Mira exhaled a long breath - finally back in her normal clothes again. The kimono had been beautiful, but she could barely breathe in it. Inside the car, the road toward the airport felt longer than she expected. Afternoon light slid across the dashboard, the traffic signs passing one by one, and the air between them was sharp in a way she couldn’t name. Her heart beat faster than usual - a dizzy pressure rising from her ribs - and she didn’t know if it came from the long road or from him. His words earlier — that he would take responsibility for her misfortune-stayed lodged in her mind like a weight she couldn’t set down. She couldn’t bring herself to look directly at him, not when her chest felt too tight.

  Then he spoke - sudden enough that she almost jolted.

  “We still have time before boarding. There’s a small sweet shop near the terminal. Want something cold before we go in?”

  Mira could hear her heartbeat thump, so suddenly she almost forgot to breathe. Calm down, Mira — it’s just a stop before a flight. She told herself to breathe, but the breath wouldn’t settle right. The outside noise and chatter from the street were gone now, and being alone with him in this small car suddenly felt… too direct. No people around to distract her, no place to look except forward or at him. Her face grew warm on its own, her chest tight like her body had already decided something before she could think. Mira gave a small, hesitant nod — then turned quickly toward the window, as if the passing scenery could cool her face before her pulse betrayed her.

  But before the heat in her cheeks could take over completely, the radio cut in — the short news segment tone snapping through the speakers like a sudden rescue.

  60 SECONDS HOT NEWS.

  “Tomorrow — October thirty-first — the Halloween full moon arrives with an alignment that almost never occurs within any recorded era. Three long-period rhythms converge at once: the peak of the Hallstatt solar cycle — a roughly twenty-three-hundred-year modulation first identified in ancient radiocarbon records — a perigee full moon at its closest orbital point, and the apex of the eighteen-point-six-year lunar nodal cycle. The last time these conditions coincided this closely was around four BCE. Models suggest the probability of another overlap is roughly once every two thousand years.”

  Mira blinked — suddenly grateful for the distraction. And despite herself, she leaned in a little — because this actually sounded interesting. The pressure in her chest loosened, just enough that she could finally speak normally again.

  “What’s Hallstatt? Are we safe?”

  Adrian glanced at her — his expression turning measured, like he was choosing his words.

  “Hallstatt is a 2,400-year solar oscillation. The sun’s output varies by about 0.1 percent. Over centuries, that shifts global temperature by 0.5 °C. When the cycle is low, we see fewer sunspots, weaker solar wind, slightly cooler decades - like the frozen Thames in the 1600s. Right now we’re in a high phase. When it’s high, the sun is a shade stronger. Monsoons get more intense. Wet seasons get wetter. Parts of Japan, Europe, and the U.S. see heavier rainfall, snow storm, warmer summers, and occasionally bigger floods.”

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  He paused. His eyes stayed on her for a second or two, then added.

  “The moon will hang low, sharp, haloed for ninety seconds at midnight. You’ll capture something the sky won’t repeat for another two millennia.”

  “A full moon on Halloween… once in two thousand years,” she murmured, almost to herself. “That’s worth staying up. Do you think it’ll stir something? More ghosts wandering around campus?”

  Adrian’s breath slipped out in a sound that was almost a laugh - though there was something restrained underneath it, like he wasn’t completely treating her words as a joke.

  Adrian’s gaze stayed forward for a moment.

  “Do you want to see if something actually shows up?”

  He said it like a tease - but she could feel there was something real behind it. A small thrill went through her - ghost hunting at midnight was one thing, but with him?

  Wait…

  Did Adrian even care about these myths?

  Catching a once-in-millennia full moon on the rooftop… it almost sounded like a ghost-haunting date.

  Mira could hear her own heartbeat pick up - her cheeks suddenly warm. She looked at him for half a second, then snapped her gaze away again.

  No - calm down, Mira.

  He didn’t even ask you to go out together at midnight.

  Don’t overthink it. She tried not to let that thought sit too long on her face. She glanced down, her gaze grazing the small space between them, noting how Adrian’s hand stayed a bit closer than before, a subtle shift that felt like an invitation. The warmth of his proximity, even in the stillness, caused something to stir within her—a flutter that was both unfamiliar and strangely comforting.

  “I… don’t usually stay up that late,” Mira said, eyes dropping instantly to her lap, anything to avoid the directness of his gaze.

  “I can wake you. Just for the moment we need.” Adrian didn’t even hesitate.

  Mira froze - completely undone.

  Mira could feel her whole mind jam at once. How did she even get here? It almost felt like no matter what she said, or which topic she tried to steer toward - it all circled back to the same place with him.

  And that terrified her in a way nothing supernatural ever had.

  The topic she wanted to avoid had become the exact place she stood - and he was looking at her, waiting, like he had already stepped into that space first.

  Her heart hammered so loudly she wondered if he could hear it.

  For a breath, neither of them spoke.

  Then Adrian leaned in just a little, enough for her to feel how focused he was on her in that exact second.

  “Should I take that as a yes?” he asked.

  She couldn’t even hide behind words anymore.

  They would betray her instantly.

  She lowered her head, fingers still pressed near her lips, shoulders tightening the way they always did when she was caught in something she never planned to admit.

  All she could manage was a tiny nod - small, breath-quick, surrendering to the fact that this had already gone farther than she intended.

  And he knew it.