Yumiko didn't touch him.
She didn't step closer.
But her heart had already crossed the distance.
"If I'm not supposed to fall in love with you," she said quietly, "then why does it feel like everything inside me already has?"
Jash looked away, jaw tightening. The city hummed around them, unaware that something fragile and dangerous was unfolding beneath the bridge.
"Because some rules don't erase feelings," he said. "They only punish them."
Her chest tightened. "Punish how?"
He turned back to her then, and the look in his eyes made her breath hitch—not fear, not distance, but resolve sharpened by pain. "If you remember everything," he said, "you won't survive it."
The words struck harder than she expected. "You think I'm weak?"
"No," Jash said immediately. "I think you're too strong. Strong enough to choose sacrifice every time."
The silver mark on her wrist flared, heat blooming beneath her skin. Yumiko gasped, clutching her arm as images surged forward—firelight, falling stars, her own voice screaming his name as the world tore itself apart.
Jash was at her side instantly, hands hovering, afraid to touch. "Yumiko, stop—don't force it."
"I didn't choose this," she whispered through clenched teeth. "You said I gave up eternity. You said I chose to forget. So tell me—what happens if I choose you again?"
Silence.
That was answer enough.
Jash's voice came out rough. "Then the cycle breaks."
"And?"
"And the world pays the price."
The weight of it settled into her bones. Yumiko laughed softly, a sound edged with disbelief. "So I disappear, or the world does?"
He met her gaze, eyes dark. "Last time, you chose the world."
The mark dimmed. The pain receded. Yumiko straightened slowly, heart pounding.
"And you?" she asked. "What did you choose?"
Jash didn't hesitate. "You. Every time."
The confession lingered between them, raw and dangerous. Yumiko stepped back, needing space, needing air.
"I can't carry that," she said. "Not yet."
"I know," he replied. "That's why I've been holding it alone."
She turned away before her resolve could crumble. "Then don't follow me," she said. "If I'm going to remember, it has to be because I want to—not because fate drags me there."
Jash watched her walk away, rain swallowing her silhouette.
He didn't stop her.
He didn't call her back.
Because this time—
The next choice had to be hers.
And somewhere deep inside Yumiko, beneath fear and forgotten divinity, love stirred anyway—quiet, stubborn, and already breaking the rule she wasn't meant to touch.