I WAITED FOR THE CARS to pass before I crossed the street. I wasn't sure if I had this right, but I tried to recall Ray's voice. If my memory served me correctly, he'd told everyone to meet up at this place. Plaza - check. Fountain - check. I glanced at my watch (it was just before 9:30). I was early, and nervous. The five of us were about to meet for the first time in real life.

The fountain showered fresh droplets of water into the basin below as I walked around to the other side of it. There, on the bench of the fountain, I saw someone with silvery hair sitting with his eyes closed. The earphones in his ears told me that he wanted to shut the world out, yet I could not ignore him. I mustered up the courage to walk towards him, slowly stepping closer, when he suddenly looked up. In an instant, I saw the image of Subaru in my head, his two-toned eyes shining in the dark. But something was different about this guy. He looked up at me, confused, and as I stood there mystified, he tilted his head, furrowing his brow.

"Subaru? Is that you?"

"Who else would it be?"

"But your eyes..." I trailed off, looking at them.

A grimace flashed across his face for a quick moment, but he immediately put on straight face. Then, I remembered how he'd reacted when I'd mentioned his eyes before. That he didn't like talking about them.

"Sit down." Subaru calmly patted the space next to him, and I took a seat. I wondered how long he'd been here.

"I've been anxious all morning. I couldn't stay still, so I'm here early," I admitted, changing the subject. "What about you?"

"I made an excuse to go out," he said, his gaze downcast. "It feels a bit uncomfortable staying at home."

"Do you have trouble with your parents?"

Subaru crossed his legs. "No, nothing like that..."

I guess he just doesn't like being at home. I wondered if it had anything to do with him not liking his eyes. What had happened to make him so self-conscious about them? I gazed at his left eye, the one that I knew to be naturally blue, and then the other. They were so captivating. Subaru looked back at me, clearly unsettled.

"What?"

"N-Nothing. It's just that..." He's wearing a coloured contact lens, isn't he? "I know it's a touchy subject for you, but I really like your eyes, Subaru. Your real ones are beautiful just the way they are."

Without really saying anything, Subaru ogled me with wide eyes, his gaze growing even more intense. He needed to stop looking at me like that! But before I could say so, my stomach rumbled, and my eyes bulged at the loud reminder that in my haste that morning, I had forgotten to eat. I glanced over at Subaru as he chuckled, covering his mouth with the back of his hand as if to contain his laughter.

"Oh, come on. It's not something to laugh about!" I told him, my cheeks red. Stupid stomach!

I pursed my lips in a pout, bending over to hide my belly. But then, instead of keeping it in any longer, Subaru let out a hearty laugh.

"I've never heard a stomach growl so loudly before! It's interesting."

His words come out with a hint of a smile. I was horribly embarrassed, but Subaru's laugh was so genuine that I watched him in awe; I'd never even seen him smile before then. He was really cute when he did. Smitten, I couldn't help but giggle, and he looked as if he was surprised for a moment before quickly retracting his smile.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing..."

"Let's go," he said suddenly. I looked around, but I couldn't figure out what he meant.

"Where are we going?"

Subaru jerked his chin up to point to the café across the street. "I'd like to get a bite," he said as he shifted his weight and stood up. "Do you feel like joining me?" His last sentence was more quiet, somewhat reserved.

I blinked a few times, noting a bit of redness in his cheeks. Was he shy? Why is that so cute? Somehow, he seemed listless, while having many sides to him at the same time. I wondered if I could find out more about him if I went with him, but I also worried that we might miss Licht, Ray and Thoma. I bit my lip as my stomach grumbled again, like it was choosing for me.

"Can't hide it now, can I? I really am hungry."

"There's still some time before the others show up, so let's go," he said, reading my concern.

So, we crossed over the pale red brick of the plaza floor and to the café. The atmosphere of the place was bright and welcoming, and there weren't too many people there, though the hum of private conversations occupied the room. We sat where it was a little quieter, and before long, a waiter came by. Subaru did the honours of placing our orders.

The waiter returned a while later and set a huge dish in front of Subaru. "One large breakfast plate, here. And, a latte with extra sugar for the lady," he said and left us to enjoy.

Subaru stared at the food with interest. It was a large breakfast with half a baguette, two bacon strips, two poached eggs, and coleslaw, with potato wedges on the side.

"This is yours, right?"

I laughed sheepishly as Subaru grabbed the latte in front of me. I reached for the plate that was supposed to have been mine to begin with, only, Subaru reached for it at the same time. In that split second, our fingers touched. I could feel the slight flush of heat across my face, and I became so awkward, like this was a date or something. But I snapped out of it promptly, dismissing those thoughts.

"Umm, let me," said Subaru.

"Oh, thanks." I retracted my hand and watched him slide the plate across the table. "I thought you said you wanted something to eat. You only ordered a drink."

"I'm fine with this," he smiled slightly. This makes me look like I eat a lot! I mean, I do, but still! "Why aren't you eating?" Subaru asked, and then proceeded to dump the extra sugar into his drink. So, Subaru has a sweet tooth, huh?

I pressed my lips together and forked up a potato wedge. "Oh man, this is so good!"

Subaru let out a chuckle. Noticing my childish behaviour, I put my fork back down, but he encouraged me to eat.

"I'm not going to make fun of you, if that's what you're thinking."

"I didn't think of it that way."

"I like that you're honest," he said.

"Wh-What?"

Subaru took a sip of his coffee. I watched him lick his lips before he set the cup back into place. "I think it's great that you don't put up a front. You're able to just be yourself."

I appreciated the compliment, but I could not help wondering if that meant Subaru wasn't able to be himself. I supposed it shouldn't have come as a surprise given how he felt about his eyes, but it made me sad just thinking about it.

"I happen to like people who can be themselves," he smiled at me suddenly, and I felt a bolt through my chest.

Does Subaru realise he's a lady killer?

After we finished our meal, Subaru paid for both of us - he insisted - and we headed back to the fountain. We got back with a minute to spare, and at 10:00 on the dot, Ray showed up. There was no mistaking him, even from afar, with his fiery hair and his signature university jacket.

"Is it just you two?" he asked.

"It seems so." He's getting straight down to business.

Ray clicked his tongue and looked at his watch. It had only been a few minutes, but Ray was already impatient - seeing as he'd come right on time, I could guess that he hated being kept waiting. He didn't even sit down. Subaru, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind.

"Seriously, which part of ten in the morning didn't they understand?"

"Let's wait a bit longer," I said. "I'm sure they'll be here."

As Ray folded his arms, I leaned forward from the fountain to get a better look at him. He seemed very similar to the Ray I knew in The Nightmare. Well, of course, he was the same person, but the atmosphere surrounding him now... it seemed to change him. Maybe it was just the soft blue of the sky against his red hair, or the sunlight bouncing off of his eyelashes.

"Gosh, we're wasting time," he griped. Yup, this is definitely Ray. "Let's go."

Ray turned to leave, but as Subaru and I stood up, we heard a voice in the distance.

"Heeeey!"

"Is that Thoma?" I asked.

Honey brown hair, black tee and trousers, denim jacket, red chequered shirt tied around the waist. Thoma dashed towards us, his bright smile even more magnificent in the light of day. He halted when he reached us, doubling over as he caught his breath.

"Were you really going to leave without me?"

"You're late," said Ray pointedly.

"Just by ten minutes, jeez!"

"Hey, Thoma!" I greeted him with a smile, hoping he could forget about Ray's rudeness. "I knew you'd show up."

Thoma laughed, standing up straight and fixing his fringe. I'd never really paid attention to how beautiful his hair was, or how he had a section of it tied up into a short ponytail. You know, he was probably the exact type of guy Anna would want to be her boyfriend. Thoma wasn't any different than he was in the nightmare world; he was still as hyper as ever. It was kind of obnoxious, but his presence always lightened the mood.

"Wow, look at you guys," he puffed. "I can't believe we're all here."

But we weren't all here.

"What about Licht?" I piped up, and they all looked at me. "You didn't forget, did you? We should wait for him, too."

"Hey! So, you'll wait for Licht, but you weren't going to wait for me? Wow, Ziya. I see how it is."

"Okay, okay." Playing along with Thoma's sarcasm, I lightly patted him on the cheek.

We agreed to wait for Licht in the park for an hour. But he didn't show.

"I guess it's no use waiting for someone we're not sure is coming," said Ray. "We only met him last night, and we didn't get much from him either."

"He could be dead," muttered Subaru.

My eyes widened at him, my voice shaking. "C-C'mon, don't say stuff like that."

"It's not impossible."

Thoma hummed, "If he died, we would've heard about it on the news this morning."

His words offer me some semblance of relief. That's true.

"Well, whatever the case," chimed Ray, "we've got stuff to do. If he's just being lazy about coming here, then we should just get moving without him."

Ray walked off and we all followed after him. I didn't think that was the case about Licht, at least, I hoped it wasn't, but what was it then? I couldn't understand why he hadn't met us at the plaza. I couldn't understand a lot of things about him, like how he'd known my name, or how I felt as though I should have known his. His eyes were violet, I would have remembered them. But then, I'd felt the same way about Subaru.

We ended up at Ray's house - a length of freshly mown grass led us from the gate to the front door. Inside, Ray took us into the living room and asked us to wait there as he started off in another direction. The room looked pretty clean.

"Wow, you sure got a nice place here, Ray," said Thoma. "Do you live alone?"

Ray just passed us by and went across the hallway. Subaru looked around, seeming particularly interested in the bookshelf. I almost felt too nervous to look at anything, but I tried to take in my surroundings: around a glass coffee table were three long white couches, which could probably seat about four people each, and there was a grand wooden wall unit for the flat screen TV and speaker system. And then there were the bookshelves, stocked full of reading material and mementos. The whole suite's design was squared out and contemporary - clean.

"Oh look, he was so cute when he was little," said Thoma when he picked up a framed photo, and I leaned over to take a peek, too. A smiling woman stood beside a young boy with a determined smirk.

"Ooh, you're right! Look at those cheeks! Is this his mom?" I smiled as I studied the picture, but Thoma's hands began to tremble slightly.

"We, uh, better put this back." For a split second, I could have sworn there was a small, sad look on his face.

"Thoma?"

"I get it already," Ray's voice came from afar, and we turned to see a woman dragging a suitcase down the corridor.

"I'll call you in the morning, alright?"

"Mm-hmm. Have a safe trip," he smiled so gently. That's new. The woman noticed us and stopped in her tracks. "These are the people I told you about."

"Oh, hello," she said pleasantly. She was the woman from the picture, Ray's mother, though her ebony hair fell longer now than it had then. "It's not often that Ray brings his friends over. Unfortunately, I'm on my way out the door for a business trip, but make yourselves at home, alright?"

"And you better get going or you'll miss the train," Ray shooed her in a playful kind of way, helping her on her way out.

How sweet. The scene warmed my heart, reminding me of my own life at home. Even if we ended up like adventurers in the nightmare world, we were still just kids.

"Must be nice," Subaru's sudden comment made me glance over at him. It was almost inaudible, but I couldn't miss it. I thought about our short talk at the fountain - I hoped that someday he'd find a place where he felt safe to be himself.

As soon as Ray came back to the living room, Thoma locked his arms around Ray's neck. "Aww! I didn't know you were such a mama's boy."

"Hey, let go of me!" Ray scowled, and Thoma let him go with a laugh.

Ray fixed his hair as he dropped to the sofa. "Alright, now I believe we have things to talk about."

"Why are you so serious again?" asked Thoma. "Didn't you bring us here to celebrate the joy of living?"

Rays eyes went dark. "We'll have no life to celebrate if we can't figure out how to escape our nightmares."

"Your mom was in such a hurry, we didn't get to say goodbye," I thought out loud.

"Yeah, about that," Ray began, brought his thumb to his lips. "She's not actually my real mom. I don't have a dad, by the way. She lost her husband before I entered the picture."

"You were adopted," said Subaru, who had remained by the bookshelf all this time.

The two of them sounded so calm, matter-of-fact, like they were talking about the weather or something.

"Why are you suddenly bringing that up?" asked Thoma solemnly.

"Because if my hunch is right, that means the same goes for all of you."

Ray's saying we're all adopted? The suddenness of it stupefied me. I wanted to convince myself that he was wrong, that I was raised by me real mom and dad, but I stopped myself. I guess I wouldn't know for sure...

"You can't just go telling people they're adopted, Ray," said Thoma. "Why would you even think that in the first place?"

"You yourselves admitted to not having any childhood memories."

"That still doesn't mean..." Thoma trailed of as Ray folded his arms.

"Subaru seems to agree with me."

I bit my lip, glancing at Subaru, who was quietly listening to the conversation. Was that why he seemed so hesitant to talk about his parents? Because he knew they were not his real family?

"To some degree, it makes sense," he said. "We're all without a past. Ray and I know we've been adopted. There's the orphanage, too. There's a 50% probability it's all related to the nightmare we've been having."

The revelation hit me hard. In an instant, my parents' faces flashed into my mind. We were happy, weren't we? I'd always wondered about my past, but I'd never considered that I might have been adopted.

"Ziya?" Subaru called me back to reality, before I could drown in all the memories of the Christmases and the birthdays and the family gatherings with people who might not even share my blood.

"I'm just very surprised, that's all," I muttered. It was overwhelming, but, they had still been with me all my life - the only family I'd ever known. "I don't know if it's true or not."

As I considered the possibility, Thoma gritted his teeth. It was hitting him just as hard, if not harder. I lightly tugged at his sleeve, uttered his name.

"If it's true, then..." he paused. "Where did we come from? Why were we at the orphanage?"

"You don't have to accept it right away. We don't know for sure yet," said Ray. His gaze softened as he looked at us. "But if it's true, it might just be the key to solving these nightmares."

"I understand." Ray's usually abrasive with his words, but he knows this is a lot to take in. I started to think of Mom and Dad, the ones who had raised me. If they weren't my parents, then who were they? Did they know my real parents? Were they dead? Perhaps the trauma of losing them was the reason behind my amnesia... I probably should find out for sure.

But I couldn't bring myself to ask.