One month later, after his withdrawal from the school registration...

The dusk sky drew above with starry bits. The city-lights illuminated around the pack of buildings. Based on the clock and transparent-glass windows, it hit around the late afternoon when the supposed dismissal for Akari should conclude her time on campus.

Aoki Sasaki drew his last output to conclude his manga-drawing. The room was cleaner than before since he and Akari lent themselves with a hand of chores for his preferable relief. There was no single speck of dust presenting around his unnoticeable area of his room. He enjoyed his solitary lifestyle with no blabbermouth bothered him with their stupidity. Thanks to Akari, he awaited her to send him her homemade meal after her class days.

“I suppose my choice is rather convenient.”

Akari already granted and supplied him more B4-sized papers to continue his doujin creation. His visual style pleased his dazzling eyes to celebrate over his professional skills for appreciation. The figures were more realistic; the shades were decently flourishing, and the stroke was picturesque.

Aoki puffed out his exhaustion to release his stress and scratched his head to get rid of his itchy feeling. He stretched out his arms from his still joints. His sweat made him reeked around his body. Quite some time had passed over his working consumption as a doujin artist. He had to exhibit his works before the contest would be his chance to grant him a fresh, welcoming career with passionate sincerity.

The clock hit about 45 minutes later…

Akari hadn’t arrived at her room. She gave him the money and told him that whenever she got late for her extra curriculum or errands; he had to buy him some sufficient meal to satisfy his stomach—growling over his hunger. So his decision was proceeding on his dinner by himself. He grabbed the money worth about 10,000 yen—adding with his emergency purposes. He got out of his room and locked it with his convenient security key.

Sauntering around, there were multiple restaurants that he could find nearby. His preferred foods were burgers, barbecue-styled dishes, and chicken tonkatsu. His eyes were rolling around to find an inch of a menu that could fit his appetite. His tongue thirsted with mouthwatering savor to fulfill. He watched over his pocket of 10,000 yen to redeem his tiny satisfaction.

Continuing his eye-rolling, Aoki saw a particular menu—Whooper On Sale—that could fill his stomach with convenient budget. He entered a certain restaurant with crowds of people, sitting down to gather or to enjoy their solitary life. Most of them were a group of uniformed students with their bonding eyes and smiles to satisfy their relationship with joyous conversation. He envied over their systematic interaction for a bit, but he shook his head to shove his mindset away.

“People here are rather enjoying themselves with fun deepening,” Aoki sighed over his exasperate. “Plus, the seats are rarely vacant.”

Aoki walked and waited through the crowded line. The cashiers were struggling to list over the customers’ orders of demand. They chased after the cooks to rush for situational reasons. His eyes were rolling around and fidgeting with his fingers to give himself a bit of patience.

However, he spotted someone familiar to his eyes.

It was the beautiful girl with elegant hair named Akari Takizawa who enjoyed with her several friends. Apparently, they were her group of friends, laughing at each other over their unheard jokes. He saw them like they had the possessive authority to contribute and redeem their talent and social capacity—including Akari with her acting skills. Aoki couldn’t hear their conversation, so he best stared away and ignored their business. He flung the hood on his head to avoid her attention from disruption. He tapped with his fidgeting foot to enjoy his wait. He preferred to take out his meal rather than waiting for a single vacant seat for a long duration.

Meanwhile, Akari grinned over their exclusive sarcasm. They talked about how they experienced for their terrible heavy reflections on their particular role. Their joy blended with casual bonds. Their eyes and cheeks matched together to reign over their status. Their teeth gleamed with clean, responsible delight.

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“I wish most people will do their best and ensure their future with benefits.”

“What are you talking about? After this graduation, we can have a nightclubbing to celebrate over our stressful years of dreams and nightmares. There is a bar that has a huge discount when there will be our diploma to present in front of them.”

“Yeah, and since we have reached the age of 18, the drinks can free ourselves from the decade of confinement. Looks like we can redeem ourselves with our pledge to bring altogether our satisfaction.”

Akari nodded with her gleaming grin. She planned to share their break. Their plan would go for the beach ride and world tour when the industry accepted her vacation after her diploma redemption. However, with her caring priority for Aoki, she clouded herself with worse possibilities, but she considered that priority to be at the top—or else, his solitude would worsen for a mere breakdown.

“Akari-chan, is there something wrong?”

“... No,” Akari slurred her response. “I always think going for the tour around the world will bust up my acting schedule.”

“But you said that your shooting had completely finished. Are there any orders that your company demanded to come?”

“Y–Yeah… probably.”

“Well, that sucks. You’ll probably be torturing yourself from over-commercializing around every sponsor you need to take.”

Akari palmed over her forehead. The sacrifices she needed to take was giving herself some headache to pass over her requests for errands. Her necessities outwitted her fulfillment of desires, but her desires were nothing for her.

Her eyes rolled around for a bit to know her surroundings.

However, something caught her eyes—inadvertently.

The man in the hoodie jacket had a familiar sense on her. A single speck on his hair recalled her to know something else—about old teen age. He carried a handful size of a paper bag filled with his particular purchased order.

Her eyes followed towards the walking man to exit.

Akari changed her mind to excuse herself for some emergency reason.

“Excuse me guys, but I have to go for now.”

“It’s okay. Please be back when you have your decisions all ready.”

Her feet stood up and walked away from her seat. She tracked towards the certain hoodie man for his revelation. The reason she left was cramming all around her. She felt strange around his aura as his narrow eyes showed with gloom, mild swell under it.

“—Is it me or something that draws him to urge?”

* * *

Aoki with his bothersome eye bags left the restaurant. He already bought his burger for his convenient dinner. He kept his hood on top of his head to redeem his silent identity. His body felt sluggish from a lengthy walk.  He ran to the alley for his shortcut to the apartment. The alley had the mirror shop beside it. There were some shattered-glass mirrors with the label of “Junk!”. These wasteful products were pitiful to be unable for necessary marketing.

“I don’t know why these mirrors were broken in the first place. Is there any establishment to demolish these products?”

Aoki felt curious about it. He took a close glimpse to analyze what situation drove him for exploration. He drew his face closer to the mirror.

“Grgh~”

However, his blurred eyes suddenly drew his vision with a puzzled feeling. The pain in his chest bothered him to palm right into his heart. The prickle in his mind pressed with a clenched tear. He forced his body to kneel for a calm remedy. The world he saw for now was a sudden, pliable twirl.

But he handled his consciousness by palming the mirror to know where his position set himself to. He settled still to grab his wake. He tried to shake his head to stop the twirling blur. His hood wore off from his cover. He shed his inadvertent tears from his strange pain. He worried not to turn himself away.

He could sense commonly to conquer over its oddity.

He panted over from the sudden touch.

Until something picked him into his eldritch looks.

He gasped while he saw his own face—painted with sinister, grotesque stains that made him look like a clown in black poster. His shocking eyes widened with dreadful creaks. His worry worsened fear.

“This… can’t be… right.”

The condition with his gloomy eye bags correlated to his mirror depiction. He couldn’t believe a single inch that it was truly him all along. He couldn’t rebuke his looks to its eerie-looking stains.

“What happened to me?”

What happened to him slurred his words. At least, his feet stood still on the surface of an actual world. He didn’t understand what made him in a drive of immense fear. Out of nowhere, he ran away from the broken mirror to wake himself up from a sudden strange context.

However, from behind the wall, someone witnessed him with a shocking sympathy. A pure girlish gasp turned its witness away.

It was Akari who held onto her heart of revelation.

The answers had finally revealed in front of her glimpse.

Although it was Aoki who had his looks, she felt worse than before.

Was it a feeling of regret? Or shame?

Or probably…

Dread.

There were no answers to be sure in actuality. Tale of mystery hinted from a single witness.

The boundary of belief between fantasy and reality had prevailed in her puzzled mind.