When Dreams Awaken, the Gardenias Fade

[Youthful Campus Romance + Bittersweet Beauty + Shattered Dreams, No Way Back + The Curtain Falls, Everyone Parts]

[Flowers bloom and fade; it was all just an empty dream]

Clutching grimy petals, she goes to meet a death no one knows about.

“Look, the flowers are blooming even better this year than last.”

“Yeah, they're as lovely as you. But flowers bloom and fall, and all things must come to an end.”

“Then let's be gardenias that bloom forever!”

“Okay. Forever.”

But forever was always just a flower reflected in water, a moon glimpsed in a mirror…

The dream ends, and everyone goes their separate ways.