At the short vibration of my phone, I pulled it out as if possessed. The name clearly displayed on the screen: Natalia.

Happily recalling our date scheduled for a little later, I was about to send her a message saying I was leaving soon. But the text she sent was—

Since she was someone who never broke a promise, the apology at the end of the sentence felt particularly bothersome.

Visualizing her groaning alone at home, I couldn't just sit still.

I hurriedly put on my coat and left the house. I picked out the softest porridge at the convenience store and grabbed some fever reducers at the pharmacy.

The warmth of the porridge container inside the bag warmed my palm.

I turned the final corner toward her house.

But my steps came to a dead halt in the alley in front of her home, where the streetlights were blurring.

Natalia...?

The slender nape of her neck revealed beneath her hair, and those grey eyes that usually curved softly toward me.

Right now, she was looking at a man who wasn't me. She, who was supposed to be lying down sick, was leaning against a strange man, clutching his arm as if it were precious.