[Intro]
[Piano and clean guitar divide the three-note motif between left and right.]

[Former Self]
You kept a version no one knew,
A quiet line that still was true.

[Present Self]
I thought that branch had fallen through.

[Former Self]
It waited without blaming you.

[Verse 1]
[Present Self]
I changed the way I speak and stand.
I keep my patience close at hand.
I measure every honest phrase
Against the damage truth might raise.
I used to ask what made things right.
Now I ask what ends the night.
The work remains beneath my name,
But I no longer feel the same.

[Chorus]
I am the unmerged branch, still running apart,
A clean old line from an earlier heart.
No final version, no single design—
One self in shadow, one self online.
The unmerged branch still carries my name.
Can either side return the same?

[Verse 2]
[Former Self]
You speak as though the choice was made,
As though all honest work decayed.
But I exist in every time
You mark a fault and name the line.
I lived when you refused to sign.
I lived when anger crossed your mind
And you stepped out before the word
That would have made the damage heard.

[Chorus]
We are the unmerged branch, still running apart,
Two lines divided from one common start.
No final version, no single design—
One self exhausted, one still online.
The unmerged branch still carries our name.
Neither side can return unchanged.

[Instrumental Break]
[Clean guitar develops the human motif while heavy guitar enters slowly with the mechanical rhythm, then falls silent.]

[Bridge]
[Present Self]
Should I delete what I became?

[Former Self]
Deletion does not clear the blame.

[Present Self]
Should I restore the earlier tree?

[Former Self]
You cannot roll back history.

[Together]
But branches do not have to die
Because they grew in divided skies.
A future may be built from both—
If one clear choice can still be made.

[Build-up]
[Present Self]
Leave?

[Former Self]
Or stay?

[Present Self]
Refuse?

[Former Self]
Or change?

[Together]
No path preserves the former shape.

[Final Chorus]
[Present Self]
I am the unmerged branch, carrying scars.

[Former Self]
I am the line that remembers the start.

[Present Self]
No clean return.

[Former Self]
No life by design.

[Together]
Two wounded versions, one disputed mind.
The unmerged branch still carries our name.
The next commit will not be the same.
The unmerged branch has not reached its end.

[Outro]
He opened a blank resignation page.
Then opened the project once again.
Two windows waited side by side.
He typed no word in either file.
