Over the next few days, I visited Sai regularly. It became a strange routine something I never imagined I’d be doing. But each visit left me feeling more unsettled than the last.
Sai was recovering quickly. Each time I saw him, he looked a little stronger, a little more like his old self. And yet, something had changed between us. There was an unspoken connection, something that neither of us acknowledged but both of us felt.
He still smiled that same friendly smile, still tried to engage me in conversation. But I found myself responding more than before. I didn’t want to, but the words slipped out anyway. I wasn’t used to talking to someone like this someone who didn’t expect anything from me, who wasn’t afraid of me.
One day, as I was about to leave, Sai asked me a question that caught me off guard.
“Kazuki, do you ever feel lonely?”
I froze, the question hanging in the air between us. Lonely? The word felt foreign, like it didn’t belong in my world. I didn’t get lonely. I didn’t need anyone. But the way Sai looked at me, with genuine curiosity and concern, made it hard to brush off the question.
“No,” I said, my voice colder than I intended. “I don’t.”
He didn’t press the issue, but the look in his eyes told me he didn’t believe me. And for the first time, I wondered if maybe he was right.
YOU ARE READING
The Perfect Mask
Mystery / ThrillerNakamura Kazuki, the son of one of Japan's wealthiest families, has everything: good looks, fame as a successful model, and the image of a perfect man. But beneath this flawless exterior, Kazuki hides a dark secret he is a psychopath. For him, killi...
