Yona reached the house just as the rain began to fall harder, tapping against the roof like impatient fingers. He stood in front of the door, hesitating. The house looked the same..too much the same. Faded red paint. The iron bell above the door. A crack in the lower step where Daiki used to trip over as a kid.
He raised his hand and knocked. After a few seconds, the door opened with a soft creak. A woman stood there, blinking at him through the rain. Her face was older, lined with time, but unmistakably familiar. She looked at Yona with confusion, her brow furrowing.
"Who are you?" she asked.
Yona hesitated for a moment, then offered a small, tired smile.
"I'm… Daiki's friend."
She stared at him. The name seemed to catch in her throat.
"Daiki?" she repeated, eyes narrowing slightly. She looked him over..soaked to the bone, clothes clinging to him, his hair dripping water onto the porch. Her lips parted as if to speak, but something held her back. Then, finally:
"I think you have the wrong house."
Yona shook his head. "No. I'm sure. This is his house."
She studied him a moment longer, her eyes clouded with uncertainty—but also something⁵ softer, something protective. Finally, she stepped aside with a sigh.
"You're soaked. Just… come in. Before you catch a cold."
He stepped inside, the warmth of the house wrapping around him like a memory. The wooden floors creaked beneath his feet. She led him to the guest room, where the lights were dim and a folded blanket rested on the couch.
"I'll bring you something dry," she said gently. "Stay here, alright?"
Yona nodded, barely able to find his voice. "Thank you."
Yona sat quietly on the edge of the couch, rain still dripping from his hair onto the floor. The warmth of the house clashed with the cold storm still clinging to his skin. His eyes were fixed on the hallway where footsteps had just echoed.
Then He entered. He paused mid-step, staring at Yona. Silence stretched between them.
"…Oh," He said, blinking. "Yuro ?"
Yona looked up slowly. His voice was calm, but firm.
"No. I'm not Yuro. I'm Yona."
Daiki squinted at him like he'd misheard. Then laughed once, dry and awkward.
"…Are you losing your mind?" he muttered. "I think the rain soaked straight through your brain."
He walked over and sat down next to Yona, still watching him. "Seriously, what kind of messed-up joke is this?"
Yona didn't smile. He looked at him carefully, voice low.
"My friend disappeared a few weeks ago."
He raised an eyebrow. "What friend are you talking about?"
Yona reached into his wet jacket, pulled out his phone, and wiped the screen dry with his sleeve. Then he opened a photo and turned it toward him.
It was a picture of Daiki standing next to Yona, both smiling, the sky bright behind them. His eyes widened instantly.
"…Are you kidding me?"
He stared at the photo like it had slapped him. Then, slowly, his gaze shifted back to Yona. Something changed in his face ..the humor gone, replaced by a creeping dread. He stood up suddenly, his chair scraping back. His voice dropped, sharp and tense.
"Who are you?"
Yona didn't answer.
"You're not Yuro" he said, taking a step back. "You just look like him. And this boy in the picture you say is your friend..why does he look like me ?"
His voice cracked as he pointed to the screen.
"What's happening?"
Yona remained still. Silent.
His breath quickened. His eyes, once skeptical, were now afraid.. not of Yona, but of something larger, something just beyond his understanding. He whispered again, almost to himself this time:
"…What are you?"
And Yona looked up, eyes shadowed, lips pressed into a line, but he still said nothing. Just then, the sound of thunder rolled softly through the windows, like an echo from a world they'd both forgotten.
The heavy creak of the door broke the silence. His mother stepped into the room, a folded towel in her hands. Her voice was soft, casual, completely unaware of the tension in the air.
"Daigo," she called, her eyes moving between the two boys. "He said he's your friend… came all this way just to see you."
Yona's eyes widened.
" Daigo?" He whispered.
The name echoed in his head like a dropped stone. That's not right… but that's him. That's Daiki's face. And yet...she didn't call him Daiki.
He stared at the boy across from him...Daigo...whose expression was still locked in suspicion and disbelief. Daigo's mother stepped forward and handed Yona the towel.
"Here, sweetheart. Dry yourself off before you catch cold. You're soaked."
Yona took it slowly, murmuring a quiet "Thank you," but his mind was spinning.
She turned back to her son. "Daigo? Is something wrong?"
Daigo's mouth opened slightly, but no words came at first. His eyes didn't leave Yona..he was still trying to piece it together. The picture on the phone. The name Yona. The identical face. The voice.
"…He's not Yuro," Daigo said finally, his voice low and heavy.
His mother furrowed her brow, confused. "Yuro? What are you talking about?"
Daigo didn't answer her. His stare stayed locked on Yona, and he stepped back a little...like he wasn't sure if the boy in front of him was real. Like something had crossed into his world that didn't belong there.
And Yona sat in silence, towel still clutched in his lap. The weight of this new name..Daigo..settling over everything. Another version. Another mirror. Another truth he didn't understand yet.
Daigo sat in rigid silence for a long moment, still watching Yona like he was trying to peel away something hidden beneath his skin. Then, without looking away, he stood up again.
"Come on," he muttered, voice tight. "You can't stay in those wet clothes."
Yona blinked. "…What?"
"I said come on." Daigo turned toward the hallway. "Before my mom asks too many questions."
Yona hesitated, then slowly rose, water dripping from his sleeves as he followed him. As they passed through the living room, Daigo's mother looked up from the kitchen.
"Daigo? Where are you two going?"
"I'm just getting him some dry clothes," Daigo said quickly. "He was caught in the rain. We can't let him stay soaked or he'll get sick."
His mother nodded, half-distracted. "Alright, but don't make a mess, you just cleaned your room."
Daigo grunted in response and led Yona down a narrow hallway. The house smelled like fresh laundry and pine floor cleaner. He opened the door to a small room..neat, a bit too neat, like someone had only just decided to start caring about it.
"Here." He rummaged through a drawer, pulling out a hoodie and a pair of joggers. "They might be a bit tight, but they're dry."
Yona took the clothes slowly, murmuring, "Thanks." He stared at the folded hoodie in his hands like it didn't quite belong in his world.
"Change in here. I'll be right outside," Daigo said. He stepped out and pulled the door halfway closed.
A few minutes later, Yona emerged, still towel..drying his hair, the borrowed hoodie clinging to him like an identity that didn't fit. Daigo didn't say anything..just walked back to the room, and they sat again, side by side, the space between them filled with questions. The tension hung like smoke.
"…So?" Daigo finally muttered. "You gonna explain any of this?"
Yona looked at him, then pulled his phone out again and showed him the photo..bright sky, smiling faces, one of them unmistakably Daiki.
"This was taken two months ago," Yona said quietly. "At the hill behind our school. You were there."
Daigo's face twisted. "Stop calling me that."
"But that's who you are."
"No, it's not," Daigo snapped. "I'm Daigo Minami. Not… Daiki, or whoever that is."
Yona stared, silent. His fingers curled tightly around the phone. "…Diago?" he repeated inside his head. It's him. Same face. Same eyes. But everything else… wrong.
His voice dropped. "Then something's wrong with this world."
Daigo leaned forward slowly. "What do you mean?"
Yona's voice trembled just slightly. "This place...it looks like my world. But it's not. I don't know how… but I think I crossed into somewhere else."
Daigo scoffed at first..halfhearted, not convincing even himself. "You're insane."
Yona looked down. "Maybe. But where I come from… you're my best friend. Your name is Daiki. We were always together."
Daigo's breath caught, just a little. His eyes flicked toward the phone again.
"And now?" he asked.
Yona's reply was barely a whisper. "Now you don't even know me."
The room fell quiet. The rain tapped steadily on the windowpane, soft and haunting. And across from him, Daigo sat, knuckles pale, face unreadable. The photo still glowed faintly between them..like a window to a world only one of them remembered.
Yona didn't speak right away. His fingers moved slowly across the screen, swiping through images like he was sifting through memories no one else could see. Then he turned the phone toward Daigo again..this time with a photo that felt heavier, more impossible than the last.
6 people stood in the picture. Yona was in the center. Surrounding him were Ayumi, Mia, Lena, and now, two more faces.
Aria..calm, composed, the wind gently tugging at her scarf, and Daiki, with his usual bright grin, arm slung casually around Yona's shoulder. The group looked inseparable. Like a family.
Daigo froze.
At first, he didn't react. His eyes scanned the image, darting from one familiar face to the next as if trying to find some mistake. Some flaw. Something to prove it was fake.
But the longer he looked, the more his breath started to catch in his throat. Then, in a sudden jerk, he recoiled slightly, still seated but pressing back into the headboard like he needed distance from the screen.
"…What the hell…" he whispered.
His fingers dug into the blanket. His voice shook. "Why… why do you all look like people I know?"
He pointed at the image. "That's Ayumi. She plays violin at the street festivals. Mia and Lena are in the art college scene… and her," he said, voice faltering, "Aria's in my class. Quiet. Keeps to herself. And him..."
He stopped, staring straight at Daiki's smiling face in the photo.
"That looks exactly like me."
His eyes snapped up to Yona, who still hadn't spoken. Daigo's voice cracked with disbelief.
"Who are you guys? What is this?"
Yona slowly lowered the phone. His expression didn't change—but his eyes were filled with something old. Something that remembered.
"That's because we've known each other forever," he said quietly. "Just not in this version of the world."
The storm rumbled again outside, like it was listening. Daigo didn't say anything. He couldn't. Because for the first time, he wasn't sure which part of his life was real anymore.
Yona sat still for a moment, watching the flicker of panic and confusion in Daigo's eyes. The silence between them stretched thick with questions neither knew how to ask.
Then, finally, Yona spoke...soft, steady, but edged with grief.
"I didn't come here alone," he said, his voice low.
"Ayumi and Mia were with me when we crossed over. We didn't know what was happening at first..one moment we were searching for Daiki and Aria… the next, everything around us was different."
Daigo blinked, eyes still locked on Yona. "…Crossed over?"
Yona nodded slowly. "Our world isn't like this one. Something happened back there. Aria disappeared first..she was just gone one day. No trace, no note, nothing. Then Daiki… he vanished The next day . Just like her. No one remembered him. Like they were erased."
His voice dropped as he looked down at his hands, as if still holding the weight of it.
"We tried to look for them. Me, Mia, Ayumi… and Lena helped us, but the deeper we searched, the more everything started falling apart. Time, memory..people forgetting things that mattered, things that made them real . We thought maybe… they'd been taken somewhere."
He looked up at Daigo again.
"Then something happened to us. We were pulled here. But Mia… Mia didn't make it with us. Somewhere in the crossing, we got separated. Ayumi and I landed in different parts of this world. I found her again. But Mia… I don't know if she's still here. Or if she's lost in between."
Daigo's expression was pale, stunned.
"You're telling me… you're from another world?" he asked, almost breathless. "And those people in the photo..they're not just lookalikes?"
"No," Yona said quietly. "They're real. My friends. My family. You were Daiki. And she…" He pointed gently to the image of Aria, "She was more than any of us understood."
Daigo leaned forward, rubbing his hands over his face, trying to make sense of a puzzle that didn't want solving.
"But that's insane. You're saying I'm someone else. That we've met before, but not here ."
Yona nodded once.
"I came looking for them. For all of you. Because whatever force took Daiki and Aria… it wasn't done. And now it's pulling others, scattering us across versions of reality. This world, your world, might be the key."
Daigo stared at the photo again, heart pounding in his ears. Somewhere deep in his chest, a piece of him whispered that he already knew . He didn't understand it, couldn't explain it, but Yona's words struck something buried and ancient, like a song he'd once known in a dream.
"…Then what are you planning to do now?" he whispered.
Yona looked out the window, where the storm was beginning to ease. Then, slowly, he turned back to Daigo.
"I need your help," Yona said, meeting his eyes with quiet urgency. "You might not remember everything. But you're still Daiki..whether you believe it or not. And you're the only one in this world I can trust."
Daigo didn't answer right away. His breath caught, as if the weight of the name.. Daiki...had just settled on his shoulders.
"We have to find Ayumi. And then we find Mia. Before the world forgets them too."
He looked down at the photo in Yona's hand..at the faces that seemed to watch him from another lifetime.
"…Okay," he finally said, voice barely above a breath. "Tell me what I need to do."
To be continue ...