Iris's POV
Sleep had come unusually late that night.
Perhaps it was because of the dreamless silence that surrounded the house.
Or perhaps...
Because my mind refused to become quiet.
Somewhere between consciousness and sleep, my thoughts slowly began drifting away.
---
A familiar corridor stretched before me.
Soft afternoon sunlight poured through the classroom windows.
The school hallway.
I stood there quietly.
Footsteps echoed somewhere behind me.
I turned.
Kaizer.
He walked towards me with that same composed expression he always carried, his school bag hanging carelessly over one shoulder. As soon as our eyes met, he gave me the smallest smile.
The kind that barely reached his lips.
Yet somehow...
It always reached me.
The scene changed.
We were standing near the bus stop.
The cool winter wind brushed past us as loose strands of my hair danced across my face.
He looked at me again.
I looked back.
Neither of us spoke.
Yet the silence between us had never felt empty.
It felt...
Comfortable.
Another memory replaced it.
The living room.
The two of us asleep on the sofa.
His head resting lightly against mine.
The quiet rhythm of our breathing.
The warmth.
Everything felt strangely peaceful.
The dream continued changing one memory after another.
His faint chuckle.
The way he absentmindedly adjusted his sleeves.
The way he always listened even when I talked about the most unnecessary things.
The way his eyes softened whenever he looked at me.
Without realising it...
I smiled.
Then—
Everything shattered.
Darkness swallowed the surroundings.
The warmth disappeared.
The peaceful silence became unbearably heavy.
I frowned.
"...Kaizer?"
No reply.
I looked around.
The empty darkness slowly began clearing.
A narrow alley.
Cold.
Silent.
A faint metallic smell lingered in the air.
Then...
I saw him.
He was kneeling on the ground.
His breathing was uneven.
Blood stained his shirt.
More of it had already reached the pavement beneath him.
His hands trembled as if he wanted to stand.
But couldn't.
My heart stopped.
"Kaizer!"
I immediately ran towards him.
My feet refused to move.
No matter how desperately I tried...
The distance never became shorter.
He slowly lifted his head.
Our eyes met.
His lips parted slightly.
As though he wanted to say something.
No voice came out.
"...Kaizer!"
I tried running harder.
Tears blurred my vision.
The distance remained exactly the same.
He slowly began falling forward.
"No!"
---
My eyes snapped open.
I sat upright so suddenly that my breathing became uneven.
The room was dark.
Only the faint moonlight entering through the curtains illuminated the walls.
My heartbeat refused to slow down.
I instinctively looked around the room.
The wardrobe.
The study table.
The chair beside the window.
Everything was exactly where it should have been.
Yet...
That image refused to leave my mind.
His blood-covered figure.
The helplessness.
The feeling that no matter how hard I tried...
I couldn't reach him.
I pressed my palms against my face.
"It was just a dream..."
I whispered.
My own voice sounded unfamiliar.
I tried taking a deep breath.
Another.
Another.
It didn't help.
The image only became clearer.
I quickly shook my head as if doing so would throw it out of my mind.
Instead...
Something warm rolled down my cheek.
I hadn't even realised tears had started falling.
"...No."
I wiped them away almost immediately.
Why was I crying?
It wasn't real.
He was fine.
He had to be.
I threw the blanket aside and climbed out of bed.
Without even bothering to wear my slippers properly, I hurried towards the bedroom door.
The handle felt unusually cold beneath my fingers.
I pulled it open.
The house was quiet.
Almost too quiet.
For a brief second...
My chest tightened again.
I stepped into the hallway.
Then my eyes searched instinctively.
The living room.
The dining table.
The balcony.
...
There.
He was sitting near the balcony with a notebook resting beside him, absentmindedly looking outside into the night.
Alive.
Completely unharmed.
The tightness inside my chest loosened so suddenly that I almost laughed at myself.
I slowly walked towards him.
He turned his head after hearing my footsteps.
"Iris?"
I stopped in front of him.
For a long moment...
I simply looked at him.
His face.
His hands.
His calm expression.
No blood.
No injuries.
Nothing.
Just...
Kaizer.
His eyebrows drew together slightly.
"What happened?"
I opened my mouth.
Then closed it again.
How was I supposed to explain something that hadn't even happened?
After a small pause, I quietly answered,
"...I can't sleep."
He looked at me for another moment.
He didn't ask why.
He didn't ask whether something had happened.
Nor did he tell me to stop overthinking.
Instead, he moved towards the sofa.
"Sit."
I obeyed without another word.
The silence between us settled naturally.
Comfortably.
For a while, neither of us spoke.
The cool night breeze drifted through the half-open balcony door, carrying with it the distant sound of crickets and the occasional bark of a stray dog.
Then Kaizer suddenly stood up.
He disappeared into his room for a minute before returning with something familiar in his hands.
His guitar.
He sat down again and rested it comfortably across his lap.
I looked at him.
"You couldn't sleep too?"
He adjusted one of the tuning pegs before answering.
"...Sometimes."
His fingers lightly brushed across the strings, testing their sound.
"When that happened..."
He looked down at the instrument.
"...this helped."
Nothing more.
No explanation.
No unnecessary comfort.
Just a simple sentence.
He began playing.
A slow melody quietly filled the room.
The notes weren't loud enough to disturb the neighbours.
They simply drifted through the silent house like a gentle conversation that didn't require words.
I had heard him play many times before.
Yet...
Tonight felt different.
Perhaps because my heart had been trembling only moments ago.
Perhaps because I hadn't realised how desperately I needed something familiar.
I rested my head against the back of the sofa and quietly listened.
The frightening images slowly lost their sharp edges.
My breathing gradually became steady.
For the first time since waking up...
I felt safe again.
Without noticing it myself, a small smile appeared on my face.
I turned slightly towards him.
He happened to look up at the same moment.
Our eyes met.
Neither of us said anything.
He simply smiled back.
Softly.
Then lowered his gaze to the guitar again as the melody continued flowing through the quiet night.
The soft melody continued flowing through the quiet house long after my eyelids had become heavy.
Somewhere between one note and another, my thoughts slowly drifted away.
This time...
There were no nightmares.
---
The bright morning sunlight slipped through the curtains, falling gently across my room.
For a few moments, I simply lay there staring at the ceiling.
Last night's dream felt distant now.
Yet the memory of it still lingered somewhere inside me.
Then another memory quietly replaced it.
A guitar.
A familiar melody.
The peaceful silence that had followed.
Without realizing it, I smiled faintly before quickly shaking my head.
"What am I even thinking..."
I mumbled to myself before finally getting out of bed.
Today was my day off from the café.
And for the first time in several weeks, the three of us had finally managed to match our schedules.
Anya had practically ordered both Grace and me to come to her house for breakfast.
According to her...
"It's not a request. It's a summons."
---
Nearly an hour later, I stood outside Anya's house.
Before I could even ring the bell, the door flew open.
"There she is!"
Anya dramatically pointed at me.
"Our busiest woman finally remembered she has friends."
"I came exactly on time."
"You came three minutes late."
"I checked the time."
"I checked it too."
"And?"
"My clock is more trustworthy."
I sighed.
"I should've gone back."
"You absolutely should not."
She immediately grabbed my wrist and dragged me inside.
---
The familiar smell of freshly prepared breakfast filled the house.
Grace was already sitting comfortably on the sofa, quietly reading something on her phone.
She looked up as I entered.
"Good morning."
"Morning."
Anya suddenly folded both her arms.
"You know..."
She looked between the two of us dramatically.
"I feel left out."
Grace blinked.
"Why?"
"You two greeted each other normally."
"And?"
"I deserve a more enthusiastic greeting."
I looked at her.
"Good morning, Your Majesty."
She nodded with complete satisfaction.
"Much better."
Grace couldn't help laughing.
---
Breakfast was somehow louder than the television running in the background.
Mostly because Anya refused to stay quiet for longer than thirty seconds.
While she continued explaining why pineapple absolutely belonged on pizza, I quietly looked between her and Grace.
Something suddenly occurred to me.
I put my glass down.
"By the way..."
Both of them looked at me.
"When did you two become so close?"
Grace smiled before looking towards Anya.
"Shopping mall."
I blinked.
"...Shopping mall?"
Anya dramatically covered her face.
"Please don't remind me."
Grace laughed.
"I had gone shopping with my mother."
"And this one..."
She pointed towards Anya.
"...had been standing in front of the same clothing rack for nearly forty minutes."
"They weren't the same clothes."
"They were."
"They had different shades."
"They were both black."
"They weren't!"
"They absolutely were."
I laughed quietly as the two continued arguing.
Grace shook her head.
"She couldn't decide which hoodie to buy."
"So I helped."
"And then she made me try ten more."
"I needed a second opinion."
"You needed ten."
Anya proudly nodded.
"Exactly."
I couldn't help smiling.
It somehow suited them.
Grace's calmness.
Anya's complete lack of it.
---
After breakfast, we shifted to Anya's room.
Books occupied almost every shelf.
History books.
Historical maps.
Ancient civilizations.
Dynasties.
Languages.
It honestly looked more like a small library than a teenager's room.
I quietly took out my phone.
"I actually came to ask something."
Anya immediately looked interested.
"What?"
I opened the photographs I had taken of Grandma's journal.
"I found this."
She frowned.
"What language is this?"
"I don't know."
She zoomed in.
Several seconds passed.
Then she slowly shook her head.
"No idea."
I sighed.
"I thought so."
"Wait."
She suddenly stood up.
"Don't lose hope yet."
She walked towards one of her shelves before pulling out a thick old book.
It looked more like a dictionary than anything else.
Grace raised an eyebrow.
"You own that?"
"I own many questionable things."
She proudly placed the book on the table.
"If this resembles what I think it does..."
She flipped through several pages before comparing the strange symbols with the photographs.
The room gradually became quieter.
Even Grace leaned forward out of curiosity.
Minutes passed.
Only the sound of turning pages could be heard.
Then—
"I think..."
Anya slowly spoke.
"...I found something."
Both Grace and I immediately leaned closer.
She compared the symbols once again before reading slowly,
"'One person...'"
She looked again.
"'...read mind.'"
She paused.
"'Then...'"
Another comparison.
"'Thoughts... absorb.'"
Silence filled the room.
Grace frowned.
"...What?"
"I have no idea."
Anya admitted honestly.
"The grammar isn't right."
"It almost feels..."
"...incomplete."
I quickly opened my notes application and typed everything down.
One person read mind.
Then thoughts absorb.
Grandma...
You really wrote all this?
"There's more."
Anya continued.
Another page.
Another comparison.
"'Connected minds.'"
I typed it.
Another.
"'It... eat... alone.'"
Grace looked horrified.
"...That's creepy."
"I know."
I quietly wrote it down anyway.
Another page.
"'No voice... inside.'"
Another note.
"'Light... remember.'"
The three of us exchanged confused looks.
None of it made sense.
Yet somehow...
It felt important.
Kaizer..
..You definitely need to see this.
---
Grace looked at me curiously.
"So..."
"Where exactly did you get all this?"
I immediately locked my phone.
"Oh..."
"It was just an old notebook Grandma had."
"Nothing special."
Both of them continued staring.
I smiled awkwardly.
"Let's talk about something else."
Grace clearly wasn't convinced.
Neither was Anya.
But before either of them could ask again—
Anya suddenly smirked.
"You know..."
She looked at Grace.
"Iris has become really good at changing topics lately."
I narrowed my eyes.
"What are you planning?"
Grace looked between us.
"What?"
Anya grinned.
"Since we're changing topics..."
She dramatically pointed towards me.
"Let's discuss her."
"...No."
"Oh yes."
Grace immediately became interested.
"What about her?"
Anya folded her legs beneath her.
"Did you know..."
"Our innocent Iris spent almost two years crushing on her junior?"
I almost choked.
"Anya!"
"What?"
Grace's eyes widened.
"Two years?"
"It wasn't—"
"It absolutely was."
I covered my face.
"I just admired him."
"For two years?"
"..."
"See?"
Anya proudly looked at Grace.
"I told you."
Grace laughed.
"So..."
"Who was he?"
Anya didn't even let me answer.
"Remember Annual Day?"
Grace nodded.
"The performance where Iris danced?"
"Exactly."
"And there was a guitarist."
Grace thought for a moment.
"...Yeah."
Anya pointed dramatically.
"That guitarist."
"Kaizer."
Grace blinked.
"...Your roommate?"
I quietly looked away.
"...Yes."
Grace looked between the two of us.
"So..."
"He's your boyfriend now?"
Anya dramatically sighed.
"I wish."
"No."
"They're still pretending they're just senior and junior."
I opened my mouth to protest.
Nothing came out.
Instead...
Last night quietly appeared in my mind.
The dim living room.
The gentle melody flowing from his guitar.
The way he hadn't asked a single question.
The quiet smile he had given me before looking back at the strings.
Without realizing it...
The corners of my lips curved upward.
"..."
"..."
"..."
Anya slowly looked at Grace.
Then back at me.
"Oho..."
I blinked.
"What?"
Grace smiled knowingly.
"You were smiling."
"I wasn't."
"You definitely were."
"I was thinking."
"About Kaizer?"
"...No."
Anya leaned closer.
"Then why are your ears red?"
"They are not."
"They absolutely are."
Before I could defend myself—
My phone suddenly vibrated on the table.
The laughter disappeared almost instantly.
Unknown Number.
Below it...
Central Hospital.
My heart skipped a beat.
I quietly picked up the call.
"...Hello?"
The room fell silent.