Day 79.
"What's your favorite color?"
Ren asked me as we sat on the rooftop, feet dangling over the edge.
I opened my mouth to answer.
Paused.
Then closed it.
"I… I don't know."
It was small.Just a detail.A favorite color.A simple thing most people never forget.
But when I couldn't find the answer—it felt like something inside me cracked.
I laughed. Softly. Nervously.
Ren didn't laugh.
He looked at me with quiet sadness.
"It's okay," he said.
And I hated that it was.
Day 78.
I wrote my name at the top of a test paper.But halfway through class, I looked down and didn't recognize it.
"Sakuragi Aoi."
The letters blurred.
It looked like someone else's name.
I raised my hand.Excused myself.
And once I was alone in the bathroom, I stared at the mirror and whispered:
"Who are you?"
That night, Ren came to visit.
I opened the door with tired eyes.He didn't ask how I was.
He just held up a bag of cold drinks and said, "Thought you might need something sweet."
We sat in silence, watching some old anime rerun on TV.
I wasn't paying attention.My mind kept drifting.
And then I asked:
"If I stop being me… will you still stay?"
He looked straight at me.
"You'll always be you to me."
I smiled.
But in my heart,it felt like goodbye.
Day 77.
I forgot how to tie my hair.
Something I did every day since I was ten—gone.
Ren came over and helped.
Quiet hands.Familiar.Gentle.
He didn't say anything.
But when I looked at him in the mirror,I saw tears in his eyes.
Later, I wrote:
"Day 77.I forgot how I look with my hair tied.But he remembered."
"Maybe I'm already gone.And he's holding on to the ghost of me."
Day 76.
I found an old picture in my drawer.
Me and Ren.We were younger.Smiling.
There was writing on the back.
"Our first summer. Don't forget me."
I stared at it for a long time.
Then I cried.Not because I remembered—but because I didn't.
That night, I tore out a blank page.
Wrote carefully:
"To the girl I might not recognize soon—Please be kind to him.He's carrying your memories in place of you."