Chi's POV.
The cafeteria buzzed with its usual symphony of clinking utensils and overlapping conversations, but today something felt fundamentally wrong. Like when you're humming a familiar song and suddenly hit a note that's just slightly off-key.
Kaori wasn't here.
Her usual spot at our table—the one by the window where afternoon sunlight would catch the auburn highlights in her hair—sat conspicuously empty. No lunch tray with her carefully arranged bento. No elegant posture as she'd delicately pick at her food while making those perfectly timed sarcastic observations that somehow never felt mean-spirited.
Just... nothing.
The absence felt heavier than her presence ever had.
