Avur woke up at 8 a.m.
and, since the others were still asleep, went to the kitchen to get something to eat.
Kaname was still asleep but noticed Avur in the kitchen, where he was eating some snacks.
Avur was lost in thought.
He wanted to mean more to Yuka, but at the same time, he didn’t want their friendship to end if Yuka didn’t love him back.
Then he thought of Kaname, whom he perceived as an emotionless being who cared about nothing but himself.
Then he muttered to himself, “Damn guy!
Intelligent, but so heartless—he’s the real monster here.” In a fit of anger, he accidentally slammed his hand on the kitchen counter.
He hated Kaname with a passion, simply because of who he was.
He stopped immediately, hoping that no one had heard him; since there was no sound, he believed that no one was there who could have heard him.
He muttered curses under his breath about Kaname until he conceived a sinister plan: “I could try to devour his shadow, gain his intelligence, and then find out who I really am by returning to my old academy to find my other friends there.”
Avur considered when he should do it, but he knew he couldn’t do it in this house.
Because if he altered reality by eating Kaname’s shadow, everything that belonged to Kaname would disappear.
Yuka would notice, since she lived with Kaname and shared everything with him.
Therefore, he had to find the perfect moment.
Then he whispered, “Just you wait, Kaname.”
He started stealing a few things from Yuka, intending to blame Kaname later if she noticed.
He crept into Yuka’s room and began taking some of her stuffed animals until he finally heard: “What are you doing, Avur?”
He turned around and saw Yuka standing in front of him, somewhat confused, but without any negative thoughts about Avur, as she believed he wouldn’t do anything bad.
Avur replied promptly, not wanting to appear suspicious: “I was just admiring your stuffed animals, they’re really great, you know?”
Yuka’s expression changed to one of joy, and she squealed: “Yay!
Finally, someone who appreciates my taste in stuffed animals.
Kaname would just call them boring, but it’s nice to have someone around who actually understands me.”
Yuka hugged him like a little brother, but instead of being pleased, he was annoyed.
He wanted her all to himself, and the fact that she was treating him like a normal friend irritated him.
But he hid it behind a forced smile.
He put the stuffed animal back in its place and left her room, asking, “When are you going to make breakfast?
I’m already hungry, and Kaname will probably die if he doesn’t eat something.”
She was now truly worried and checked whether Kaname had eaten the plate of dinner that she had left on the kitchen counter.
Luckily, he had.
Avur then said to her, “What if he didn’t eat it at all?
What if he just threw it away?
Maybe he doesn’t like what you cook; that could be the reason he goes for walks at night to avoid your food.”
It was clear that he was trying to win her over by sowing doubts about Kaname in her mind.
Yuka thought about it, but she seemed firmly convinced that Kaname wasn’t bad, since she had grown up with him.
Then she spoke up and said, “Please don’t say things like that about Kaname.
He’s a good friend, the best friend I have.
He would tell me if he didn’t like my food.
He’s very direct, after all.”
Avur nodded.
“That’s alright, I was just telling you what the truth might be, but I respect your trust in him.”
Avur was seething with anger inside.
Why shouldn’t she distrust Kaname?
Did she perhaps have romantic feelings for him?
Avur’s slightest facial expression betrayed his frustration; he wanted to be the only one who could have Yuka for himself.
Yuka started preparing muesli, as she didn’t want to take too long.
She was always in a good mood, which made Avur doubt whether she could even distrust anyone.
Sometimes she cried, like when Avur was half-dead or something, but he didn’t see that she was really breaking down, perhaps because she felt like she was carrying the weight of the whole world on her shoulders. Find the original chapter at novelping(.)com.
She wanted to be happy, not just for herself, but also for others.
She wanted to save everyone and make them happy, and in the end, others placed so many demands on her that she thought she had to be there for everyone.
She even wanted to help everyone herself, but sometimes she only ended up hurting herself.
Kaname is so important to her because he’s always been there for her.
He’s always made sure she doesn’t help too many people and keeps her away from them as soon as he realizes Yuka is hurting herself by helping too many and trying to be nice to everyone, even if they treat her badly.
She only sees the good in people; she knows they can be bad too, but she hopes that the love she can give them will make them good people.
Yuka thought everything over again.
She liked the old times with Kaname and also the present, because it didn’t matter how much she and Kaname communicated; being there for each other, as Kaname had said, was good enough.
Yuka had finished preparing the muesli, Avur was already sitting at the dining table, and Kaname was sitting on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, with his legs crossed, watching television.
Yuka then called out, “Come here, Kaname!
You don’t want me to drag you back to the dinner table!” She had to giggle when she saw him walk in as if he had risen from the dead.
“I’m here, so you don’t need to drag me off the couch,” he said in a whispering and calm voice.
Avur barely glanced at him, but simply ate his muesli.
Kaname sat down and also began to eat, while Yuka clapped her hands and said, “Enjoy your meal, you two!”
Kaname merely nodded slightly in response to her words and continued eating.
“What did you do last night, Kaname?
Did you have something interesting to do?
Or why did you leave us alone?
Or perhaps you don’t like us?” Avur asked, trying to trick Kaname into making a false statement so he could then use it against himself.
“I don’t need to tell you what I’ve been doing, it’s simply unnecessary to say what I’ve been up to, so don’t even ask,” he said, finished his muesli and went to the couch, still wrapped in the blanket.
Avur narrowed his eyes slightly; he wanted to say something more, but Yuka noticed the tension and said, “So, what should we do after the muesli?
Maybe go for a walk or watch a movie?”
“I want to watch a movie, I don’t want to walk,” Kaname said immediately.
Yuka nodded with satisfaction after the topic had been changed: “Yes, I’ll start one right away!”
Kaname remained seated on the couch and waited until the two had finished their muesli and sat down next to him.
When they were finished and sat down next to him on the couch, Avur made sure that he sat in the middle so that Yuka was not near Kaname.
Kaname was undeterred, leaned against the couch and watched what Yuka would put on, but then Avur decided on a film and chose a romance.
Yuka loved romance, so she nodded eagerly: “Yes, let’s watch some romance!”
She looked at Kaname to see if he wanted that too.
Kaname hates romance, but he nodded, not wanting to make Yuka sad because of his own aversion to it.
“That sounds good,” said Yuka, pointing to the screen displaying the title “The Zero Point”.
Avur and Kaname both nodded, and so Yuka turned it on.
The theater lights dimmed, and The Zero Point began in absolute silence.
On screen, a chaotic symphony of ticking clocks filled the room—some fast, some slow, all discordant.
A vintage wristwatch appeared, its secondhand aggressively ticking counter-clockwise.
The camera panned out to a sunlit kitchen where Evelyn, a woman in her late forties, was crying silently.
A young boy of about eight years old walked into the frame, drowning in an adult suit that was far too big for him.
He looked up at her with the wide, innocent, and completely bewildered eyes of a child.
“I don’t understand, Evie,” the boy said, his voice small and confused as he looked down at his oversized sleeves.
“This morning, you kissed my forehead and cried about a wedding night.
But I don’t even know who you are.”
Evelyn knelt, her hands trembling as she adjusted his oversized tie, looking into the eyes of the boy who would one day be her husband.
“That’s because for you, our wedding hasn’t happened yet, Julian.
You’re moving toward it.
I’m moving away from it.
To you, I’m a stranger.
To me, you are the man I just spent a lifetime loving.” Visit g.com for the full chapter.
As their fingers interlocked, the screen flashed a blinding, cinematic white, and the bold title card appeared: THE ZERO POINT.
Then, the stark white screen dissolved into a crowded, rainy Topfenia subway station.
Then Avur frowned at the screen as the title card faded.
“Wait, so if he was just eight years old, how is he suddenly a grown man in the next scene?”
Yuka, who did not take her eyes off the television, said: “It’s not a time skip.
The first scene was the end of their story.
Now the movie is moving forward for him, but backward for her.
They are walking toward each other from opposite ends of time.”
They both fell silent and then watched to see what happened next.
The movie fast-forwarded—and reversed—to its devastating conclusion.
On screen, the room was filled with a dizzying array of clocks, some spinning wildly forward, others ticking frantically backward.
Julian and Evelyn, both now at the exact age of twenty-eight, stood outside on an apartment balcony as the midnight snow began to fall.
It was eleven-fifty-nine on the final night of their shared year.
Julian looked at her, his eyes shining with unshed tears.
“Tomorrow, I turn twenty-nine, and I am moving into a future where you only get younger,” he whispered, his voice trembling.
“You keep talking about the vacation we took to Riolpha, but for me, that trip won’t happen until next year.
I haven’t even lived it yet.”
Evelyn reached up, her fingers brushing his cheek.
“And tomorrow, I turn twenty-seven.
My mind is moving backward, away from you.
But my heart is anchored right here.”
As the clock struck midnight and fireworks erupted across the skyline, they pulled each other into a desperate, final kiss.
Then, the camera began to spin in a dizzying blur.
In a beautiful, rapid time-lapse, the snow melted and fell again, seasons flashing by in seconds.
When the camera finally stabilized, the change was heartbreaking.
Julian looked older, his jawline sharper and his expressions heavier with the weight of time.
Evelyn, however, looked younger, her face smoother and untouched by the grief they had just shared.
They stood just inches apart, but they looked at each other with a cold, painful distance—two strangers who had completely lost their shared history.
The screen faded to absolute black, leaving only the sound of a single, slow heartbeat echoing through the theater.
The film ended and the credits rolled.
Kaname didn’t like it at all; he felt disgust for romance, but he could clearly hear Yuka and Avur crying and saying, “It was so sad and beautiful at the same time, why did it have to be like that for them?”
Yuka couldn’t stop crying, Avur couldn’t do anything but cry either, while Kaname could only think about food, as it was already 1 p.m.
“I’m hungry.
Can you make lunch, Yuka?” Kaname asked, waiting for her answer.
Yuka wiped her eyes with her sleeves, which were still red from crying.
“Yes, but let me process this first.
I can’t cook with red, teary eyes.”
Kaname nodded slightly and waited until they had stopped crying so that Yuka could begin preparing lunch.
Once they had both calmed down, Yuka finally prepared lunch.
Everyone ate in silence, still thinking about the movie, except for Kaname, who didn’t think about it because he didn’t see the point in wasting energy on overthinking.
The day continued, everyone went about their own business, everything returned to normal, the film was forgotten, even though it was really good.
Avur is still plotting something against Kaname, while Kaname is simply enjoying his life.
At night, Kaname went to his room and lay down to sleep.
He made sure it was pitch black, with no light at all.
Eventually, Avur might try to eat his shadow, and Kaname would be gone forever.
It was clear that Avur wouldn’t bring him back to life once he had eaten his shadow.
Everyone had now fallen asleep, and for once Yuka did not come over to sleep with them.