Jay's POV
Nobody moved.
The stranger remained standing on the stage, his eyes fixed on us as if he was waiting for something. Maybe a reaction. Maybe a memory. Maybe for one of us to finally understand why he had brought us here in the first place.
But all we had was silence.
I looked around at Section E again. Everyone seemed trapped inside their own thoughts. Felix looked frustrated. Ci-n looked unusually serious. Even Keifer, who always seemed to have something to say, had fallen quiet.
It didn't feel real.
How could an entire section forget someone? We remembered the most random things about each other. We remembered embarrassing moments from years ago. We remembered inside jokes that nobody else would understand.
So how could we forget a person?
My gaze dropped back to the report in my hands.
Stein.
The name felt familiar in a way that made my chest ache. Every time I looked at it, I felt like I was standing in front of a locked door. I knew something important was on the other side.
I just couldn't open it.
The stranger finally took a step forward.
The sound of his footsteps echoed through the auditorium, immediately drawing everyone's attention back to him. Whatever happened next, it felt like there was no turning back anymore.
Then he spoke.
"Do any of you remember the first day Stein joined Section E?"
The question hung heavily in the air.
I searched my memory again, hoping this time something would come back. A face. A conversation. A single clear memory.
Nothing.
And judging by the expressions around me, I wasn't the only one.
A strange sadness settled over the room.
Because for the first time, we weren't trying to solve a mystery.
We were trying to remember someone.
Someone who had once been part of our story.
Someone who, for reasons none of us understood yet, had completely disappeared from it.