Prologue - Record one.

  It was raining, but the soft kind. The kind that didn’t ask for umbrellas, just patience.

  Lia wiped down the counter with one hand and balanced a matcha cream filling on a plate with the other, humming something tuneless under her breath. Her apron was loose, her hair trying to escape their clip again. Her socks, striped, peeked out from under her rolled-up jeans.

  She didn't see him come in.

  Elos never really entered places. He appeared always quietly, always without drawing attention. Like he’d already been there and you just hadn't noticed until now. He sat at the table near the back corner window, hands tucked in his oversized coat pockets, watching the rain.

  “Hey,” Lia called, a little too loudly “welcome back, shadow man.”

  Elos blinked, then looked at her like her voice had pulled him out of a different universe. He smiled, barely.

  Lia grinned, sliding his usual order on the table. “Oat milk latte, no syrup, extra foam, sprinkled with cinnamon. Right?”

  His eyes softened. “Mmm.”

  He had kept coming to the cafe ever since that day. Not every hour. Not obsessively. But enough that Lia noticed.

  He ordered the same drink every time. He sat in the same place every time.

  And every time he came, she told herself she would talk to him.

  Something that wasn’t about foam or cinnamon.

  And every time she swallowed it.

  “Welcome back, shadow man,” she would sometimes say when he entered.

  And that was the extend of it.

  Here palms were warm.

  Today was the day.

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  Ask him something.

  Anything.

  “Are you from around here?”

  Elos hesitated.

  "Not exactly,” He said. “But I like this pla..place" he corrected himself, too quickly like he’d reached for the wrong word and quietly put it back.

  “Hmm.” she muttered, nodding slowly.

  Her hand gripped her apron tightly.

  What now?

  “Soo,” she started, dragging the word out longer than she meant to. “Did you find the owner of the diary?”

  A pause.

  Elos stared at her. Like he didn’t remember anything at all.

  “Mina said that you pretended to return it so that you could follow us.” she laughed, quick and awkward. “Hehe.”

  Why did I say that.

  “Mina?”

  “Huh.. oh.. She’s my friend.”

  Silence stretched.

  She stood there awkwardly. He had already turned his attention back to the window.

  Her face felt warm.

  Behind her..

  “Uh… excuse me?”

  A customer stood at the counter. Calling out for her. She couldn’t here anything.

  Finnaly

  “I’m Lia,” she said, sticking her hand out without thinking.

  He turned.

  “Elos.”

  He didn’t shake her hand. Just looked at it for a moment, then gently nodded instead.

  Lia didn’t take it personally.

  She had said something. And that was enough.

  There was something odd about him. Not in a creepy way, but in a way she found interesting. She walked back to the counter and watched him stare at his latte, sitting like he was trying not to disturb the air.

  The rest of the hour moved like honey.

  Mina showed up, umbrella in one hand, cute Hello Kitty bag in the other, muttering something about the bus smelling like dead fish.

  Lia kept glancing over at Elos.

  He didn't look up. Not once. Not at her, not at Mina, not at the rain. He just sat with his fingers curled around the warm cup, like it was the only thing keeping him from slipping through the seams of this world. He then stood up and slowly walked outside into the rain. Lia watched him stand across the street beneath the lamplight, the drizzle threading down around him in silver lines. For a moment, it looked like the rain never quite reached him. Like it thinned, faded or simply gave up when it brushed the edge of his coat. He didn’t look wet. Not his shoulders, not his sleeves. Lia frowned, her breath fogging the cafe window as she leaned closer trying to make sense of it. Weird, she thought. The glass was foggy, her eyes tired, the light bad. She laughed quietly at herself and wiped a circle in the condensation with her sleeve. By the time she looked again, the rain was just rain and Elos, gone.

  Later after closing, Lia sat at the counter with her legs swinging and stared out the window.

  “He didn’t even finish his drink."

  “Who?”

  “Shadow man.”

  Mina raised an eyebrow. “Huh.”

  “Never mind.”

  ? ───── ───── ───── ─────?

  The cafe lights dimmed, the neon sign buzzing faintly outside. Rain still whispered against the glass. And out there the rain touched the street, the rooftop where he stood but not him. It fell around him, curving, folding, forgetting to land. He let it. The world was quiet here, quiet enough to notice how small everything truly was. Footsteps echoed far below. Time itself seemed to pause for a fraction. He tilted his head slightly, listening to the heartbeat of the city beneath the drizzle.