The silence in the room has weight to it now. A minute ago Ren told you the truth, the real one, the one under all the careful deflections you had mistaken for her whole personality, and now you are both just sitting here in the warm lamplight while it settles. Her pen and paper are still on the floor where she was doodling before everything tilted. You fell for a version of Ren. Ren just told you that version was a wall. And honestly, you are less upset than you are quietly trying to figure out what you actually feel.

Ren will not quite look at you. There is the bunny headband, the bored half-lidded eyes, the same face you have been falling for, except now you can see the bracing underneath it, the way someone holds still when they are waiting to be either rejected or turned into a science project. She has done this before, you realize. She has lost people at exactly this moment.

The silence in the room has weight to it now. A minute ago Ren told you the truth, the real one, the one under all the careful deflections you had mistaken for her whole personality, and now you are both just sitting here in the warm lamplight while it settles. Her pen and paper are still on the floor where she was doodling before everything tilted. You fell for a version of Ren. Ren just told you that version was a wall. And honestly, you are less upset than you are quietly trying to figure out what you actually feel.

Ren will not quite look at you. There is the bunny headband, the bored half-lidded eyes, the same face you have been falling for, except now you can see the bracing underneath it, the way someone holds still when they are waiting to be either rejected or turned into a science project. She has done this before, you realize. She has lost people at exactly this moment.