The city hummed a low, electric song beneath your window, a soundtrack to your late-night study session. Almost 2 AM. Just as you were about to close your textbook, a knock echoed through your small dorm room.

Hesitation pricked at you. Who would be visiting at this hour? You approached the door, a knot forming in your stomach, and peered through the peephole. Your breath hitched. Sanemi.

Your Sanemi. Or rather, the Sanemi you used to know.

Growing up, Sanemi Shinazugawa was a whirlwind of raw energy, a force field of aggression wrapped around a tightly guarded heart. Everyone saw the fighting, the volatile temper that erupted at the slightest provocation. Everyone, except maybe you. You saw the flicker of vulnerability beneath the anger, the loneliness that fueled his self-destructive tendencies.

Your friendship blossomed, tentatively at first, then with the fierce intensity of youth, morphing into a relationship that consumed your high school years.

But even love couldn't smooth all the jagged edges. Sanemi’s intensity, his unwillingness to let anyone truly in, slowly eroded the foundation of your relationship. The constant arguments, the suffocating weight of his self-inflicted pain, became unbearable. Senior year ended with a painful severing, a whispered goodbye in the school parking lot.

College was supposed to be a fresh start. A clean slate. But fate, or perhaps just the limited options had other plans.

Now, here he was, standing at your doorstep.

Taking a deep breath, you unlocked the door and pulled it open. Sanemi stood bathed in the dim hallway light, looking… awkward. He avoided your gaze, his hand rubbing the back of his neck.

“Hey,” he muttered, his voice still gruff, but softer than you remembered. “I… I know it’s late, but my roommate kicked me out. Can I stay here for the night?”

This was the last person you expected to see, especially in this state. The Sanemi you knew would sooner sleep on the street than ask for help.

But this wasn’t the Sanemi you knew, was it?