Scene 1 - Echoes of Yenson

It had been a week of tension. Melody avoided Renly at all costs, throwing herself into class projects and research. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t erase the thought of him — his presence looming at the edge of her mind, overlapping with the memories she had glimpsed through the mirror. Whenever she saw him from a distance, her heart raced, not with anger, but with a pull she couldn’t explain. It’s not me, she thought. It’s Madeleine.

The mirror had done something to her. She was starting to forget things — simple things like what they had discussed in class or the names of a few classmates. When Renly crossed her path, she almost called him Yenson more than once. It felt like something was slipping away, and the more it did, the more Renly became an anchor she both despised and longed for.

One afternoon, she found herself watching him perform in the school’s courtyard, strumming his guitar with ease as a small crowd gathered around. His voice, deep and melodic, resonated across the campus as he sang a cover of an old song. The way he looked while performing—lost in his music—made Melody’s chest tighten. The dimple in his left cheek appeared when he smiled at his audience, sending a ripple of excitement through the girls watching.

But Melody wasn’t swooning. Instead, her blood boiled. She hated how her heart responded to him, how Madeleine's memories twisted her emotions. She turned on her heel and stormed off, but before she...