The hallway was empty.
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Ren walked slowly, the quiet echo of his footsteps following him like a memory. It was late—long after classes had ended. He had come back for a book he’d left behind, or so he told himself.
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But he didn’t go to the classroom.
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His feet stopped in front of the music room.
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Inside, soft piano notes floated through the air—hesitant, broken, like someone searching for a melody they couldn’t quite reach. He didn’t have to look.
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He knew that sound.
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Haruki.
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Ren stood frozen, just beyond the glass-paneled door. The lights inside were dim. Haruki sat at the piano bench, head down, fingers trailing over the keys like they were made of glass.
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His hair had grown longer. He looked tired. Beautiful.
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Painfully beautiful.
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Ren’s chest tightened. His heart knew what his mind didn’t want to admit—he still loved him. Desperately. Quietly. Unreasonably.
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He thought about opening the door. About walking in, sitting beside Haruki like he used to. About telling him everything.
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> “I’m sorry.”
“I never meant to hurt you.”
“I still love you.”
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But he knew what would happen.
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Haruki wouldn’t speak. Maybe he would leave. Maybe the silence would scream louder than any words ever could.
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So Ren didn’t open the door.
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He just reached into his coat pocket… and pulled out the letter.
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It was worn, folded at the edges. He had rewritten it three times. He had cried over it once.
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And now, it was ready.
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Ren knelt down, quietly, like a boy laying a gift at the feet of a god he could never touch. He slid the letter under the door—just far enough so Haruki would see it when he stood.
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He didn’t stay.
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He turned and walked away before the piano even stopped.
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But the words he left behind… would stay.
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---
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The Letter
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Haruki,
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I don’t know if you’ll read this. I don’t know if you’ll tear it apart, or laugh, or cry, or feel nothing at all.
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But I need you to know what I couldn’t say—what I was too broken, too scared, too ruined to tell you.
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I loved you.
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I still do.
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Not because you were kind to me when no one else was. Not because you were beautiful or smart or special.
But because when you smiled at me… I felt like I existed.
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You made this gray world glow. You were my light when I didn’t even know I was drowning.
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I’m sorry for what I did. I should have never followed you that day. I should have never hurt you. I thought love meant reaching for someone—but maybe for someone like me, it meant staying away.
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You didn’t owe me anything. Not your friendship. Not your forgiveness. Not even your eyes.
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But I still miss the way you used to look at me.
I miss the way your voice softened when you said my name.
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I miss us.
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If there’s any part of you that remembers what we had—
even just the way cherry blossoms fell around us that spring—
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Know this:
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I would do anything to protect that memory.
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I’m not asking you to forgive me.
I’m not asking you to love me.
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I just want you to know—
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You were my favorite part of this life.
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—Ren
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Outside the music room, the hallway stayed silent.
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But inside, long after Ren had gone, the piano stopped.
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And Haruki stared at the letter in his hand.
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With trembling fingers.
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And tears in his eyes.
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