When Mai Mingle finished her story, the two kids could only stare, their mouths half-open and their faces pale, unsure of what to say.
"You don't have to console me," she said, breaking the brief silence. "I'm fine."
"Fine?" Emily murmured. "But you only have…"
She didn't finish her sentence.
After becoming entangled with the "Extracellular Telomeres," having it removed just twice had made one fact clear to Mai Mingle: the next time the "Extracellular Telomeres" left her, it would likely be her last day.
Having lived in a young body for so long, she sometimes almost forgot that her time was borrowed. Death had always been waiting patiently for her, no matter how far she managed to push it away.
Mai Mingle was an ordinary person. She didn't want to die; she wasn't ready to say goodbye to this world. But—
"I don't regret it," she whispered.
