"Is she okay? She looks really unconscious."

"More like shocked to me. Maybe she just fainted."

"You don't just faint in the middle of nowhere, you know."

"That 'middle of nowhere' was the living room floor, you know."

"Can't you two just be quiet? She's waking up!"

"Then why are you yelling?"

While Suguru was busy arguing about logic with Shinji and Shona, Shiori went over to the sofa to check on Alice. "She's conscious, but maybe a little more sound should wake her up." She brushed Alice's bangs aside and sighed. "Poor girl. If only there was something we can do for her."

Sooner or later, Alice woke up and found herself in the living room with everyone else. "What are you guys doing here? How did-"

"You're finally awake." Suguru replied. "I'm surprised that you were able to make it this far. You definitely were the right person to find."

"What's that supposed to mean? Did you all know it all along?"

"Why do you keep asking that?!" All eyes faced Suguru as he took out a piece of paper from his pocket. "By the way, this was on the ground when we found you, so we assumed that it was yours. Coincidentally, this is the exact message that I preset onto the typewriter that I 'mailed' to you."

Alice quickly snatched the letter and glanced between the text and Suguru. "But this person is Gabriel Jones, not you. Now that I think about it, no one I met in here is named that, so-"

"Alice, I think it's about time that you should learn the truth." Shiori interrupted. "However, hearing it from our voices isn't the same as hearing it from someone else's."

"What does that mean?" She stared at all four of them, who didn't say a word. "Are you talking about Shun?"

"What sounds better?" Shona asked. "From us or from him?"

"I..." To hear from Shun would sound like he made up excused over time, but to hear from these four people would sound like they're sympathizing him. "Both."

Shinji shook his head. "All I'll say is that Shun never meant for any of this to happen. It was your fault for getting involved, and he knew it.

"Every time Shun tried talking you out of it, he never succeeded," Shiori added. "He decided to clean up after your mess no matter what."

"But where is he now? The last time I saw him was in the forest with me."

"He said he'd stop by the library before leaving." Shiori answered. "That, you'll need to find out on your own. The library is behind the door next to the fireplace.

"Thank you." Alice stood up and walked over to the library door. "Is there anything else you have to tell me before I go?"

"Actually, I do." Suguru opened his book and flipped to a certain page. "Ah, there it is. Remember the day when Shun confronted you that led to you hating him forever?"

Alice's eyes widen as she gasped in shock. "H-How did you know?"

"I know everything, Alice. Think about it..."

~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~

The two of them stood in silence while facing each other uncomfortably, for neither one of them just didn't know how to say what they wanted to say.

"I'll start...with why I asked you to come over here."

"What else is there to say? It's your fault."

Sharing happiness and sadness together was one thing, but keeping hurtful secrets from the other was another.

"No, it's not. Alice, I'm going to be straight-forward with you on this."

"So you're saying that you haven't been straight-forward to me at all?"

Shun stared at Alice's watery eyes but remained calm. "That's not what I meant. Besides, can you just stop it with your sudden mood swings?"

"That's it? I thought you were a broad-minded person that can accept others' differences. And they're not mood swings. Sometimes I just want to do things that I'm interested in whenever I like. So what?"

"Messing around with things like that could be potentially dangerous. It's bad for you." Shun continued after Alice finished taking a few deep breaths. "I don't want to make things worse, but-"

"But what? Do you know how tough it is to be living my kind of life? My only close guardian isn't at my side at all times, my other relatives are distancing me, and I just want to be happy. We used to have a good time together, Shun, but why do you have to ask me to do something that you know will hurt my feelings?"

Shun hesitated but said, "If you feeling like crying and running away right now, I understand."

"But Shun, if you're going to continue acting like this, then I might as well leave. Maybe my parents were right about living a harsh life now and work hard for a better life later. I don't want to see you anymore"

Even if Alice turned around and left, Shun didn't go after her. Instead, he yelled, "It's a two-way street, Alice. I'll still look out after you."

To Alice, those words Shun just yelled brought tears to her eyes, for she felt so confused about whether what she did was right or wrong. To Shun, it wasn't his main concern of whether or not Alice heard him or not. There was another, more important problem to be concerned about...a problem that involved a life at stake.

If only she knew Shun's side of the story...

~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~

"Shut up!"

To get away from hearing Suguru's words, Alice entered the library and locked the door. How does know all this to every exact detail? Shun couldn't possibly have told them this? Why would he?

Alice sat down against the wall with her knees to her chest and looked forward. The library was quite small, with only a wall-length bookshelf on the left wall, and a window on the right wall. Alice took a look at the books and realized that most of them were about spiritualism. There were even metal cabinets that stored newspapers from every time period and place

"I wish I had a library like this. Then I can spend my time doing the things I like." On the opposite wall a mural divided into four equally-sized column sections. The first column was a train station platform, the second was a view of the snow from the window of a workshop, the third was a bowl of fruit sitting on a table in an art studio, and the fourth was a log cabin sitting in the distance of a forest. "All four depict the four places I've been to recently. What's that?"

A plaque at the bottom right corner reflected light, and Alice saw not only that but also an alpha-numeric keypad. The messy chalk writing said: What's my usual short-hand password? said the messy chalk handwriting. "If Shun set up this lock, then I definitely know what his password is." She typed 722X922 and pressed ENTER. He hasn't changed his password at all.

Suddenly, the entire wall went up. Behind the wall were a few chairs, a coffee table, a white movie screen, and a traditional double-film movie camera. "What an odd place to hide a video production room. The equipment looks okay."

Alice noticed that there was a slot on the movie camera that was about the same size as Shun's memory card, so she curiously inserted the card into the slot. Pictures suddenly appeared on the movie screen, and Alice recognized them as photos that she and Shun took together in the past. "I remember all these. Picnic at the park, sakura festival, New Year's fireworks, Thanksgiving parades, Christmas parties...this is just too memorable to forget. Shun, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have just broke up with you over a simple problem."

The images on the movie screen flickered and moved up and down like technical errors. A familiar face appeared on the screen in front of Alice's eyes. "It can't be! Shun! We were in that village forest earlier, but how did you get here?"

At first, Shun didn't respond, but then he silently asked, "Should I stay or leave?"