Nami strained her eyes in an attempt to get an impression of the stranger’s face, but all she could see were his lips, which protruded out from under the hood of his jacket. They were pressed together tightly, and contorted in the shape of what Nami thought was a smile. An intense feeling of dread washed over her. She was about to let out a panicked whisper when a thunderous, wooden Thud boomed through the house. The stranger was on the porch.

Yet, by month three, the way Shiro would slurp canned peaches straight from the bottle began losing its charm. By month four, the way Shiro would squint his eyes whenever he saw her stopped exciting her. Listening to Shiro’s barrage of song recommendations began feeling like a chore by month five.

The U-Bahn doors screeched open and Lilli stepped out onto the platform, promptly making her way down the stairs and out of Bülowstrasse Station. A fresh gust of wind puffed up her shingle bob as she sped down the street, and she felt her heart beat faster as the Dorian Gray came into view.

“You just don’t look forward anymore. It’s like you want time to stop moving. Everytime I come home to you it feels like I stop living,” Celine spat out. She turned away from Kazu and looked towards the horizon. It was illuminated by a last glimmer of blue light, but the ocean ahead of her was quickly darkening. She took a long breath. “I feel like, you hold me back.”