Ryo was standing by the door to the ladies’ room when I opened it.

‘Good,’ he said. ‘I was just about to get you. They’re about to leave.’

For a moment I wondered if that meant he’d been planning on just barging into the women’s restroom if I didn’t come out, but the thought was fleeting. I looked across the room and sure enough, Andrew and Ai were heading for the door. I was going to lose them in the street if I didn’t hurry.

The panic must have shown on my face because Ryo clapped me on the back and jerked his head towards the door. ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got you. Let’s go.’

‘Huh? But I still have to pay for my drinks and – ah, where’s my bag?’

It was then that I noticed that Ryo had my backpack. He raised an eyebrow and tugged on my sling. ‘I told you, I’ve got it. Let’s go.’ 

I really don’t understand how his brain works. Angry and obtuse one second and then willingly helping me out the next. So perplexing...

Well, I wasn’t going to complain.

The slight frown on his face and too-tight grip he had on my good wrist told me that Ryo still had misgivings about what I – or we, now, rather – were doing. But whatever they were, he kept them to himself. He was actually pretty good at this whole stalk— uh, monitoring thing. I mean, sure, I hadn’t noticed him following me, but I mostly attributed that to being so focused on Ai that I’d developed tunnel vision. Regardless, he had skill. It was like he instinctively knew when to move and when to stop, constantly positioning himself so that he’d have his back to our targets while simultaneously shielding me from their view.

‘You’d make a good spy,’ I commented as he pulled me to a stop by a high fence at an intersection. We’d left the shopping district and ventured into the suburbs. It was long past dark and the street lamps were lit. Our marks had just rounded the corner.

Three hours and forty-five minutes.

‘A spy?’ Ryo leaned out to check where they were going.

‘Yeah. You’re freakishly good at tailing people.’

‘I’ve had a lot of practice.’

‘That’s a weird thing to have a lot of practice in.’

‘That’s funny coming from you.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

He cleared his throat. ‘Nothing.’ He grabbed my wrist again and gave it a tug. ‘Let’s keep moving. Walk normally and keep talking so that we don’t look out of place.’

‘Like I said, you’re way too good at this, Double-O-Shiro.’

‘That pun is terrible.’

‘On the contrary, I think it fits rather well.’

Ryo just shook his head and the conversation petered out.

So much for “keep talking”.

Our footsteps were loud – almost painfully so. Silence wasn’t an uncommon thing with me and Ryo. There were days when he’d come over with a comic book, flop on my couch and barely say a word to me as I went around the house doing whatever I had to do. I had no problem with that; it was familiar, comfortable and if he needed something or wanted my attention, he just threw a cushion at me and blurted it out. This on the other hand… 

The grip on my wrist tightened for a second, enough to make me look up. Ryo was frowning, fidgety. I could tell he was thinking. His eyes darted towards me and he realised I was watching him. Wiping all signs of concern from his face, he flashed me a grin before looking away again.

This didn’t feel right.

As if he could hear my thoughts, Ryo let out a sigh.

I flinched.

He glanced back at me. ‘You okay?’

‘Huh – uh, yeah. I just— you startled me.’

‘Your arm bothering you?’

‘No, it’s fine. The cast’s a bit annoying but nothing I can do about that.’

‘Yeah, gotcha.’ He opened his mouth to continue, then seemed to think the better of it and shut it again.

It was going to be alright...

Ryo scratched his head. ‘Looks like it’s going to rain.’

‘Yep.’ It was bucketing down in my vision.

‘I didn’t bring an umbrella.’

‘Neither.’

Silence.

I bit my lower lip. 

It was going to be okay...

A sudden shiver went down my spine.

‘You can save them.’

I flinched as the words echoed in my ears, as soft as the whistle of a breeze, as clear as a shout. They came from behind me.

I looked over my shoulder.

No one was there.

The air was so cold, my breath was freezing in the wind.

Three hours, thirty-one minutes.

‘Evelyn?’ Ryo waved his hand in front of my face. I hadn’t even noticed that we’d stopped walking. ‘Are you okay?’

I looked up at him. ‘What?’ The word came out testier than I’d intended.

He opened his mouth and... hesitated.

The threads of patience I’d been clinging to snapped.

Who was I kidding? It wasn’t fine. It wasn’t going to be okay. It was like this whenever I saved someone – whenever I tried to save someone. We avoided the topic. Pretended it wasn’t happening. We just didn’t have the guts to confront each other about it until everything was over and I got hurt. Even then the same thing would happen: Ryo would lecture me, I’d pretend to listen and then we’d act like nothing had happened until it happened all over again.

But this was different. I didn’t know how, but somehow this was different.

Screw it.

I scowled up at him. ‘Have you got lice?’

Ryo blinked and pulled his hand away from his head. ‘No.’

‘Then stop scratching your head. If you’ve got something to say then say it.’ I pushed him aside and continued walking, chewing on my lower lip. I knew what was coming. Just thinking about it made me want to run away and hide.

‘Rin-chan.’

His tone made me flinch. It was soft – calm. Unfamiliar.

A raindrop landed on my skin, making me shiver. The downpour had started. A hundred metres in front of me, Ai and Andrew hastened their pace, turning a corner and vanishing from sight.

Three hours and twenty-nine minutes.

‘What is it, Ryo?’ My voice wavered. Even I could hear the plea in it: ‘Don’t say it.’

‘Why are we doing this?’

I whirled around to face him. For the love of – 

I wanted to burst into laughter and cry at the same time. I’d given him a golden opportunity to ask me the question we both dreaded and he was still dancing around it.

‘You know why.’

‘No, I don’t.’ He closed the gap between us. His hands hovered in the air as if he were unsure whether or not he was supposed to comfort me. He dropped them by his sides. ‘Tell me.’

‘No.’

‘Why not?’

‘You know why not.’

‘No, I don’t. Tell me.’

This was an exact repeat of the cafe. Almost word for word.

I glared at him. ‘Don’t do that.’

‘Do what?’

I wanted to hit him. ‘You – ’ I took a breath to calm myself. ‘You know exactly what you’re doing. For God’s sake, just man up and say it!’

His jaw clenched as he looked away.

‘Say it, Ryo.’

He met my gaze and held it steady.

‘Is it because of a vision?”

My chest panged.

I gripped my skirt to stop my good hand from trembling. There was a lump in my throat. I couldn’t look at him – couldn’t meet his eye.

‘Don’t say it like that.’

‘Say it like what?’

I gritted my teeth. ‘Stop it, Ryo.’

‘I just asked if it was because of a vision.’

Another pang. ‘Stop it.’

‘I’m not doing anything. All I said was – ’

‘I said stop!’

‘Stop what?’ He grabbed me by the shoulders. ‘Stop what, Evelyn?’

‘Stop saying “vision” like it’s bullshit!’ He staggered as I shoved him. My eyes were burning. Any minute now and I was going to cry.

Like hell that was going to happen.

I clenched my teeth and blinked the tears away.

Ryo hesitated. ‘Rin-chan…’

Shut up.

He took a step forward. ‘Evelyn, I didn’t mean – ’

Shut up.

‘Look, let’s just go home. We can grab some ice cream, put on a movie and forget about all this. Okay?’

Forget about all this. He wanted me to forget about this? Forget about Andrew. Forget about Ai.

Three hours and twenty minutes.

As if I haven’t spent the last seventeen years trying to forget about events like this…

The rain was gaining momentum, beating out a steady drumbeat as the drops hit the ground. The grey of the pavement grew darker.

That’s right, it was raining during the Incident too. I’d done the same thing then – stood there in the rain trying to explain the situation to someone who didn’t believe me.

At this rate Ai was going to end up just as dead as she did.

The anger vanished. The tears disappeared. Ryo wasn’t the one in danger. What he thought didn’t matter.

I looked him in the eye.

‘12:07AM, Andrew stabs Ai in an alleyway. You can choose to believe me or not; there’s nothing I can do about that. What I can do is stop Ai from getting murdered. So you can go home, watch a movie and forget all about this, but I am not going anywhere.’

He looked at me, dumbfounded. ‘You seriously believe it.'

‘I do. The question is, do you?’

He ran his fingers through his hair, avoiding my eye. He sighed. ‘Come on, Evelyn. Do you have any idea what you sound like when you say things like that? This is why everyone calls you a freak behind your back, you know. I mean, it’s just… well, it’s insane.’

My chest twinged twice.

A freak, huh? Insane, is it?

It took everything I had to keep my voice steady. ‘Like I said, if you don’t believe me then go home.’

‘It’s not that I don’t… I just— It…’ He took a deep breath. ‘It’s just—’

‘Go home, Ryo.’

I forced my feet to move.

‘Rin-chan…’

Ignore it.

‘Rin-chan, I know you can hear me.’

Ignore it. Ignore it. Ignore it.

‘Oh, for cripes' sake, Evelyn, you can’t just—’

A shrill sound cut him off. The noise made my blood curdle. What was that?

I looked back at Ryo – still standing where I’d left him. 

He cocked his head. ‘What?’

How could he be so nonchalant? That was a scream – a horrible, dying scream.

There was a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Andrew couldn’t have— 

No. Impossible. I had over three hours left. 

Yet, why did I have such a feeling of dread?

I broke into a sprint.

‘What are you—? Evelyn! God dammit— Rin, wait!’