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The sound of the door opening was enough of a reason for Tomori to look up from her doodle-filled notebook. It turns out those footsteps were Saki’s, after all. She came in, soaked from the rain, a frown written across her lips. In the corner of her vision, she could almost make out a furrowed brow to match.
“I’m quitting CRYCHIC,” she had said.
To Tomori, it felt like she was just asking honest questions, trying to make sense of… anything. “Are you really quitting,” and “Saki-chan, if you’re not here”...
She couldn’t remember the words that came after that all too clearly. The only thing she remembered as clearly as the first day were the piercing feelings made clear in Saki’s words, the disappointment writ in her voice.
And, of course, she remembered Saki calling out to her by name. Calling her out by name.
Taki threw herself forward, and there was a scuffle. Tomori wished it would stop. She meant well, but things were only growing more… frightening. Soyo tried to mediate, too, but the damage was already done. The tear between them seemed like it could only grow wider.
Even silence itself grew overwhelming. The gentle ambient hum had become a piercing tone. The air had grown suffocating. She crumpled under the weight of her own body. In a single instant, the act of merely existing, thinking, and feeling had become too great a burden to bear.
She felt like she had finally belonged when they were together, but suddenly, she was alone again.
Even though they never left the room. Even though they were still there.