There was nowhere left to run.
When I woke up the next morning, the inside of the window had faintly fogged.
Yuna's social media had quietly caught fire and spread.
On last night's post, So my childhood friend might be a viral author, classmates were reacting one after another. Who? Who is it? Yuna had kept the name hidden, but she'd been doling out suggestive hints a little at a time.
I've known he writes novels forever. A plain kid, doesn't stand out. But he's kind of got a backbone, surprisingly.
The outer moat had already been almost entirely filled in.
I couldn't move for a while, still gripping my phone. One step short of being named, everyone was waiting for the answer. All it would take was someone saying my name. That alone would decide everything.
I thought desperately about a way to stop it. But there was none, anywhere. Yuna's memories, Shota's curiosity, the internet sleuths' obsession—none of it was anything I had the power to do anything about.
When I went to school, the air had changed.
Just walking down the hallway, gazes clung to me. Isn't it him? No way—whispers followed at my back.
When I walked into the classroom, Shota was waiting for me.
"Yo, Akizuki."
With a smirk, he put a hand on my shoulder like we were pals.
"Hey, so the childhood friend Yuna's talking about is you, right? Fuyuno Yui—is that you?"
Every eye in the classroom gathered on me at once.
I didn't answer. I couldn't answer.
Shota watched my silence like it amused him.
"Well, it'll all be clear by tomorrow, I guess. Word is the internet sleuths are about to nail down proof. ...If you're the real deal, maybe I'll get myself a piece of the action. For old times' sake, being in the same class and all."
It reeked of calculation.
This guy wanted to make my identity his own achievement. Classmate of the viral author. He wanted to wear that title.
Back when I was bottom-tier, he hadn't even let me into his field of view. The moment the numbers moved, this.
People's eyes change this easily. That sent a chill through me. If it really came out, every single person in this classroom would look at me differently, like this.
That day was as long as hell.
After school, without even closing the front of my coat, I went home to the tower condo as if fleeing.
"I can't hide it anymore."
I collapsed onto the sofa.
"It'll come out tomorrow, if not sooner. That I'm Fuyuno Yui. All over the school, all over this city."
I was scared. If it came out, I wouldn't be able to write in peace. That stillness of writing in that six-mat room for the one at 12:02 a.m. would never come back.
Koyomi quietly knelt in front of me.
And she wrapped my hands, gone stiff from the keyboard, in both of hers. Over those gloves meant to keep my fingertips from getting cold.
"My god. May I ask you one thing?"
Her voice was quiet.
"What you are afraid of—is it becoming famous? Or is it no longer being able to write?"
I answered in a hoarse voice.
"...Not being able to write. Not being able to reach someone's night."
Koyomi smiled.
"Then it will be all right."
Her gray eyes pierced me straight on. Not with ice, but with a quiet heat, as if burning.
"I will protect the place where you can write. Even if the whole world laughs at you."
Koyomi stood up.
With the fading light outside the window at her back.
"Tomorrow, at school, who you really are will likely come out. ...It cannot be stopped. Not anymore."
I looked up.
"But please remember this, my god."
Her voice quietly made a declaration.
"If you are made a laughingstock in front of everyone—then I will not hide either."
"...Not hide what?"
"That I am your oldest believer."
I caught my breath.
The Ice Princess. That flawless, peerless Koyomi Kisaragi whom no one at school could get near.
She meant to take off that mask, in front of everyone, for my sake.
"Koyomi. You can't. What'll happen to you—"
"I do not mind."
Koyomi laughed quietly.
"This mask is one I put on myself. At the very least, I will decide when to use it."
Outside the window, the city lights began to come on, one by one.
Tomorrow.
At school, everything would come out.
That I was "Fuyuno Yui."
And—the hidden true nature of the Ice Princess, too.