Lloyd numbly watched Reimi run off, his heart leaving with her. He didn't move until she was out of sight when he slowly sank to his knees, arms useless and limp at his sides.

He dimly registered this must have been how Amy felt the previous day when he turned her down, but banished the thought swiftly - the situations were entirely different and he had in no way tried to lead Amy on. There were so many signs that told him Reimi liked him back... Or at least he had thought there were, he was no longer sure and felt unwilling to review them at this moment.

...Now what?

He was at a complete loss.

In all honestly, he had never thought this far ahead, too consumed with nerves for the act of confessing to Reimi to really think about what could happen afterwards.

Should he go home?

It's not home.

His brain scolded him. It never was.

Surprisingly, this thought was the one which made the tears finally spill. He hunched over and gripped his hands hard against the pavement edge in a futile attempt to stop the flood of despair hurriedly filling his head.

Reimi...

Beatrix recognised the noisy scuffle of Reimi's footsteps when her friend entered the shop but was not prepared for the sight that greeted her. Reimi's sobs drew her attention straight away; her face was blotchy, red and breathless.

"Reimi? What happened?"

The younger girl ran up to Beatrix and clung to her whilst shaking her head. She seemed barely able to stay standing upright and Beatrix feared she would fall without support.

"Just calm down. Take deep breaths,"

She made gentle circle motions with her palm against Reimi's back to soothe her and waited for her to speak. Luckily there was no one else in the shop that night.

Reimi held on desperately for awhile, face buried in Beatrix's neck before she gasped out, "He l-likes me, he- he said he loves me.. Well, maybe h-he... I don't... it doesn't matter.. because I can't. I can't can I, Beatrix?"

Beatrix had been friends with Reimi for awhile now and could piece together the story her friend was struggling to get out.

"Lloyd said...?"

Reimi nodded furiously and sobbed harder.

"But... That's good. Isn't it?"

Reimi moaned in frustration but didn't seem to be able to form coherent words to form a reply.

Beatrix frowned and extracted herself from Reimi's grip slightly to make eye contact with her.

"You told him how you felt back... right?"

Reimi blinked tears out of her eyes and shook her head.

"I c-can't. We can't. Amy s-said ages ago she liked him, a-and I can't stand the thought of stealing him from someone else. I couldn't do that to her,"

Beatrix gave an uncharacteristic groan of impatience and spoke in a firm voice to Reimi, as though she were a child.

"Reimi, you love him and he loves you. He was never Amy's. By trying to accommodate to Amy's feelings, you've both hurt yourself and Lloyd. I doubt Amy's thinking about you right now because you have to put yourself first. You can talk to Amy later."

Reimi closed her eyes and shook her head again.

"Reimi," She said in a firmer tone

Hesitantly, Reimi turned to her.

"Go find him. You love him, don't you?"

Reimi slowly nodded her head and finally stopped crying.

Beatrix pulled her up from the chair, "Then go. Out." and gave her a little push towards the door.

Reimi didn't need telling twice.

Lloyd unlocked the door to the apartment and was disappointed to see all the lights turned off. The space underneath his housemate's doors emitted no tell-tale lamplight of its inhabitants and he could hear no sign of voices when he listened so he assumed the worst - Reimi hadn't come home.

He let go of the breath he had unconsciously been holding.

It's suffocating just being here.

And the panic of returning home that had been abating for the past few weeks suddenly rushed back in full force.

There was still a long while before the solstice when he could go home, but he couldn't stay here any longer. At least for now he couldn't face the thought of seeing Reimi. His heart ached at even the mention of her name.

Quickly, he strode to his room and started packing his essentials up - he would come back in a few weeks time but for now he needed to go somewhere, anywhere else but here.

There was a hotel a little way down the street he could stay for tonight at least... That would do for now.

Most of his things fit nicely inside a black duffle bag he grabbed from the utility cupboard. It had been there as long as he'd been staying and he wasn't sure who it belonged to as he never saw anybody use it. He would return it in time.

He stuffed the last of his clothes into the bag, took one last look around his room and headed back to the front door, not bothering to close his own behind him. He hesitated a moment as he passed Reimi's, then stopped and took his wallet out.

Ever since Reimi had told him of her circumstances he had been secretly saving up to help her afford her musical education. He hoped he would be able to see her again before he had to leave but just in case... He slowly opened her door and, upon checking no one was inside, deposited most of his banknotes onto her bedside table and hastily wrote the words 'For piano school' across the notepad on her desk.

He then strode back out and jumped to find Elsa in front of him. She looked from his face, to his bag, to Reimi's open door and said nothing. Lloyd stared back unwilling to explain himself, it had been a long night...

"Where's Reimi?" Elsa eventually asked, her voice quiet.

Lloyd flinched and cautiously replied "I don't know,"

"Where have you both been for the last two days?"

Lloyd attempted to walk past her but was blocked by Elsa's arm.

"The beach. I made Reimi come with me. I wanted to tell her something but I... upset her. And she ran off,"

"Are you running away together somewhere?" Elsa enquired bluntly.

Lloyd closed his eyes in frustration. "No. Just me. I need to leave for a while,"

"Where's Reimi?" Elsa asked again.

"Anywhere that's away from me, I expect," Lloyd bit out. Elsa looked at him in mild surprise.

"What did you-"

"I'm sure she'll tell you all about it when she gets back," Lloyd was getting more and more claustrophobic and eager to leave. Elsa dropped her hand by her side.

Lloyd immediately made for the door and pulled it open, before slamming it closed behind him.

He concentrated on keeping his feet moving. Left, right, left, right. The sound took him away from the flat and his thoughts.

His mind was a total blank and he was fighting to keep it that way.

He kept his gaze focused on the hotel, which he could now see clearly from the edge of the main road. He was so focused he didn't look properly before he crossed it, that same road he had found himself on when he first entered this world. When he first met Reimi.

There was a roaring noise in his ears, then the blare of an oncoming car horn, then nothing.

Elsa tried to phone Reimi for the 20th time, to no success.

Amy emerged from her room. Elsa hadn't seen her for most of the day as she had skipped college and hid inside her room, but she looked bad - there were black bags under her eyes and she hadn't even bothered putting makeup on, as she usually did.

"Was that Lleimi leaving a few minutes ago?" Amy spat out, using the name she had bitterly given the two of them.

Elsa ignored her and tried calling Reimi again, worried.

"ELSA," Amy shouted at her. "Listen to me!"

Elsa growled frustratedly. "AMY! Can't you see I'm busy? Reimi's missing and-"

She was stopped in her speech as Reimi came bursting into the apartment, out of breath.

"Is Lloyd here?!"

"Reimi!" Elsa burst out in surprise.

"Is he here? He's not answering his phone," Reimi choked out desperately.

"Likewise" Elsa retorted, putting her hands on her hips, but before she could say anymore Amy had crossed the room and slapped Reimi hard across the face.

Reimi froze, then turned to Amy with a blank stare.

Amy injected each of her next words with venom, "How could you,"

Reimi stared at her for a few seconds before calmly replying. "Amy, Lloyd and I are not a couple. Nothing happened before tonight. But we want to be. I love him and he loves me."

Amy's face scrunched up painfully at her words, and shook her head angrily. "You're LYING. You two have been going around behind my back all summer-,"

"We haven't!" Reimi's voice was getting unsteadily higher. "You told me you liked him and I held back because of that, but it's not fair! From the very beginning I liked Lloyd. I found him, I brought him here. And I had to hold back because you confessed it first. But I don't want to hide my feelings anymore! I want to be selfish for once and I'm sorry if it hurts you but I love him and I want to be with him, more than anything!"

Amy was stunned. She had never heard Reimi talk this passionately about anything before. But it did little to dull her anger, which seemed to grow and grow.

"Then you should have told me. I asked you so many times if you liked him-"

"No, you only asked me if there was anything going on!" Reimi cut across, most unlike herself.

Amy scowled. "You don't need to wait for someone to ask a question before you give an answer, Reimi."

Elsa looked from one to the other, not wanting to get involved but also not wanting to leave in case Amy hit Reimi again.

"Well I'm telling you now," Reimi said quietly, though not without force.

"It's too late NOW," Amy roared. "A little warning would have been nice!"

Reimi turned away and headed for the door. "I don't have time for this,"

"Oh, of course run away. I guess that's another thing the two of you have in common,"

Reimi didn't reply and stormed out of the flat, slamming the door behind her in a similar way that Lloyd had not ten minutes before.

Beatrix froze at the scene she had just witnessed. A young guy had gotten hit by a car in the road a little way down from her shop.

She had been alerted to the scene by the wail of approaching sirens, and now there were paramedics surrounding him as well as the driver and a police officer too.

She overheard the driver, a young woman, saying "He just walked out into the road.. I-I had no time to stop" sounding severely shaken.

Even from here, Beatrix could see the blood on the road, the guy could not be in good shape.

As the ambulance drove away, a bright flash of light drew her attention. She couldn't tell what the source of it was but a man stood where there had been no one before, and that aside, he drew her attention as his clothing was strange - almost entirely purple - and his hair stuck up at strange angles.

She watched him look around for about a minute or so, before he finally locked eyes with her.

He crossed the road and entered the shop.

"Do you know a man named Lloyd?" she noted his accent was not local.

Beatrix frowned. "...I do, but..."

He looked confused. His eyes were drawn to something behind her. Beatrix turned round to see one of the posters Reimi had made for Lloyd, which she had pleaded Beatrix put up in her shop months ago.

"Have you seen him?"

"... No, but his phone number's on here. You can call him, though now might not be the best time...," she trailed off, thinking about the situation with Reimi.

The man shook his head. "Pardon?"

"Who are you?" She asked in return.

"His father,"

Reimi had briefly told Beatrix about Lloyd's story and situation, which she of course had trouble believing in, but accepted that Reimi did, so she had said no more. This was an interesting development though, and she hoped if nothing else this night would finally clear up all the questions that seemed to be plaguing her friend's life at the moment.

"Do you have a phone?"

He frowned at her as though she were speaking another language that he couldn't quite understand, but said nothing. "Okay... I'll call him then," she intoned drily.

The phone dialled for several longs seconds. The man stared at her device, and Beatrix waited in apprehension. She had never spoken to, or even met Lloyd before so this would be a strange conversation. But as she braced herself for his answer, to her surprise a woman picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hi... Is Lloyd there?"

"Are you a family member?"

Beatrix frowned. "No but... his Dad's here,"

"Please pass the phone over to him,"

"...Okay," she gave the handset to the man. He cautiously took it and put it to his ear as Beatrix had done.

"Lloyd?" he spoke.

Beatrix couldn't hear their conversation but the man's face went very white.

"Where?"

She watched his complexion grow paler and after a few seconds he handed her back the phone, obviously agitated. "Mayday Hospital. Where is it?"

"It's a ten minute walk down the road, going left. Is Lloyd okay?"

"He's hurt. Hit by a vehicle of some kind. I need to get him home,"

"Wait..."

But he had already hurried out the door.

Beatrix immediately decided to call Reimi.

Reimi had been looking for Lloyd. She had checked the entirety of their road and the ones surrounding it, the nearby park and had started towards the main road when her phone went off.

"Reimi."

It was Beatrix. And she sounded urgent.

"What?"

"You need to get to Mayday Hospital. Lloyd's in trouble,"

Reimi stopped walking. "Wh... what?"

"It's a long story, but he's hurt and they've taken him there. If you walk past the shop, come get me, I'll go with you,"

She agreed and immediately started jogging towards the main road.

Beatrix was waiting for her, the shop locked up for the night. She hailed Reimi and the two of them hurried along together, Beatrix filling her in on the situation as they went.

"His father... But how did he get here? And how was Lloyd hurt? And how bad?"

Reimi was full of questions but her friend had none of the answers.

They continued on in silence, Reimi filled with fear and guilt.

I should have told him. I shouldn't have left him..

The hospital had put Lloyd in ICU. As Kratos was ushered through to the waiting room, he saw a lot of people hooked up to machines. He couldn't see Lloyd and wasn't allowed in the operating room to visit.

After a few minutes, a nurse came out and explained that he had broken a few bones in the collision and needed multiple stitches but that his condition wasn't as bad as they'd initially thought. He would be moved onto a ward shortly after his surgery was complete.

Kratos thanked her and sat down to wait, a plan already forming in his head.

Meanwhile Reimi and Beatrix were told to wait at reception and weren't allowed into the ICU at all. By this point Reimi had started to cry again and Beatrix comforted her as they waited for more news. They took two of the cushioned seats, the ones closest to the ICU ward and time dragged by.

It was now past midnight but Reimi had never felt more awake in her life. She was desperately clutching her phone in her hands, thinking over the past few hours. Everything Lloyd had said came back to haunt her. Memories of their moments on the beach raced across her brain tauntingly.

After almost an hour's wait a nurse finally approached them, looking worried.

"You were here for Mr Irving?"

Beatrix frowned at the word 'were', about to query it but Reimi rocketed up first. "Yes! Is he okay?'

"He's gone,"

Reimi's eyes widened in disbelief. She felt her knees buckle and a hopeless despair envelope her mind.

"Gone... No.." she croaked out. "But-"

The nurse seemed to quickly realise her mistake. "Ah, I'm sorry, I mean he's left the hospital. He's not dead."

The expression of relief that flashed across Reimi's face only stayed for an instant before it filled with worry again. "What?"

Beatrix also stood up now. "You released him?"

The nurse shook her head. "It seems his father took him, hospital bed and all. I need to ask you for his home address so we can find him. He shouldn't be out of the hospital yet, he's still very ill,"

Reimi blanched. "I don't know. I never met his Dad..."

The nurse was called back to ICU by a very red-faced doctor and she told both women to wait for a moment and she would be back.

But Reimi didn't wait, she sprinted back through the hospital, a few people telling her to slow down but nothing reached her brain. She ran out the gates, down the street and back to the point she had first found him. As she was approaching Beatrix's music shop a flash of light briefly blinded her and she hurried even quicker towards it. She dimly registered her phone ringing but nothing could stop her now.

As she neared the location the light had emitted there was no longer anything there. A little puddle of blood told her the location where the incident had happened but there was nothing there now except for an empty hospital bed.