Arlen opened his eyes before the alarm could ring.
He didn't feel rested, but he wasn't tired either. It was something in between—like his body had slept but his mind hadn't. The crack in the ceiling was still there, tracing the same path he'd memorized months ago. He counted five seconds. Ten. The alarm didn't go off.
He shut it off before it could ring.
He sat on the edge of the bed, elbows resting on his knees. Outside, the world had already started without him. Footsteps downstairs. Running water. A door closing.
His phone vibrated.
Yui:
Don't be late today.
Arlen looked at the screen without replying.
He got dressed on autopilot and went downstairs.
In the kitchen, his mother was finishing breakfast. His father held his phone in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, with the look of someone already working in his head. His younger sister scribbled something in a notebook, absorbed in a world only she could see.
"Good morning," she said without looking up.
"Morning."
Silence settled in—familiar, comfortable.
Arlen sat down and ate without thinking much about it.
"Hurry up, you're going to be late," his mother said, setting a plate in front of him.
"Are you stopping by Yui's?"
"No. She already left. She had to leave early."
His father looked up from his phone.
"You studying? Exams are coming up."
"A little," Arlen said, without looking up from his plate.
His father held his gaze for a second longer than necessary, as if weighing whether to continue. He didn't.
He went back to his phone.
His sister smiled without saying anything.
Breakfast ended the way it always did. Everyone went back to their own routines. Arlen picked up his backpack, slung it over one shoulder, and stepped outside.
The morning air was cool, almost cold. He walked down the same street as always, letting the city's noise settle around him. People in a hurry. Cars. Conversations that weren't his.
His phone vibrated again.
Yui:
Arlen.
Yui:
Seriously.
Arlen exhaled and typed:
Arlen:
I'm already on my way.
He put the phone away and kept walking.
School was the usual.
Classes one after another. Teachers talking about things that passed through his head without staying. At some point, a teacher called him out for being distracted, but Arlen barely registered it.
"What do you think about so much?" Kenji asked when the bell rang, leaning back against his chair.
Arlen looked at him.
"I don't know."
Kenji laughed.
"One day you'll have to figure it out."
They left the building together. Daichi joined them halfway down the street. They talked about small things. A video game. A show. Nothing that really mattered.
At their usual corner, they split up.
Arlen kept walking alone.
He turned the corner and saw her.
Yui was leaning against the wall outside her house, arms crossed, wearing the expression she always had when she'd been waiting too long.
"You're late," she said as soon as she saw him.
"Five minutes."
"That's late."
Yui didn't smile, but something in her eyes softened. Her hair was tied back carelessly, her backpack hanging from one shoulder. She wore the same sweater she'd had for the last two winters.
Nothing about her stood out at first glance.
But to Arlen, she did.
"How was school?" she asked as they started walking.
"Same as always."
"That doesn't say much."
"It never does."
They walked in silence for a while. It wasn't uncomfortable. At least not with her.
"My parents aren't home again," Yui said suddenly, as casually as if she were commenting on the weather. "I'll come by your place later."
It wasn't a question.
Arlen nodded.
"Okay."
"Don't fall asleep."
"I don't do it on purpose."
This time, Yui smiled.
"You always say the same thing."
They parted at the corner. A simple gesture. Familiar.
Each went their own way.
The afternoon slipped by without incident.
Arlen went home, helped with a few things, and shut himself in his room once there was nothing left to do. He lay back on the bed and looked at the ceiling.
The crack was still there.
He thought about the exam he hadn't studied for.
He thought about Yui waiting for him against the wall.
He thought about how tomorrow would be exactly the same as today.
And he didn't know if that comforted him or unsettled him.
The doorbell rang later than he expected.
His mother answered before he could move.
"Yui! Come in, come in."
His mother's voice filled the house. Laughter. Footsteps. The sound of someone who belonged there as much as he did.
Arlen went downstairs.
Yui was already in the kitchen, talking with his sister about something she had written. His mother watched them with that warm expression she reserved for very few things.
"Yui's having dinner with us again," his mother said, setting the plates on the table. "One day you two are going to have to explain whether you're just friends or something more."
"Mom…" his sister said, trying not to laugh.
Arlen didn't say anything.
Neither did Yui.
Dinner was quiet. Simple conversations. A few scattered laughs. A kind of normalcy that felt as fragile as it was necessary.
Afterward, they stayed in the living room for a while. Yui sat on the floor with her legs crossed. Arlen leaned against the couch, half-reclining.
"We could go to that new place on Friday," she said, playing with the edge of her sweater. "After school."
"Yeah."
"Yeah just because, or yeah for real?"
Arlen looked at her.
"For real."
Yui studied him for a moment, as if searching his face for something.
"Then it's settled."
It wasn't a big plan.
But for both of them, it meant something.
When Yui left, the house fell quiet again.
Arlen went up to his room, changed, and dropped onto the bed. He looked at his phone one last time.
Yui:
Don't forget about Friday.
He replied almost without thinking.
Arlen:
I won't.
He set the phone aside.
The house slowly went dark. Distant footsteps. A door closing. The same familiar silence as always.
Arlen closed his eyes.
He thought tomorrow would be the same. And that was fine.
Sleep began to pull him under, slowly, the way it always did.
But then something changed.
It wasn't a sound.
It wasn't a hit.
It was a feeling.
As if the air in the room had grown heavier. Denser. Arlen tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids wouldn't respond. He tried to move, but his body wasn't his.
A cold spread across his skin.
Not the cold of winter.
Something else.
Something that didn't have a temperature—yet still cut.
He tried to scream.
He couldn't.
A light appeared behind his closed eyelids. Bright. Blinding. Impossible to ignore.
The weight of the bed disappeared.
Gravity stopped making sense.
"Yui…" he murmured, not knowing why.
The name left his mouth like a reflex. Like the last thing he could hold onto before everything collapsed.
The world went dark.
And when he opened his eyes again, he was no longer in his room.
The ceiling was different.
The air was different.
Everything was different.
No warning.
No goodbye.
There was no way back.