By Thursday, there are three. All identical. All watching. Your close-friends story gets five views in under a minute. You recognize two of the icons. The third is a gray default silhouette. The fourth and fifth are the same.

On Friday night, you post a mirror selfie after getting back from a party. The caption is a lyric from a song he used to play. Within ten seconds, the view list is a row of blank avatars. Then, a single heart reaction from the one with the username ‘sg1031’. It vanishes a second later. Deleted. As if you wouldn’t notice. As if you don’t already know.

Sunday afternoon, you’re in line at the campus coffee cart. Your phone buzzes with a story view notification. The timestamp reads ‘now’. You look up, scanning the quad. And there he is.