Yukihide lowered his head holding his limp knees. He was tired of running like being chased. His breath hitched. By the time they came to the antique shop, it was already closed.

"It's useless for us to run like this." Yukihide said, running out of breath.

“I’m sorry. I thought we still had time before the shop closed.” Kinnosuke knelt on the floor, "I can’t go back here tomorrow afternoon. I don’t want to meet that old lady."

Yukihide had heard the story about the old lady who owned the shop scolding and chasing Kinnosuke and Inagaki away at that time. He patted Kinnosuke's shoulder, “It’s okay. We can try again tomorrow. Let me try to talk to the old lady.”

Kinnosuke lowered his head and slumped in front of the shop.

“This is just the beginning. There's still another chance, okay? But now how about checking the mirror at my campus?"

His eyes widened, “Oh, that’s a great idea. But isn't your campus closed at night?"

“No,” Yukihide showed a special card as an exhibitor, “The day after tomorrow there will be an exhibition at my campus and I’m one of the participants. I can come in at any time to check the location.”

They walked together towards Gakugei University. The distance between the antique shop and the campus was not that far, only a few minutes apart. Yukihide then showed the card to the security guard and the guard opened the gate without suspicion. Instead of heading for the exhibition building, they went to the storage room.

Yukihide turned on the flashlight on his phone and led the way. He knew the lock of the storage room was easy to open because it was broken. He propped up the door with a small piece of wood so that they wouldn’t get locked inside. The dim light wasn’t enough to illuminate the dark storage room, so they still needed to use the flashlight.

They walked to the nearest end of the room, where the antique mirror was placed. Yukihide removed the black cloth covering the mirror. Kinnosuke was amazed to see a mirror that was identical to Mr. Matsuoka’s. He touched the surface of the mirror. Although it was put in a shabby place, the reflection of the mirror was very clear, not much different from Mr. Matsuoka's mirror.

“Did you clean it?” He turned to Yukihide who was standing beside him, both observing the mirror.

"I only wiped the glass once. But there's not much dust."

"Who do you think this belongs to? Because my headmaster also has a mirror, like this one. Even the engraving is the same.”

"Obviously the two mirrors caused us to switch reflections."

“Yukihide-san, how did it feel when you were looking in the mirror?”

“I felt like I was hypnotized.”

“Yeah right, I felt the same way too. Is it because we were looking at it at the same time and then our reflections were switched?”

"How did you come to that conclusion?"

He shrugged, “Because ever since Mr. Matsuoka brought the mirror to his house, I've never looked in that mirror again. But you can come here any time. Who knows if we do the same thing as the first time, then our reflection will return. I'm just speaking logic."

"Hmm, make sense."

“You gave me an idea! Now all I have to do is figure out how to get into Mr. Matsuoka's house."

"What? Do you want to break into your headmaster's house illegally? You could be expelled from school if you got caught." 

Kinnosuke came up with a series of reckless stupid plans that made Yukihide worried. But honestly, if there weren't those foolish ideas of his, they probably wouldn't have met.

“There is no other way, Yukihide-san. Now I have to make a plan with my friends. Now, let's just go home." He grabbed Yukihide's wrist and led him away from there.

When Kinnosuke had removed the wooden doorstop, Yukihide remembered that he had forgotten to cover the mirror with a cloth. He let go of Kinnosuke's grip to put the black cloth on the mirror. Kinnosuke followed him to help and forgot the most important thing; the door closed.

Panicked, he tugged on the doorknob trying to open it, but it was locked tight, “Yukihide-san, I’m sorry. I didn't mean to. I already pulled the stopper because I thought we were going to get out of here.”

“You are… really…” Yukihide helped him open the door. Their efforts were to no avail, "Help me find something to break this key apart."

"Paintbrush?" Kinnosuke didn't find any tools in the storage room, all that was left was a brush and paint.

Yukihide rolled his eyes, "It can't."

“I found a baseball bat here. We can break that window.”

"No, we can’t. There are window bars."

Kinnosuke used the baseball bat to break the doorknob. Since it hadn't broken, he then pulled the table and banged it against the door in the hope that it would eventually open. Sweat was already dripping down his forehead, but the door stood firm as if it were made of iron.

Meanwhile, Yukihide was trying to call Imai for help, but the man didn't pick up at all. He was getting worried. When he asked Kinnosuke to call his friends, his cell phone battery had run out.

"I can't think because I'm hungry," Yukihide sat on the floor, his back against the wall near the door. He glanced at Kinnosuke who was sitting beside him. The younger man took a small packet of chocolate out of his pocket and handed it to Yukihide, "Thank you." In one bite, he finished the chocolate. Of course, he was still hungry.

"I'm sorry, Yukihide-san. Because of me, we're locked in here." Kinnosuke's voice was full of regret, "Don't be mad at me, please."

Yukihide was actually very annoyed, but every time he looked at Kinnosuke's face he wanted to laugh. Trying to avoid eye contact with Kinnosuke, he tried to call Imai. Not answered. Where was his best friend when he needed him? He just texted him to pick him up at the campus storage room.

It was obvious he would be spending the night with Kinnosuke in this dusty room. He sent a message to his sister to tell her mother that he was staying at a friend's house. He didn’t want his mother to know that he was locked in a storage room.

Kinnosuke trying to comfort Yukihide using his unfunny jokes. The older guy was trying hard not to laugh—he didn’t want to break his angry character. Perhaps being too focused on being angry, Yukihide felt tremendous drowsiness. While listening to Kinnosuke's story, he slowly closed his eyes and drifted off.

Yukihide’s dream was very abstract. He was in the forest alone, looking for a way out of it which made him even more lost. Suddenly he was in the cave. A hand grabbed his legs and made him fall on his stomach. His body was dragged out of the cave. He kept on screaming, but no sound came out. He panicked when a large, sturdy hand covered his mouth. Yukihide had difficulty breathing.

"Let me go!"

"Yukihide-san?"

Yukihide pushed away Kinnosuke's hand that was touching his arm, trying to calm him down.

“Hey, it was just a dream. Calm down." He grabbed both of Yukihide's shoulders, trying to wake him up, “Yukihide!”

Kinnosuke's scream woke him up.

When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Kinnosuke's panicked gaze before his. The man was still holding Yukihide's shoulders. He was used to having nightmares like this. What was unusual was the presence of other people looking at him when he woke up.

"Are you okay?"

Yukihide was still catching his breath, "I'm fine."

"I'm sorry. If we weren't cooped up here, you wouldn't have such a bad dream." Kinnosuke felt guilty.

"I’m used to it." He answered briefly. With the back of his hand, he wiped the sweat on his forehead then ruffled his own hair, "Sorry I made you panic."

Neither of them spoke. Yukihide didn't dare to close his eyes, afraid that the nightmare would strike him again. Kinnosuke chose to accompany him to stay up late.

***