After the confrontation in the park, Aika and Yumi returned to Aika's apartment, the weight of the night heavy on their shoulders. The evidence they had gathered was solid, but Ryohta was still out there, and the fear of what he might do next lingered like a storm cloud.
As they sat at the kitchen table, Yumi pulled out her laptop and began digging deeper into Ryohta's past. "There has to be something we're missing," she muttered, her fingers flying across the keyboard. "Something that explains why he's so obsessed with you."
Aika sipped her tea, her hands still trembling. "What if there's no reason? What if he's just… broken?"
Yumi shook her head. "People don't just become stalkers out of nowhere. There's always a trigger—a trauma, a loss, something that pushes them over the edge."
Hours passed as Yumi scoured the internet, piecing together fragments of Ryohta's life. Then, just as the first light of dawn began to filter through the curtains, she found something. "Aika, look at this."
Aika leaned over, her eyes scanning the screen. It was an old news article from a small town outside of Tokyo. The headline read: "Local Boy Disappears After Family Tragedy." The article detailed how a young boy named Ryohta Kimura had vanished after his parents died in a house fire. He was only twelve years old.
"That's him," Yumi said, her voice barely above a whisper. "This is why he's like this. He lost everything, and now he's trying to fill that void with you."
Aika's heart ached as she read the article. She didn't want to feel sympathy for Ryohta—not after everything he had put her through—but she couldn't help it. His pain was palpable, even through the cold, clinical words of the article.
"This doesn't excuse what he's doing," Yumi said firmly, as if reading Aika's thoughts. "But it might help us understand him. And if we can understand him, maybe we can stop him."
Aika nodded, but her mind was elsewhere. She couldn't shake the image of a young Ryohta, alone and grieving, his world shattered. What had happened to him after he disappeared? How had he become the man who was now haunting her life?