("I don't believe in kindness anymore. Not since I learned it always costs something.")
[Monday – Early Morning, Hinokami University]
College wasn't freedom. It was just a bigger cage, painted in self-help posters and fake promises of "finding yourself."
Classrooms here had pristine windows, filtered lights, and students who talked about investments before 9 AM. They weren't real people. They were brands waiting to be liked. Curated. Polished. Masked.
And then… there was him.
His name was Kuroto Arakawa.
He didn't walk. He drifted. Like a cloud that had no reason to rain.
Split-dye hair—half ghostly white, half bruised purple. His eyes were mismatched: one a fierce yellow, the other pitch black, like a blind eclipse. His hoodie was always zipped to the neck, like a shield. Headphones in. A book in hand, never the syllabus.
And despite never laying a finger on anyone—he was feared.
Not because he was loud.
But because he never blinked.
[Classroom 2-B – Literature Course]
As usual, students formed their social units like scared animals—cliques, pairs, walls of fake security.
And Kuroto? He sat in the back. Always one empty seat beside him. Always. Like it carried a plague.
Until today.
Professor Itsuki (mid-30s, overworked and underpaid):
"Before we start, we have a new student joining us. Please be welcoming."
She walked in like she'd stepped off the wrong train and didn't care.
Rika Himetsu.
Long black hair in a gentle braid, neat as a calligraphy brushstroke. The kind of eyes that looked like they could read through your lies and still forgive you.
Her uniform was perfectly ironed. Her shoes were real leather. She didn't smell like desperation or stress—she smelled like jasmine and fresh ink.
You could hear girls whisper her name like a brand.
"Himetsu? As in that Himetsu family?"
"I heard her dad's on the university board."
"Why the hell is she in a commoner's class?"
But Rika just smiled, bowed politely, and looked straight at the empty seat.
Right beside Kuroto.
She walked. Sat. Unapologetically.
Kuroto (quietly, not looking at her):
"You're either brave or stupid."
Rika (smiling, legs crossed, relaxed):
"Or maybe I just don't care what people say."
[Later That Day – After Class]
She didn't leave when class ended. She stayed.
He noticed, of course. He noticed everything. He always did.
She pretended to write notes. But her eyes kept glancing his way.
Kuroto finally stood, slinging his beat-up satchel over one shoulder.
Kuroto:
"You know sitting next to me makes people assume things, right?"
Rika (shrugging):
"They already assume things about me. Why not balance it out?"
Kuroto:
"You're not scared?"
Rika:
"Of you? No. Should I be?"
Kuroto:
"No. But you should be of people. They're worse."
Rika:
"Maybe. But you're a person too, aren't you?"
She said it like a dare. Like she wanted to prove he wasn't a ghost.
Kuroto hated that. He hated being seen.
[Tuesday – Lunch Break, Music Room (Abandoned)]
His sanctuary wasn't a café, or a library.
It was an old music room—forgotten by renovations, ignored by the student council, haunted only by dust and silence.
It was where he read. Old seinen manga, vintage doujins, even poetry. Not because he was deep. But because he liked things that didn't try to fix him.
That's when he found her there. Again.
Sitting. Flipping through one of his manga.
Rika:
"'The girl who couldn't cry even when her heart broke.' You like tragic stories?"
Kuroto:
"They're honest."
Rika:
"You think life should end in sadness?"
Kuroto:
"No. I think pretending it doesn't is worse."
She didn't leave. Not even when he insulted her reading posture. Or when he said her perfume smelled like "expensive loneliness."
She just laughed.
Rika:
"You're funny. Bitter, but funny."
Kuroto:
"I'm not here to entertain you."
Rika (softly):
"Then just… don't push me away."
[Flashback – Age 9, Living Room]
"What kind of freak has demon eyes?!"
"Maybe if you'd just act normal for once—"
"You're the reason your mother left!"
Kuroto was born broken, or so he was told.
A father with hands that taught him fear before love. A mother who looked at him like he wasn't hers. Nights spent hiding under his bed, praying for the monsters outside his room to become the ones in anime instead.
And the worst part?
He believed them. Every damn word.
[Back to Present – Rooftop Scene]
A week passed.
Rika kept showing up. Kept sitting next to him. Kept ignoring the rumors.
Until the hyenas came.
Boys from sports management. Jealous, insecure, desperate to prove their social rank.
They cornered her in the hallway.
Bully A:
"What's a girl like you doing around trash like him?"
Rika:
"He's better than you think."
Bully B:
"Bet he makes you read creepy stuff, huh? What, does he beg you to call him senpai or something?"
Kuroto appeared. Silent as a blade.
Kuroto:
"I count four of you. That's a lot of insecurity."
Bully A:
"Back off, freak."
Kuroto (low voice):
"I haven't touched anyone in years. Not because I can't. But because I like making you squirm without lifting a finger."
They left. Of course they did.
[Rooftop – That Same Afternoon]
Rika:
"You really hate people, don't you?"
Kuroto:
"I don't hate them. I just don't think they're worth saving."
Rika:
"Then what about me?"
Kuroto:
"…You're not people."
Rika:
"Is that supposed to be a compliment?"
Kuroto (after a long pause):
"Yeah."
She smiled. He looked away. His throat felt dry.
[Tuesday – Abandoned Music Room, Lunchtime]
She sat where he always sat. Her fingers trailed across the covers of his manga like they were sacred scriptures. Not judgmental. Just... curious.
Kuroto froze at the doorway, clutching his lunch—a lukewarm convenience store sandwich and a canned coffee.
Rika:
"You really like 'Chains of Retribution.'"
Kuroto (blinking slowly):
"It's not about liking. It's about resonance."
Rika:
"The MC kills himself in a game to wake up in real life. Repeatedly."
Kuroto:
"Exactly. It's his way of screaming without using his voice."
She didn't flinch. Most people would've made a joke or an excuse to leave. She just nodded, as if she understood something most people didn't.
Rika:
"You also have every volume of 'Twilight Blade,' the Korean webtoon. Manhwa snob?"
Kuroto (sits down, sighs):
"Japanese manga's emotional pacing. Korean manhwa's art and flex. Chinese xianxia for worldbuilding. They're not genres. They're escapes."
Rika (softly):
"And yet you still come back."
Kuroto:
"Because eventually the chapter ends, and you're stuck with yourself again."
[Later That Week – Rika's Flashback, Alone in Her Apartment]
Narration (Rika's POV):
When people hear "rich girl," they assume privilege, private schools, domestic staff.
No one imagines crying alone in a three-story mansion, scrolling through therapy apps like they're self-help horoscopes.
Her dad hadn't spoken to her since the divorce.
Her mother texted once a week like she was checking in on a plant.
Books became her lifeline. Romance novels, tragic fanfics, stories where people broke and rebuilt. Again and again.
She kept rereading one line from a light novel:
"Some people feel safest in their loneliness, because it's the only place no one else can betray them."
And now... she was sitting beside someone who made that line feel real.
It was raining. Not a storm. Just a slow, silent drizzle. The kind that made the world feel smaller.
They stood under the rooftop overhang.
He didn't have his headphones on for once. His phone screen played a soft piano track from a VN called Narcissu.
Kuroto:
"This track always plays when the girl chooses to die."
Rika:
"You think that's romantic?"
Kuroto (flat):
"No. I think it's real."
Rika:
"You keep saying you don't care. But everything you consume says otherwise."
That was when he turned to her. Not with a glare. But with a look so painfully naked, she felt like she'd just walked in on his soul mid-breakdown.
Kuroto:
"When I was twelve, I tried jumping from the school roof. Not for attention. Just to stop hearing my mom crying through the door every night."
Rika (quietly):
"What stopped you?"
Kuroto:
"A glitchy copy of Clannad After Story. It crashed during the scene with Ushio in the snow. I couldn't die before I knew if she made it."
Rika (laughs, then covers her mouth as she cries):
"God, that's so stupid."
Kuroto:
"I know."
Rika:
"But it saved you."
They didn't speak for a minute. Just listened to the rain. Her shoulder brushed his.
Rika (barely audible):
"I'm scared that if I love someone, they'll leave. Again."
Kuroto (still staring at the gray sky):
"I'm scared that if someone loves me, I'll break them."
And then something fragile snapped.
It wasn't planned. It wasn't poetic. It was messy and trembling and real.
They kissed.
Not lust. Not fantasy. But a desperate, silent scream for connection.
No fireworks. Just rain. Just warmth. Just two broken people sharing breath.
"You kissed me," she whispered, after.
"No," he replied, his voice hoarse. "We kissed the parts of ourselves we hate."
[Monday – Hallway Echoes]
Kuroto walked into class, and the moment his foot crossed the threshold, silence hit like static.
They weren't subtle.
Whispers. Snickers. Glares disguised as casual glances.
It wasn't new. It just... stung more now.
Yamabe – blonde, athletic, fake-nice voice masking bitter inferiority – leaned against the window ledge like a shounen rival who peaked in middle school.
Yamabe (low voice):
"Guess freakboy found someone to pity him."
Mika (raven-haired, cosplay-obsessed, voice sharp like shattered glass):
"She's rich and perfect, and she chooses him? Must be an act. Or a dare."
It was always the ones hiding the most who barked loudest.
Yamabe's dad beat him behind closed doors. Mika had an eating disorder she masked behind filter-heavy selfies and sponsored 'uwu' energy.
But Kuroto didn't excuse them. Understanding pain didn't mean accepting cruelty.
Kuroto (coldly, without looking up):
"Obsessing over someone you hate means you've got nothing worth loving in yourself."
That shut them up—but only for now.
[Tuesday – Gaming Café]
He sat alone in a corner booth. Neon lights flickered overhead. The hum of mechanical keyboards, muffled weeb-pop from Genshin trailers looping on repeat, the scent of overpriced ramen and energy drinks.
He stared at the screen.
"Game Over – Continue?"
Just like every night in Doki Doki Regression Club. A fanmade VN about suicidal teens who escape into a glitchy club full of AI-generated waifus.
He used to play it ironically.
Now it just felt... familiar.
Kuroto (to himself):
"Maybe if I delete my save file, I disappear too."
[Wednesday – Rika's Apartment]
Narration (Rika's POV):
She read his texts. All of them.
They started off normal—recommendations for depressing anime like Technolyze or Boogiepop Phantom, random screenshots from Solo Leveling panels, music recs from obscure sadcore VTubers.
But the last one?
"If I ghost, don't chase. I've always been better off as background noise."
She couldn't breathe after reading that.
[Thursday – Abandoned Music Room Again]
Kuroto sat in the dark. Hoodie over his head. AirPods in. Phone on silent.
He was listening to a 10-hour loop of Aimer - Kataomoi.
Just to feel something.
Until—
SLAM.
The door banged open.
Rika:
"I told you not to disappear on me, damn it!"
Kuroto (flatly):
"I warned you. I ruin things. You just haven't seen it yet."
Rika:
"No. What I see is a boy who uses manga deaths to process real ones. Who quotes sad songs instead of asking for help. Who glares because he's scared of being looked at too long and seen for what he is."
Kuroto:
"A failure?"
Rika (tears in her eyes):
"A boy who hurts. But who never once let anyone else hurt the weak without consequences."
She walked toward him like crossing a minefield.
She dropped her bag, sat beside him, and rested her head on his shoulder. Her fingers intertwined with his.
Rika (whispering):
"I don't want you to be my project. I want you to be my person."
Kuroto:
"Even if I break again?"
Rika:
"Then we'll break together. Like shitty BL doujinshi where everyone cries but nobody leaves."
[Flashback – Kuroto, 14 Years Old]
He remembered hiding under the kotatsu with a dead PS Vita in his lap.
His mom had overdosed again. His dad never came home.
But the last words he heard before she collapsed?
"Kuroto… you'll be alone even when you're loved. It's just how you are."
[Back to Present – Music Room]
He was crying.
Not loud. Just slow, broken sobs, like a cracked disc spinning out one last tragic song.
And Rika kissed him.
Not to shut him up. Not out of pity. Not even out of love.
But to anchor him.
To remind him he wasn't alone in the dark this time.
Kuroto's eyes weren't always split-dyed in contrast to the world around him. Back then, he looked... ordinary. Until he didn't.
He had the same heterochromia—yellow and black like twin eclipses.
At first, people thought it was cool. Anime eyes. Mangaka-tier genetics.
But the moment he fought back—once—everything changed.
…
A girl was crying. Her name was Hinami.
Her ex had leaked her private texts, mocking her for being an otaku who wrote self-insert smut fics. The class group chat turned it into a meme.
She tried to throw herself off the roof.
Hinami (sobbing):
"I don't want to wake up tomorrow…"
And then—
Kuroto:
"Don't."
Hinami (shocked):
"W-what…?"
Kuroto (dead calm):
"If you jump, they win. Let them live long enough to rot in their pathetic little adult jobs while we make stories that matter."
He saved her.
But then he fought the guy who did it.
And he didn't stop until he cracked the kid's nose and bloodied his knuckles.
He wasn't suspended. But the school labeled him.
A ticking time bomb.
Kids started calling him "The Otaku Psycho."
Teachers began sitting him away from others.
Rumors said he watched disturbing anime, that his eyes meant he saw ghosts, that he cursed people who pissed him off.
None of it was true.
Until he started leaning into it.
[Montage – The Rise of the Edgelord Persona]
Dyed half his hair white.
Got piercings with safety pins during class.
Started quoting visual novels and doujin lyrics in his essays.
Never smiled. Not even once.
Created a MyAnimeList account under the alias "AshesOfHope."
"Why try to be liked in a world that already wrote your ending?"
By high school, he was a full-blown urban legend.
And he liked it.
Because it meant no one got close enough to hurt him again.
Kuroto:
"Back then… I just wanted someone to notice I was hurting."
Rika (softly):
"Did anyone?"
Kuroto (pause):
"Only once."
[Rika's Flashback – Discovering the Old Forum Post]
She'd been deep-diving the school's local forum archive—half curiosity, half obsession.
And she found an old thread:
User: AshesOfHope
"What do you do when saving someone ruins your life, but you'd still do it again?"
It had one reply.
From Hinami.
"You saved me. Even if they all forgot. I didn't."
Rika dragged him out. Literally.
She took him to an old-school arcade that played retro anime intros and had Initial D cabinets.
They played House of the Dead like it was a matter of pride.
And when the game over screen hit, he finally cracked a real smile.
Kuroto:
"You ever read Sankarea? The necromancer romance manga?"
Rika:
"The zombie girl one?"
Kuroto:
"Yeah. There's a scene where the MC says he's okay loving a corpse because she's the only one who ever looked at him without disgust."
Rika (smirking):
"Romantic. Morbid. Hot."
Kuroto (quiet):
"That's how I feel about you."
Yamabe found Rika in the hallway alone the next Monday.
He was sweating. Jaw clenched. That fake-charming boy-next-door mask cracking.
Yamabe:
"Why him? Why that monster?"
Rika:
"Because he's more honest with his pain than you are with your smile."
Yamabe (voice shaking):
"I was there! I helped you study, I was always there—!"
Rika:
"You weren't him."
He didn't hit her. But he punched the locker so hard his knuckles split.
And that night, he didn't come to school the next day.
He was sitting at his desk. Anime posters on the wall: Bleach, Evangelion, Paranoia Agent.
His laptop played a lo-fi mix of VN soundtracks.
Rika sat on his bed, hugging a Re:Zero Rem plushie.
Kuroto:
"You sure about this?"
Rika:
"Even if you shut me out a thousand times. I'll still choose you."
Kuroto (smiling faintly):
"Even if I drag you into my hell?"
Rika (tears in her eyes):
"Then I'll set up camp there. With you."
[Evening – Rika's Apartment, Dimly Lit]
The lights were off. Not from preference. From necessity.
Her mother had forgotten to pay the bill again.
Not that it mattered. Rika wasn't scared of the dark anymore. She was scared of the silence.
Her father texted again.
"Coming to Tokyo this weekend. Prepare something nice for dinner."
He was always like that.
Absent. Demanding. Cold. A rich businessman who saw emotions as weaknesses—especially in women.
[Rika's Room – Late Night]
She stared at her phone. Kuroto hadn't messaged in hours.
Not like him.
He always sent something. Even if it was just a clip from a trashy webtoon or some lo-fi song titled "I'm not okay and that's fine.mp3."
Her thumb hovered.
Rika (typing):
"Hey. You breathing?"
She deleted it. Sent nothing.
[Meanwhile – Kuroto's Room, Past Midnight]
His screen glowed.
He wasn't watching anime.
He was scrolling through his old forum posts on AnimeSoulBury, a niche community he co-founded before everything broke.
One post stood out.
User: Hinaosmic
"To the boy who saved me and vanished: I miss you. I wish you'd come back. Even ghosts deserve closure."
[Memory Flash – Middle School Library]
Hinami (younger, softer):
"You act cold, but I know what you are."
Kuroto (younger, guarded):
"A villain?"
Hinami:
"No. A sad boy pretending he's the final boss so no one notices he's just… tired."
[Present – Message Ping]
He blinked.
Rika:
"Can I see you tomorrow? Please."
[Next Day – Hill Behind the School]
Wind blew cherry blossoms sideways, but neither of them looked at the view.
Rika hugged her knees. Kuroto sat beside her, legs stretched out like he didn't care if gravity pulled him off the edge.
Kuroto:
"My hands shake at night now."
Rika (soft):
"From fear?"
Kuroto:
"From wanting to text people who already forgot I exist."
Rika:
"You're not forgotten. Not to me."
[Flashback – Rika at 13]
Her mother threw her bookshelf across the room.
Screaming.
"Books won't save you, Rika! They'll turn you into someone soft, someone disposable!"
And still, Rika rebuilt that shelf. Every time.
Because stories were the only things that hugged her back.
[Back to Present]
Rika (sniffling):
"When you sent me that forum about AshesOfHope, I thought you were dramatic."
Kuroto (half-smile):
"I am."
Rika:
"Then so am I. Because I think I'm falling for someone who's trying really, really hard not to die quietly."
[Evening – They Walk Through a Night Market]
They pass stalls—taiyaki, okonomiyaki, a booth selling cheap gacha figures.
Rika buys two.
One of Vivy from Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song, and one of Reigen from Mob Psycho 100.
Rika (grinning):
"Powerful sad girl and emotionally stunted mentor? Kinda like us."
Kuroto:
"You're the sad girl?"
Rika:
"I'm always the sad girl. But I'd rather be sad with someone who understands."
They hear her before they see her.
Soft gasp. Clattering shoes.
Hinami:
"Kuroto…?"
Her hair was shorter now. Dyed copper. She looked older. More tired.
Hinami (shaky):
"I didn't think you were real anymore."
Kuroto (tense):
"I'm not. I died a long time ago. This version's just on autoplay."
[Private Talk – Rika Watches from Afar]
Hinami:
"You saved me… then vanished. I hated you for it."
Kuroto (guilt buried in sarcasm):
"Should've let you fall, huh?"
Hinami:
"No. You should've let me save you, too."
[Moments Later – Rika Walks Over]
Rika (to Hinami):
"You left him behind. I won't."
Hinami (hurt, but accepting):
"Then don't. Please."
[Final Scene – Rooftop, Later That Night]
It's cold. The kind of cold that seeps into your lungs when you're about to say something that could destroy you.
They sit inches apart.
Kuroto:
"I don't believe in happy endings."
Rika:
"I don't either. I just believe in not giving up before the story's finished."
She takes his hand. Firm. No trembling.
Then—
A kiss.
Not sweet. Not slow.
Just broken pieces finding each other mid-shatter.
"Even if we're just damage wrapped in skin and stitched with fiction... let's bleed forward, not backward."
— Rika, on her blog, posted minutes after that night.
[Kuroto's Apartment – Late Afternoon]
The knock was sharp. Military. Familiar.
He opened the door.
Kuroto's Father:
"You look like hell."
Kuroto (deadpan):
"And you still sound like it."
The man walked in like he owned the air.
Ex-military. No hobbies. No warmth.
The kind of man who called tears "female behavior."
Father:
"I got your school's report. All that potential. Wasted on cartoons and dyed hair."
Kuroto:
"It's anime. At least they have plot."
Father (venom):
"Real men don't hide in fantasy."
Kuroto (quiet):
"Real men don't leave their wives sobbing on the floor."
The punch came fast.
But Kuroto didn't flinch.
Didn't move.
Didn't bleed.
He just stared.
[Meanwhile – Rika's Apartment, Nightfall]
Rika's father shouted about the electric bill. Again.
Her mother was silent. Vodka breath and all.
Rika (shaking):
"It's not my fault…"
She ran to her room. Slammed the door. Buried herself in her Rem plushie.
Opened her messages.
Rika:
"I want to disappear."
[Kuroto's Reply – Immediate]
"Come to the rooftop. I'll be the ghost waiting."
[Rooftop – 8:37 PM]
Wind sharp. City lights bruised the clouds.
Rika stood there first. Arms wrapped tight.
Then he appeared. Hoodie up. Bruised cheek.
Rika:
"You let him hit you?"
Kuroto:
"He's been doing it since I was 10. I stopped counting after the third Yu Yu Hakusho rewatch."
She stepped forward.
Saw the redness near his collarbone.
No words. Just breathing.
[Hinami Appears – Again]
Hinami (softly):
"You really broke again, huh?"
Kuroto:
"I'm fine."
Hinami:
"No, you're functional. That's different."
Rika:
"You're still here?"
Hinami (to her):
"I'm not the threat. I'm just the bookmark he never pulled out."
Kuroto looked between them.
Two ghosts of two lives.
One saved. One saving.
[Kuroto Speaks – Finally]
Kuroto:
"I thought if I became fiction… no one could hurt me."
Rika:
"But we still did. Just in different ways."
Hinami (nodding):
"Even stories leave scars."
[Rika Steps Forward]
Tears spill.
Rika (whispering):
"I love the broken version of you. The cracked VN protagonist. The villain with too many save files."
Kuroto (quiet):
"I don't deserve that."
She kisses him.
Hard. Like defiance.
Like rewriting a death flag.
Hinami smiled.
Turned around.
And finally walked away.
"We don't need to be okay. We just need to be here."
— From Kuroto's deleted blog, archived by Rika.
[Saturday – Akihabara AnimeCon, Afternoon]
Sweaty cosplays. Blinding neon signs. The soundtrack of a thousand dreams stitched in 16-bit nostalgia.
Rika wore a Tohru Honda hoodie. Kuroto… just wore black.
Of course.
They were holding hands.
Until someone screamed.
Random Cosplayer (whispers):
"Is that the guy who told Tanaka to kill himself last semester?"
Girl beside her:
"No, I heard he hit someone last week. Some stalker girl. Broke her heart."
Rika froze.
Rika (to Kuroto):
"What is this about?"
Kuroto didn't answer.
Because someone else did.
[Hinami Steps Forward – Hood Up, Eyes Cold]
Hinami:
"I didn't tell them anything."
Kuroto (flat):
"But you implied enough."
Hinami (broken):
"I was drunk. I thought if people hated you, I could finally stop loving you."
Silence.
Rika:
"I trusted you."
Hinami (to her):
"You still can. But only one of us gets to be in his story. And I already lost."
[Flashback – Middle School, Hinami's POV]
Her wrists were wrapped in gauze.
Kuroto had walked her to the nurse's office.
No words. Just a candy in her pocket and a comment:
"Even broken things deserve repair. I just don't know how to hold the glue anymore."
[Present – Back Alley Behind the Con, Sunset]
Kuroto's fist connects with a guy's jaw.
A loudmouth student council member.
The guy was yelling about Rika. About "slumming it with a burnout."
Kuroto (growling):
"I don't care what you think of me. But don't talk about her."
Council Guy (bloody grin):
"Too late. Everyone already knows your type. Trash."
Kuroto kicks over a gacha machine on the way out.
Rika follows.
[Later That Night – Park Swing Set, Silent]
They sit side-by-side.
Plastic bags of cheap manga and drinks between them.
Neither speaks.
Until—
Kuroto:
"What if I ruined everything?"
Rika:
"You didn't ruin me."
Kuroto:
"But I don't know how to be loved without preparing for betrayal."
Rika (tears):
"Then I'll sit beside you until you do."
They lean in. Not a kiss this time.
Just foreheads touching.
[Phone Buzz – Rika's POV]
From: Hinami
"He deserves peace. If you can't give it, don't hold him."
She doesn't reply.
Deletes the message.
She lies awake, scrolling through old anime threads.
Finds one from Kuroto, posted four years ago.
@kurodarkvoid:
"One day I'll find someone who doesn't flinch at my silence. Who doesn't run from my yellow eye.
And if I don't… then I hope my favorite character still gets their ending. Even if I don't."
She cries quietly.
Not for herself.
But for the boy who was never given a gentle world.
"Final chapter coming soon: where love isn't redemption, but rebellion."
— Teaser from Rika's private story archive, titled "I Fell for the Glitch in the Story"
[One Week Later – Campus Rooftop]
It had been seven days since the fight.
Three since Kuroto stopped replying.
And only one since Hinami's body was found.
Narration (Rika's POV):
They said she fell.
From the dorm window.
The rain washed away most of the blood, but not the whispers.
"That quiet girl was always off."
"Must've been about that emo guy."
"Isn't he missing, too?"
I didn't say anything.
Because I knew something no one else did.
Hinami had mailed me a letter.
[Hinami's Letter – Voiceover as Rika Reads]
"I loved him first.
But you loved him better.
I tried to carry him across my own drowning, but I think we both just pulled each other under.
If he disappears after this…
Please tell him he was the first person who ever saw me. Not like a ghost. Not like a bother. But as a human.
And Rika…
Don't follow us."
[Memory Fragment – Kuroto's Final Words, Night Before He Vanished]
Kuroto:
"I used to think the worst pain was being ignored. But it's not.
It's being remembered wrong."
He handed her a small box. Inside was a single burned disc labeled:
"My Last Save File"
It was full of voice notes, manga sketches, fragments of his thoughts.
No explanations.
Just pieces.
Like he knew he'd never be whole again.
[Present – Rika's Apartment, Dim Light]
Rika sat in her room. Curtainless.
The air outside smelled like ash. Like summer endings.
She played one voice note.
Kuroto (recorded):
"If there's a world where I come back, I hope it's one where I get to be soft.
One where I don't have to flinch when someone touches my hand.
One where the girl with the sad eyes and annoying smile doesn't look at me like I'm going to vanish.
I never deserved her. But damn... I wanted to."
[Final Scene – One Year Later, Graduation]
Everyone moved on.
New classes. New lovers. New gossip.
No one mentioned the boy with the heterochromia eyes anymore.
Or the girl who jumped.
Narration (Rika):
But I did.
I kept his gacha figurine of Reigen in my bag.
I wore that stupid hoodie he hated.
I rewatched Vivy every March and cried at the same spot.
And sometimes, at night, I listened to his final file.
Where he whispered:
"If you're hearing this, Rika… I never wanted to die.
I just wanted the noise to stop.
[Last Page – Epilogue Email to Herself]
To: future.rika@nowhere.jp
Subject: Did we make it?
Body:
He never came back.
But sometimes I dream he's walking just a few steps behind me.
Not lost. Not gone.
Just giving me space to breathe.
Maybe that's enough.
"I loved him like he was a spoiler I wasn't supposed to read yet. But I did. And now I live with the ending."
— Rika, anonymous forum post, last seen online 2:17 AM
[Hospital Room – Morning Light Through Blinds]
Beeping.
Sterile air.
The white sheets of the hospital bed shifted slowly.
A hand twitched.
Eyes opened.
Pain, then breath.
Hinami… was alive.
Nurse (gasping):
"She's awake—! Code white recovery!"
Hinami (barely audible):
"Tell him…
Tell Kuroto I didn't fall.
I just… couldn't carry the silence anymore."
[Rundown Overpass – Early Morning Fog, 5:42 AM]
A dark silhouette stood near the railing.
City light flickered like a dying screen saver.
Kuroto's hands trembled around his phone.
It buzzed.
Caller ID: Rika.
He didn't answer.
He stepped forward.
Voice (screaming):
"Kuroto!!"
She ran toward him, breathless, soaked from morning rain.
He turned.
Kuroto (angry):
"WHY are you here?! You weren't supposed to come!"
Rika (choking):
"Because you're not supposed to leave, dammit!"
Kuroto (screaming):
"You don't get it!
You came into my life, and everything changed.
You made me feel! Like I could actually exist!
And I hate you for it!"
Rika:
"Then hate me while you're alive!"
She slapped him.
Hard.
Rain fell in curtains.
He stood there. Shaking. Barely holding on.
Rika (weeping):
"Hinami's alive.
She asked me to find you.
She still wants you to keep living.
And I do too."
Kuroto:
"I'm not worth saving…"
Rika (pressing her forehead to his):
"Then let me be the idiot who saves you anyway."
They kissed.
Desperate.
Cracked.
Like two broken tapes tangled together in rewind.
[One Week Later – Hospital Room]
Hinami looked out the window, her hand stitched and wrapped.
She smiled softly, clutching a tiny folded origami from Kuroto.
On it were three words:
"Still Here, Somehow."
[Final Lines – Rika's Journal Entry]
"We didn't get a happy ending.
We got something better.
We got tomorrow."
"Thank you for reading this glitchy little love story."
— From Rika's web novel: When Emo Boys Learn to Love
[Hinami's Recovery – Autumn, Rehabilitation Center]
The window faced west.
Every evening, the sun slipped behind the trees and cast long shadows across the sterile white room.
Hinami didn't flinch at them anymore.
Her legs trembled during therapy. Her hand still shook when she wrote.
But she wrote anyway.
One sentence a day.
A promise to herself.
"I was the storm, but I will learn to be the rain."
Rika visited her every other week.
Kuroto never did.
But he sent paper cranes.
Always three at a time.
Nurse (watching Hinami fold one):
"Do you still miss him?"
Hinami:
"No.
I just finally stopped wishing he'd save me.
Now I want to meet him again… without needing to be saved."
[Time Skip – 3 Years Later, Tokyo]
Rika sat at a café that used to be a game shop.
The same cracked tile in the corner.
Her laptop screen glowed with the final draft of her novel:
"I Loved the NPC With a Save Icon on His Heart."
She sipped her lukewarm coffee, then felt a familiar silence behind her.
Kuroto (older, same tired eyes):
"Chapter seventeen was bullshit."
She didn't look up. Just smiled.
Rika:
"You still read my stuff."
Kuroto:
"I still love you."
They didn't kiss.
They didn't cry.
They just held each other's hands like a shared secret.
[Later That Evening – Hinami's Apartment, A Quiet Call]
Hinami (on speaker):
"So you two are…?"
Rika (laughing softly):
"Still glitching through life together."
Hinami:
"Good."
Kuroto (finally speaking):
"You okay?"
Hinami:
"Some days. But I'm still here."
[Final Scene – Rooftop, Night Sky, Soft Neon Glow]
They sat on the edge, legs dangling.
Tokyo pulsed below like a breathing machine.
Kuroto:
"I still think about it sometimes."
Rika:
"The edge?"
He nodded.
Kuroto:
"But then I remember how you looked when you screamed my name.
Like losing me would've ruined you."
Rika (quiet):
"It would've."
Silence.
Stars above them, blurry through city fog.
Rika:
"You ever think we're just side characters in someone else's story?"
Kuroto:
"Maybe. But at least we got to fall in love in the B-plot."
He pulled a small plastic gacha figure from his coat.
It was cracked.
Still, he gave it to her.
Kuroto:
"For your desk. To remind you I'm not going anywhere."
She took it. No tears. Just warmth.
[Final Text Message – From Hinami, Sent 2AM]
"I think I'm finally okay with being a supporting character.
Because every story needs one to keep the protagonist alive."
[END]