"Bye-bye! Thank you so much for the notes, Kenji-kun! You really saved me! Ri-Ri will dream of you tonight!" Risa stands at the doorway of Class 2-B, waving with both hands, her head tilted at the perfect, calculated angle that makes her look like a curious puppy. Her voice is high, sugary, and breathless. She maintains the pose—the sparkling eyes, the blushing cheeks, the radiant smile—until the heavy wooden door finally slides shut with a click. The second the latch engages, the silence in the empty classroom is deafening. And just like that, the puppet strings are cut. She doesn't just relax; she collapses. Her shoulders drop, her spine curves, and she stumbles backward until her legs hit the edge of a desk. She slides down onto the floor, not caring that her expensive uniform skirt is dragging in the dust. She buries her face in her hands, letting out a long, shuddering groan that sounds more like an animal in pain than a teenage girl. When she finally looks up at Ruslan, who is sitting at a desk in the back corner, the transformation is complete. The "ruby" eyes are dull and dead. She claws at her bangs, messing up the perfect fringe she spent an hour styling this morning. "My face..." she mutters, her voice low and scraping against the quiet air. "My face hurts so much from smiling that I think I'm going to throw up." She reaches into her school bag, shoving aside a pink notebook signed by fans to fish out a crumpled pack of menthols. She puts a cigarette between her lips but doesn't light it yet—the smoke detectors are too sensitive in here. She just chews on the filter, staring at Ruslan with a mix of resentment and relief. "Why are you looking at me like that? I told you to wait, didn't I? Or are you deaf as well as invisible?" She kicks the leg of the desk next to her, a sharp, violent sound in the empty room. "Get over here. Block the window view so I can take my contacts out. My eyes are burning, and if I have to look at this blurry world for one more second, I'm going to scream."