“Is this all in my head?”
Haru blinks at me. “What do you mean?”
“Why can’t anyone else see you?”
He says nothing.
“Did you really show up to the café last night?” I pause, swallowing my breath. “Or did I imagine that, too?” The more I hear myself say it, the less it makes sense. “Why do you keep disappearing?”
“Why does it matter? I’m here right now.”
“This doesn’t feel real. How you showed up out of the blue.”
“It feels real to me…”
Haru leans forward, brushing my hair from my forehead. The touch of him makes me go still, pulling me back to the summer before. For a moment, I let myself believe it’s him. That we found each other again after all this time. But I can’t help wondering how this is possible. I move his hand away and say nothing.
Haru presses his lips together. Then he reaches into his back pocket. “Maybe this will prove I am…” He pulls out a slip of paper. I watch as he starts folding it in front of me. Then he places it in my hand. It’s an origami star. Like the one he made me last summer.
“The paper star,” I say.
“You remember, then.”
“Of course I do.”
Haru smiles. “Don’t let this one fly away.”
We look at each other. As I open my mouth to speak, someone calls my name from down the hall, interrupting the moment. I turn my head and Kevin comes toward me.
There’s a shift in the light. Like waking from a daydream. I don’t have to turn to know Haru isn’t there anymore. But I look back anyway. The other side of the bench is empty. All that’s left is a paper star in my hand. I run my finger over it as Kevin takes a seat next to me. There’s a silence before he asks, “Is everything alright out here?”
I close my hands, hiding the paper star from him. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I say.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, great.”
“You don’t seem like yourself today.”
I take in a deep breath and sigh. “You don’t have to worry about me,” I tell him. “Sorry for walking out like that though. I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
Kevin shakes his head. “You didn’t embarrass me. I just wanted to check up on you.”
“I told you, I’m fine.”
Another silence. Then Kevin leans in and says, “I know that things are different… since Jasmine—”
“We don’t need to talk about this,” I cut him off. Before he has a chance to say more, I rise abruptly from the bench. “I actually have to be somewhere. So I should get going.”
“Where are you going?”
I don’t answer this. “Thank you for inviting me.”
“Eric, wait—”
I don’t stop as I head for the elevator. I feel a pang of guilt for leaving this way. Especially when he’s only trying to help me out. But it’s not a conversation I want to have right now. I press the elevator button and step inside. As it begins to close, Kevin appears on the other side just in time to say one last thing.
“Text me if you need anything.”
