I remember I played one game just like this, where the protagonist begins alone, and then recollects the time he was together with her. At the end of the two-character section, he leaves her in a dead end (or maybe a spike, I don't remember) by level design. It was a sad story, but I feel like many parts of that game was similar to this.
Suggestion: use more high-definition images to make the puzzle, so that we don't know a piece is stretched because it looks pixelated. But maybe it is hard enough as is!