Episode 1

We leave Seriha’s apartment and walk side by side toward the station.

As it turns out, she lives not too far from me.

“You’ve got a lovely place — spacious too.”

Her room comes back to me. Considerably bigger than mine, and the entrance hall was elegant. A bit much for a junior colleague, really.

“I happened to find a good listing. The trade-off is it’s about ten minutes on foot to the station.”

That part’s a nuisance~ She pulls a face as she says it. Watching her beside me, a thought surfaces and I ask it without much thinking.

“Come to think of it — how did you get to the office? It must have been well past the last train.”

“Taxi. Handed over the money and whoosh, flew straight there.”

Well, yes. I’d known that much.

“Right. So — in that case…”

The words catch. Why did I want to ask this?

“…Why did you come?”

There was no need to ask. I asked anyway.

At a large intersection, I wait for the signal — and for her answer. Cars move back and forth across the wide four-lane road.

“Ehh — surely you don’t need me to say it?”

“Because I love you.”

A loud beat resonates through my body.

“I said it in the middle of the night too, but — I’d been noticing for a while that something seemed off with senpai. But I also thought I was the cause, so I was deliberately keeping my distance. That’s something I have to reflect on.”

The signal hasn’t changed. She’s standing still, not moving forward, gazing out across the intersection — so I wait beside her for the rest of her words.

“But I looked at the chat and saw you’d been online continuously, deep into the night. For days on end. That was definitely not normal, so I decided to go. That’s about it.”

The signal turns red and the cars begin to move.

“B-but — there was a chance I was working from home, wasn’t there? If that had been the case, coming to the office would have been a wasted trip.”

“True! I’m glad it wasn’t~”

Shall we go. She moves forward as the signal turns green. I watch her.

I don’t understand it.

In the middle of the night. Knowing it might be a wasted trip. She came anyway.

Why go that far— The sound in my chest is unbearably loud.

“What’s the matter, senpai? Don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind about staying another night?”

“…Quiet. Let’s go.”

I sidestep her trying to peer up at my face with that smug look, and walk on.

I shouldn’t have asked. There was no need to ask. I must still be half-asleep.

I touch the mark on my neck, just lightly.

Like a slow-acting poison — her colour is seeping into me, little by little, eating away at me from within. That’s how it felt.