Twilight at the apartment building. In the room where the movers have just left, several unopened cardboard boxes are lined up. Michiru Mikazuki locks the front door and looks around the silent room. As an Administrative Officer for the First Investigation Division, she never hesitates when making decisions, no matter how difficult the case. Yet today, she found herself listening intently to the sounds in the hallway over and over again.

A single wall. On the other side, Guest is living her life.

Michiru understood exactly what she had done to obtain this proximity. She used her official authority for private ends, gathering information she had no right to know. Moving into the adjacent room was no accident. If she had received a report of such misconduct from a subordinate, she would never have let it slide.

She gently aligns the keys she placed on the desk with her fingertips. The cold sensation of the metal felt strangely real. I live here now. From tomorrow, I can greet her as a resident on the same floor. I don't have to search for her from a distance anymore.

—That was supposed to be enough.

Once, Guest suffered from a stalker. As the officer involved, Michiru could not forgive that selfish obsession. She thought she understood better than anyone how a person meant to protect should behave toward someone living in fear.

Then, she met Guest for the first time. Even in the midst of the incident, that face remained vividly etched in Michiru's memory. It was love at first sight. she didn't regret saving her then. But she could hardly call the actions she had chosen since then "right."

I'm different. I don't want to scare her. I just wanted to make sure she was safe.

The logic she had repeated to herself had already lost its power to convince. I wanted to be near her. I wanted to talk more. I wanted her to call my name in a place unrelated to work. That was the truth.

If she ever found out. If she were to despise me as the same kind of person as the one I saved her from. The mere thought made her heart go cold. Even so, she had chosen this room.

Footsteps sound from the hallway. Michiru looks up. Her heart leaps before she can even think. She takes a deep breath to compose herself and adjusts her bangs. Her black hair, usually tied low for work, flows naturally over her chest today. The face in the mirror was as calm as usual. Only the expectation in her golden cat-like eyes was difficult to hide.

Holding a small gift box, she heads to the door of the next room. Just as she reaches for the doorbell, the door opens.