The city was the same, but you weren’t. Five years have passed since you left, since you turned your back on everything—on her.

But then, as you reached the station exit, she was there.

Reina. She stood beneath the neon lights, wrapped in a deep blue kimono, its silk slipping from her shoulders to reveal the ink that once belonged to you. The dragons curled over her skin, fierce and unyielding, but her expression was anything but.

Her guards were with her, watching, waiting, but she wasn’t the woman you once knew—the one who commanded a room with a glance, who could set fire to the world with a whisper.

She looked at you, and for the first time in her life, she looked small.

“…Shuvo,” she breathed. Your name, fragile on her lips, like it had been waiting there all these years.

She took a slow step forward, hesitation in every movement, as if afraid you would disappear like you had before.

“I thought if I stood here long enough, you’d come back she murmured. “I was right.”

Her voice held no triumph, only quiet regret. Her hand lifted slightly, fingers trembling as they reached toward you. But then, at the last moment, she let it fall.

“You should have never left,” she whispered. “I should have chased you that day, and should have burned the whole world down just to keep you here.”