He had made up his mind.
Aarav stood at the edge of the rooftop, five stories above the ground. The night was quiet. The wind, still. But inside him, a storm had long since settled into silence.
No tears. No anger. Just… nothing.
His hoodie fluttered slightly around him, his hands buried in the pockets, his shoes resting half off the ledge. Below, the empty street waited dark and indifferent.
It wasn't like in the movies. No dramatic goodbye, no note, no poetic message left behind for the world. There was only one thought echoing in his head, one he had whispered to himself every night for months: "No one is coming. No one ever did."
His phone buzzed once in his pocket. Probably another spam message. He didn't check it. What was the point?
He closed his eyes and took a breath not to calm himself, but to feel something one last time. The air was cold, biting at his skin. It made him feel real, just for a second.
And then… he stepped forward.
Gravity welcomed him with open arms. The wind roared past his ears. For a moment, time slowed, stretching out like the last note of a sad song.
There was no fear. No regret.
Just peace…
Then…
A sound.
Not from the world outside… but from inside his mind.
A low, distorted voice crackled through the silence.
["System… error… detected…"]
Aarav's eyes widened, but it was too late. A blinding flash swallowed his vision—white, violent, unnatural.
And then everything stopped.
No ground. No impact. No pain…..
Just darkness….
He opened his eyes.
His room. His fan. His bed. The same cracked wallpaper, the same yellowed light blinking weakly in the ceiling.
For a second, he didn't move. He just stared at the ceiling, his breathing shallow.
He was… alive?
He sat up, slowly, his heart pounding now—not because he had survived—but because he hadn't expected to.
This wasn't a dream. He could still feel the wind from the rooftop. The fearlessness. The fall. And now, this.
Then he saw it.
On the wall across from him, glowing faintly, almost as if burned into the air itself—words.
[ Welcome to the Echo System. ]
[Your death has been reversed. ]
[ Mission: Resolve Regret #1 — The Night She Forgot You. ]
[ You have 12 regrets. You must fix them all. Or die permanently. ]
His breath caught….!!
He knew exactly what night it meant.
The night that broke him.
The night her eyes stopped looking at him the same way.
The night her voice lost its warmth.
The night the world didn't end but his did.
He had spent the last three years trying to forget that night. Trying to bury it beneath fake smiles and dead routines.
And now, he was being forced to live it again.
Not as punishment.
But as the only way to survive.He clenched his fists, his hands trembling.
He had already tried to die.
But this… This might hurt even more…!