The clock tower felt colder once the journal closed.
None of them moved at first. The book lay on the table like a stone dropped into still water, its ripples still spreading through the three of them. Aika stared at it with her hands folded tightly in her lap, her shoulders drawn in as if bracing against a wind only she could feel. Leon leaned against the railing, arms crossed, eyes flicking between his friends and the fading light outside. Kai stood closest to the table, but his mind was far from the room.
The last line he'd read echoed through him like a pulse.
Then the veil is collapsing.
He didn't know what it meant. He only knew it wasn't good.
Aika finally broke the silence. Her voice was thin, almost fragile.
"I don't understand… why she never told me any of this."
She wasn't angry. She wasn't even confused. She sounded… hollow. Like someone trying to fit a new truth into a life that no longer matched its shape.
Kai opened his mouth, then closed it again. He didn't know how to comfort her. He didn't know how to comfort anyone. He could barely knew how to comfort himself.
Leon shifted awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Maybe she had her reasons," he offered, but even he didn't sound convinced.
Aika didn't respond. She just kept staring at the journal, as if waiting for it to open again and explain everything.
Kai watched her, guilt twisting in his chest. He wished he could tell her something—anything—that would make this easier. But he didn't have answers. He barely had fragments.
Leon tried again, softer this time. "Hey… you don't have to figure it all out today."
Aika blinked, as if waking from a trance. She looked up at the windows. The sky had shifted from gold to a muted orange, the sun dipping behind the rooftops.
"It's getting late," she murmured.
Leon checked his phone. "Yeah. We should head back before it gets dark."
Kai nodded. He didn't trust his voice.
Aika closed the journal carefully, almost reverently, and slipped it into her bag. She hesitated before standing, as if leaving the tower meant leaving behind the last piece of her grandmother she didn't understand.
They walked out together, but the silence between them felt heavier than the shadows stretching across the floor.
Outside, the air was cool. The city lights flickered on one by one. Aika hugged her bag to her chest.
"Let's… meet again tomorrow," she said quietly. "After we've had time to think."
Leon nodded. "Yeah. Tomorrow."
Kai agreed with a small gesture. He didn't trust himself to say anything without breaking the fragile balance holding them together.
They parted ways at the street corner—Aika heading toward the bus stop, Leon and Kai toward the apartment. Kai watched her go until she disappeared behind a passing car.
Only then did he breathe.
Leon fell asleep quickly. He always did. His door stayed half-open, the way he left it every night—just in case Kai needed him.
Kai lay on the futon in the living room, staring at the ceiling. The apartment was quiet except for the hum of the refrigerator and the occasional car passing outside. He tried to close his eyes. He tried to breathe evenly. He tried to pretend he was tired.
But the moment sleep took him, the world shattered.
Flashes. Heat. Screams swallowed by stone. The Null's distorted screech tearing through the corridors. The palace walls cracking like brittle glass. The smell of burning cloth. The sensation of running barefoot on cold marble slick with dust. The tearing of the veil—soundless, violent, wrong. The moment he realized he wouldn't survive. The moment he fell.
Kai jerked awake, breath caught in his throat. The room was dark. His hands trembled. Sweat clung to his skin. He pressed a palm to his chest, trying to steady the frantic rhythm beneath.
He didn't wake Leon. He never did.
He sat there for a long time, knees drawn up, staring at the faint outline of the coffee table. The nightmares always left him disoriented, unsure which world he was in. It took minutes before the apartment came back into focus.
Minutes before he remembered he was safe.
As safe as he could be.
Leon found him sitting upright, eyes shadowed, posture stiff.
"Rough night," Leon said simply.
Kai didn't answer. He didn't need to.
Leon didn't push. He just walked into the kitchen, opened the fridge, and started cooking. Eggs, toast, something simple. Something normal.
He talked while he cooked—not about magic or runes or collapsing veils, but about his morning lecture, a professor who assigned too much reading, and a meme he saw last night. His voice was steady, casual, grounding.
Kai listened in silence. The normalcy helped more than he expected.
They sat at the small kitchen table. Leon waited until Kai had eaten a few bites before speaking again.
"Kai," he said quietly, "you need to tell me what you're afraid of."
Kai froze.
Leon didn't sound demanding. He didn't sound curious. He sounded… concerned.
"Not because I want details," Leon continued. "Not because I want to play therapist. But because you're carrying something that's crushing you."
Kai looked down at his plate.
"You're not weak," Leon said. "You're not helpless. But trauma doesn't care about strength."
Kai swallowed hard.
Leon leaned back, arms crossed loosely. "I'm not always going to be right next to you. And Aika won't always be next to you either. You need to be able to stand even when we're not around."
Kai's throat tightened.
Leon hesitated, then added, softer, "I've never been in a war. I've never seen monsters. I've never watched someone die."
He met Kai's eyes.
"But I can see when someone's drowning."
Kai looked away quickly. The words hit harder than any pressure would have. Leon wasn't trying to pry. He wasn't trying to fix him. He was trying to keep him alive.
Kai wanted to speak. He really did. But the words stuck in his chest, tangled with fear and memory.
Leon didn't push.
"Whenever you're ready," he said. "Not before."
He stood, grabbed his bag, and headed for the door. "I'll be back after class. Try to rest."
Kai nodded.
The door closed behind him.
The apartment felt too quiet again.
Kai sat on the futon for a few minutes, staring at the door Leon had just walked through. The silence pressed against him. The walls felt too close.
He needed air.
He slipped on his shoes and left the apartment quietly. He didn't tell Leon. He didn't leave a note. He just stepped outside and let the sunlight hit him.
It was his first time alone in the middle of the day.
The brightness made him squint. The noise of traffic felt too loud. People moved around him with a confidence he didn't understand. He kept his head down, hands in his pockets, trying to look like he belonged.
He walked to the nearby park Leon had shown him once. The open space helped. The air helped. The normalcy helped.
For a moment, he almost felt steady.
Then he saw her.
Aika stood under a tree with two friends, laughing at something one of them said. She looked lighter than she had in the tower—relaxed, smiling, alive.
Kai's first instinct was to go to her. To check on her. To apologize. To make sure she was okay.
He took a few steps toward her.
Then he stopped.
She was happy. She was safe. She wasn't thinking about magic or runes or collapsing veils.
Kai turned away.
He didn't want to be the shadow that followed her everywhere.
As he walked toward the park exit, he spotted a police officer standing near the path. The uniform, the badge, the posture—it all made his chest tighten.
Leon's warning echoed sharply:
"Stay away from police. You don't have identification. If they stop you, you're screwed."
Kai lowered his head and walked faster, avoiding eye contact. He didn't run. Running drew attention. He just moved with purpose, heart pounding.
He didn't breathe until he was blocks away.
Kai reached the apartment building, relief washing over him as he approached the entrance.
He was almost inside when a voice called out behind him.
"Hey."
Kai turned.
A man leaned against the wall near the entrance, hands in his pockets, expression unreadable. He looked ordinary—too ordinary. The kind of face you forget the moment you look away.
But his eyes were fixed on Kai with unsettling familiarity.
Then he spoke.
He said a name.
A name no one in this world should know.
A name that freezes Kai's blood.