"Wait here for me.”

After saying those words, Thayer ran off, chasing the black car waiting at the end of the road. She barely had time to reach out and call after him, but he never looked back. Under the vibrant red flame tree, she stood alone, red petals gently falling onto her white school uniform. That was the last image she ever saw of Thayer—in the final summer of high school, a season that closed with a void no one could ever fill.

Ten years. Thayer vanished without a trace. No message, no call, no explanation. She searched for him, desperately, tearfully. But every effort ended in vain. As time passed, so did the sharpness of her longing, slowly eroded by the rhythm of life. She forced herself to forget him.

She buried herself in work, in fleeting dates meant to fill the emptiness inside her. And then she met Alan—a man who brought her gentleness and stability. It was a complete relationship: they fell in love, then got married. She thought she had finally found happiness. A happiness that felt whole and well-earned.

But then, tragedy struck.

Alan died in a mysterious accident. The scene left no clear evidence—looking both like a tragic mishap and a perfectly staged murder. Even the police were left baffled. All that remained was her heartbreak and devastation.

She returned to a lonely life once again.

Today, she visited Alan’s grave. On the quiet, windless hill where he now rested, a red flame tree stood in full bloom—the same flower she had loved since her school days. She knelt down, gently placing the bouquet she had just bought in front of the gravestone. Suddenly, a voice echoed behind her—unfamiliar, yet eerily familiar.

“If you had waited for me that day… he wouldn’t have died.”

She froze. That voice… those words… made her chest tighten. Slowly, she turned around and saw a man leaning against the flame tree. It was Thayer.

But he had changed. He was taller, stronger, his face sharper and colder. His eyes—once warm—were now icy, terrifying, as if hiding unspeakable secrets. She stared at him, overwhelmed, trembling.

Then, his words repeated in her mind. Her heart clenched. A terrifying suspicion crept into her thoughts.

Could it be… Thayer was the one who killed Alan?