—Naoaki's POV—
The week passed in a blur of moments.
Each one felt like a slow dance of familiarity, of a closeness I didn't know I craved until it was right in front of me. Ren kept his distance, yet his presence was constant, like the gravity of a planet that you don't notice pulling you in until you're already too close.
We didn't talk much, but when we did, the words held weight. His words.
His eyes.
There was something in them, something I hadn't seen before. It wasn't anger, or even indifference—it was something softer. Regret, maybe. Or longing. I didn't know which. Maybe it was both.
But the more I watched him, the more I realized—his smile had changed.
It wasn't that he smiled more often—it was that when he did, it reached his eyes. I had seen that smile before. Not in this life, but in the other one. It was the smile he gave me when he thought I didn't notice. The smile he gave me when he thought I was safe.
When I was happy.
It was a quiet afternoon, just after class, when it happened. We were walking out of the school gates, our footsteps blending with the rush of students heading home. It was that in-between time when the sun hadn't fully set, and the city lights were just beginning to flicker to life.
Ren had been unusually quiet. I had gotten used to it, the silences between us. But today... it felt different.
"You've been looking at me like that a lot," I said suddenly, breaking the silence.
He raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"
"Like you're waiting for me to figure something out."
Ren didn't answer right away. He just looked at me, his gaze steady, like he was weighing something heavy in his mind.
And then it clicked.
It was him. The same expression from that life.
The way his eyes softened when he looked at me. The way his mouth almost smiled before he stopped himself.
I'd seen it all before.
It was his smile—the smile that made my heart ache without even trying.
I took a step closer. "It's you. I remember you now."
Ren froze. His jaw tightened, and for a second, I thought he might turn around and leave. But instead, he stayed. He didn't say anything, but his body had gone rigid, like he was fighting something inside him.
"I remember," I repeated, this time with more certainty, "from the other life. From before."
His eyes flickered, but he didn't respond. His silence felt like a challenge, like a question he was waiting for me to answer.
I stepped forward again. "I remember you. I remember everything."
He clenched his fists at his sides. "Do you?"
I nodded, my voice barely above a whisper. "I remember... how we fought, how we loved, how I failed. I remember you. I remember us."
Ren's gaze softened for just a moment before the walls went up again. The coldness returned to his features, and I saw that familiar flicker of pain flash across his eyes. It was the same look I had seen so many times, but never understood.
But now, I understood.
"You can't change it, Naoaki," Ren said quietly. "You can't change what we were, what we are."
I took a deep breath. "I don't want to change it. I just want to be here. With you. This time."
Ren stayed silent, but his eyes were locked onto mine. There was a vulnerability there I hadn't seen before, something raw and exposed. It was like he was standing at the edge of something, unsure whether to fall or pull back.
And just for a moment, he let his guard down. His eyes softened, his expression turning into something that resembled relief.
But then he blinked, and the moment was gone.
"Let's go home," he muttered, turning away.
I nodded, following him without saying another word.
But as I walked beside him, I knew something had shifted. Maybe it was the first step toward what we were meant to be, or maybe it was just another fragment of the past catching up with us.
Either way, I knew—this time, I wasn't going to walk away.