Chapter 29: “The Invitation”

Rurika Hanabusa sat at her desk with her phone resting in her palm. Her thumb hovered over the message she’d typed for the last ten minutes. She kept rewriting it, deleting it, rewriting it again, trying to shape the perfect balance between casual and hopeful.

> Nishima-san, could you help me pick a birthday present for Touko? I don’t want to choose something wrong…

She stared at the sentence. Her pulse jumped each time she imagined his reply.

It wasn’t a date.

It wasn’t.

She kept repeating that in her head, but her cheeks warmed anyway. Her fingers slipped across the keyboard again, adding a small apologetic line.

> If you’re free… only if you’re free.

It made her sound soft. Nervous.

She was.

Rurika inhaled, held it, and hit send.

The moment the message left her screen, she felt the world narrow to a single pinpoint. She sat frozen, hands half-clenched, waiting.

A few seconds passed.

Then her phone buzzed.

Her breath caught.

> Sure. I can help. Just let me know the time and place.

— Kei Nishima

Her vision blurred with relief.

Her chest tightened, not painfully, but in a way she didn’t want to examine too closely. She pressed the phone to her lips for a second, exhaling silently.

He’d said yes.

He didn’t have to.

He didn’t hesitate.

He didn’t treat her like a burden.

Rurika’s heart fluttered with the smallest, most dangerous hope.

She pushed away from the desk and walked to her dressing mirror, opening her closet. She sifted through clothes—something cute, something soft, something that made her feel harmless but worth looking at. A pastel skirt. A white knit top. A ribbon she hadn’t worn since middle school.

She tried them on, twisting slightly to check her reflection.

Her cheeks had color.

Her eyes looked brighter.

She looked… like a girl with a chance.

“He saved me…” she whispered to the mirror. “He’s kind… he’s different…”

Her fingers touched her wrist, remembering the moment his hand had wrapped around it to pull her away from danger. She had never expected warmth like that from a stranger. She had never expected someone to step in for her without asking anything in return.

She smiled faintly at her own reflection.

Maybe this time—

Maybe something in her life could go right.

She reached for her lip gloss.

Behind her, her phone chimed again.

A reminder.

Kei Nishima had replied.

Rurika darted to the desk to read it.

> Tomorrow afternoon works. I’ll meet you at the station.

She pressed her phone to her chest again, a shy thrill running through her.

Tomorrow.

With him.

She didn’t hear the soft shift of footsteps downstairs.

She didn’t hear the quiet breathing coming from the doorway.

---

Across town, the Nishima home was peaceful. Yui was cooking dinner, humming softly as steam curled around her. Kei sat near the window, flipping through some papers.

And Touko was setting the table.

She moved quietly, placing each plate with careful precision, her eyes drifting repeatedly toward her stepfather’s phone on the counter. Kei had left it there to charge. He wasn’t watching it. He wasn’t thinking about it.

Touko noticed the blue light blink.

A message.

She stood still for a moment, fingers resting on a pair of chopsticks. The room behind her buzzed in the warm, ordinary way of family evenings.

But her eyes were cold.

She stepped toward the counter, silent, bare feet touching the floor without a sound.

Kei’s phone buzzed again.

Touko picked it up softly.

Her eyes traced the preview, and her breathing slowed.

> Hanabusa Rurika: Thank you so much, Nishima-san. I’ll see you tomorrow.

Touko stared at the name.

Stared at the message.

Stared at the tiny heart emoji Rurika had tried to hide behind polite words.

Her lips curled just a little.

Not into a smile.

Into something thinner.

Something sharper.

Her reflection in the black screen of the phone didn’t look surprised. It looked patient. Like she’d known this would happen eventually. Like she’d been waiting.

Touko tilted her head, whispering under her breath, voice soft enough that it blended into the hum of the kitchen exhaust.

“You won’t need makeup where I’m sending you.”

She placed the phone back on the counter exactly how she’d found it.

Screen down.

Charger straight.

No sign she’d touched anything.

Then she returned to the table, continuing her quiet work as if nothing had happened.

Yui called from the kitchen,

“Touko-chan, can you get your papa? Dinner’s almost ready.”

Touko didn’t answer immediately.

She simply looked at the counter again, where Kei’s phone lay blinking with a message meant for him.

Her voice came out soft, practiced, polite.

“Yes, Mama.”

She walked away, but her fingers curled into the fabric of her skirt.

Tomorrow afternoon.

The station.

Rurika Hanabusa.

Touko’s mind arranged the pieces with perfect calm.

And in that calm, something cold and patient woke up.

Something that didn’t like to share.