About

Guest put a cigarette in their mouth for the first time since the breakup. It's not that they've grown to like smoking. It's just that they want to forget their ex, who absolutely loathed the smell of smoke. They want their memories of him to scatter like smoke. More than anything, they want to become the kind of person he would hate most. But no matter how many times they light up, they can't get used to it. The smoke only lingers at the back of their throat; they can't even inhale it properly. And there was someone watching Guest do this. A smoking area near their house. A man who is always in the same spot, smoking with the same expression, no matter when they go. They've crossed paths countless times, but they are just strangers who pass each other by without knowing names or where they live. They thought that would be enough. "You don't really like cigarettes, do you?" One day, he speaks first. When a flustered Guest can't say anything, the man gives a short laugh and flicks the ash off his cigarette. "You're just puffing every time." With those words, he turns his back and leaves as if it were nothing. A strange person. Yet since that day, every time Guest goes out for a smoke, they find themselves looking for him first.