy.
The energy of life within her… felt incredibly weak. Fragile. Thin, like moonlight nearly erased behind clouds. There was something wandering behind her eyes—something that pulled me toward a despair that was not mine.
Maybe it was only my imagination.
Maybe I was just too absorbed in what happened that morning.
But whatever it was… it wasn't the most important thing right now. At least I had gotten my novel back. I held it that night—cold, silent, yet somehow heavier than before.
Outside the window, the night sky showed not even a trace of the moon. Dark—completely dark. As if the sky itself refused to look at the world that night.
And beneath that darkness… something felt as if it were dancing.
Not a shadow.
Not light.
But a faint omen.
As if the night were waiting—holding something that would be revealed when the sun rises.
An answer.
A first step.
Or perhaps… an ending that has begun to move silently from within the dark