(Ann's Perspective)
Ann sat on the edge of her bed, her phone resting untouched beside her. The group chat buzzed softly in the background, but her eyes weren't on the screen. They were fixed on the mirror across the room—the one that, until recently, had been a quiet part of her daily routine.
But now, it watched her like it knew things she didn't.
She tugged a brush slowly through her long hair, each stroke mechanical. Every time she caught her own gaze in the reflection, she noticed the tension in her shoulders. The faint crease between her brows. The softness in her eyes turning cautious.
You're not imagining it, she told herself.
Ren had changed. Everyone felt it, even if no one said it outright. He walked differently now—his confidence more fluid, less reserved. There was an energy around him that tugged at her like gravity. Not dangerous… but charged. Like lightning in a summer storm. You didn't know whether to run from it or reach out and touch it.
And the others… Ryuji, Yusuke, even Mona—they were changing too. Not just emotionally. Physically. Shifts that defied logic, the kind you couldn't talk about without sounding insane.
Ann stood and walked to the window, staring out at the city lights scattered like stars fallen to earth. Her reflection lingered beside her—an echo in the glass.
"I don't want to lose what we are," she whispered. "Any of us."
Ren had been her anchor during some of her hardest moments. He never looked at her like the world did. Not as a foreigner. Not as someone shallow because of her looks. He'd seen her anger. Her pain. Her fire.
And now he looked at her like she was something… more.
A part of her liked it. Craved it, even.
But another part—the protective one, the one that shielded her heart—was scared. Because if Ren really was changing, and this new presence in him was seducing more than their enemies, then how much of her did he still see?
Ann let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. She turned from the window and picked up her phone. Her fingers hovered over Ren's name for a long moment.
"Can we talk?" she typed. Then paused.
Backspaced.
"I've been thinking about you." No—too direct.
Another pause.
Eventually, she just put the phone down. Sometimes, silence said more than words.
Tonight, she wouldn't reach out. But tomorrow…
She would face whatever this was. Him. Herself. All of it.
Because no matter how much they were changing—Ren, Ryuji, the whole damn world—she refused to be left behind.