Yuuna and the others finally returned home, their footsteps heavy, their faces etched with exhaustion and something far darker.
It was grief.
But it wasn't just their weary expressions that caught the eye.
Slung across Sakurako's back, limp and unmoving, was the lifeless body of Kouhei.
His skin was pale, almost ghostly, and the warmth that once radiated from him was gone.
Utterly gone.
Aria had been watching from the entrance.
Her eyes lit up the moment she saw them—especially him. She hurried forward, her heart fluttering with anticipation to greet them.
But the moment her eyes caught the figure on Sakurako's back, her entire body locked in place.
Like time had stopped.
That body… it was a young man's.
A body she knew.
It was him.
Kouhei.
The man her heart longed for.
"K-Kouhei-sama…" Aria's voice broke into a tremble, barely able to escape her lips.
Her legs moved on their own, slowly carrying her forward, step by step, like she was walking through a dream.
