As children, Kuro, his brother Mizu, and their next door neighbor Phillip were best friends, always playing together. In their teenage years, when the brothers’ emotionally abusive father fell ill, their friendship fell apart. For a time Mizu dated Phillip, and conflicted and frustrated, Kuro sought comfort from random strangers and did drugs.<br><br>The three men are now adults and Mizu and Phillip have broken up, with little chance for reconciliation. Without anywhere else to go, Phillip and Kuro move into a dumpy apartment, and Kuro hopes the two of them will be happy together. Maybe they’ll even have an opportunity to kindle a romance.<br><br>But Mizu is extremely jealous of their closeness, and both men have their own issues they’re struggling with and trying to recover from. To make matters worse, Kuro is losing sleep, as he’s constantly waking up at three a.m. Will Phillip accept Kuro’s feelings, or will he go back to Mizu? Can Kuro reconcile with his brother and his past?

3 A.M.

“It takes a lot of strength to walk away from that,” I whispered. “And I think the love you two had for each other was real at one point.”


“But at the same time,” I said, “you were both so young that you didn’t really understand what love is. And how to grow it into something real, right?”


He nodded, wiping his tears. “Sounds about right. I mean, a lot of our problems started after we went to college.”


“Yeah,” I said. “So…it just…it stopped growing. And I don’t think that’s entirely a bad thing. Now that you’re walking away, you can be with somebody else. Someone who really loves you, you know?”


He smiled at me, sniffling. I didn’t realize how close our faces were to each other’s at that moment. I could have sworn he was leaning in, but then my mother appeared in the doorway.


Chapter 6