CHAPTER 1: "The Last Day of Spring"
Part - 1
The end of spring always came quietly in Tokyo.
The trees bloomed, petals drifted like whispers, and the students of Aizawa High prepared to move on to the next stage of their teenage lives. For most of them, it meant part-time jobs, cram school, trips with friends, confessions behind school buildings, or simply spending more time scrolling through their phones.
For Reina Aizawa, it meant silence.
She sat by the window in Class 2-B, her chin resting in the cradle of her palm. Her long black hair fell in soft waves over her shoulder, slightly messy from the wind that trickled through the open window. Black eyes stared blankly outside as the bell rang, signaling the end of the last homeroom period before summer break.
The classroom buzzed with life around her.
Chairs scraped back. Laughter bounced off the walls. Someone threw a paper ball at their friend across the room. Plans were being made — karaoke, arcades, fireworks festivals.
But Reina didn't move. Her mind wasn't here.
A few classmates looked her way. Some whispered. She ignored it all. Being the quiet, sharp-tongued girl in class earned her a kind of distance — not hatred, but not warmth either.
It was fine.
At least, that's what she told herself.
Then came the familiar voice.
"Oi, gloomy princess."
She turned.
There he was — Alex Aizawa, her stepbrother. The school's sunshine boy. His uniform was perfectly disheveled, like he walked through a photoshoot and never bothered to fix himself afterward. White hair with lazy bangs that brushed his eyelashes, mismatched eyes — one a soft crimson, the other a glacial blue — and a lopsided smile that made half the girls in school blush.
He was holding two strawberry milks.
Reina stared at him. "Again?"
He wiggled the carton. "You always drink it even when you complain. So don't start."
She sighed. "One day, you're going to get diabetes."
"Worth it," he said, plopping down in the seat beside her. It wasn't even his, but no one cared. Alex could do anything and get away with it. He had that kind of presence. Bright. Magnetic. Impossible to hate.
Reina opened the carton anyway.
"Still hate it?" he asked.
She took a sip. "Still do."
He laughed.
They sat like that for a moment — two siblings with nothing in common on paper, but somehow... something deeper that no one else really saw.
"What are you doing for summer?" she asked, voice low.
He shrugged. "Disappear maybe."
She narrowed her eyes.
"I'm kidding." He leaned back, tilting his chair on two legs like a child. "Or maybe not. I feel like I need something different this year. Something crazy. Run away to Kyoto. Pretend I'm someone else. Change my name to... I don't know, Johnny Sparkle."
She blinked at him.
"...What?"
"Okay, maybe not Johnny. But something cooler. Like, Blade. Or Kite. I always liked the name Kite."
"You're an idiot."
"Yeah, but I'm your idiot."
There was something gentle about the way he said it. Like he meant it.
Reina turned her face toward the window again, hiding the smallest twitch of her lips.
He always did this. Made her feel things she didn't know how to name.
Part 2 – The Smile Everyone Believed
Later that afternoon, the schoolyard was already emptying.
Most students bolted out the gates with cheers, tossing their bags over their shoulders like burdens finally thrown off. A few stayed behind for club activities. Others lingered to say goodbye to teachers or exchange Line IDs and summer promises they might not keep.
Reina walked slowly down the hallway, her steps echoing softly on the polished floors.
She found Alex on the rooftop.
He wasn't supposed to be there — it was locked for students, but rules never meant much to Alex. He claimed the school gave him an extra key after he "saved a cat" up there once. Reina never believed that story, but she never bothered to call him out on it either.
She climbed the steps, pushed open the rusted metal door, and saw him leaning against the fence.
Wind played with his white hair.
He didn't turn when she stepped out, but she knew he heard her.
"You always come up here when you're thinking too much," she said.
He smiled without looking. "And you always follow me."
Reina stepped beside him. They stared out over the city. The school was nestled in a residential neighborhood, so the view wasn't grand, but the sunlight bounced off rooftops like broken glass, and the faraway trains rumbled softly beneath it all.
"I like it here," he murmured.
"Why?"
"It's quiet. You can pretend everything down there is someone else's life. Like you're watching it from a distance. Like none of it can touch you."
Reina didn't answer. She didn't know how.
Alex turned to her, a faint smile still on his lips.
"I've been thinking about next year," he said. "Maybe I'll transfer."
"What?"
He shrugged. "Nothing set. Just a thought."
Reina stiffened.
"You're serious?"
His red-blue eyes stared into hers. "I'm always serious."
"No, you're not. You're always joking. You joke even when it hurts."
He paused. Then, with a soft chuckle, looked away.
"Maybe."
"Where would you go?"
"Nowhere far."
"Why transfer, then?"
Alex was quiet.
For too long.
"Hey," she said, softly. "Are you... okay?"
That smile. It came back too quickly.
"Of course. Don't I look okay?"
Reina said nothing.
He reached out, and gently flicked her forehead. "You worry too much. You're going to get wrinkles before you're twenty."
She swatted his hand, cheeks slightly pink.
He laughed. "You'll miss me if I go."
"No, I won't."
"You're a terrible liar."
They stood in silence for a while longer.
And Reina thought, for just a second, that maybe she saw something behind his eyes. Something flickering. Something trembling just behind the glass.
But then he smiled again, and it disappeared.
Part 3 – The Silence in His Room
Evening came quietly.
Tokyo glowed under amber streetlights, and the cicadas had finally begun their summer symphony. Reina stood in the kitchen, watching the kettle hiss softly as steam rose. Her stepmother was on a night shift, and the house felt too large without her.
Alex wasn't home yet.
It wasn't strange — he often stayed out late during exam weeks, wandering convenience stores or helping classmates with last-minute tutoring. But Reina still found herself checking the clock every five minutes. It was nearing 9 p.m.
She took two cups of tea up the stairs anyway.
Outside Alex's door, she paused. Light spilled out from the thin line beneath it.
Knock knock.
Silence.
She knocked again. "I made you tea."
No answer.
After a beat, she turned the knob. Unlocked.
The room was tidy. Too tidy.
Alex wasn't there.
His phone sat on his desk — something he never left behind. His headphones were coiled neatly, the calendar open to March 31st. A photo frame sat next to it, face-down.
Reina's heart skipped.
She crossed the room, picked up the photo. It was an old one — from their first year together as a blended family. Alex had his arm around her shoulder, grinning. Reina wasn't smiling in it. She rarely smiled in photos.
He always said he'd teach her how.
And then her eyes landed on something tucked beneath the photo. Folded paper. Thin. Torn from his sketchpad.
Her hands trembled as she unfolded it.
> "To the one person I hoped would understand—"
"I'm sorry I kept smiling."
"But I thought if I smiled enough, maybe I'd become the person everyone believed I was."
"Turns out, pretending doesn't make you real."
"Thank you for seeing through me, even if you didn't realize it."
"I loved you. I still do."
– Alex
Her chest hollowed.
The tea dropped from her hands. It shattered on the floor, ceramic splinters and dark liquid bleeding across the wood. Her throat tightened. Her legs moved on their own.
She ran. Downstairs. Into the night.
Her feet pounded the sidewalk. Her breath hitched in sobs. She called his name. Over and over.
> "Alex!"
"Where are you!?"
"Don't do this—!"
"Please—!"
The train station was a blur of orange lights and white noise.
She reached it too late.
---
March 31st, 9:21 p.m.
Alex Aizawa. Age: 17. Declared deceased at scene. Cause: Suicide.
---
The funeral was private. The media never found out. The school whispered, but no one said it out loud.
Only Reina screamed.
Inside, where no one could hear.
---
A Week Later
The house was quiet again.
Reina hadn't returned to school. Her stepmother barely spoke. The rooms were filled with invisible ghosts — Alex's laughter still echoing faintly in corners, his humming in the shower, the sound of his pen tapping when he did homework at 2 a.m.
Reina locked herself in his room. She couldn't leave it.
Not yet.
Not until she figured out what she missed.
She sat on his bed with the suicide note in her lap, her eyes raw. Her body ached from crying. Her voice was gone from screaming. Her soul felt... lost.
She stared at the calendar again.
March 31st.
That date.
She reached for the photo again — the one from the first year — and clutched it tight to her chest.
> "I'm sorry I kept smiling."
"I loved you."
Those words wouldn't stop repeating.
And then—
Her phone buzzed on the desk.
She didn't check it.
But something strange happened.
The screen flickered. Glitched. Bright light, then static.
Her ears rang.
A high-pitched frequency.
Then silence.
---
She collapsed.
Part 4 – The Day Before the End
Darkness.
Not sleep. Not dreams.
Just a weightless nothing, and somewhere beneath it... pain.
Reina's head throbbed. Her skin was cold. But more than anything, she felt disoriented. Like her entire body had been shattered and stitched back together in the wrong order.
She opened her eyes slowly.
Ceiling.
But not Alex's room.
Hers.
She shot up in bed, heart pounding. Her blanket was tangled around her legs. Sweat clung to her skin, cold and sticky. Her eyes darted around the room — the books on her shelf, the school uniform neatly folded on the chair, the phone on her desk.
Everything was as it had been.
> No... not possible.
The clock read 6:41 a.m.
She scrambled to her feet, almost tripping over herself, and yanked open her door.
She rushed down the hallway and stood outside his room.
She hesitated.
Then knocked.
"…Alex?"
No answer.
She knocked harder.
"Alex!"
Still nothing.
She turned the knob.
And gasped.
There he was.
Sleeping, tangled in his blanket, one leg dangling off the edge of the bed like always. His white hair stuck out in messy tufts, his face peaceful, lips slightly parted as he snored lightly.
Reina's breath caught in her throat.
She took a shaky step back.
He was alive.
Her heart clenched — so tight it physically hurt.
> No… no, this isn't right. This can't be real. I saw him. I buried him. I—
But when he stirred and cracked one eye open, she heard it:
"...Reina?" he murmured, voice hoarse from sleep. "Why are you crying?"
She didn't even realize the tears had started.
She covered her mouth with both hands and took another step backward.
Alex blinked at her. "Did you have a nightmare or something?"
He yawned.
Sat up.
Rubbed his eyes.
Stared at her like this was normal.
> Like he didn't know he was supposed to be dead.
---
She ran.
Back to her room. Slamming the door shut. Heart racing.
She pulled her phone from the charger and opened the calendar.
March 31st.
She checked her messages.
New Year greetings. Spring break plans. Club announcements. Nothing past today.
> No funeral posts. No school counselors calling. No pictures of him surrounded by white flowers.
She sank to the floor.
Everything... had reset.
Reina didn't believe in miracles. Not until now.
This wasn't a dream.
She was back.
Back in the year where Alex still smiled.
Back in the year where he still due
She had only one year to stop him
---
And this time, she wouldn't let him.