One day, strange things began happening at Mellow Kitchen.
Items she had clearly set in their place would vanish. Dishes she had carefully prepared would be ruined.
Maple was bewildered, and her suspicious gaze naturally turned toward Muffin. Muffin felt wronged, but the real culprits were elsewhere.
Dolls who could not return to the Doll Star, lingering at the boundary.
They were ones whose hearts had grown twisted after being abandoned by their owners. Dolls left behind during a move, twins where only one was thrown away, and those who had been deliberately discarded.
The depth of their wounds varied, but they shared the same fate of drifting at the boundary, unable to return home.
To Muffin's eyes, they were nothing but malicious troublemakers.
They seemed to be making Maple mistake Muffin for a mischief-maker, trying to break the trust between them. Muffin was furious.
The more precious her time with Maple grew, the less she could understand those who tried to spoil it.
Then one day, one of them spoke to Muffin directly.
You... do you have any idea how much it hurts to be abandoned? Wake up, Muffin. If you keep going like this, you might fade away forever, like sea foam.
It hadn't been mischief at all.
These dolls had never set out to ruin Muffin in the first place.
Their aim was to make Maple resent Muffin, so Muffin would be forced to return to the Doll Star. Before she vanished. While there was still time.
How much it hurts to be abandoned, no one knew better than they did. That was why they were so desperate.
The misunderstanding was cleared up at Maple's shop.
The former owners of the abandoned dolls happened to visit Mellow Kitchen one day as customers.
Through the dishes Maple served and the conversations they shared, the truth of the day the dolls believed they had been thrown away slowly came to light. There had been unavoidable circumstances.
They hadn't been abandoned. It had simply been a misunderstanding their young hearts couldn't bear.
And as they watched Maple and Muffin always think of each other first, no matter the situation, the abandoned dolls quietly decided to be on their side.
Through it all, Muffin faced her own fading head-on for the first time.
It would be a lie to say she wasn't afraid. But Muffin made up her mind.
Even if she might one day disappear, giving her whole heart at Maple's side right now—that, at least, she would never regret.
From that day on, her resolve never wavered.
