It was a quiet morning.Cloudy.Still.
Ren didn't knock on the door this time.
He just sat on the park bench—the one facing the old cherry blossom tree.Not yet in bloom.Maybe it never would.
Inside the house, Aoi sat alone.Blank notebook on her lap.One hand tracing the lines of its worn leather cover.
Her eyes were empty.
Not in sadness.Not in confusion.
But in pure, irreversible absence.
She blinked slowly.Looked down at the notebook again.Opened it.
And saw handwriting she didn't recognize.Photos she couldn't name.Drawings she might have made.
She touched her own name—Aoi—but it didn't ring in her bones.
She turned the pages.Stopped at one.
A letter.
From someone named Ren.
She read:
"If you're reading this…then today is Day 0."
"The day you've forgotten everything."
"I'm not here to remind you who I am.""I'm not asking you to remember me."
"I just want you to know—""You were loved."
"You laughed in the rain.""You held someone's hand when they were scared.""You gave someone a reason to keep living."
"You existed beautifully."
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
Not out of memory.
But out of something deeper.
Something unnamed.
Something human.
She turned the last page.
It was blank.
She sat in silence for a long time.
Then closed the notebook.Pressed it to her chest.And looked out the window.
Across the park, on that same bench,Ren stood up.
He didn't wave.Didn't cry.Didn't speak.
He just watched.
One last time.
Then turned away.
And walked.
Not to forget.But to carry.
Because some loveis too heavy to holdand too sacred to leave behind.
"Sometimes, we don't love so we'll be remembered.Sometimes, we love…so someone else doesn't feel alone,even in their forgetting."
END -- Thanks for reading