Kaito walked until the streetlights blurred. He wasn't sure how far he'd gone or how long it had been since he turned around. Maybe hours. Maybe minutes.
There was no rage. No heartbreak. Just a silence that didn't feel like peace.
He sat down on a park bench near a closed ramen stall, elbows on his knees, eyes scanning a darkened skyline. He thought he'd feel betrayed. Maybe even humiliated. But what he felt most was hollow.
He'd wanted something honest. Someone who didn't care about his name or his future. Miko had seemed like that.
And maybe she was.
That's what made it worse.
He pulled out his phone and scrolled through old messages. Photos. His drafts folder still held the unsent text he never had the nerve to deliver.
"Hey. I really liked talking to you today."
He deleted it.
Then he opened Reiji's contact. No message. Just stared at the name.
Reiji had never gloated. Never boasted. And yet, he still always seemed to come out ahead. But this—this wasn't a win. Not for any of them.
A voice broke the silence beside him.
"You planning to sit here all night?"
Kaito turned to see Rika, a mutual friend from student council. She sat without waiting for permission, handing him a canned coffee from the nearby vending machine.
"You look like someone just ran over your heart."
He managed a weak smile. "Something like that."
Rika didn't press. She just sipped her drink and let him breathe.
Eventually, Kaito spoke again. "What do you do when you lose something that was never really yours?"
Rika shrugged. "You stop trying to possess it. And you ask yourself what you were really chasing."
He didn't answer right away. But he kept the coffee.
And for the first time since he'd seen them together, he felt like maybe—just maybe—there was still a way forward.
Even if it was without her.