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The heavy rain had finally slowed down, hitting the window glass like soft, rhythmic taps. Inside the room, the air felt differentâwarmer, lighter. I was still wearing Arata's hoodie, the oversized sleeves dangling past my fingertips.
"You know," Arata said, his voice stronger now, "I always thought people like you lived in a completely different world. A world where everything is bright and perfect."
I looked at the scattered sketches on his floor. "It is bright, Arata-kun. But sometimes, when the lights are too bright, you can't see anything else. You lose your own shadow."
He nodded slowly, leaning back against his pillow. "Tonight... it was the first time I didn't feel like a ghost in my own room. Thank you for staying."
We didn't talk about the idol world or the struggles of school. Instead, we looked through his sketchbook. He showed me drawings of the city at 3 AM, of stray cats under streetlights, and of rain ripples in puddles. There was a raw beauty in his work, a sense of life that I had never felt before.
As the hours passed, my eyelids grew heavy. The exhaustion of the day and the warmth of the room finally caught up to me. I didn't realize when I drifted off, my head resting against the side of his bed.
When I woke up, the first light of dawn was peeking through the thin curtains. The room was bathed in a soft, blue glow. Arata was fast asleep, his face looking peaceful. I quietly stood up, took off the hoodie, and folded it neatly at the foot of his bed. I felt a sudden pang of coldness without it, but I had to go. The world was waking up, and Sayaka the Idol had to return to her cage.
I scribbled a quick note on a scrap of paper and left it on his desk. "The Okayu was cold, but the night was warm. Get well soon, Arata-kun. â S"
I stepped out into the crisp morning air. But as the train carried me back, the reality of my life began to flood back into my mind. I checked my phoneâ37 missed calls from my manager, Mira-san.
I arrived at my high-rise apartment and saw Mira-san standing in front of my door. She looked like she hadn't slept a wink. "Sayaka! Where were you?" she rushed toward me. "Your career could disappear in a second if someone saw you!"
I walked past her into my cold, perfectly clean apartment. It felt so empty compared to Arata's messy room. "I just needed to breathe, Mira-san," I said quietly.
I threw myself onto my expensive bed. It was comfortable, yet it felt like a cage. As I closed my eyes, I could still hear the faint rhythm of the rain on a different window, in a different world.