Ms. Gojo thought she was dating an ordinary person's boyfriend.

Sunlight filtered through the branches and leaves of the roadside trees, casting dappled patterns of light on them.

Sumi Kikawa noticed that Satoru Gojo's pace was actually very fast, but he would always slow down at a subtle point in time so that Satoru could keep up.

The bookstore is tucked away on the second floor of an old building. The wooden stairs creak slightly when you step on them. A faded old sign hangs on the door that reads "Inoue Bookstore".

Pushing open the door, the scent of old books and new paper wafts out. The store is dimly lit, with a few warm-colored light bulbs casting a gentle glow between the bookshelves.

There were only a few scattered customers in the shop, making it as quiet as a library.

"This is it." Gojo Satoru lowered his voice and pointed to the left. "The medical area is over there."

"Thank you," said Sumi Kichikawa.

"No need to keep thanking me," Gojo Satoru waved his hand. "I'm going to take a look around over there."

He walked lightly toward the children's picture book section.

Kikawa Sumi watched him go for a while before turning and walking towards the medical area.

There are dozens of books about pediatrics on the bookshelf, some of which he has already read, and some of which are old editions that he has never seen before.

He pulled out one of the newly published pediatric clinical guidelines, leaned against the bookshelf and started flipping through it, his brows furrowing more and more unconsciously.

He turned to the references page, trying to write down the names of those papers so he could look them up later.

The warm light overhead cast a soft shadow on his focused profile, his black hair falling slightly to cover half his forehead. His fingers, long and steady, turned the pages, the tips occasionally tapping lightly on the paper.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the bookstore, Satoru Gojo was wandering around the picture book section.

He had only wanted to find a place to kill time, but for some reason he was drawn to the colorful covers. He randomly picked one up and glanced at the words on the cover.

The cover is a deep blue, like a windless night sky. A full moon hangs in the sky, and below it is a small house with a light on.

moon.

He remembered the assignment he had given to the second graders a couple of days ago, muttered something under his breath, and then turned to the first page.

Mr. Moon is lonely.

Because everyone was asleep, no one was there to talk to him.

He paused for a moment.

Then I turned the page again.

But there was still one window with a light on.

He is a doctor.

He comes home very late every day.

Gojo Satoru's fingertips hovered over the edge of the book page.

The pale blue eyes narrowed slightly behind the black eye mask.

"...What?" he muttered to himself.

He closed the picture book and put it back on the shelf. The moon on the cover still hung there quietly, next to the window with the light on.

The silhouette of the little figure drawn in the window was very blurry, and it was impossible to tell whether it was male or female. It was just looking down, as if it was reading a book.

Gojo Satoru stared at the little figure for a few seconds, then straightened his blindfold, turned around, walked out of the picture book section, and ran to look at other places.

Surprisingly, no one bothered him for the entire afternoon. He put down his book and walked back to the medical area, where Sumi Kichikawa was still in the same position as before.

He paused for a moment, and through the gap between several rows of bookshelves, he saw Susumu Kikawa standing under the warm yellow light of the medical area, looking down at a very thick book, her brows furrowed and her lips slightly pursed in a smile.

The light bathed the bookshelves around him in the hue of an old photograph.

Gojo Satoru suddenly remembered that late night at the convenience store, when the man stood in front of him with the same focused expression, pointed to his under-eye area, and said—"Your dark circles have gotten worse."

He unconsciously touched his blindfold.

Then walk over.

"Have you finished watching?"

Sumire Kichikawa looked up and blinked.

He seemed to have just snapped out of his daze from the dense medical terminology, his eyes momentarily blank.

"Alright," he said, then closed the book, glanced down at the code on the title page, and put it back on the shelf. "Let's go."

It was already getting dark when I came out of the bookstore.

The twilight bathed the entire street in a soft orange light. The streetlights had just come on, stretching along the sidewalk one after another, like a dotted line drawn in the air.

The air was filled with the aroma of freshly baked bread, wafting from some bakery, warm and sweet. In the distance, groups of middle school students walked home, the charms on their backpacks jingling softly.

"Is today's event over?" Gojo Satoru stood at the bookstore entrance and stretched.

As he stretched, the hem of his shirt lifted slightly, revealing a small section of his waistline. He was completely unaware of it, only feeling a comfortable stretch in his back muscles.

Sumire Kikawa's gaze lingered on that spot for a moment, then naturally shifted away.

"That's about enough," he said, pausing before adding, "The kids should be going to bed soon."

Gojo Satoru paused for a moment: "...Are you talking about me?"

"...It's not you." Sumire Kikawa glanced at him, a faint smile playing on her lips. "It's my patient."

Gojo Satoru paused for a moment, then burst out laughing.

He laughed without any regard for his image, his voice sounding particularly clear in the twilight, attracting the attention of passing middle school students.

"What? I thought you were concerned about my schedule."

"Your sleep schedule is terrible too."

"Oh?" Gojo Satoru stopped laughing, tilting his head to look at him. His expression was unclear under his eye patch, but the corner of his mouth still held the curve of his smile, like a crescent moon that hadn't had time to disappear. "So, that's double the care?"

Sumi Kichikawa did not refute.

He simply looked at Gojo Satoru and remained silent for a while.

The light in the twilight was almost gone, and the orange glow of the streetlights became the only source of light.

Gojo Satoru's white hair shimmered with a soft golden glow under the lamplight, gently stirred by the night breeze.

He stood on this ordinary sidewalk in Tokyo, wearing a strange blindfold, yet his back was perfectly straight, his posture exuding an innate nobility and composure.

It was exceptionally conspicuous.

"Then I'm leaving," said Sumi Kichikawa.

"Okay." Gojo Satoru nodded. "I'm leaving too."

Both of them turned around.

But after taking only two steps, Sumi Kichikawa unconsciously stopped.

He turned around and looked at Gojo Satoru's back.

The tall figure walked further and further away along the street illuminated by orange streetlights, her white hair appearing and disappearing in the crowd, her steps unhurried, with a lazy lightness.

He's actually not good at remembering people's backs.

In countless worlds, he has seen the backs of too many people—the backs of protagonists, the backs of supporting characters, and those who were just passing acquaintances, walking further and further away in the twilight after the story ends.

For a long time, he had been used to seeing people off, used to not trying to keep them, used to letting out a soft breath after they disappeared, and then turning around and walking towards his own door that didn't belong to any world.

But now he's standing here.

An ordinary commercial street in Tokyo.

This was an ordinary dusk, no different from any of the otherworldly realms he had ever experienced before.

"..." Sumire Kichikawa lowered her eyes.

Then he looked up and glanced in that direction again.

Gojo Satoru's figure was almost disappearing around the next street corner, leaving only the outline of a small tuft of white hair, like a slowly sinking star in the sea of ​​orange lights.

Sumire Kichikawa withdrew her gaze.

He pulled his hand out of his pocket and touched the back of his neck—it felt a little cool from the night breeze.

Then he turned and walked towards his apartment.

His pace remained steady.

It was just a little slower than usual.

At the other end of the street, Gojo Satoru had one hand in his pocket, took off his blindfold with the other, put on sunglasses, and held a cell phone in the other hand. The screen was lit up, showing an unsent text message with Shoko's name in the recipient field.

The cursor is blinking in the blank space.

He hovered his thumb above the screen, thought for a few seconds, and then typed out each word carefully:

What do you think is the probability that one person will frequently encounter another person?

He stared at the sentence for a while.

The streetlight shone through his sunglasses, casting a warm orange hue over his pale blue eyes as he stared at the screen. His fingertip paused on the send button.

Then he clicked his tongue, deleted the entire sentence, and retyped a new line:

I have a question for you.

Delete it.

Again:

【never mind.】

Then he locked his phone, casually stuffed it into his pocket, tilted his head back, and gently exhaled at the starless Tokyo night sky.

The smile that had just appeared at the bookstore entrance still lingered on the corner of her mouth.

The night wind ruffled the white hair on his forehead, but he didn't care. He simply put his hands in his pockets and continued walking slowly away along the orange dotted line of streetlights.

In my pocket, the unfinished strawberry candy lay quietly next to the band-aid and eye drops, the hard candy shell making a soft, clattering sound as it rubbed against the fabric.