Amber's final voice had been echoing in his head ever since. "Maybe we just can't do this anymore." She hadn't shouted. She hadn't cried. That silence was what hurt the most. Mark had simply carried on into Monday morning. He hadn't slept properly since Saturday night. --- The hallway of Upland High was filled with the noise of a Monday. Locker doors slamming, laughter, someone running down the corridor and getting scolded by a teacher. Mark walked through the flow of it all, checking ahead. There. Reddish-blonde wavy hair. Amber was walking through the middle of her friend group, laughing. Mark quickened his pace. The distance closed. Three meters, two meters——. "Amber" He called her name. Amber's feet didn't stop. She kept walking straight ahead, talking to a friend beside her. Her gaze passed right through Mark. As if he were a wall in the hallway, as if there were no one there at all. "Amber" He called again. This time, a little louder. Her footsteps faded away. Classmates glanced over at him, then quickly looked away. An awkward silence. No one spoke to Mark. It was a strange sensation—as if Mark alone had been left behind in the air. Mark moved to the edge of the hallway and pressed his back against the wall. He shoved his fists into his pockets. (Ignoring me, huh.) It would have been easier if she'd gotten angry and yelled at him. But Amber wasn't that kind of girl. Instead of throwing her emotions at him, she kept everything quiet inside herself. This silence wasn't anger—it was something deeper. Mark understood that. And because he understood it, he had no idea how to reach her. --- Lunch period. When the cafeteria had gotten crowded, Saya came over with her tray and sat beside Mark. "[gentle]You don't look well, huh" She said it like a statement of fact, then sat down across from him. Her purple and black short hair swayed softly. Her golden odd-colored eyes looked straight at Mark. "[serious]I'm fine" "[sarcastic]Doesn't look that way to me" Saya said it easily and started opening her chicken sandwich. That's when Mark glanced into his bag. His mother had packed him two melon pan this morning—leftovers from yesterday. He was supposed to have eaten one last night, but he hadn't had the appetite to touch them. "[gentle]……Can you eat this?" He held out two melon pan. Saya's eyes widened slightly. "Wait, both of them?" "[serious]Just one. I'll eat the other" "[laughing]That's……a weird way to be considerate, isn't it?" Saya laughed and took one. Mark had done it without thinking much about it. But the fact that someone had noticed he wasn't doing well—it made his shoulders relax just a little. That was all. But. Near the school gate, there was Amber. Amber, who had been talking to a friend getting ready to leave, turned her gaze toward them. Mark and Saya. Standing side by side, laughing at something. Mark handing Saya a piece of bread. That scene—from a distance, what did it look like? Amber kept her smile in place and turned back to her friend. Something in his chest made a sound. A cracking sound. Like something breaking. Amber walked away without looking back. --- Tuesday morning. When Saya sat down at her desk, the girl in front of her turned around and whispered. "[whispers]Hey, did you hear? Mark Grayson broke up with Amber. Apparently he's started dating the transfer student" Saya's hand stopped. "[surprised]……What?" "It's been a rumor since yesterday. Isn't it you?" Saya was quiet for a while. Then she asked in a calm voice. "[serious]Mark……had a girlfriend?" "[surprised]Huh? You didn't know? Amber Bennett. They've been together for a while. She's in the same class" The moment she heard that name, the color drained from Saya's face. Amber. The girl she'd approached at the station last Saturday. The one who'd stood alone but insisted she was "fine." The one she'd had coffee with at a café and exchanged names with. The one whose eyes had been so red——that girl. (She was Mark's girlfriend.) "I need to use the restroom" She stood up and hurried out into the hallway. She moved to the side of the wall and took a deep breath. (I didn't know. But——that doesn't excuse it.) She'd sat beside him without knowing anything, laughed, accepted his bread. What had that looked like between the two of them? Behind Amber, standing alone with red eyes, had been herself. In her head, the pieces slowly fit together. In the worst possible way. --- At lunch, Saya avoided Mark. Even at a distance where she would normally call out to him, she quickly looked away and headed to a different seat. When Mark said "Saya, there's space here," she said in a rush "I have something to do" and left. Mark ate his hamburger alone. From the left, Amber had completely distanced herself. From the right, Saya had suddenly started distancing herself too. A faint air of rumors drifted through the class atmosphere. No one said anything directly to Mark, but he felt their gazes occasionally pierce him. (Blocked from all three directions.) He couldn't finish the hamburger. --- Wednesday night. He'd flown back from Chicago just after midnight. Mark took off his costume and sat on the edge of his bed. A dull pain lingered in his right side. Today's opponent had been a strength-type metahuman—he'd taken three solid hits. He didn't think anything was broken, but the bruising was bad. The elbow of his costume had torn on the way back to Upland. He'd need to repair it. He checked his phone. Zero messages from Amber. Zero from Saya. Nothing from anyone on this night. Mark looked up at the ceiling. White ceiling. Water stains. An unchanging view. ——Suddenly, a memory surfaced. A little over a year ago. When he'd first registered with the GDA and was just starting his hero work. There was a registered hero he'd worked with a few times in Upland. Code name "Trench." A man in his thirties—strong, reliable, and he'd always looked out for his junior, Mark. Mark had thought he was someone he could contact when in trouble. He'd trusted him. One night, an emergency alert came in from the GDA. Following a villain's trail through the city——Trench was there. Standing beside the villain. Laughing. Mark found out later from the GDA report that he was a spy. Apparently he'd been leaking information for months. Mark just hadn't noticed. There might have been signs everywhere. That night, Mark couldn't do anything. He just stood there. Since then, Mark had never shown weakness to anyone. The experience of having someone he trusted lie to him had left a deeper wound than he'd expected. That wound scared him, and he'd stopped being able to tell anyone everything about himself. Because he couldn't tell them, he carried it alone. Because he carried it alone, the people he cared about realized "he doesn't tell me anything." (I'm not protecting anyone.) The words came out. "I'm not protecting anyone" No matter how many people he saved with his hero work, the people he cared about kept getting hurt. He hid things to protect them. But that hiding was what hurt them most. He understood that, and yet he couldn't stop. His emotions exploded. He slammed his right fist into the wall. A cracking sound. When Viltrumite blood ran through his veins, his emotional control weakened when his feelings surged. Cracks appeared in the wall. Plaster and paint dust fell. The skin on his knuckles split slightly. There was almost no pain. But tears came. Quietly. Slowly. From his fingertips. Mark pressed his forehead against the wall and stayed like that for a while. --- That same night. An old photograph lay out on Amber's desk. It was a photo of her mother from when she was young, taken when Amber was in elementary school. It was usually kept in a drawer. Tonight, she'd felt like taking it out for some reason. Amber sat in front of the photograph, hugging her knees. She didn't cry. Crying was weakness——she'd always believed that. Showing emotion was losing. So tonight too, she'd decided not to cry. But. (If I didn't love him, this wouldn't hurt so much.) That much became clear. Her anger at Mark was real. But beneath that anger, there was always love. It hadn't disappeared. It wouldn't disappear. It would be easier if it did. How could she reach out? What words could she say? Not knowing, the night grew deeper. --- Thursday lunch period. A message arrived on Mark's phone. "Could you come to the roof after school? Alone"——from Saya. After school, Mark headed to the roof. He opened the door with its broken lock, and Saya was standing near the railing. She wasn't smiling. Saya, who always smiled, had a rare expression. Her golden odd-colored eyes looked at Mark quietly. The piercing in her left ear swayed slightly in the autumn wind. "[serious]You know, Mark. I was starting to like you" It was direct. Mark couldn't say anything. "When you transfer schools a lot, you get used to not getting too close. Because you'll leave anyway, right? But you——you were trying so hard to be normal while hiding something. That felt similar to me" Saya's gaze dropped slightly. "So I wanted to let my guard down for once. That's all——but when I found out about Amber, I thought I was the worst" "[serious]Saya, you didn't——" "[sad]I'm sorry for getting close to you" She said it straight. Without excuses. Then. BANG!! The roof door slammed shut hard. The door with the broken lock suddenly clicked into place with a loud sound. Saya and Mark both spun around. Silence. "[surprised]……Did we just get locked out?" Mark walked over to the door and pulled. It wouldn't open. The lock must have caught on something by chance. "[serious]……It's stuck" "[surprised]Are you serious" The two looked at each other. The timing was so bad, so impossibly bad, that neither could say anything. The air from moments before was yanked back to reality. Saya was holding her mouth, trying not to laugh. When Mark pulled the door several times, it made a clicking sound and finally opened. Neither felt like laughing. But the silence became even heavier. Saya looked at Mark with tears in her eyes. "[sad]Go to Amber" Mark couldn't move. "That person——when I met her at the café on Saturday, her eyes were so red" "[serious]……What?" "[sad]She's someone who doesn't cry, right? Even when I was with her, she was almost always smiling, talking normally. But her eyes were red. She'd been crying the whole time, but she pretended she wasn't, and she just stood alone at the station" The words pierced his chest. Amber had been crying. Amber——who thought crying was weakness, who would never cry in front of anyone. She'd been crying the whole time because of him, standing alone without letting anyone see. "[sad]If you don't go, I'll regret it forever. So——go" Saya left the roof first. The door closed. Mark was left alone beneath the autumn sky. The sky was high and pale blue. He could see the city of Upland stretching far below. In the direction of Chicago, he could faintly see the shadow of the city. Tomorrow, he'd go to Amber's house. No matter what the Metahuman Registration Act said. No matter what the GDA said. Even knowing that revealing his identity might legally endanger Amber——staying silent like this was far more terrifying. He'd thought hiding was protecting. But had he really been protecting the person he wanted to protect most, with her eyes still red? Mark took a deep breath. The autumn air entered his lungs, cold and clear. A resolve, quiet and steady, rose up within him.