The café became their meeting point again, but not for bookings.
No longer client and rental, Reiji and Miko started meeting just to talk. Sometimes over coffee. Sometimes just to walk. The tension that had once wrapped around them slowly gave way to something quieter. Gentler.
Reiji wasn't used to being open. He'd spent so much of his life guarded, calculated. But with her, the words came easier.
He told her things he hadn't told anyone—about the way his siblings watched him like a threat, about the pressure of being a Takasawa, about the nights he lay awake wondering if any of it mattered.
And Miko listened. Really listened.
In return, she shared pieces of herself. Her love for her sister. Her dreams of becoming a counselor, even if she could barely afford the classes. Her fear that she'd never be anything more than a quiet shadow passing through other people's lives.
"You're not a shadow," Reiji said one evening as they sat by the riverbank. "You're the first person who ever made me want to stop disappearing."
She didn't answer. Just leaned her shoulder lightly against his.
It wasn't a declaration. It wasn't a promise.
But it was something real.
When she left that night, she paused before going.
"I don't know where this is going," she said. "But I want to keep walking with you, even if it's just for now."
Reiji nodded. "Then let's keep walking."
They didn't kiss. Not yet. But the space between them had changed. No longer formal. No longer false.
It was beginning to feel like something honest.