My throat tightened. A drop of sweat rolled slowly down my forehead while my fists clenched. My curiosity, that flaw that always pushed me one step too far, had taken the wheel. I decided not to correct her. I had to know. She was about to give me the key, the root cause of her PVDS. Was this why she made her wish?

"Is it true?" I asked in a low, almost hesitant voice.

"Yes... I was... bullied. For three years straight," she let out with a painful slowness.

She gripped her arm so hard she was going to bruise it. She looked like she was about to retract everything, shame washing over her face as she furrowed her brows. Three years. It was an eternity. An entire life spent suffering.

"Don't be ashamed," I said, trying to find the words. She looked up at me, surprised. "Instead of that, keep fighting. Even if it’s long, even if it’s hard. Even if the enemy outnumbers you, you’re never al—"

"Stop!"

She exploded, her face twisted in a dark rage. My "bargain-bin hero" speech had annoyed her to no end.

"Keep going, you say?! I did keep going, Salkony! Always alone! No one was there to help me! The teachers looked the other way, I was mutilated, I suffered every day in my corner! My best friend watched me get destroyed without moving an inch, even though I sacrificed myself for her, and the rest of the class acted like... like I was invisible!"

She was almost screaming, on the verge of tears, expelling years of built-up frustration. Her words vibrated in the silence of the street. The only person capable of hearing her complaints, of receiving this raw pain, was me.

She panted, trying to catch her breath after that emotional discharge. Noticing my dead silence and petrified stare, she calmed down abruptly. A mix of awkwardness and desolation replaced her fury.

"You..." she whispered, searching for my support.

"You went through that too, didn't you?"

She looked at me with that gleam in her eyes, the kind you see in someone who thinks they’ve found an ally. And I didn’t even have the courage to tell her that I’d made the whole story up.

My mouth was itching. I wanted to dump it all out, the truth about Haruka, my lie to Kaede, this whole mess. But facing her gaze, I stopped dead. I realized there was one thing I should have told her from the start.

"We shouldn't compare our suffering," I began in a calmer voice.

"I know you've been through hell, and I don't pretend to feel the same thing. But does getting angry help if the core problem still isn't solved? The world might have forgotten you, making you physically invisible, but the knot at the center of the problem is still there, very much alive."

Yuni stared at me, her breath still short.

"And what is this 'problem' you're talking about, then?" she asked defiantly.

"I don't know."

She raised an eyebrow, completely taken aback. Confusion replaced the fury in her wide eyes.

"You don't know?" she repeated, incredulous.

"No. It’s not very clear and I’m incapable of explaining it. All I know is that there must be a solution somewhere. But I haven't decoded the cipher yet."

She scrutinized me with an unreadable expression. The anger and frustration that inhabited her a second ago seemed to have ebbed away, like a receding wave.

"Tch... You think our lives are math problems or something?" she grumbled, frowning.

"No, no! It’s just a metaphor!" I panicked slightly, waving my hands.

"Please, don't take it the wrong way. I know your situation is way more complex than a simple equation..."

Suddenly, a small, muffled laugh interrupted me. She had let go of her arm, and a real smile, light but sincere, stretched across her lips.

"I'm kidding, Salkony. You should have seen your face when you panicked," she giggled softly.

I stood there, brain empty, watching her laugh. I didn't know how I'd done it, but I’d just succeeded at something... something that might actually move things forward.

After a long walk, Yuni finally seemed more at ease. We chatted about nothing and everything, mostly about Kaede, whom she found cute, but as we reached our destination, she asked a question that made my blood run cold.

"Hey, Salkony? Do you remember when you found me at the mall? You suspected me of stealing, right?"

My stomach clenched. I searched my memory, but it was like looking for a coin in an empty room. There was nothing. The void. A gaping chasm opened in my mind. I had forgotten everything about that specific moment. Panic rose inside me, and Yuni noticed immediately. Her expression was tinted with worry.

"Hey, are you okay? Why that face?"

I shook myself out of the stupor, plastering a fake smile on my face to mask my terror.

"Yeah, yeah! I’m fine! I remember, don't worry..." I said, nervously scratching the back of my head.

She raised an eyebrow, far from convinced by my failing acting performance.

"You're lying. Why were you so surprised?"

"No, no... It's just that... imagining you stealing is kind of shocking, that's all."

"Really? I could have, you know," she said with disarming sincerity.

"You shouldn't do that," I replied awkwardly. A mocking little smile stretched her lips.

"You're not my dad, you know. But about my dad..."

I went quiet, listening intently.

"That's why I was at the mall. I just wanted to remember the time we spent together... before he left for good."

Her gaze became a complex mix of melancholy and nostalgia. She wasn't talking about bullying now. She was talking about grief, about an absence.

"Oh... I see. I'm sor—"

DRING!

The school bell tore through the air, making us both jump. "Crap!"

Class had just started. Adrenaline replaced sadness in a second. Without thinking, I started running toward the school gates. In the rush, I left Yuni behind, standing in the middle of the street without even giving her instructions or telling her where to wait for me.

My footsteps echoed alone in the void of the silent hallways. I finally arrived at my classroom. The door was already open, and the teacher's monotone voice filtered out to me. Breathless, heart thumping, I knocked and entered.

Suddenly, thirty pairs of eyes locked onto me. I mostly felt the stares of Ren and Mizuki, my empty seat separating them like a reminder of my absence. The teacher paused, adjusting his glasses.

"Salkony? An explanation for this tardiness?"

I pulled out an excuse I thought was foolproof, keeping my face as neutral as possible:

"Sorry, sir. There was construction blocking my usual route. I had to take a long detour; the way was much longer."

"Mmh, I see. Take your seat and get your things out."

I let out a sigh of relief as I sat down. Mizuki turned her eyes back toward the window, but Ren leaned toward me with a smirk.

"Nice job on the lie," he whispered behind my back. I turned around, blood freezing in my veins.

"How do you know?!"

"I just guessed, that's all. But where were you yesterday? We had a club with Haruka, you know?"

I had to improvise, but I hesitated. If he'd "guessed" my first lie, he’d sniff out the second.

"I went to the mall to look for something for Haruka," I let out in a low voice. "Something? What kind of—"

HEY! Salkony! You arrive late and then permit yourself to chatter without even having your notebooks out?"

I snapped upright, face flushing red.

"Sorry, sir!"

Ren went quiet, leaving me alone with my thoughts. The lesson resumed, but the boredom was short-lived. A cold draft swept through the room. The classroom door opened slowly, all by itself. No one blinked. The teacher kept writing on the chalkboard.

Then, a familiar head appeared in the doorway.

Yuni.

She entered the room with a hesitant step, her blue eyes scanning the rows of students who couldn't see her. She passed right in front of the teacher's desk, inches away from him, like a ghost among the living.

She was looking at only one person:

me.