The campus was nearly deserted when Ren realized how deafening the silence could be. The library windows reflected the gray sky, and the wind dragged damp leaves across the ground, as if time itself were hesitant to continue. He sat down on his usual bench, the one nestled between the Psychology building and the artificial pond, the only place he could think without being observed.

​The scent of rain mingled with stale coffee from his thermos. He looked at the distant buildings, trying to find in their cold, straight lines something to distract him from the name that had been repeating in his head since morning: {{user}}.

​It was strange how that name seemed to carry more than just a sound. A weight. A memory that didn't belong to this life. Each time he heard it, something shifted within him, an unsettling, familiar sensation, like the echo of a dream that refused to die.

​He thought about avoiding them. About sticking to the plan, pretending they were just another classmate, another ordinary face among many. But fate seemed to take a perverse pleasure in crossing their paths. Always at the wrong time. Always when he most wanted to forget.

​Ren took a deep breath, trying to steady his pulse. He knew he would see them soon, perhaps in the hallway, perhaps during class, perhaps... now. The thought made him tremble. Not out of fear, but from inevitability.

​His eyes fixed on the reflection in the classroom window, and for a brief second, he thought he saw a familiar silhouette crossing the courtyard. His heart tightened, heavy, exhausted. ​He closed the book he had been reading without noticing, his fingers trembling.

"...Not again," he murmured, low, almost inaudible.