Chapter 38: The World Without Her

Ren opened his eyes to a pale morning ceiling he had never seen before.

For a moment, he couldn’t breathe.

The air felt wrong.

The room felt wrong.

His heartbeat felt wrong.

Like something had been removed from his chest.

He sat up slowly, blinking through a fog he didn’t understand. A dull pain spread behind his ribs, not physical… something deeper, something missing.

He pressed a hand to his chest.

“Why… does it hurt?”

He didn’t get an answer. Just silence.

He stood up, dressed, and left his house on instinct. He didn’t know why he was in such a hurry—only that something inside him was urging him forward.

When he reached the school gates, the world felt even stranger.

Students walked past him, chatting, laughing. He recognized faces but felt like the colors of the world had dimmed somehow.

He scanned the crowd.

Haru wasn’t there.

Mina wasn’t there.

He told himself they were late. Or absent. Or somewhere else.

But the truth slithered in… cold and slow.

He couldn’t picture their voices clearly.

He couldn’t recall the exact shade of Mina’s hair.

He couldn’t remember Haru’s stupid grin.

“Why… can’t I…?”

Ren clutched the strap of his bag.

A gust of wind blew past him.

It carried no warmth.

He walked inside the building, each step heavier than the last. The hallway felt eerily familiar yet completely wrong. Students he usually talked to didn’t greet him. He didn’t greet them either.

His classroom door felt cold when he slid it open.

Inside… empty.

He scanned the room one seat at a time.

Haru’s seat.

Empty.

Mina’s seat.

Empty.

And—

A seat near the window.

He paused.

His chest tightened sharply. He didn’t know why, but something about that desk made it hard to breathe.

He walked toward it slowly.

His fingers hovered above the wooden surface.

Nothing carved into it.

No doodles.

No messages.

No personality.

Just another student’s desk.

He exhaled shakily.

“Huh… I thought…”

He didn’t know what he thought.

Something like a voice touched the edge of his mind, soft and distant:

Ren…

He jerked his head up.

The air stilled.

The classroom was empty.

He pressed a hand over his heart again.

Something was there.

Something missing.

Something important he couldn’t remember.

He left the room, almost stumbling out into the hallway. His legs moved on their own, carrying him toward the school courtyard.

He didn’t know why.

He didn’t know what he was searching for.

But he felt it.

A hollow ache.

Like a shape where someone used to be.

He reached the courtyard.

Wind brushed past his cheek.

He felt—

Just for a second—

Someone standing beside him.

Someone warm.

Someone that made him feel whole.

He turned quickly.

No one.

Just fading footsteps in the dust… though no one had walked there.

Ren swallowed hard. His eyes drifted upward to the sky.

Blue. Bright. Empty.

Just like he felt.

“What… am I forgetting?”

His voice cracked.

No answer.

No memory.

No warmth.

Just the hollow ache of a name he couldn’t recall.

The bell rang in the distance.

Ren didn’t move.

He stood in the sunlight that suddenly felt cold, wishing he knew why his heart hurt…

…and why, deep inside the emptiness, he felt like someone had been taken from him.

Someone precious.

Someone he loved.

Someone he no longer remembered.