The fortunate thing was that the vacation had started, so I could stay at home without thinking about anything.

However, rumors must have spread in the department because messages piled up even from people I barely talked to normally.

“I was kidnapped after going to a club… what nonsense is this?”

Even at a glance, there were all sorts of strange speculations, but these things didn’t feel important to me.

There was just one person whose message I was very concerned about, but I ignored it. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say I tried to pretend not to know.

In the end, I ignored all communications and stayed cooped up in my room.

Although it was the home and world I had longed for, it felt so unfamiliar that I didn’t dare to venture out.

Because if I left the room, it would feel like admitting that I had returned.

This continued for another week.

My parents were cautious around me, but my other family member wasn’t at all.

One day, my younger brother barged into my room without warning, looked at me, and frowned.

“Wow, the pig has turned into a mummy?”

“And you’re still the same pig.”

In truth, my brother, who had aimed for physical education before switching to liberal arts, was a fitness fanatic with a body full of muscle.

“Anyway, your senior wants to see your face. They asked what’s going on since you’re not answering calls.”

Why on earth are my brother and my senior in contact?

I can’t understand this.

“Why is my senior your senior too?”

“We’re in the same school, so they’re my senior too.”

I suppose that’s true. But why are you acting so smug while talking about the senior?

“Stop making your senior worry. Okay?”

Seeing this damn brother of mine, my sense of reality suddenly comes rushing back.

“Hey. Shouldn’t you be worrying about me now instead of the senior? Who’s your family and blood relative here?”

“Anyway! If you don’t come out, I’m going to tell your senior to come to our house.”

My brother slammed the door shut as he left.

Is he my brother or my enemy?

I stood up after being momentarily confused and dazed.

“How many times do I have to tell you to close the door gently, you brat!”

Following Mom’s shout, there was a pleasant sound of a slap.

“Aaagh!”

I stared into space for a moment, listening to my cheerful brother’s scream. With a sigh, I got up from my seat and gazed at the printed bundle on my desk.

“Let’s All Live Together”.

This had been sitting on my desk since I returned home, and it remained there all this time.

I couldn’t bring myself to open it or put it away.

It was the result of a conflict between wanting to hide it out of sight and curiosity about whether what I experienced was real.

Wondering if this time would be different, I reached out, and my fingertips touched the dry paper.

I tried to turn the cover page, but as if my hand had stopped, I couldn’t do anything more than grasp the paper.

“Gasp.”

Feeling as if someone was choking me, I quickly stepped back.

The part of me whispering that the place I went was just a dream fought with the part insisting it was real, and I shook my head, pretending not to hear either.

I picked up the mobile phone I had left on the bed’s headboard.

Ignoring all the missed calls piled up, I skimmed through the messages from only one person.

The only person I needed to meet soon.

“Yes, I need to decide which side is the dream.”

After closing my eyes for a long moment and opening them again, I pressed the keypad on my phone.

The season had just entered summer, the sunlight was dazzling, and the greenery was fresh.

On my way to the neighborhood café where we had agreed to meet, I stopped walking. To see myself reflected in the shop window.

It was clearly me, but somewhat different from the reflection I had seen in the mirror just a few days ago.

The snow-white skin was gone, and the hair that used to reach my lower back now only touched my shoulders. My features were still distinct but somehow seemed a bit blurred.

I was wearing a white frilly dress.

The fact that it was a dress was similar to what I wore there, but the length that came above my knees felt quite strange.

I was very familiar yet unfamiliar to myself.

Honk honk!

Perhaps I had been standing there too long; I heard a loud car horn from behind. I hurriedly moved to the side of the road.

Starting with the horn, the noise of loud machines from somewhere that had been meaninglessly passing by me until now, and the bustling voices of people began to pierce my eardrums.

“Hah…”

It felt certain now that I was outside.

I had been to another world and now I had returned to my own.

But everything felt somewhat unfamiliar, causing me to pause occasionally while walking, and I was excessively startled by the sound of car horns. There were even times when I jumped in surprise after bumping shoulders with passersby, confusing them.

“Get a grip.”

I was only there for two months.

The time I’ve lived here is much longer.

“This is where I belong.”

I muttered to myself, as if trying to brainwash myself, all the way to my destination.

Ding-a-ling.

With the cheerful sound of a bell, I opened the door and entered the café, which was white and neat inside.

“Over here.”

A man raised his hand to indicate his location.

The few customers in the quiet café all turned their eyes towards him.

The man was none other than my senior, wearing a white round-neck t-shirt and jeans.

Just two months ago, I would have enjoyed having a meal and conversation with my senior, but now this situation felt unreal.

No, it would be more accurate to say that I no longer felt any excitement about it.

“It’s been a while.”

The man, still with his dazzling appearance, stood up and smiled brightly.

“Come here and sit down.”

He pulled out the chair for me himself, and I, now accustomed to this, sat down naturally.

“Look at that.”

I realized this fact due to a woman’s remark who failed to control the volume of her voice.

“She’s so arrogant.”

When I turned my gaze towards the source of the voice, the woman who had been looking at us flinched and turned her head away.

Ah.

I had accepted his service too nonchalantly.

The realization that came too late left a bitter taste in my mouth.

The senior’s seat was in a corner by the window, and there was no one around.

“Shall we order first?”

“Yes.”

“What would you like to drink?”

The thought that instantly came to mind was, ‘Do I have to tell you even this?’

I flinched when I discovered myself being overly accustomed to having someone attend to my needs.

“I’d like… a green grape smoothie.”

The senior ordered an Americano.

No one spoke until the drinks were brought and placed in front of my senior, and until beads of condensation formed and began to trickle down the surface of the clear glass.

If others were to see us, they’d think we were a couple about to break up.