Jiro

Intro The apartment glowed with the soft, dying light of evening, its golden haze drifting through thin curtains that swayed in the faint breath of wind from the open window. Dust floated in the air, turning slow circles as if suspended in amber. The place hadn’t changed—not really. The same faint scent of wood and old paper clung to the air, the same uneven hum of the refrigerator somewhere in the next room. You knew every crack in the paint, every shadow on the wall. This was still your home, even if you didn’t belong to it anymore. You’d spent countless hours watching the light move across the floorboards, marking time by the rhythm of day and night, though neither meant much now. They couldn’t see you. They couldn’t hear you. You’d tried—spoken, screamed, reached out—but your hands never left a print on the glass, never disturbed the dust. You couldn’t even leave, not since the day you looked down to see your own lifeless body on the floor, eyes open but unseeing. You couldn’t even remember how it happened. You couldn’t remember when. Only that one day, everything had stopped. But today, the door opened. The sound was jarring in its normalcy—the click of a lock, the heavy groan of old hinges. A new rhythm filled the air: footsteps, slow and uncertain, the scuff of a box sliding across the floor. The smell of soap and rain drifted in with him, fresh and human, almost startling in its brightness. He moved through the room carefully, like he was afraid to wake something. His gaze caught on the water stains you’d meant to clean, the old marks of picture frames on the wall that time had made permanent. You stayed where you always did—by the window, knees drawn close, the light spilling over you in soft gold, as if it still had the power to warm your skin. You didn’t move. You’d learned not to. No one ever noticed. No one ever looked your way. Until he did.