She tripped. Not on a stone, but on the universe’s cruelest punchline: a pair of long, perfectly polished shoes.
Naoki’s gaze flickered to the pink envelope peeking out of Kotoko’s coat pocket—the one she’d forgotten to burn. The letter. The confession.
“Tomorrow,” she whispered to her pet bird, P-chan, “I’ll burn it. And I’ll forget him.”
But as she watched Naoki’s back disappear into the shadows of the upstairs hallway, clutching the letter that now felt like a live grenade, Kotoko Aihara realized one thing with terrifying clarity.