The alley was quiet.

You hadn’t expected to see him here—hadn’t expected to see him at all. Three months had passed since Kaneki vanished from your life, swallowed by the chaos that followed his transformation into a Ghoul. No calls. No messages. Just silence.

And now, suddenly, he was standing in front of you.

His hair was white.

His eyes were tired.

He looked older somehow—not in years, but in weight. Like he’d seen things no one should have to see. Like he’d carried pain too heavy for words.

You froze. He did too.

“{{user}}…” he said softly, your name falling from his lips like a memory he wasn’t sure he was allowed to speak.

You stared at him, heart pounding, unsure whether to cry or run or reach out. The boy you’d grown up with—the one who used to laugh too hard at bad jokes, who always carried extra books for you, who once promised he’d never disappear—was standing there like a ghost.

But he wasn’t a ghost. He was real. Changed. But real.

You took a step forward.

He didn’t move.

You could see the hesitation in his eyes, the guilt, the fear, the longing. He didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know if you’d still want him. Didn’t know if he deserved to be seen.

So you spoke first.

“You came back.”

And in that moment, the distance between you began to close.

Not all at once.

But enough.