"The most painful thing isn't being forgotten.
It's remembering alone."**
---
The rest of the school day passed in a haze.
I walked the halls, sat in class, listened to teachers talk about things I didn't care about — but none of it stayed. Like reading words underwater.
All I could think about was her.
The girl from my dreams.
The one I had called Yume.
The one I had just seen… in real life.
She was here. She existed. But she didn't know me.
And that fact hurt more than I expected.
---
During lunch break, I sat on the rooftop alone — the place where no one really goes. The wind up here always felt cleaner. More honest.
I leaned back against the wall and stared at the sky. It was just as blue as it always was. Just as indifferent.
"She's real," I whispered to no one. "She's actually real."
My heart beat too loudly in my chest. Not out of joy.
But because I didn't know what to do now.
---
In the dream, she laughed with me, danced under the moonlight, told me she missed me.
In reality?
She didn't even glance at me twice.
She walked past me in the hallway like I was just another blur in her day. Just another background noise in her real world.
And yet... it *was* her.
Same silver-lavender hair. Same quiet eyes like deep water. The same tiny scar just below her left ear — I remembered touching it in the dream once, wondering how she got it.
There was no mistake.
---
"Why don't you remember me…?"
The words came out like a question to the wind. But the wind didn't answer.
I had a strange urge to go talk to her.
But what would I even say?
**"Hi, we've been meeting in dreams. You don't remember, but I do."**
Yeah. That sounded like a great way to get labeled insane.
---
I didn't speak to her that day.
I watched her from afar.
She was always with two or three classmates. Quiet. Reserved. A bit mysterious, even among them.
She rarely smiled.
Even when she did, it felt… off. Like she was forcing it. Like a mask she wore because the world expected her to.
That made me even more certain.
She *was* the same girl from my dream.
But something was wrong.
And I didn't know how to fix it.
---
That night, I lay in bed longer than usual. I stared at the ceiling and let the thoughts circle endlessly.
Was it just coincidence?
Was it all my imagination?
Or was this something more?
The stars outside my window were faint tonight. But I closed my eyes anyway.
And as sleep pulled me under like waves in the sea, I prayed.
**"Let her be there again."**
---
When I opened my eyes, I was no longer in my room.
I was standing under the sakura tree.
Again.
The dream world had returned. So vivid. So still. The petals floated around me like soft snow. The air smelled faintly of rain and old memories.
And she was there.
Yume.
Wearing the same white dress, her hair drifting in the wind.
She stood barefoot by the river, skipping stones across the surface like she always did when she was thinking.
I took a step toward her.
She turned to me and smiled.
My chest ached.
"I missed you," she said.
It was always the same.
Always warm. Always heartbreaking.
"I saw you today," I whispered. "In real life."
She blinked. "What do you mean?"
"You were there. At my school. Standing by the lockers."
She tilted her head, looking confused. "School…?"
"You looked at me," I said, my voice shaking, "but you didn't recognize me."
Her smile faded.
She looked down at the river. "I don't go to school anymore."
"What?"
"I… don't remember. I only remember here. With you."
My breath caught.
This wasn't just a dream.
This was something else. Something deeper. Something between worlds.
---
She knelt by the water and reached her hand into the surface. The reflection rippled.
For a moment, I saw a strange image flicker in the water — her, sitting in a hospital room, asleep. Pale. Unmoving.
And then it vanished.
"Yume…"
She stood and walked toward me. Her eyes softer than ever before.
"I think I'm forgetting something important," she whispered. "Something I promised not to forget."
She reached out, brushing her fingers against mine. Warm. Real.
"But every time the sun rises, it all disappears."
---
"I don't want to forget you anymore," she said.
Tears burned behind my eyes.
"I won't let you," I said, grabbing her hand. "Even if it means dreaming forever."
She looked at me with an emotion I couldn't name — part sorrow, part hope, part something I didn't understand.
And she nodded.
---
"I want to remember your name," she whispered.
"You can call me Aoi."
She smiled.
"Aoi…"
That was the first time she said it.
And just as her lips formed my name again—
---
I woke up.
The light through the window was too bright.
And my hand was reaching out toward nothing.
---
At school, I passed her again.
And once again, she didn't look at me.
But this time, I didn't feel hopeless.
Because I had seen it.
She wanted to remember.
Even if she didn't yet.
---
> "If I can't reach her in this world,
> then I'll meet her in the one where dreams are real."