4:00 AM
Two rooms.
One love.
One call.
One truth.
The world was asleep. But somewhere, on the edge of dreams and dawn, love refused to close its eyes.
The stars above Kurzawa had dimmed their light, not out of indifference — but reverence. As if the universe itself knew, Something holy was unraveling in the quiet dark.
It was not death. It was not tragedy.
It was confession. And it began not with words…But with a breath.
Serin whispered gently, her voice like warm mist over morning tea.
"Ren? Are you still with me?"
He blinked.
His eyes stung from tears that never asked permission.
His lips twitched — as if holding back everything he was too scared to say.
He cleared his throat.
"Yeah… yeah, I'm here."
But Serin didn't smile. She just looked.
Not at his face — but through it. Into the soul that hadn't spoken in years.
"Will you at least… cheer up for me?"
He tried.
Tried to wear the mask he always wore — the boy who joked, laughed, dodged pain like it was a ball in a schoolyard. But his eyes betrayed him.
"Yeah, yeah... I'm happy."
But the tears betrayed him more.
The first drop fell like a promise breaking quietly in a church. It rolled down his cheek — slow, certain, sacred.
Serin didn't speak. She didn't gasp.
She just whispered, "Ren…"
And he broke.
"WHAT ARE YOU NUTS?! I'VE ALWAYS BEEN A LOSER !" He snapped, voice trembling like glass in an earthquake. "ALL MY LIFE, I WAS THE JOKER. THE JOKE. THE BACKGROUND CHARACTER. THE EXTRA IN EVERYONE ELSE'S MOVIE."
His chest heaved. His lips trembled. The pain wasn't fresh — it was ancient.
" You... You were the light. The one thing that made me feel like I wasn't wasting oxygen. And now—now I have to lose you too?"
His voice cracked.
His body folded — like a paper crane that had flown too far.
"I can't... I can't go back to that darkness, Serin. You pulled me out of it. You gave me a direction. You made me feel like... like I mattered."
His words came like punches to the air. They weren't for her.
They were for the world that never listened.
And then…
Silence.
Heavy. Sacred. Holy.
Serin's voice returned, quiet but sharp enough to cut glass.
" I'm here. I'm still here. Talk to me, Ren."
He wiped his eyes. Looked at her through the blur. And then—
He opened the locked door.
"Ever since I was a kid… I was always 'The second option.' My sister? She was perfect. Talented. Loved. They never had to ask her twice."
His voice dulled. Like he wasn't speaking — but remembering.
The room faded. No — the world faded.
As Ren spoke, the air around Serin shimmered. Like mist from a memory.
The moonlight pouring through her window twisted, reshaped… and suddenly,
She wasn't in her room anymore.
She stood inside him.
A small house. Faded photo frames on the wall. A soft, slow ticking of a wall clock.
And in the center — a young boy sitting at the dinner table.
Back straight. Shoulders tight. Eyes not meeting anyone's.
His sister, glowing like a spotlight. Trophies, medals, laughter.
"Ever since I was a kid,"Ren's voice echoed over the scene, "I always been a hard child for my parents."
The light dimmed. The frame slowed.
"My sister? She was perfect. Talented. Loved. They never had to ask her twice."
Serin watched the boy — quiet, still — holding a report card as his parents smiled at the other side of the table. Not at him. Not even through him.
"Me? I was the storm. The noise in a quiet room. I didn't win medals. I didn't score top marks. I didn't even speak much."
The scene shifted.
A school hallway. The boy stood alone near a classroom door. Inside, other kids laughed. He pressed his back to the wall. Watching. Always watching.
"But they kept pushing. Comparing. Pressuring. Telling me to 'just be better.'"
Cut.
A father's shadow in the hallway. A hand placed — not gently — on the boy's shoulder.
"'You're a fucking disappointment.' That's what he said."
The world fell silent. Serin felt it. That echo — not loud. Not angry. Just… final.
"My mom didn't scream. She just looked at me and said, 'You're not a loser. You're just a bad product.'"
The words turned the walls into grey. The light turned cold.
Serin's vision blurred with tears. She reached out — but the boy didn't move.
He just stood there, holding their words like weights on his chest.
"I believed them," Ren's voice cracked. "For years."
Then… a new frame.
Laughter. Bright, blurry images. Teenagers splashing in a pool. Music in the background.
The boy — older now — being pulled into the water, laughing. His eyes alive.
"Until high school. I found people. Friends. Just a few. But they saw me."
One of them wrapped an arm around his shoulder. Another pulled him underwater.
He looked… alive.
"They didn't try to fix me. They just… accepted me. Even when I was messy. Even when I was quiet."
The warmth pulsed. Like a bonfire in winter.
But then —
Black.
Lights out.
A dark suitcase thrown open. A hand ripping posters off a bedroom wall.
"My parents hated them. Said they were making me weak. So they shifted me."
New school.
New uniform.
Cold walls. Empty seat by the window.
"No friends. No colors. Just study."
Serin watched the boy turn into a shadow. Books stacked like prison walls around his bed.
"I studied. All day. All night. I cried without sound. Every night."
A single tear dropped onto a physics textbook.
In the mirror, his eyes were hollow.
"But I topped. I became number one. I made them proud."
Applause. A teacher clapping. A parent nodding.
But the boy?
He smiled —
…and the smile didn't reach his eyes.
"And I was still empty,"Ren whispered.
Serin was back in her room now. The illusion fading. But her heart? Still stuck in that grey.
She whispered, voice shaking, "Ren… I saw it. I felt it. I was there."
And Ren, eyes full — but open — said:
"I wasn't born empty. I was emptied."
Silence.
But not the kind that hurts.
The kind that lets two souls float in the dark — together.
And maybe, for once, not be alone in their scars.
"You… Serin. You didn't see me as a rank or a resume. You saw me."
His hand trembled as he wiped his eyes again.
"Falling in love with you was like breathing after drowning. It felt impossible. Unreal. Like maybe… maybe I wasn't a bad product after all."
Serin was crying now.
She didn't hide it. Didn't wipe it.
She let it fall. Like petals on a spring river.
"Ren…" she whispered. "You're not weird. Or broken. Or anything they called you."
She sat up straighter, her eyes shining like twin stars through tears.
"You're just… you. And that's more than enough for me."
They didn't speak for a while after that.
Only the sound of their breathing.
Their pain.
Their healing.
The clock ticked to 4:30 AM.
Outside, the stars were beginning to fade.
But inside — in that fragile space between two hearts — a new light had started to bloom.
4:31 AM
The tears hadn't dried. But they had changed.
They no longer stung like broken glass. Now they shimmered like sea-salt — soft, honest, healing.
Ren exhaled, the weight still heavy… but finally shared.
And Serin?
She smiled.
Not the smile she gave to teachers, or strangers, or even her sister.
This was the one she had only ever given him.
"You really are something else, you know that?"
He sniffed.
" What too much dramatic ? "
She rolled her eyes playfully.
"No, Ren. You're a full-on limited edition collector's piece. Weird and priceless."
They laughed.
Not because things were okay. But because they were together.
And sometimes, that was enough.
"Dude,"Ren grinned, "I think I just trauma dumped on you for like, 50 pages."
"Nah," she shrugged, "you've got at least 100 more left in you. You're just on Volume One."
"Oh please. Your trauma was literally Oscar-worthy."
"Well, yeah. But yours was more like... A sad Manga."
"Oh so I'm Spirited Away, huh?"
"You're Grief-ed Away, more like."
They both broke into giggles, their cheeks warm with emotion and lightness.
The storm hadn't passed. But they were dancing in the rain now.
4:45 AM
The room quieted. But their thoughts didn't.
Ren stared at the ceiling.
"Hey… Serin?"
"Hmm?"
"Can we… meet tomorrow?"
She blinked. The silence that followed wasn't hesitation — it was calculation.
"Like… actually meet?"
"Yeah. I wanna see you. In person. Like—like a real human."
"Wait. You're a human?"
"Shocking, I know."
"Wow. Mind blown."
She bit her lip to stop smiling.
"I've been grounded like I murdered a president, remember?"
"You can't sneak out? Like… pretend to go get groceries or something?"
"Bro. This isn't a spy movie."
He Face palmed.
"I mean… snacks? Every hostage needs snacks."
She paused. Something clicked.
Her eyes widened a little.
"Wait. Wait wait wait. Maybe… I can go. If I take my sister."
Ren sat up, eyes glowing.
"Wait—really?!"
"Yeah. We used to go to this store together. Jusai. It's like 500 meters from my place."
"Jusai? What kinda Naruto village is that?"
"Shut up and Google it."
He opened Maps.
"...Oh crap, you're right. It's like ten minutes away."
"So. We pretend it's a coincidence."
"So I just… happen to walk into Jusai?"
"Exactly. Accidental. But fated."
"Damn. This is some real anime-level planning."
They laughed again. But there was something beautiful in the way they planned — like children designing a world far better than the one they lived in.
5:00 AM
The plan was set.
They would meet in the evening — just before sunset. Just before the shadows grew too long.
Ren was shaking with anticipation.
It would be the first time he saw her in person… since everything. Since the walls, the pain, the calls, the laughs.
"Hey, Serin?"
"Yeah?"
"You're really gonna do this for me?"
"Ren… You deserve to be seen."
He choked on a smile.
"I can't wait to see you. In person. With those cheeks."
"You mean my 'mochi cheeks' that you have been always desperate about?"
"They better be extra puffy tomorrow."
"You better not cry when you see me."
They joked, they teased, they planned every step. Even practiced casual greetings like :
"Oh my god, Serin? Fancy seeing you here!"
"Ren? Wow! I didn't know you also drink overpriced bubble tea!"
And even lines like:
"Hey, who's this tall intimidating third wheel?"
"This? Oh, this is my sister. She bites."
They laughed. They breathed.
They were healing.
5:10 AM
Their voices grew softer. Like two kids who didn't want their parents to know they were still on the phone.
"Hey... Serin?"
"Yeah?"
"If tomorrow's our last day…"
"Shhh. Don't say that."
"Then I want to remember tonight."
"Then promise me something."
"Anything."
"Don't forget me. Not even in your next life."
She didn't Replied.
They didn't say goodnight. They said nothing.
They just… stayed. Quietly.
Together.
Fading into sleep — with the softest smiles on their lips.
5:15 AM.
The world was silent.
Not the silence of absence —but the silence of completion.
Like the last note of a song still echoing in the heart.
Ren lay on his bed, his fingers still curled around the phone.
His eyes fluttered. His lips trembled from everything he poured out tonight.
He had cried. He had laughed. And now… he was at peace.
Across the distance, Serin was the same.
Her cheeks, once soaked, now bore the soft remnants of tears dried by dawn.
Her eyes were half-lidded. Her breathing, steady — like a lullaby only the universe could hum.
They weren't just drifting into sleep. They were surrendering to it.
Like lovers letting go of the world, just for a little while.
"Ren…?"she whispered softly, her voice floating like wind chimes in a spring breeze.
"Mm… yeah?" he mumbled, eyes closed, voice sleepy.
"If something bad happens tomorrow…If we never get to talk again…
Will you still love me ?"
Ren didn't answer immediately.
Because how could he? How do you respond to a question that breaks the soul?
"I'd find you in every dream," he finally whispered. "Even if the world ends."
A pause.
Then Serin, with her last breath before sleep, whispered a line — not to him, not even to herself…But to the universe.
A fragile, trembling thought…
"Even if this love ends tomorrow…Let tonight be the reason I believe in forever."
And with that…
Her eyes closed. A single tear slipped down the curve of her mochi cheek, glistening like dew on a cherry blossom.
Ren's fingers loosened. His phone slipped down onto his chest.
And slowly — gracefully — both of them fell asleep.
Not just sleep. But a sacred sleep. A sleep kissed by the dawn, blessed by the moon, guarded by every angel that once wept watching them love.
Their dreams that night…were not of escape. But of each other. Of holding hands across the stars. Of meeting again, in some other time. Some other world.
Even if everything falls apart tomorrow…Tonight, they were whole.
The sunlight crept through the curtains. Not to wake them —but to admire.
Two souls, One sacred night, A love the universe paused to witness.