Her hair was different.

That was the first thing I noticed.

Neatly tied in a ponytail, a pair of soft, beautiful glasses resting on her nose.

But her face… her eyes…

They were exactly the same.

My heart felt like it was trying to crawl out of my chest — confused, happy, terrified all at once.

Before I could speak, her hand gently took the leash from mine.

“Thank you,” she said with a small, polite smile. I smile passed to a stranger.

My throat went dry. I couldn’t answer. I couldn’t breathe. Words stuck in my throat.

She blinked, tilting her head slightly.

“Are you… okay?”

“Huh? Oh— yes, sorry. I… got lost for a moment.”

She looked so innocent and fragile. I could only stare at her.

The school bell rang nearby, loud enough to vibrate in my bones.

“Oh— I’m getting late,” she gasped softly.

“I must go. Thanks again!”

She bowed lightly and ran off, her hair swaying behind her, her figure fading with the morning wind.

I stood there, staring after her.

Was this actually real?

I asked myself again and again.

But the air on my skin, the warmth of the sun, the echo of the bell…

Everything told me this was reality.

---

I rushed to school, breathless, half-hoping she would be in my class.

If she is alive then she should be in my class 

She wasn’t.

I checked the roof.

Empty.

I sighed, the cold weight of disappointment sinking into my chest.

Maybe… it was just a hallucination?

No it can't be.

But Aya and the other girls — the ones who cried for Tsukiko — looked completely normal.

Cheerful.

Like she never existed.

Everything was too normal.

Then something hit me — something I should’ve noticed long before.

The date.

It was a month earlier.

As if I had moved backward in time.

I felt like the whole world was spinning. Thousands of thoughts rushed through my mind—loud, messy, impossible to understand.

I pulled myself together some how.

No… that’s impossible. This can't be true.

My mind spun.

I had no one to talk to.

No way to explain this.

Maybe I had lost my mind.

But her face… her voice…

None of that could ever be just a dream.

---

School ended.

I went home with my mind full of questions. I layed down on my bed for a moment, tired. After sometime, I changed into my evening uniform, and headed to my part-time shift at the bakery café.

The warm smell of bread, the chatter of customers, the soft music — everything felt normal.

Except me.

I couldn’t stop thinking about her.

But she was nowhere.

Was she really just my imagination?

I forced myself to focus, taking an order from the counter.

And then—

I froze.

There she was.

Tsukiko.

Wearing the same café uniform as me. Shining in the café crowd.

Her smile gentle.

Her ponytail swaying softly.

The glasses catching the warm lights of the shop.

Only those small things were different.

Everything else… was unmistakably her.

The noise of the café faded.

The customers blurred.

And my eyes locked onto her — onto the smile I thought I lost forever.

In that moment, I knew:

---