The swish-swish of the nylon pants haunted Kaito's nightmares that night.
He woke up with a heavy sense of defeat in his stomach, as if he had eaten a pound of culinary lead. The "Aesthetics of Disaster" plan had backfired spectacularly. Instead of disgust, it had generated amusement. Instead of distance, it had created an "inside joke." And inside jokes were the cement of lasting relationships.
Koga not only bought the hideous outfit; she sent him a selfie at 11 PM. In the photo, she was flashing a peace sign, wearing the beige fishing vest over her pajamas, with the caption: "Ready to fish for compliments (or fish). Good night, Chief Velcro."
Kaito didn't reply. He locked his phone screen and stared at the dark ceiling.
"Chief Velcro," he muttered to the darkness. "That is an affectionate nickname. Affectionate nicknames indicate Level 3 Intimacy. The time loop just got titanium reinforcements."
The next morning, the atmosphere in Apartment 301 was funereal.
Kaito sat on his beanbag, eyes fixed on the turned-off television. Fia, in her ethereal form, floated upside down on the ceiling, looking like a depressed light fixture.
"The System has recalibrated the predictions," she said, her voice echoing melancholically in Kaito's mind. "The probability of Tomoe Koga wanting to end the fake relationship has dropped to 2%. She has found a perfect ecological niche beside you, Kaito. You are the apex predator that scares away social threats, but allows her, the little pilot fish, to swim freely without being eaten. It is a perfect parasitic symbiosis."
"I am not a fish," Kaito thought. "And I want to get rid of the parasite."
Mai unlocked the door and entered. Now with her own key (a logistical ease for food delivery), she used this permission with the elegance of someone who owns the space.
She brought coffee and an analytical expression.
Kaito accepted the coffee she extended. "I tried to be repulsive through utilitarian logic. I failed to consider that the aesthetic pressure on teenage girls is so high that 'ugly' becomes a relaxing act of rebellion."
Mai smiled, crossing her legs. "Exactly. You tried to punish her, but you ended up giving her a vacation. A vacation from being pretty, a vacation from being pleasant, a vacation from reading the room. You became the 'Kaito Tanaka Resort: All Inclusive, Except Emotions'."
She took a sip of her coffee, her violet eyes fixed on him.
"And that is why you have to break up with her."
Kaito paused with his cup mid-air. "The original plan was to break up on July 18th. Start of summer vacation."
"Too far away," Mai sentenced. "If you wait until then, the loop will solidify. She will fall in love not with you, but with the safety you offer. And when the 18th arrives, her fear of losing that safety will be so great that the day will reset. Again. And again. You will be trapped in June forever, eating octopus-shaped bentos and hearing about her dog."
The image was terrifying. An eternal return of the bento.
"So..." Kaito placed the cup on the table. "I advance the timeline."
"You break the contract," Mai corrected. "Today. Now. No notice. No 'gradualism.' You pull the rug out from under her feet. The only way to make her walk on her own is to prove you are not a reliable crutch."
"That is cruel," Kaito observed.
"It is," Mai agreed. "But leaving her trapped in time because she is afraid to grow up is worse. You are the villain of this story, Kaito. Act like one."
Kaito closed his eyes. He searched his reserve of empathy and found the tank empty, as always. But his reserve of desire for peace and silence was overflowing.
"Very well," he said, standing up. "Immediate contract termination for just cause: excess of comfort."
The day at school was tense. Kaito could feel it.
Koga was radiant. She greeted him at the shoe lockers with a genuine, conspiratorial smile. She walked beside him not with fear, but with a bouncy confidence. She even made a joke about his hair being messy.
She was happy. She was safe.
And Kaito felt the weight of the guillotine he was about to drop.
"IMMINENT DRAMA ALERT!" Fia warned, biting her ethereal nails. "KAITO, THE SYSTEM IS ISSUING WARNINGS OF 'EMOTIONAL BETRAYAL'! SHE IS LOWERING HER GUARD! CRITICAL DAMAGE WILL BE MULTIPLIED BY 10!"
"It is necessary," Kaito thought, walking to his classroom.
Lunch break arrived.
Kaito went to the usual spot, behind the gym. The sun was strong, cicadas were screaming. It was the perfect setting for an anime breakup: isolated, hot, and oppressive.
Koga arrived two minutes later. She brought two bento boxes this time.
"Today is special!" she announced, sitting on the grass and opening the packages. "I made karaage (fried chicken)! And I promise, no sea animal shapes. Just honest, efficient chicken, like you like it."
She extended the chopsticks to him, smiling. "Let's eat. I have to tell you about the face Rena made when I said I couldn't go to the movies because I had to 'organize your HDMI cable collection'."
Kaito didn't take the chopsticks.
He remained standing. He looked at the golden fried chicken. The smell was delicious. The effort was evident.
"No," he said.
The word fell between them like an anvil.
Koga blinked, her smile faltering. "Huh? No... what? You don't like karaage? I can take the skin off if it's about cholesterol..."
"No," Kaito repeated, his voice devoid of any inflection. "I am not going to eat. And I am not going to hear about Rena."
He put his hands in his pockets, assuming his most closed-off, distant posture.
"The contract is over, Koga."
The silence that followed was absolute. Even the cicadas seemed to pause to listen.
Koga lowered her hand, chopsticks still in it, in a slow motion. Her smile didn't vanish suddenly; it dissolved into confusion.
"W-What do you mean?" she asked, with a nervous laugh. "The contract goes until the 18th. We agreed. There are three weeks left."
"I decided to terminate early," Kaito said, looking her in the eye. "The goal of the contract was to solve your problem with Maezawa. That was done. However, the contract had performance clauses. And you violated the fundamental clause."
"I..." Koga stood up, knocking the karaage container onto the grass. She didn't even notice. "I violated what? I cleaned your bathroom! I wore the horrible outfit! I didn't tell you about the dog! What did I do wrong?!"
"You got comfortable," Kaito said.
The phrase hit her like a slap.
"You stopped trying to solve your real problem," he continued, relentless. "You used our agreement not as a temporary strategy, but as a permanent hiding place. You turned the lie into a lifestyle. And worst of all: you started liking it."
He took a step back, increasing the physical distance between them.
"I am not your boyfriend, Koga. I am not your friend. I am not your 'Chief Velcro.' I am a mercenary you hired with a favor coin. And the service has become... inefficient for me."
Koga was trembling. Her eyes filled with tears, not of sadness, but of pure panic. The panic of someone watching the roof collapse.
"But... but we are doing well!" she shouted, voice cracking. "Everyone believes it! Maezawa doesn't bother me! And... and it was fun! Yesterday was fun! You didn't laugh, but I know it wasn't horrible!"
"It was annoying," Kaito lied. "It was a waste of time and resources. And I am tired of pretending."
"You can't do this!" she lunged forward, trying to grab his arm, but Kaito stepped back, out of reach. "If you break up with me now... for no reason... without the excuse of the 18th... what am I going to say? What will they think? I'll be a joke! The girl who got dumped in a week!"
"Exactly," Kaito said. "You will be the girl dumped. The victim. They will pity you. Maezawa won't ask you out because you will be 'mourning' the relationship. The social outcome is the same."
"IT IS NOT THE SAME!" she screamed, tears flowing freely now. "Because I will be alone! I will have to eat lunch alone! I will have to walk in the hallway alone! And they... Rena, Yuka... they will see. They will see that I am pathetic!"
"So that is the problem," Kaito said, quietly. "It's not Maezawa. It never was. It is your absolute terror of being alone for five minutes."
He looked at her with a disappointment that hurt more than anger.
"You are a coward, Tomoe Koga. You prefer to live the same day a thousand times, trapped with a guy who despises you, than to face one day being yourself without a group to validate you."
Koga recoiled as if punched.
"KAITO, STOP! HER DIGNITY BAR IS AT ZERO! THE SYSTEM IS ISSUING EMOTIONAL COLLAPSE ALERTS!" Fia shouted, desperate. "YOU ARE BREAKING THE GIRL, NOT THE LOOP!"
"To fix a crooked bone, sometimes you have to break it again," Kaito thought, ignoring the goddess.
"It's over," he said aloud, turning his back. "Do not look for me tomorrow. Do not bring me bento. If they ask me, I will say I dumped you because you are too clingy. It is the perfect excuse for you to be the victim. Enjoy it."
He started to walk.
"WAIT!" Koga shouted.
Kaito didn't stop.
"I HATE YOU!" she screamed, her voice tearing at her throat. "I REALLY HATE YOU NOW! YOU ARE TRASH! I WISH I HAD NEVER MET YOU!"
Kaito kept walking.
"Good," he thought, feeling a bitter taste in his mouth that not even the best pudding in the world would wash away. "Hate is good. Hate is real. Hate breaks bonds."
He turned the corner of the school building, leaving her sight. The sound of her crying could still be heard, echoing against the concrete walls.
Kaito stopped and leaned against the wall, letting out a shaky breath. His hands, shoved in his pockets, were clenched in tight fists.
"Mission accomplished?" Fia asked quietly, her voice full of sadness.
Kaito looked at the blue sky, irritatingly perfect and unchanging.
"Let's see," he muttered. "If tomorrow is July 3rd, mission accomplished. If I wake up and it's July 2nd..."
He didn't finish the sentence.
He went to class. The rest of the day passed as a gray blur. The looks in the hallways changed again. In the morning, they were of curiosity. In the afternoon, after Koga returned to class with swollen eyes and the news spread, the looks were of pure poison.
"Scum," someone whispered when he passed. "He made her cry." "Played with her and threw her away."
Kaito turned up the volume on his headphones. He accepted the role of villain. It was the loneliest role, and therefore, the most peaceful.
He went home. Mai wasn't there. The apartment was silent.
The spiritual exhaustion was such that he didn't eat dinner, nor did he even shower. Violating his own hygiene habits, he went straight to his beanbag chair, yielding the bed to the ghost of guilt, and closed his eyes.
"Please, tomorrow," he whispered to the universe. "Let it be tomorrow."
He fell asleep.
...
...
...
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
Kaito opened his eyes.
The light streamed through the same crack in the curtain. The same light. The same angle.
He turned his head slowly to the digital clock.
07:15.
He picked up his phone with a hand that felt made of stone.
The date on the screen glowed with neon digital mockery.
June 27th.
Kaito dropped the phone. It hit the tatami with a dull thud.
The loop hadn't broken.
He sat up, running his hands over his face.
"Fia," he called, voice hoarse.
The closet door opened. Fia peeked out, looking terrified.
"I'm sorry, Chosen One... The System confirms... The day has reset."
Kaito started to laugh. It was a dry, humorless laugh that frightened the goddess.
"Of course," he said. "Of course it reset."
He stood up.
His "apathetic villain" plan had failed. The reality shock wasn't enough. Koga preferred to reset the entire universe and relive the humiliation of the first date, rather than live a single day in a world where she was rejected and alone.
Her fear was greater than time.
"How..." Kaito picked up the TV guide, rolled it tight, and hit his own forehead, "...incredibly, infinitely, cosmically troublesome."
He had to do it all again. But now, he knew cruelty didn't work. Cold logic didn't work.
________________________________________
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