The next day, he returned to the park.
But this time, Elara was already waiting. She sat on the bench with a small book resting in her hands. When she noticed him, she smiled faintly and lifted it.
It was a journal.
Not just any journal—an almost identical copy of his own.
His heart skipped. "You… you have one too?"
Elara nodded. "That's why I recognized the symbols yesterday. I've been trying to understand mine for years. But…" She glanced at the book, her voice lowering. "Alone, I could never solve it."
She opened the journal, and his breath caught. The same strange diagrams filled her pages, though some were slightly different—like missing fragments his book never had.
He quickly pulled out his own. Side by side, the two journals looked like mirrors of each other—twins separated, yet bound by the same secret.
Together, they filled the gaps. Together, they started to make sense. And together… they hinted at something far greater.
But just as excitement stirred inside him, a chill swept over the park.
Two men in black stood at the edge of the path, pretending to chat casually. Yet their eyes kept drifting toward him and Elara.
His grip on the journal tightened. He snapped it shut. Elara did the same, her movements sharp and tense.
"They're watching us," she whispered.
His pulse thundered. Whoever those men were, they hadn't come by chance.
If Elara had a journal too, then this mystery wasn't his alone.
And if strangers were already keeping watch—
It meant the truth wasn't just hidden.
It was being protected.
Elara rose, clutching her journal tightly. Her silver hair shimmered under the fading light as her eyes met his.
"Come back tomorrow evening," she said firmly. "Same place. There's more I need to show you."
Without another word, she turned and walked away, leaving him frozen in silence.
Two journals. Two secrets.
A hidden twin.