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"It’s me again, Kae."
"Dahyun. Of course it’s you…"
The words echoed against soundproof glass, filling Kaede’s ears despite being inaudible to Dahyun. Dry palms pressed against said glass, indifferent to how it felt uninviting and cold to the touch. Kaede waited for Dahyun’s hands to meet hers from the other side. The older girl smiled, gazing through the glass as if she were looking at a lover. If not for the barrier, Kaede would have ended up in a distant world - one in which she and Dahyun were fated soulmates.
However, Kaede was more than satisfied with life in the museum. She was a life-sized masterpiece, displayed next to a neat row of paintings and antiques - none of which could match her worth in Dahyun’s eyes. To the older girl, Kaede was the muse and main attraction of her life. The latter could only stare out of her glass box, observing the sheer admiration which fizzled in Dahyun’s irises.
Kaede was no more human than the prized paintings by her side.
For some reason she could not pinpoint, Dahyun saw her as Neptune’s brightest moon. In the older girl’s vision, Kaede was effulgent enough to be a galaxy in her own right. The whole idea of being so much more under someone’s adoration was as absurd as being a robot in a human body.
Nevertheless, Kaede enjoyed the attention. She revelled in the hours Dahyun spent in the museum on a daily basis. She listened as the older girl recounted her nights spent dreaming. Kaede liked the way she appeared in each and every one of Dahyun’s dreams. The power to induce a euphoria so profound was something she possessed. It was evident in the way her presence made Dahyun’s face glow - time and time again, upon each meeting at the museum.
A true human would have suffocated in the confines of a glass box. Kaede, however, remained very much alive. She was surrounded by three glass walls and one concrete one, all of which were starting to feel like home. The way Dahyun gravitated towards her was puzzling beyond words. After all, gravity had never been known to shatter glass.
"I want to give you life, Kae. Just in the way you give me strength."
"Why me?"
Kaede’s words could not be heard beyond her glass box. Dahyun gazed imploringly at her, observing the brief movement of her lips. The younger girl thought Dahyun looked elegant in her white dress. However, the slight appreciation she felt paled in comparison to the boundless love she received. The disparity was jarring, and Kaede longed to break the glass before her.
It was all she had to do to become human.
"Tell me honestly. Do you feel it too?" Dahyun’s voice was overflowing with the very emotion Kaede wished to experience. Alas, being an exhibit was the only life the latter knew.
Exhibits were displayed, just in the way she always was. Exhibits knew no love, and she was no different. Exhibits never moved.
Exhibits never moved - or rather, they were not meant to move. Kaede shattered the glass with a forceful kick, expecting transparent shards to pierce through her skin. Minute smithereens were strewn across the museum’s floor. She was somehow left unscathed, just in the way Dahyun was not. After all, the glass box was a home which favoured its sole resident.
You rejected her! How could you?
You’re a terrible person, Kaede. Dahyun deserves better.
I wonder how she even loved you in the first place, you idiot!
Dark voices swirled and swarmed about in Kaede’s head. She squeezed her eyes shut, but not before noticing the blood oozing from Dahyun’s wounds. The lights in the museum flickered out right there and then.
I can’t bleed, can’t hurt and can’t feel. I was never a person to begin with.
I can’t say sorry and truly mean it.
Wake up, Yamada Kaede. WAKE UP!!!
𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⭒๋.𖥔 ݁ ˖༄
"It’s fine if you can’t love yourself now. My name is Koma Mayu, and I’ll love you until you do."
Dahyun had disappeared along with the glass shards. Kaede knew she had to miss her. It was something she was supposed to do.
The lights were back on and blindingly bright. Kaede squinted as she willed her eyes open, vision meeting with the glass box which looked all too familiar. Its walls were all polished and smooth, bearing zero traces of the damage incurred not long ago. An unfamiliar but friendly face stood before Kaede, gazing at her as if admiring a work of art.
Perhaps, Mayu was going to visit the museum on a daily basis. Perhaps, she was going to tell Kaede about her dreams in which they soared side by side. Perhaps, she was going to gravitate to Kaede - as if they were both magnetic in some way or another.
Kaede was a scene on display yet again. The museum had resumed its usual business.
I can’t escape this heart.
"I want to feel the way you love me."
A heart without love is not a heart at all.
"Can I enter your heart?"
A person without a heart is not a person at all.
"You’re my favourite person, Kae…"
A body without a person is nobody.
I can’t wake up. So watch me play my role, shining beneath the museum lights, watch yourself get high on your
feelings
I can’t return.