Kronii Ouro sat at her computer, eyes transfixed on the blinking cursor, which flashed tauntingly at the top of the blank document. She hesitated, tabbed out to check a couple websites, and tabbed back. It had not moved. It was, in fact, not going to write itself.

She sighed and began to type.

"Roommate Wanted." The page declared in a somewhat standoffish 36 point Arial.

She looked at the words for a moment, hit enter and added two more words.

"No Betrayers."

Two hours and several dollars of printer ink later she was out on the street, armed with a stack of flyers. Although, now that she was out here, it struck her that she didn't really know where one would even post flyers. In fact, now she was really thinking about it, did people even do flyers at all anymore? Perhaps she should have posted online. Then again, there were weirdos online and she didn't really have the time or patience to deal with them, so physical flyers in physical places was the only option.

Besides, she'd already spent an hour manually cutting between all the tabs with her email on them.

"The library I guess?" Kronii muttered, looking over the maps app on her phone. "I think they have a community pinboard there."

Indeed they did, as Kronii discovered upon entering the building and being greeted with it to the right of the entrance.

"Um, excuse me," Kronii said, approaching the counter of the library, where a girl with long straight dark purple hair sat typing. "Can I put something up on the community pinboard?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. Let me just have a look first," the girl said, putting a hand out.

Kronii handed her a flyer and tried to avert her gaze as she looked over it quickly, to little avail.

"Yeah, no problem. Just stick it anywhere, ideally not over the lost dog posters though, we quite like looking at them." The girl smiled, handing it back. "Is that everything?"

"Yeah, thanks," Kronii said, taking the poster and heading over to the board; pinning it up over an advert for a community event from several months ago. "One down, forty nine to go."

—

The temporary high Kronii felt after pinning the first poster up would not last long. One hour later she was only at forty eight posters, having lost the second one to a sudden gust of wind. Nowhere seemed quite right, every place she considered seeming either too public or too private, too classy or too tacky.

She sighed, her breath turning to mist in the cold January air. She needed a break, she figured, and pulled out her phone again, looking for any local coffee shops and, after filtering out any chains, settling on a place two blocks south.

Chaos Coffee was an oddly, and some might say, badly named place. A little bit of a ways off the beaten track, in the city's hip northern quarter, it hardly screamed chaos, save perhaps for the bright red paint job, in fact as Kronii entered, she for a second thought she might have wandered into somewhere closed for the lack of any visible staff or customers.

Confused, she placed her stack of flyers on the counter and fished out her phone to check the opening times, only to almost drop it as a voice from behind startled her.

"Oh, hey!" the voice said, "Sorry, don't get many customers this time of day."

"It's lunchtime..." Kronii said, turning around and looking at the source of the voice, a short girl with red hair tied up in two uneven ponytails.

"Yeah..." the girl said, seemingly not too bothered by her failing business, "Anyway, what can I get you?"

"Um." Kronii looked up at the chalkboard behind the red-haired girl, on which too many types of coffee were written out in almost entirely illegible handwriting. "A large latte please?"

"No worries." the girl said, "Take a seat, I'll bring it to you."

"Thanks." Kronii replied, putting her phone away and moving to grab her flyers, though one was already in one of the girl's hands, as the other was seemingly operating the coffee machine on its own.

"Roommate Wanted. One large bedroom available to rent right now. Shared kitchen, living room, bathroom and garden. Fast Wifi. No Betrayers," the barista read aloud with a giggle.

Kronii felt her cheeks get hot and her heart beat hard in her chest. She opened her mouth to retort, but before she could form the words—

"I love it!" the red-haired girl exclaimed, "Very to the point. Give you all the info you need to know, then, bam! It hits you with the No Betrayers line. You out putting these up? I could stick one or two up in here if you'd like."

Kronii closed her mouth, feeling the tension that had been building drain.

"Yes please."

"You don't have to leave!" Kronii pleaded. "Please, we can stay here forever. Just the three of us."

The Betrayer smiled sadly and placed a warm, soft hand on Kronii's face, wiping away her tears with her thumb. "Maybe you can stay here forever but..."

"But what?"

"But... I have to go." the Betrayer said, pulling away.

"You said we could always be together. Always..."

The Betrayer wasn't smiling any more. "I'm sorry Kronii." She turned away and pressed down the handle.

"If you're sorry then stay."

The betrayer said nothing, just faced away, shook her head, and opened the door, revealing a void of blinding darkness.

"Please, stay."

She stepped though.

"Stay!"

The door swung shut behind her.

"STAY!" Kronii yelled, waking herself up with a start.

She stayed there for a moment, shivering and gasping with ragged breaths as the rising sun pushed through the edges of her curtains.

"That dream again," she muttered to herself, flopping backwards back into her bed.

Twenty minutes after coming to the conclusion she wasn't getting back to sleep, Kronii begrudgingly pulled herself out of bed, opened her curtains, and grabbed her phone from her night stand.

Logging into the inbox she'd set up to screen any roommate applications, she was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a single unread email in it, especially since at least 90% of the posters she'd printed off were still lying downstairs on a table. She tapped it open.

To whom it may concern.

I am interested in learning more about the room you have advertised. May I inquire as to the rent? Also, do you require any rental history/references?

With regards,

Nanashi Mumei

"Oh right, rent," Kronii muttered. In truth, she had not even considered that. She pulled open her browser and searched quickly for her city's average rent. "Ehh, about seven or eight hundred a month? Eh, let's call it a nice even five hundred I guess."

Hi Mumei,

Rent is 500 per month. Rent history isn't required, but I would like to meet with you first.

Ouro Kronii

Kronii slid her phone into a hoodie pocket and headed out of the room and downstairs to the kitchen to prepare herself some breakfast. She was shocked then as her phone quietly 'ping-pong'-ed as she was sliding two pieces of bread into her toaster.

Hi Kronii,

To check I'm not a betrayer, right? I saw your poster at Chaos Coffee, do you want to meet there today? I'm free after 4pm.

Mumei

Kronii smiled.

Sure, see you at 4?

Kronii had been sitting in Chaos Coffee for about five minutes before the second customer she'd ever seen at the coffee shop entered, almost right on the dot of 4pm. She was a strikingly cute girl, with her hair up in a long ponytail that seemed to glow tawny in the light of the setting sun.

Her voice too was cute, greeting the barista with a singsong "Hi, Bae."

Kronii looked at her phone and pretended to be focusing on her picross and not eavesdropping on the conversation, but given the emptiness of the coffee shop their voices couldn't help but carry.

"Hey, Mumei," the barista, who was seemingly named Bae, replied, "The usual?"

"Yes please. Oh, but I am supposed to be meeting someone."

"Over there," Bae said, "The girl staring at her phone by the fire."

Kronii looked up to see a face full of Mumei looking at her, having apparently gotten closer very quickly and very quietly.

"Um. Mumei I take it?" she asked.

Mumei nodded and offered a hand, which Kronii took. "Nice to meet you, Kronii! Hope you haven't been waiting too long."

Kronii thought about how she'd spent the entire day anticipating this meeting. "Uh, not really, no. Are you a regular here?"

"A bit too bloody regular for my liking," Bae snarked, walking over from the counter with a glass full of some kind of smoothie, "She practically lives here."

"I do live here, Mumei said.

"In the coffee shop?" Kronii asked.

"Oh no, I sleep on Bae's floor in her flat upstairs," Mumei clarified.

Bae placed the drink in front of Mumei. "Oy! There's a futon, it's not the floor." Bae corrected, "You'll make me seem like a bad host."

"Oh, so you're roommates?" Kronii said, more statement of surprise than question.

"Eh, technically." Bae shrugged.

"What does that mean?" Mumei objected.

"It means you don't contribute to the rent."

"What rent? You own the building!"

Kronii smiled, recognising the bickering as friendly good-natured ribbing. "Have you known each other long?"

"As long as I have known anyone!" Mumei grinned.

"Huh?" Kronii blinked.

"Yeah I moved in just after the accident." Mumei beamed, as though it were the most natural thing.

"The accident?" Kronii asked, before catching herself, "Oh sorry, I get it if you don't want to talk about it with a stranger."

"Oh, no it's fine." Mumei said, her smile unwavering, "There was an accident and I lost a bunch of my memories, pretty much all of them, really. I only know my name because I had an ID on me when I was found. Bae's let me crash with her since."

"Not like I had a choice." Bae shrugged. "Could hardly leave a girl out on her own could I?"

"Still, it sounds like you've become pretty close." Kronii looked to Bae. "Are you really okay with her moving out?"

"Am I okay with losing my freeloader..." Bae faux-pondered, tapping her chin in an exaggerated manner for effect, "Hmmm... Yep!"

"Oh right, I guess that's kind of a weird question to ask, Kronii said with a nervous laugh, scratching at the back of her head.

"It's whatever." Bae shrugged. "Anyways, I should get back to work. What if I get three customers in one afternoon?"

"Don't pay Bae too much mind." Mumei chuckled, as Bae made a big show of returning to her counter. "She's just a little protective of me since the accident, seems to think it made me gullible."

"I walked like ten feet away. I can still hear you!" Bae called out.

"So, uh," Kronii said, pulling up the list of questions she'd prepared on her notes app, "What do you do for work?"

"Oh, I'm a librarian!" Mumei responded enthusiastically, "I was there a lot after the accident, relearning stuff I'd forgotten and I heard they were hiring. How about you?"

"Oh, I uh, I'm a streamer, Kronii said, suddenly regretting having brought up the topic.

Mumei blinked. "Huh? Are you embarrassed by that?"

"I mean kind of yeah. I don't know, I just... " Kronii trailed off.

"Huh? You just..." Mumei cocked her head to the side quizzically.

"Nothing, it's nothing." Kronii's cheeks felt like they were on fire.

"Ohhh, are you that kind of streamer?" Mumei said, her singsong voice as innocent as ever.

"What?! No! No. I mean. Not that there's, like, anything wrong with that..." Kronii protested, sure that her face was redder than Bae's hair, "No, I'm just a regular game streamer."

"Oh. Then why are you so embarrassed?" Mumei chuckled.

"Um," Kronii scratched at her cheek, "Just out of practice at this I guess."

"At what? Talking to cute girls?"

"What? No!" Kronii was fit to burst. "I mean, not that you're not cute, just, talking to anybody, I guess."

Mumei laughed. "Isn't your job to talk to people?"

"I guess..."

"You guess?"

"I mean, I guess I don't really see them as people."

"What do you see them as then?"

"Uhh... Disembodied names I guess?" Kronii shrugged, deciding it best not bring up her fanbase's self-characterisation as a bunch of anthropomorphised clocks. "Anyway, It's not really the same as talking to another person face to face."

"Well, I think you are doing fine!" Mumei smiled. "This interview is going well."

"Oh, thanks." Kronii smiled.

"So what made you want to be a landlord?" Mumei asked.

"Oh, I never really wanted to. I just ended up with a spare bedroom in a house I co-own 'cause of, uh... circumstances."

"Circumstances?"

"It's a long story."

"Anything I need to be worried about?"

Kronii tapped her chin. "Uh, not really."

"Oh, well okay then! Your turn!"

"My turn for what?"

"To ask a question."

"What? No, I'm the one asking the questions," Kronii asserted.

Mumei frowned, looking a little dejected. "Oh."

"Um. Sorry?" Kronii said, suddenly feeling like a bit of an asshole, "Did you have a question?"

"I did."

"Go on."

"Can I see it?"

Kronii looked to her phone where a field of questions lay unasked, sighed, and closed it.

"Sure, why not?"

Walking back home with someone by her side was weirdly alien to Kronii. Mumei was a half step slower than her in a way neither Sana or Fauna had ever been, making walking at pace feel initially a little jarring. Worse, it made her feel like somehow she'd made some kind of cosmic mistake. She wasn't sure where or when or what a cosmic mistake was but, boy if she didn't feel like she'd made one.

"Hey. Hey, earth to Kronii." Mumei's voice pulled Kronii from her own head back out into the world.

"Wha— huh?" Kronii mumbled, "Sorry, what?"

"I asked if you were okay," Mumei said, pulling a face, "You were frowning so hard I thought you were trying to melt the snow with your mind."

Kronii relaxed her face. "Sorry. Just a headache I guess. I'll go get some painkillers when we're there."

"Speaking of, how far left?"

"It's just that one over there." Kronii shrugged, pointing to it.

"Huh?" Mumei said, following the line of Kronii's finger to the house and blinking, "That one?"

"Something wrong with it?"

"It's... I..." Mumei looked at her. "How many people did you say live here?"

"Just me right now." Kronii shrugged. "It's a four bedroom place originally but like, we converted one into an office."

"We?"

"Oh, uh. I own this place with two friends, we bought it the year before we graduated." Kronii scratched at the back of her neck. "One of them is on an extended field trip right now. The other... She's not coming back here. So like, don't worry about getting turfed out at a moment's notice or whatever."

"I see." Mumei nodded as they entered through the gate, her eyes wide as she took in the exterior.

Kronii busied herself with unlocking the front door and holding it open for Mumei.

"Thank you." Mumei smiled, passing through the precipice. "Do you want to go get those painkillers?"

"Need an excuse to be rid of me while you snoop around?" Kronii joked, unzipping her boots at the side and grabbing them each a pair of indoor slippers from the rack.

"Yep!" Mumei giggled, accepting the slippers. "You'd better hurry if you don't want me to learn all your dark secrets."

"Oh, you'd have to be a pretty quick reader to learn them all in that time." Kronii laughed. "Would you like a glass of water or anything?"

"No thank you." Mumei smiled.

"Okay, be right back!" Kronii nodded and took off for the kitchen. Pulling open the fridge to grab the water filter with one hand and grabbing a cup off the drying rack with another.

She downed the water in two gulps, catching a glimpse of herself in the reflection of the window as she did. "Pull yourself together, Kronii," she mumbled to herself, shaking her head before returning to the living room where Mumei was examining the spines of the numerous volumes on the bookshelf, apparently a librarian even in her off hours.

"Some, um, interesting, literature you have here, Kronii," Mumei said, as she approached, her head tilted to the side as she read the titles, "Astrology for Beginners, Tarot Reading for Intermediate Mediums...."

"Oh... Those." Kronii sighed. "Yeah, that housemate I mentioned who isn't coming back? Hers."

"I guess she's no longer an intermediate medium." Mumei chuckled.

"I can assure you, nothing about that girl has ever been medium." Kronii sighed. "Anyway uh, yeah, this is the living room, any questions?"

"Yeah, whose are all these plant books?" Mumei said, stopping to read the spines of books on lower shelves.

"Ah, that would be the other roommates," Kronii said, "She's a professional botanist and an avid gardener. Want to see the garden before the sun sets?"

"Sure." Mumei smiled, turning on her heel and following Kronii as she walked to the large french windows at the house's rear, her eyes lighting up as she scanned the wild and verdant back yard.

"So uh, yeah, we don't have a lawn. Fau- er, my housemate said it was damaging to the local ecosystem," Kronii explained.,"We grow some fruit and herbs and stuff in that greenhouse too."

"Berries?"

"Huh?"

"Do you grow berries?"

"Um." Kronii blinked. "What kind?"

"Any."

"Yeah I guess so? I think there are cranberries in there right now?"

Mumei nodded along enthusiastically. Why this news excited her was beyond Kronii but, still, her enthusiasm was infectious and Kronii couldn't help but smile along too.

"Want to see the room you'd be renting?"

"Mhm!" Mumei hummed affirmatively, once again following behind as Kronii turned away and headed up the stairs in the open-plan space's centre, heading up to the landing and turning, towards the master bedroom.

As Kronii approached the door a cold chill seemed to run up her arm. This was the first time she'd even gotten this close to the door for what, almost a year now. She swallowed hard, but pressed on, despite intrusive thoughts about what might be on the other side.

Her hand touched the cold door handle and the feelings of dread came back tenfold. she shook her head slightly to dislodge the thoughts.

It was an empty room.

That was all.

It didn't matter who once lived there.

She pressed down on the handle and opened the door with a burst of decisive motion.

The room was as empty as the day She had left on that cold February morning.

"Ooh it's big." Mumei said, peeking in behind Kronii and once more returning her to the present moment.

"Oh, yeah. It's the biggest bedroom." Kronii said absent-mindedly,running a finger along the surface of a table and realising exactly how much dust had built up.

"How long exactly has this room been empty?" Mumei asked, presumably noticing the dust too.

"Exactly?" Kronii tapped her chin. "2 years, 11 months and 23 days. Why?"

"Er, just curious." Mumei giggled. "You're an interesting one Kronii."

"I'm going to assume that's a compliment."

"It is." Mumei smiled sweetly. "So if this place has been empty so long why haven't you moved in or rented it out before?"

"Honestly, that's just how long it took to get that it