“Alright, that's it, goodnight. Go to bed.”

Tsukasa ends the call with an annoyed sigh. Placing his phone on the table, it starts vibrating again from incoming messages. Again? Seeing just the name of the sender—Hanae, his wife—he sets the phone to silent. "I’m so tired of this," Tsukasa thinks, rubbing his temples. He really doesn't want to go home.

He reaches down under his desk and grabs the bottle of sake a client had given him recently. It’s late, and no one will care if he has a drink here in his office, right? Right. He pours the first glass and takes it, then buries his face in his arms, which are sprawled across the table.

As Tsukasa takes another sip, the office door creaks open. He doesn’t bother to look up, assuming it’s just another late-night janitor. But then, a soft voice cuts through the silence.

“Hey, Tsukasa-san, you’re still here?”

It’s Rui, the director he’s currently working with, and they’ve been syncing well on projects lately. Her presence is like a breath of fresh air in his stuffy office, pulling him from his thoughts. He lifts his head instinctively, his exhaustion momentarily forgotten as he meets her gaze.

“I should be going home, huh?” He laughs weakly, but the words feel empty. The momentary relief fades quickly, and the weight of everything he’s been trying to hold together presses on him once more. No matter how much he tries to ignore it, the sense of something missing never really goes away.