The boy tugged at the corner of his mouth.
His expression was stiff.
He had meant to smile.
It wasn't often that he got to see Ya Ya again, and he hadn't wanted things between them to feel so heavy, so oppressive... so unpleasant...
But...
So far, his reunion with Ya Ya had none of the clichéd storybook scenarios.
Ya Ya treated him like a stranger.
She had no desire to talk to him.
He had even learned something.
The fact that he had agonized over for so long—the way he had left without a word back then—had barely stirred a ripple in her heart.
The boy felt as if someone had dumped a whole basin of ice water over him, chilling him to the bone.
In this state of mind—
Maybe the other person had only been stating a fact when she said he couldn't see her.
But hearing it now, he couldn't help getting caught up in a painful thought...
Did Ya Ya hope even more that he couldn't see her?
The boy asked her.
His expression was stiff.
His face had gone a little pale.
The gray-haired monster gave him a puzzled look.
"Why would I hope you couldn't see me?"
"It's just that I ran into something similar before..."
It was right there in front of her, but the expression on that person's face grew more and more confused, more and more anxious.
She called out to it loudly.
It answered.
But it only answered the first three times.
And each time, it answered loudly.
Unfortunately, no matter how loudly it answered...
It made no difference.
She still couldn't hear it.
And she still couldn't see it.
After that, it fell silent.
It watched her search everywhere for it.
Until the sun set