Aira's birthday came again.
Again.
"Wait," she said as they sat in class, "how many times have I turned seventeen now? Do I get bonus gifts for each extra timeline?"
Yuto leaned back in his chair. "Only if I get interest on all the birthday money I've given you in dead loops."
They had planned a casual celebration—just friends, cake, and definitely no interdimensional time demons.
Aira's best friend, Kana, hosted the party in her living room. Yuzu came too, armed with a suspicious number of party poppers. Even Yuto's mom helped bake a cake, though she kept giving Aira weird looks.
"You sure we haven't met before?" she asked for the third time.
Aira smiled nervously. "I just have one of those faces. Loop-friendly."
Everything was warm, lively—almost too perfect.
That's when the glitch hit.
Right as Aira blew out the candles, the flame froze mid-air. The sound cut out. The room shimmered.
Everyone but Yuto and Aira froze in place.
"Yuto…" Aira whispered. "They're frozen. But… they weren't like this before."
"I know. The loop didn't just rewind. It paused."
A voice echoed through the frozen moment:
> You're celebrating a memory. But some memories don't belong.
In the window, they saw something watching. A glitch—humanoid, but fragmented like broken code.
Yuto grabbed Aira's hand. "We need to find out which memory's been rewritten."
The world snapped back.
Yuzu threw confetti in Yuto's face.
"Happy birthday to your girlfriend!"
"She's not my—!" he started, then stopped.
Because this time, maybe she was.