Day 97.
I didn't go to school today.Not because I was sick.But because I was afraid of what I might remember.
There was something about that music room.The smell of burned wood.The echo of my name, screamed in fear.
My mother thought I just needed rest.She made tea. Told me to sleep.
But how could I sleep,when every time I closed my eyesI saw fire?
I opened my notebook and began writing.
"Day 97.There was a fire.And someone saved me."
I held the pen still for a moment. Then added:
"Was it Ren?"
The letters looked shaky.I wasn't sure anymore if it was because of my hands—or because the truth itself was trembling inside me.
That evening, I returned to the school.The gates were locked, but I knew how to climb them.I had done it before, years ago, when we used to sneak in after hours.
Me and…someone.A boy.
I walked through the shadowed hallways.Every door I passed whispered a memory I couldn't reach.
When I stood before the old music room again, my knees nearly gave out.
The door was still scorched.Blackened by flames long gone.I reached out to touch it—and another memory hit me like lightning.
Flash.
Smoke everywhere.Screams.
My own voice yelling, "Help!"
I saw a hand grabbing mine—pulling me through a shattered window.
Then—a fall.Pain.Silence.
I gasped and stumbled back, heart pounding.
That hand...That voice…
It was Ren.
He had saved me.
But… if he saved me,why didn't he remember?Why did he look at me like a stranger?
Unless…
He wasn't the only one in that fire.
The next morning, I waited for him by the school gates.
He looked annoyed when he saw me.
"You again?" he muttered.
I didn't smile this time.
"There was a fire," I said. "In the music room. You were there."
He froze.
"No, I wasn't."
"You pulled me out. I remembered."
His hand clenched around the strap of his bag.
"I told you—" he began, but his voice cracked.
I stepped closer.
"Why are you lying?"
He turned his back.
"Because you were never supposed to remember."
That night, I wrote in my notebook:
"Day 96.He knew.He always knew.And he chose silence."
I stared at the page.The ink smeared slightly where my tears landed.
"What happened in that room?What are you protecting me from, Ren?"