Kai's breath hitched as the words glowed faintly on his screen:
"You shouldn't have looked."
Then — nothing.
The message disappeared, replaced by a blank desktop. No open windows. No error. No trace.
He yanked the laptop shut and stumbled away, heart hammering. The apartment was dead silent. The only sound was the whisper of wind through the window... or was that a whisper at all?
He locked the door. Then double-checked the windows. Shadows seemed to stretch longer than they should, and he swore something moved just out of the corner of his eye.
She knows.
Who was she? The Saito he'd met couldn't be the same girl from the article.
But deep down, he knew they were. The same face. The same name. But now she was walking the halls like she never vanished.
And someone... or something was watching.
---
The next morning, Kai forced himself to go to school. The buzzing tension in his chest hadn't left, but skipping again would only draw attention.
And worse — he had to know if Saito was still here.
She was.
At lunch, he spotted her on the rooftop, standing alone with her back to the sky, her hair catching the wind like threads of silver light.
He hesitated — but something pulled him forward.
As he stepped onto the roof, her voice broke the silence.
"You looked into it, didn't you?"
Kai froze.
She turned slowly. Her expression wasn't angry. It was tired — like someone who had been through something no one else could understand.
"I saw your name in the system," she said softly. "You tried to find me. You saw the old articles."
Kai nodded, throat dry. "Who are you?"
There was a pause.
Then she walked toward him, each step measured.
"Saito Hoshina died seven years ago," she said calmly. "At least, that's what the world was told. But some things... don't stay buried."
Kai swallowed hard. "Are you... human?"
She smiled faintly — sad, distant. "I was."
His hands clenched at his sides. "What does that mean? What happened to you?"
She stopped just a breath away, her eyes unreadable.
"I made a choice. One I couldn't take back. I thought I could cheat death. I thought I could protect the ones I loved." Her voice cracked. "But the price... it was too high."
A gust of wind swept across the rooftop. The sky above was suddenly darker, the clouds rippling unnaturally.
"There's something following me now," she whispered. "Something bound to me — feeding off the memories of the people I care about. It wants you, Kai. Because you reached too far."
His knees nearly buckled. "Why me? I didn't do anything."
"You did," she said, a glimmer of regret in her voice. "You saw me. You remembered me."
Suddenly, her shadow shifted on the ground.
It moved when she didn't. Twisted. Stretched.
Kai stumbled back.
"Run if you want," Saito said, her voice hollow. "But it's already watching."
Behind her, the rooftop door slammed shut on its own.