A month passed without Kai.
Not in a loud way.
Not with headlines or sirens.
In a quiet, aching way.
The city learned to exist without him.
At school, his desk stayed empty. At first people whispered about it, then they stopped. New rumors replaced the old ones. New noise filled the halls. But for the people who cared, the silence he left behind never faded.
Ayko kept sitting beside his empty seat.
Every day.
At first she cried when no one was looking. Then she stopped crying, but the hurt stayed. Sometimes she caught herself turning to tell him something stupid, something small, and the realization that he wasn't there anymore hit harder than anything else.
Mira stayed quieter than usual. She didn't talk about Kai, but she noticed everything — the way Ayko's hands shook, the way Joro's jokes got thinner, the way Sora's eyes always looked tired.
Sora tried to be strong.
At home, Kai's room was untouched. His hoodie still hung on the chair. His phone charger still plugged in. Some nights she sat on his bed and stared at the wall, wondering how someone could disappear without taking anything important with them.
Eloine watched her.
"He'll come back," Eloine said once, softly.
Sora looked at her, hollow. "How do you know?"
Eloine smiled faintly. "Because he hasn't finished yet."
Rin felt Kai from far away.
Not his thoughts — just the shape of him. The quiet he carried. Some days it felt distant. Some days it felt closer, like he was walking toward something.
Something was changing.
By the third week, the school had stopped whispering about him.
By the fourth, people had started believing he was really gone.
Then, one night, he returned.
Kai slipped into the house long after midnight.
No lights.
No sound.
Sora and Eloine were asleep.
He moved through the hallway like a ghost, opened the door to his room, and stood there for a long moment. Nothing had changed. His life had been paused.
He took his uniform from the closet.
Changed.
Washed his face.
He didn't sit down.
He didn't touch anything else.
He left before the sky began to lighten.
The next morning…
The classroom door slid open.
Kai walked in.
Taller.
Calmer.
Eyes quieter than anyone had ever seen.
The room froze.
Whispers rippled through the air.
"Is that him?"
"I thought he left…"
"He looks different…"
Ayko's breath caught in her throat.
Mira stood up without realizing it.
Joro slowly exhaled from the back of the room.
Kai took a step inside like nothing was wrong.
"I'm back," he said.
No apology.
No explanation.
Ayko's voice broke. "Kai…"
He looked at her.
Not cold.
Not warm.
Just distant.
"I didn't come back," he said quietly. "I just showed up."
The classroom door slid open again.
Sora stood there.
Eloine stood beside her.
Sora's eyes locked onto him. "Kai…"
He turned toward her.
For just a moment, something old flickered in his gaze.
"Sora."
"You left without saying anything," she whispered. "And now you're here like nothing happened?"
"I needed to breathe," Kai said.
Eloine didn't speak.
She didn't need to.
She simply stood near him, close enough that everyone in the room could feel it.
Like gravity.
Kai belonged to her world.
And the war that had begun a month ago…
Had just found its center again.