A dream...

Her expression was blank. Not neutral—empty. Her pitch-black eyes, glassy and lightless, reflected nothing. She looked like she was observing a scene from behind a pane of glass—unfeeling, detached. Waiting.

Waiting for her to finish.

As Lena's gaze met hers, Umire's expression shifted instantly—like a curtain being drawn.

Concern bloomed across her features. Her brows knit, and her lips parted slightly in worry.

"Oh no, are you okay? You had me worried," she said, voice rising just enough to sound like it should.

But Lena didn't miss it.

The timing. The disconnect.

She stared at her, heart still hammering faintly. Something about it all felt rehearsed. Like Umire was reading from a script:

"Express concern here."

"Smile warmly now."

A person mimicking human emotions rather than feeling them. Her words were soft, but her eyes… they weren't human at all.

Lena's stomach twisted.

The warmth she'd felt earlier…the comfort suddenly felt hollow. Like she'd mistaken stage lights for the sun.

"Gosh, are you okay?" Umire's voice was laced with evident concern, betraying the face she held just a few moments ago. "You had me worried."

Unease churned in Lena's stomach, and suddenly, Umire's soft voice—sweet and laced with pure affection—made her feel like she might vomit. As Lena watched her, she couldn't shake the feeling that Umire was following a script.

"Act worried now."

"Smile when you say this."

The warmth that once drew Lena in now felt hollow, like a carefully worn mask made just for her. Umire's dark eyes, black as voids, seemed to hold nothing real—no depth, no humanity. Just a perfect, chilling imitation of something carefully practiced but never truly understood.

"You…" Lena began.

Umire's hand suddenly closed around hers, enveloping her in the familiar warmth. An involuntary shiver ran down her spine. Lena jerked her hand away instinctively, feeling the last remnants of the enchantment Umire had placed on her shatter like glass. Umire's expression froze, as though she hadn't expected that reaction. Her hand hovered in mid-air, an unnatural stillness in her movement, as if unsure of what to do next.

"Are you okay, Lena?" Umire asked again, but this time, her voice faltered slightly—too perfect, too rehearsed. The concern wasn't real. Lena stared at her, noticing the slight stiffness in her face, the way her eyes looked too empty to be human. Umire's hand fell back to her side, retreating almost mechanically.

"I'm better now." Lena's voice barely reached her ears. The words felt hollow, just like Umire's gaze. Too offput by Umire to even worry about how Umire had just seen her take her panic pills and knew she had them.

"That's good… I was so worried…" Umire's voice trailed off, the softness draining from her words. The concern on her face was fading fast, leaving a chill in its place, her smile growing colder with each passing second. Lena felt a creeping tension, like something was shifting under the surface, something darker.

Lena looked across at her stiffly as Umire raised her gaze, an obviously forced, too wide smile coming on Umire's face. "Hey, Lena. I like you a lot."

Lena's chest tightened, words feeling stuck in her throat as she continued to look stiffly back at Umire.

Lena stayed silent. Umire's smile cracked.

Lena watched Umire as her mask seemed to crack. The unsettling feeling that had been building inside her now surged, unmistakable. Umire's expression shifted, her smile slipping completely from her face as Lena remained mute. 

It felt as though something unseen inside her was cracking, and Lena could see it in Umire's chilling black eyes that never seemed to reflect any light—an unspoken depth of emotion that seemed to plead for something real. Her eyes looked as if they were on the verge of tears, yet somehow... impossibly empty all at once. The emptiness in them was suffocating. Like an alien attempting to mimic humanity, its mask slowly peeling away. 

Umire reached for Lena's hand again, and as their fingers brushed, Lena flinched, startled by how cold Umire's usually warm touch felt. Her hand felt like cold ice as it gripped Lena's. Yet, there was something about the familiar feel of her hand that seemed to pull her back into the trance she had once been under—a reminder of the warmth Umire had once made her feel. Umire held her hand gently, almost as if testing something, her gaze fixed on Lena's. 

"Do you like me?" she asked softly, her eyes searching Lena's as if looking for something she couldn't quite place.

Lena's heart skipped a beat, the question catching her off guard. She looked up at Umire, meeting her eyes. It was there again, the softness and warmth from before; however, the expression on her face opposed the icy feeling Lena felt in her hands that seemed to be growing colder and colder by the second, making Lena flinch. Umire's grip on her hand tightened slightly, just enough to make Lena feel the pressure.

"I… uh…" Lena stammered, the words caught in her throat. Her instincts screamed at her to pull away again, but she held still, frozen by the intensity in Umire's gaze.

"We're best friends, right? You need me, don't you?" Umire's voice shifted, the warmth draining from it turning cold, leaving behind a sharp edge of desperation. Her grip on Lena's hand tightened, and the coldness crawled up Lena's arm. Umire leaned in closer, their noses nearly brushing, the intensity in her eyes almost seeming to put Lena under a spell. "I like you a lot… you do too, right?"

It wasn't a question; it felt more like an ultimatum.

Lena stared at her, her pulse racing. The words felt wrong, twisted. Something was unsettling about the way Umire was clinging to her, something beneath the surface that made Lena want to recoil. She thought back to the lunch, to how warm Umire had seemed then, but this—this felt different. Umire wasn't just asking for affirmation; she was holding on like her entire world depended on it. And for some reason, Lena felt as if her own world might crumble if she didn't answer.

It felt as though Umire would fully abandon her if she didn't answer yes, the gentle dream she was in threatening to crumble to dust. Lena's chest tightened, a cold dread sweeping over her. She feared that if she didn't say the words Umire so desperately wanted to hear, that warmth would vanish, taking something vital with it—and leaving her alone, just where she belonged. What if Umire left her? What if she was truly abandoned? Again…

The warmth Umire had given her felt as though it might slip away completely, never to return. Lena couldn't help but think of the laughter they'd shared at lunch, of the strange, thrilling warmth Umire had brought into her world, all of it focused solely on her. It had felt so real, so alive, and now she feared it might vanish, leaving her back in cold emptiness.

"I… yeah…" The words slipped out of her mouth before she could stop them. "I like you."

The moment the words left her lips, Umire's grip loosened, as if she'd been holding her breath, waiting. The previous warmth slowly returned to her hands. A smile bloomed on her face, warmer now—but Lena could still feel something wrong about it, like it didn't quite fit. It was too easy. Too quick.

"Haha, yeah, we're besties~" Umire's voice had returned to its chipper tone as if Lena had just imagined the whole situation.

Just as abruptly as the moment had shifted, Umire's phone buzzed in her pocket, slicing through the air. Umire let go of Lena's hand to reach into her pocket, and immediately, Lena felt the warmth vanish, leaving a sharp emptiness in its wake.

A sudden, bitter coldness swept over Umire's face as she glanced at her phone, checking the caller ID. Her smile faded instantly, and the warmth in her eyes disappeared. In an instant, she became a stranger again—her expression hard and unreadable, a flicker of unfamiliar anger twisting beneath the shadows in her eyes.

"Hey… sorry, I don't think I can hang out today after all…", Umire trailed off quickly, stuffing her phone back in her pocket. "But let's do the feast tomorrow at lunch, okay?" Umire's voice was still bright, but it seemed to lack any true emotion. "I'll try my best to bake something edible. May the best baker win!" She said it so quickly, too quickly, as if the words were rehearsed. Her smile didn't quite reach her eyes this time, the previous warmth she had just shown her once more seeming like a lie.

"Okay…" Lena murmured, her voice distant, her gaze fixed on Umire as if she were seeing her for the first time—someone she could never quite understand.

Umire waved goodbye before turning, her footsteps echoing in the silence of the hallway as she disappeared into the distance. The warmth that had briefly settled between them was gone, replaced by a heavy, unsettling chill.

Lena stood frozen, her body tense. The hallway felt longer, colder somehow. The echo of Umire's footsteps slowly faded, leaving a hollow silence that seemed to press in on her. She felt as if she had just woken up from a dream—or perhaps stepped into someone else's—except the dream had been far too real and fake all at the same time, and she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to wake up from it.