Kaoru Hoshitani did not take his phone with him when he went to the bathroom.
The black phone lay quietly on the nightstand, screen facing down, as if it were nothing more than an ordinary, harmless object.
Only the warm yellow bedside lamp was still on in the bedroom, its soft light falling over the phone and giving it a calm, faint glow.
Aina Saiten lay on the bed, but her gaze drifted uncontrollably toward the phone.
A trace of hesitation crossed her face.
She knew it was wrong to look through Kaoru’s phone, and she knew that trust was the foundation of their relationship.
She knew that if Kaoru found out, he would be deeply hurt.
But—
Those photographs, those lies, those unexplainable clues—like countless thorns, they pierced her heart and gave her no peace.
After hesitating again and again, she finally reached out.
The moment her fingers touched the cold metal of the phone, her heartbeat skipped.
She picked it up and pressed the power button. The screen lit up, revealing the lock screen wallpaper—a photo of the two of them. It was taken last year at an amusement park, both of them smiling happily.
She entered her own birthday.
The phone unlocked.
Both of them used each other’s birthdays as their passcodes, numbers most familiar to one another.
Once, this small detail had filled her with sweetness.
She opened a social app. In the friend list, the contact labeled “Miss Ayase” sat quietly there.
The profile picture was a white flower, simple and clean.
She tapped it.
Their chat history only contained messages from today.
All previous messages had clearly been deleted.
Aina Saiten’s fingers trembled slightly. She took a deep breath and began reading today’s conversation.
Chinatsu Ayase’s message was simple—asking whether the president was in the office. If not, she would come up to “slack off.”
Kaoru’s reply was just as simple—“The president is not here.”
Then Chinatsu Ayase sent an “OK” emoji.
That was all.
Yet it was precisely this simple exchange that made Aina Saiten’s heart sink to the bottom.
‘So… Kaoru and Junior Chinatsu were alone together in the office until the end of the workday…’
She recalled the scene from earlier that afternoon, when she had been waiting for Kaoru in the lobby and saw the two of them walk out of the elevator together, chatting and laughing.
The image was so piercing, so vivid, as if it had been carved into her mind.
So many clues pointed to Kaoru having an unclear relationship with another woman.
And yet, there was no direct evidence to make her give up completely.
What chilled her even more was how cleanly Kaoru had deleted the chat history—this meant he had already anticipated it, anticipated that she might check his phone.
It was deliberate.
He was guarding against her.
“Kaoru…”
Her voice was soft, so soft that only she could hear it.
“Have you really changed your feelings… then why do you still ask me to trust you…”
A tear slipped from the corner of her eye, tracing down her cheek before soaking into the pillow.
Even the strongest hearts break when sorrow runs deep.
When Kaoru Hoshitani returned to the bedroom from the bathroom, he saw his girlfriend lying on the bed with her back facing him.
Her figure looked stiff and lonely, as if separated by an invisible wall.
Standing by the bed, Kaoru felt tears well up again.
He bit his lower lip, forcing himself to hold them back, then silently climbed onto the bed.
Curling his body, he moved closer to Aina, resting his back against hers.
The warmth was familiar, yet it filled him with an indescribable sadness.
He closed his eyes, not daring to think further, curling up like a wounded animal hiding in a corner, quietly nursing his pain.
Half an hour later.
Only when she heard his breathing behind her become steady did Aina Saiten slowly turn around.
She looked at Kaoru, curled into a ball.
In sleep, he looked as he always did—quiet and harmless.
His long eyelashes cast faint shadows under his eyes. His lips were slightly pursed, and faint tear marks still remained on his face.
She reached out and gently, carefully pulled him into her arms.
Only then did she reach behind her back, her fingers touching dampness.
The back of her sleepwear had already been soaked by his tears, the fabric wet and cold against her skin.
Her heart felt as if it were being tightly gripped.
Countless times, she had wanted to turn around, to hold him, to comfort him.
She wanted to know why he was crying, what exactly was hurting him.
But who would comfort her?
Aina Saiten could not understand.
If Kaoru was this sad, why did he still do those things?
If being with other women caused him such pain, why continue?
Why hide it from her?
Why lie to her?
She could not sleep.
Every time she closed her eyes, images of Kaoru with other women appeared in her mind—blurred yet piercing, making her heart ache and her breathing uneven.
So she lay there with her eyes open, holding the man who still whimpered softly in his sleep, staring at the ceiling until her eyes grew dry and her consciousness blurred.
Then suddenly, a thought flashed through her mind.
‘Right… that phone…’
The old phone buried deep in the wardrobe.
She had a strong feeling that the strange app was somehow connected to the unknown message from this morning.
The coincidence was too strange, too unsettling, to ignore.
Carefully, she climbed out of bed, moving as quietly as possible so as not to wake her boyfriend.
Moonlight filtered through the curtains, casting a faint silver-gray glow over the dim bedroom.
Barefoot, she stepped onto the cold floor, walked to the wardrobe, and gently opened it.
Using her own phone’s flashlight, she searched through the depths.
Clothes, blankets, old items—finally, in the farthest corner, she felt a cold metallic object.
The old phone.
She took it out and pressed the power button.
The screen did not light up.
After being left unused in the wardrobe for over a month, it was clearly out of battery.
Holding the phone, she prepared to plug it in and charge it for a while before checking it in the restroom.
She turned, walked to the nightstand, picked up the charger, and was just about to plug it in—
Before her fingers even touched the charging port, the phone that had not powered on earlier suddenly lit up.
The startup screen slowly appeared.
Aina Saiten froze, a sense of unease rising in her heart.
She assumed the phone, already a few years old and left unused for so long, might be malfunctioning—perhaps a battery issue, perhaps a system glitch.
But as the startup screen finished, just as she was about to unlock it—
She watched, wide-eyed, as the phone unlocked itself.
No input, no action—it simply unlocked on its own.
Her pupils shrank instantly.
And the strangeness did not stop there.
She saw the screen begin to move, as if controlled by an invisible hand.
Icons flickered past one by one until an app was opened.
It had a yellow background with a white alarm clock in the center.
An app she would never forget.
In the next second, the lines of text appeared before her:
Days remaining until your boyfriend, Kaoru Hoshitani, is taken:
Fifty days
Aina Saiten’s breathing stopped in that instant.
“What is this…”
She remembered clearly.
The first time she entered this app, there had already been a countdown—at that time, it showed one hundred days.
But now—
Her mind raced, countless thoughts surging wildly.
She grabbed her other phone, intending to check the calendar, as if to confirm something—
The moment the screen lit up, she saw the time on the lock screen:
23:59
The last minute before midnight.
She stared at the numbers, her fingers trembling uncontrollably.
Her heartbeat thundered in her ears like a drum.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds—
The time turned to 00:00.
A new day began.
Aina Saiten took a deep breath and slowly turned her head to look at the old phone.
The number on the screen had changed.
Days remaining until your boyfriend, Kaoru Hoshitani, is taken:
forty-nine days
In that instant, she felt her blood run completely cold.