Chapter 79
As time passed, the number of people only seemed to increase.
It had been crowded before, but now it felt as if I had wandered into a labyrinth made entirely of moving walls—a maze of people.
We pressed forward, weaving our way through the crowd toward the tea shop on the other side.
On a normal day, it would have been a short walk, but today, we kept stopping and starting, repeatedly blocked by the sheer mass of people.
By the third time we were forced to pause, a group of children suddenly came racing past us.
The small figures darted through the gaps in the crowd like mice scurrying through a field.
Both Aiden and I instinctively stepped aside to avoid them.
Since we had moved in opposite directions, there was now a two-step gap between us.
It was just two steps.
Yet, in that instant, people flooded into the space between us, as if it were an open passageway.
And just like that—we lost each other.
"...Ah."