I slipped through the train doors just as they were about to close, lungs burning, dignity barely intact.

My heart hammered against my ribs as I tried to steady my breathing.

“You know,” a voice drawled behind me, “waking up earlier would spare you from risking your soul in these heroic athletic displays.”

Keigo.

He stood a few steps away in his usual spot, leaning against the wall with that infuriatingly composed indifference, as if the world had never once required effort from him.

I blinked at him—less startled by the teasing, more by the fact that he was speaking to me so naturally.

I still hadn’t found the courage to tell him that somewhere inside my dreams, a girl was searching for him.

“I’m aware,” I replied, straightening, forcing my breath into something resembling control. “Exams next week. Sleep isn’t exactly an option.”

A lie.

I stole a glance at him.

Lately, he had started greeting me. Talking to me. Looking at me as if I actually existed. I didn’t know what subtle spell Amai had cast to make me visible, but it seemed to be working.

I was no longer invisible.

And for reasons I refused to examine too closely, that made me happy.

I leaned my head lightly against the cool glass of the door.

That’s when I noticed his eyes.

Dark circles. A faint dullness beneath the sharp red.

“You’re not sleeping either,” I said softly, gesturing toward my own eyes.

His gaze snapped to mine.

Cold. Cutting.

As if I had stepped across a boundary I didn’t know existed.
As if I had reached somewhere I wasn’t allowed to touch.

And then—

A roar tore through the carriage.

The sound was violent enough to make my ears ring. Glass shattered in an explosive burst, spraying across the compartment in a glittering storm.

Fragments flew from right to left—

—but none of them touched me.

I didn’t even have time to process it.

A hand pressed firmly against the back of my head.