Two days before summer break ended, the house went quiet in a way that felt permanent.
Akira stood in the doorway and watched his parents slide their suitcases into the trunk of the car like they were sealing a coffin. They were moving to another city for a new house, and they were leaving both their sons behind. Akira stayed for school. His older brother stayed for college.
They hated the college his brother had chosen.
Rumors clung to that place like mold. Gangs. Violence. Control. Students who "disappeared" socially. Students who never transferred out. They begged him to choose something safer. He smiled. Then he chose the worst one anyway.
Before leaving, his brother stopped at Akira's door.
"Don't tell them," he said quietly.
Akira nodded. "I won't."
After that, the house stopped being their house. It became Akira's.
Summer swallowed him whole. He spent most of it locked in his room, living in the glow of his monitor. Movies played until dawn. Games ran back-to-back. Single-player worlds and adult visual novels filled the silence with scripted affection that never judged him for breathing wrong. He liked them because they never looked at him like he was wasting oxygen.
One night, staring at the ceiling, he whispered, "I don't hate studying because I'm weak. I hate being seen."
When school returned, he became invisible again.
He cleaned his room, finished all his assignments in one night, packed his bag, and put on his uniform. Normal. Clean. Quiet. At school, girls walked past him like he was furniture. Boys never said his name. He sat alone, ate alone, and left alone. Reality tolerated him the way people tolerate a chair that doesn't squeak.
It was around six in the evening when he walked home from school with a grocery bag swinging at his side.
"Thank God there's a market on the way," he murmured.
The wind sharpened. Something fluttered into his shirt. He pulled it out and found a piece of paper.
A lottery ticket.
He stepped toward a trash bin, then paused. On the back was a hand-drawn map. Valid: Today Only. The starting point was the bin in front of him.
He followed it.
A narrow alley opened between two buildings. At its end stood a single shop with a glowing sign:
WIN EXCLUSIVE GIFT THROUGH LOTTERY TICKET
He enter.
Inside, two girls in uniform stand behind the counter. One has white-silver hair, black eyes, and a short skirt that barely reaches her knees. The other has yellow hair, yellow eyes, and a skirt so short it barely covers her hips.
"Welcome."
They checked the ticket.
"Congratulations," one said. "You have won."
They handed him a disc.
TRUE LOVE [18+]
"These things follow me like ghosts," he thought.
He went home, boiled vegetables, bathed, and tried to forget the day by playing games. At midnight, the disc stared at him from his desk. There were no search results. No records. No images. It was like it didn't exist.
He inserted it.
The screen displayed a single line:
Press any key to start.
He pressed one.
And the world snapped.
The floor vanished. His stomach lurched. The sky exploded into light.
Akira found himself standing near the same trash bin. The same street. The same buildings. His body was frozen in the same posture as before, as if reality had copy-pasted him.
"What the—" he shouts.