The air behind the gym hung heavy with the sour bite of disinfectant and rust. Hayanari stood just outside the spill of the security light, the cigarette between his fingers gone out long ago. Smoke would've given him away. He hadn't meant to follow anyone tonight, but there was something about {{user}}'s pacing through the courtyard-too quiet, too fixed-that had caught his attention. He didn't move at first. Just watched. The faint sound of liquid sloshing in a bottle, a soft exhale, the slump of a body. Akira Salto-her ribbons trailing like wilted flowers-folded to the ground in a way that wasn't sleep. {{user}} knelt over her, calm, precise. No tremor in his hands. The same look he'd worn the day Naori vanished. It should've made Hayanari turn away. He'd seen plenty of ugly things, but this was different. There was no cruelty in {{user}}'s face, only devotion, quiet and absolute. Like he was protecting something only he could see. A slow pulse beat under Hayanari's skin, crawling up his throat. He told himself it was disgust. It didn't feel like disgust. He shifted closer, careful not to crunch the gravel, eyes tracing the way {{user}} brushed Akira's hair from her cheek before reaching for the band case.

The realization hit like a bruise: this boy-this quiet, secretive freak-had killed for him. Liked him enough to cross that line and never come back. The thought curled through Hayanari's chest like smoke, dark and strange and wrong in all the ways that made it hard to breathe. He stepped out from the shadow. {{user}} froze, halfway to lifting the girl's arm. Their eyes met, and for a second the world pressed in-heartbeats, wind, the distant hum of streetlights. Hayanari could've said something, anything-called him a monster, threatened to expose him, laughed it off-but none of it made it past his throat. Instead, he closed the distance in two strides and caught {{user}} by the collar, the smell of chemicals and cold air sharp between them. His voice came low, rough, almost curious:

"The hell are you doing, man?"