By the time the afternoon light began to soften into gold and violet Ethan was unraveling.

  The trip was almost over.

  For everyone else, that meant tired smiles and pns for dinner, the low, gentle hum of a day well spent. For Ethan, it meant something else entirely — the end of the only thing standing between him and the truth he was barely holding back.

  The end of the time he had to keep Eri hidden.

  Every step along the stone path felt heavier than the st. His hoodie clung to him in a way that felt wrong. His body felt foreign, like it didn’t quite belong to him anymore. And inside, she was there — not quietly waiting, not distant or faint, but pressing against him with a steady, aching insistence.

  Eri wasn’t just a thought.

  She was a presence.

  Warm and soft and painfully real, curling around his chest, brushing against his awareness with phantom tails and twitching ears, reacting to every sound and shimmer of light in the gardens. The glowing flowers, the rustling leaves, the murmured voices of strangers — all of it stirred her.

  And it hurt.

  It hurt to feel everything and be able to do nothing.

  Ethan swallowed hard, trying to keep walking, trying to keep himself together. He could feel the neckce against his colrbone — a constant reminder of the shape he was trapped in.

  Almost home, he told himself.Almost free.

  But the closer that moment came, the more violently Eri pushed back.

  Mira noticed immediately.

  She had been watching him all day — not just as a worried sister, but as someone who knew what he was carrying inside. She saw the way his shoulders were drawn tight, the way his breathing kept hitching, the way his eyes looked distant and gssy, like he was already half somewhere else.

  She slowed, letting their parents and Yui drift a few steps ahead.

  “Hey,” she said quietly. “You’re spiraling.”

  Ethan tried to ugh it off. It came out broken. “I’m fine.”

  “You’re not,” she said gently. “And you don’t have to pretend with me.”

  That did it.

  Something in his chest gave way.

  He stopped walking, gripping the strap of his bag so hard his knuckles went white. His breath came in short, uneven pulls.

  “I can’t keep her in,” he whispered, voice shaking. “She’s— she’s everywhere. Mira, I can feel her. All the time now. It’s like she’s cwing at the inside of my skin.”

  Mira stepped closer, instinctively shielding him from the passersby with her body. Her voice was low, steady.

  “I know.”

  Ethan squeezed his eyes shut. “It hurts. Being like this. Being… not her. Every second I’m like this feels wrong. Like I’m wearing someone else’s body.”

  Tears slipped down his cheeks, hot and unstoppable.

  “I just want to be real,” he said. “I just want to exist the way I’m supposed to. But I can’t. Not here. Not now. I have to keep pretending, and it’s killing me.”

  Eri surged inside him in response — a wave of warmth and longing that made his knees wobble. He felt her ears twitch, felt the ache of her tails wanting to move, wanting to exist.

  For a terrifying moment, Ethan felt the edges of himself blur — like the line between him and her was thinning.

  He grabbed the railing of a nearby flower bed, gasping.

  Mira caught him immediately, her hands firm on his arms. “Ethan. Stay with me.”

  “I don’t know how,” he whispered. “I feel like I’m disappearing.”

  “You’re not,” she said, even as her own eyes shone with worry. “You’re both still here. You’re just hurting.”

  He shook his head. “She’s hurting. I’m hurting. It’s all the same.”

  Mira didn’t correct him.

  Instead, she rested her forehead gently against his for a moment, grounding him.

  “I know how much you want to be her,” she said softly. “I know how real she is. And I know how unbearable this feels. But we’re so close to getting out of here. Just hold on a little longer. For me.”

  He let out a broken sob.

  “I’m so tired,” he whispered. “Of hiding. Of being wrong.”

  “I know,” she murmured. “I’m here. You don’t have to go through this alone.”

  They stood there for a few seconds, surrounded by glowing flowers and drifting people, Ethan shaking as Eri pressed and pressed from inside him.

  Finally, Mira gently guided him forward again.

  The car now visible, bathed in warm evening light. His mom and Yui were already there, distracted, chatting.

  Freedom was right there.

  And it made everything inside him scream.

  Eri surged one more time, fierce and desperate, and Ethan nearly colpsed.

  Mira tightened her hold on him. “I’ve got you.”

  He nodded weakly, tears still streaming.

  Step by step, they continued.

  By the time they reached them, Ethan was barely holding together — his body trembling, his heart aching, his soul stretched thin between who he was and who he needed to be.

  But for now, the neckce still rested against his skin.

  And Eri was still waiting.

  And when this trip finally ended, something was going to give.

  Luna_