Kai arrived at school late, bleary-eyed and disoriented. He hadn't slept. Again. His head pounded, and he still hadn't decided whether what he saw last night — Mei outside his window, the message on his phone — was real or another nightmare bleeding into reality.
He walked through the courtyard, still half-expecting to see her. He didn't. But he couldn't stop looking.
When he entered the classroom, something was off.
A new student stood beside the teacher.
Tall. Calm. Wearing the same uniform, but everything else about him seemed… foreign. His posture was too straight. His gaze too still. As though he were watching everyone, even while looking nowhere in particular.
"Everyone, this is Ren Saito, a transfer from another district," the teacher said. "He'll be joining us for the remainder of the year."
Ren bowed politely. "It's good to meet all of you."
His eyes briefly met Kai's.
He didn't blink.
At lunch, Kai tried to avoid him. He wasn't in the mood to make small talk — not with someone who appeared right after everything started spiraling.
But Ren sat next to him anyway, holding a simple bento and wearing a small, unreadable smile.
"You look like you haven't slept in days," Ren said, matter-of-factly.
Kai froze, chopsticks midair. "...Excuse me?"
Ren continued eating calmly. "Insomnia. Restlessness. Vivid dreams. They're signs. You're not the only one, you know."
Kai narrowed his eyes. "What are you talking about?"
Ren met his gaze, his voice quiet:
"I've seen her too."
The cafeteria felt suddenly distant, as if everyone else had faded into the background.
"You saw Mei?" Kai asked.
Ren nodded slowly. "Not just her. The girl in the hallway. The eyes in the dark. I've seen them since I was nine."
Kai's stomach twisted.
Ren reached into his jacket and slid a folded paper toward him — the same kind of note Kai had received before.
Kai hesitated, then unfolded it.
"It watches those who notice. But it likes the broken ones best."
He looked back up. "Where did you get this?"
Ren didn't answer. He only said:
"They think we're strangers. But we're not."
That afternoon, Kai couldn't concentrate. Every glance at Ren revealed the same stillness, the same unreadable calm. He didn't act like someone who was scared or haunted. He acted like someone studying fear in others.
Could Kai trust him?
Or was he just another layer in the trap?
As Kai packed up to leave school, Ren passed him a final note — no envelope this time. Just a folded square with sharp creases.
Kai opened it alone in the hallway.
"Don't sleep tonight. It dreams through you."
Kai's heart stopped.
When he looked up, Ren was gone.