When I got home, the realization that the day had gone by quickly struck me as surprising, I also made a new friend today, a girl, if you can imagine it. I actually managed to talk to someone besides Natsuki. Maybe this is a sign that I’m getting used to being around other people? Probably not, but I’d like to think that I grew as a person today. But this lucky streak could break at any moment.

It was fragile.

1 litre, room temperature, two weak old soda on the floor next to my bed, is what I would take a sip from every Monday night, since my mom doesn’t get home until around 11 o’clock, doing god knows what. Oh, did I not mention? I have absolutely no idea what my mom does, she could work as a cashier or stripper, but I’d be none the wiser. Well, that’s somewhat of a lie, I think she works at an office building or something similar. She changes from job to job very frequently, so I have trouble keeping up with what line of work she’s ever in.

It was 5 o’clock, and the night was young. I was lucky enough to have a TV hooked up in my room, so my source of entertainment was always within my reach.

It was around that time that I got a peculiar call from a certain Aika Yamaguchi, surely not, at this hour? Preposterous indeed!

I was just about to answer the phone, stopped, but then realized I had made the mistake of assuming that Yamaguchi was going to be the one on the contrary end of the line. “Hello?”

“Hayashida,” The voice sounded familiar; however, I couldn’t recall exactly where I had heard it from.

“It’s me, Yamaguchi.” Oh, that’s why it sounded familiar.

“I have a favour I’d like to ask you.”

“We’re on the phone, there’s no need for formalities.” I sighed a little but to be honest, this is how I imagine she talks all the time at this point. It makes me wonder what her parents are like for her to be raised with such a stiff upper lip.

“My apologies, but if I may ask, can we meet up after classes tomorrow?”

“What do you mean? Like, actually meetup?”

“As the wording implies, yes.” Words that I never thought I knew I wanted to hear, I heard. And as my luck was about to be rinsed dry, God himself came down from the heavens to grant me one final wish. Did she want to walk home with me?

“I’d like to talk to you about something.” I pressed my ears further into the phone.

“Sure, I guess, but, we’re on the phone, couldn’t you just talk to me about it now?” I inquired.

“A fair request however I do hope to show you something in person, so talking over the phone won’t suffice.”

“I suppose, but…” I put my hand against my forehead, “Something she wants to show me?” I guess it isn’t that big of a request.

“Uh, yeah, alright. After school then.”

After that, the conversation ended. Up until 10 o’clock, I had done nothing, besides lying on my bed staring at a now-empty cola bottle. I was on the verge of blacking out, that was before I heard the front door to my house open that shocked me right awake, I think it was just my mom, but just to be safe, I went downstairs to check. It was my mom, but she had a guest with her, I didn’t know this person either. Maybe he was one of mom’s colleagues? He had a full, black suit on, foreign too. His attire is something that you’d wear if you didn’t want to attract too much attention to yourself. Your average-looking guy. He was European by the looks of it.

“You’re home early, how come?”

“Oh, Yuki. Did you manage to get to school alright this morning?” she said, completely dodging the question.

“Oh, yeah just about.”

“That’s good to hear. When I’m done with some work that I have to tidy up, I’ll make our dinner .”

That must be why that guy’s here. A friend from work, or maybe a potential love interest, were the two possibilities that I had in mind. She had brought men home before, but I always fall asleep before I get to see them leave, call it a fucked-up sleep schedule, or my inability to care about what happens after midnight, but they always had this aroma of professionality to them, always wearing fully black suits.

“Oh, and I forgot to introduce my colleague from work, Mr. Doe.”

The man that stood before me was pretty big, around six feet, a mix of black and brown hair, had a mole on each side of his neck.

“Oh, Yuuki, your mother speaks a lot about you at work, she’s very proud of you. I guess I should formally introduce myself.”

He extended his hand forward. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, my name is John Doe.”

“Likewise,” I took his grip and shook his hand. It’s very strange when shaking someone else’s hand, especially old guys like him. It’s a grip that you’re not used to. His grip was strong, and his hand was, well the best way to describe it was battered and much bigger than my own.

I followed them into the kitchen and waited at the counter thinking to myself, “What am I doing here?” honestly, what was I doing here? I suppose this “guest” intrigued me a little.

“Yuuki, while you’re still here, do you want anything to drink?”

“Water’s fine.” Why did I say that? Just a few hours ago I had an entire bottle of cola… well, whatever.

“Thanks, I think I’m just gonna go upstairs now, I’m a bit tired so I’m gonna get some shuteye before dinner.”

“Alright, I’ll call you when dinners ready.”

I took to the stairs and climbed my way back up to my room, looking back down the stairs to check if I could still see that man, “What was his name again… John… something.” Whatever his name was, I was correct in assuming he was a foreigner.

I wanted to stop thinking though, as all I could focus on was this terrible banging in my head, my head… my head felt like it was pulsating. My walk devolved into a crawl as I made my way up the stairs. My pain was only further realized as I got to my door.

I opened the door to my bedroom, the doorknob cold to the touch. It was already getting dark out. I opened my window to let some fresh air in, something I hadn’t got since when I came back from school. My head was boiling hot, it was as if someone had gotten a clothes iron and pressed it against my skull. I was so desperate I stuck my head outside of the window, catching any bit of air I could find, but the wind did not pick up, it was, after all, a hot June night.

“I hate it. I hate it all. Why? Why right now? Wasn’t it lashing it down with rain this morning? Why do the seasons come to their senses now all of a sudden? It must be some sort of conspiracy plotted against me.” Was the only logical explanation I could come up with. I became dizzy. The fatigue that I had mitigated this morning came back.

I heard all kinds of noises, despite it being completely silent.

Although I did hear one noise very audibly, coming from my phone. It was ringing, and in a sloppy attempt to pick it up, I fell to the ground, paralyzed from the neck down. After that, I would fall into a deep sleep, yet I could still hear my phone ringing.

I woke up staring at the ceiling. My eyes are barely awake, and my head is twisting and turning trying to find out why, once again, I find myself awake on the floor. There were gaps in my memory, everything felt hazy. One memory overlapped with another as I tried to contextualize what has happened to me in the past 12 hours.

I find myself looking at my alarm clock. “4 AM, I’m going back to sleep…” I couldn’t, I just couldn’t. My body refused, and as much as I tried, my eyes were now unfortunately awake.

I could already hear the birds outside my window singing. I put on my dressing gown and headed downstairs. My feet touched the cold carpet stairs as I limply made my way to the bottom. I had all the blind spots where the floorboards beneath my feet couldn’t make a noise memorized, and as I stumbled into the kitchen, I grabbed a glass out of the cabinet and poured myself some water.

I looked over towards the window, the moon was still out and illuminated the entire kitchen. I sat there, still, wondering to myself, wishing to myself if things could stay like this. Because for the first time in many years, I felt as if I had complete control over what was happening.

And so I longingly stared at that moon for a good five minutes as I took infrequent sips of my glass of water.

“From what I remember, I had gotten in from school, I-I don’t think I had dinner that night, no. And I don’t remember my mom coming home, or did she? No wait, I swear she did come home, with another guy. I think…”

I let out a quiet sigh. “My memories are all misplaced. Names I remember but no faces to go with them… ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you… My name is, Mr. Doe.’ Mr. Doe, that’s what his name was. I can’t remember his face though. No matter how many times I tried.

Without me knowing, it was already half past 7, I had absolutely no clue how much sleep I got. I brushed my teeth, got dressed, and headed out the door skipping breakfast.

I didn’t feel well this morning. I don’t know if it had anything to do with the other night, or something else.

“Oh yeah, I’m supposed to be meeting Yamaguchi after school today.” I reminded myself. And even though my head was swelling, I tried to keep my chin up as I walked.

I arrived at my classroom earlier than yesterday, getting in at around 8:20, I had around 25 minutes until I had to be at my desk.

“Natsuki, can I ask you a question?”

“S-sure I guess, what is it?”

“What day is it?”

“Where did this come from all of a sudden?”

“I… I just feel out of the loop, I can’t remember how long I’ve been asleep for.”

“Well, it’s Tuesday today so… wait, how do you not know what day it is…?”

“I-I just don’t feel with it today…” I said with a tired look on my face.

“That’s really bad, I mean if you can’t even remember what day it is, that might be a tell-tale sign that you need to go to bed earlier.” He said with a stern but concerned look on his face.

“But guess what? That’s not even the worst part, not even the worst part! I don’t even remember when I went to bed.”

“What’s your point?”

“Well, I don’t remember anything past like 7 or 8 o’clock. That’s not good, right?” I asked him hoping that somewhere in his words, he would reassure me that everything’s fine and that, in the end, the confusion and headaches would all go away soon.

“It’s… not right. Yuuki, it would probably be best for you if you went to see your doctor, don’t you think? Haven’t you told your mom about this?”

“I wouldn’t want to do that, she’s in work nearly all week, I mean, well, that type of stuff would just be causing unnecessary grief for her, you know?” Well, that wasn’t the only reason. A little white lie, one might say. The truth is that I wouldn’t know how to approach her with it. Knowing her she would end up taking it more seriously than I would like to imagine it really is, because if there is something worse happening to me, some underlying illness I may have, I really don’t want to be the one to find out.

“Then… at the very least, go to the doctor by yourself in your own time, you’re old enough to go alone by now, surely.” I don’t know if that was an insult or if he didn’t realize that he just said to me I can’t go to the doctors by myself, either way, I felt offended.

“Alright, alright. Whatever you say… whenever I get some free time, I’ll… go visit the hospital…”

“That’s the right attitude to have! I dare say, Mr. Hayashida, you seem to be getting better at real life, keep this up and you might just become a functioning member of society!”

As much as I wanted to punch Natsuki in the face for that remark, he has a good point. For the past 15 years of my life, I’ve lived mainly under my mom, never really making hard decisions for myself. Everything is predetermined before I even get the chance to think. Not to say that I didn’t have any freedom, no, quite the opposite. On the weekends, she would always take me to the local park to play with all the other kids, and as I slowly grew up, she would let me walk my own path. But still, I can feel that she worries for me, she doesn’t want to lose me, I guess.

Aika was already sat in her seat, I was going to go over and talk to her before the teacher ordered everyone to be seated.

Today’s lessons went on as usual. Throughout the lesson, I had felt a calmness that I had never felt in this classroom. Something about it felt right to me. I sit next to the window two seats from the front of the classroom. Natsuki sitting behind me and Aika sitting just right next to me.

I had made little glances at her during the class. A very peculiar interest had sparked about her for the past couple of days, and it’s not hard to tell why.

Interest number one: For some reason, when surrounded by a group of people, instead of communicating with them, she instead decides to just… stare at them, blankly. I have had the pleasure, or displeasure, of witnessing this second-hand embarrassment first-hand.

Interest number two: Despite being surrounded by hundreds of students all day, not once have I seen her actually communicate with any of them. The only person she has ever actually talked with, to my knowledge, is me. I don’t think she has social anxiety either because when someone actually attempts to converse with her, she has this annoyed look on her face as if to say, “Can you please go away?” And with absolutely no shits given to the person who has to witness her pulling this face to them, I almost feel bad for anyone who dares to attempt conversation with her, it’s like taming a wild beast.

But still, I don’t understand why she talks to me. What could I have possibly done to actually make her want to commit to a conversation with me, that mystery, will I never know? However, if there’s one thing I do know, is that she looks a lot happier than she did the other day.

Lunchtime arrived and I turned my chair towards Natsuki as the usual crowd of people all flocked over to Yamaguchi. Today was Yamaguchi’s second day as a transfer student, and the usual crowd at her table never seemed to disperse.

But today, she didn’t stay in her seat, no instead she sat up and walked over to me and Natsuki.

“Can I sit here?” I gave her a nod and she got her chair to sit down. Faces of discontent and eyes of evil were directed towards me and Natsuki. I tried my best to avert my gaze away but alas, it was of no use, their gazes were just too strong.

Natsuki looked towards me as if to say, “Hold on, what’s happening right now?”

“W-well hi there… Y-Yamaguchi… So, do you two know each other, or…?” I could tell he felt awkward around Aika, for he is like me, completely clueless when it comes to interacting with the opposite sex. However, in recent developments, I would say I’m a little ahead of him, don’t mean to brag or anything…

“Yeah, you could say that.” Natsuki’s jaw basically hit the floor when he heard that.

“O-oh, really… wow, well my name i-is…” He stuttered on his words as he uttered the words “Natsuki Yabumi.”

“I’m Aika Yamaguchi, nice to meet you.” And not a single stutter, she elegantly conveyed her words.

We ate our lunches, something I didn’t get the chance to do yesterday, and talked amongst ourselves as we ate.

“Hayashida, why does everyone surround me when I am at my table?” She said with a stern face.

“Probably because you’re the transfer student, for the first month you’re gonna be the talk of the metaphorical town, that’s how it always is, then you slowly fade into obscurity.”

“I see.”

“Hey, Yamaguchi, what was your reason for transferring here?” Natsuki asked with a raised eyebrow.

“It’s closer to home than my last school.”

“Oh yeah, I had completely forgotten.”

“Still, transferring in only a few months into the school term must have been a pain, right?”

“Not really.”

It was around this time when Natsuki asked one of the most damaging questions I could’ve ever asked for.

“So, how do you two know each other?” I should’ve seen it coming. I was about to open my mouth but Aika interjected at the worst possible time and said, “Hayashida was following me up the stairs to the roof and we met there.”

I was shot between the eyes at point-blank range by that statement. Natsuki glanced over at me with a look of puzzlement and disappointment, I can’t blame him however, without context that would sound bad.

“Shit, that was in context… damnit!”

For the rest of the day, I felt like a normal person, going about my normal life with two people I can tolerate, something I dreamed about having back in middle school.

Today, the sun shined through the glass of the window, and onto the side of my face.

Today, I talk with friends about the medial things in life.

Today, I feel happy.

When the day ended, I had kept my promise to Aika and we walked home together.

“Wait, you two are walking home together?!” Natsuki blasted out in a fit of unfiltered rage.

“Quiet down, I know everyone’s gone but keep your voice down, jeez!”

“Oh- Ooooooooohhhh…” He stretched out his words in a sarcastic manner.

“I see how it is… well then… I won’t interrupt you two any further, well then Yuuki… I guess I will see you tomorrow…” He walked off as he gave me a wink.

“Don’t give me that look…” As we stood there, we saw Natsuki set off into the sun with his bag on the side of his shoulder. I don’t know whether he was trying to act cool because when he was halfway down the road, we both saw him almost trip on a pothole. Very cool. Don’t walk on the road kids.

“You said last night that you had something to show me, right?”

“Yes, there is.” I realized we had stopped at a bus stop.

“Here, we will need to get on the bus.”

“Wait for a second, why? Where are we going?”

“We’re going to my apartment.”

“Wait, seriously? Hold on a sec, my mom doesn’t even know, I… I’ll have to call her and-“

“Wait a second, if we’re going to her apartment, doesn’t that mean that I’ll have to see her parents? Oh, God…” Thoughts of terror ran through my mind of every possible outcome that could happen.

“What will I say to her parents? Oh God, Oh God.”

“Wait a second, Aika, listen. I don’t want to be a pain to your parents so… maybe it’s not a good idea for me to come around, you know?” I tried to weasel my way out of the situation. No good, she won’t buy it.

“I live away from my parents.” And with those words, it felt like a weight had been lifted off my back. In that moment, I let out the loudest sigh of relief that could’ve been heard for miles.

“Oh… right, of course…” But that wasn’t the main issue here, I’d have to tell mom and I don’t know how she would feel about me going to a girl’s apartment. Only one way to find out.

I took out a cell phone from my pocket and dialled in the house number. “Hello?”

“Oh, hey mom, look… I’m going to be coming home late tonight, because…”

“Come on, say it, say it…”

“I’m going around Natsuki’s for a bit.” A genius move, if I do say so myself. Why didn’t I think about saying that earlier?

“Well, look, I don’t want you staying round there too late, okay? Be home for about 11’ish.”

“Gotcha.” I hung up the phone and shoved it back into my pocket.

“I guess we’re in luck.”

“Did your mother approve?”

“Yeah, a little lie goes a long way, you know?”

We saw the bus coming down from the top of the road, Aika assured me that she’d pay for my bus fare.

We stepped into the bus and walked all the way to the backseats. The bus was completely empty, the only people that were on the bus were me, Aika, and the man behind the wheel.

Aika stared out the window upon the rice fields as the bus rolled on by. “It’s beautiful” She murmured to herself.

“Yeah.”

“Hey, Yuuki,”

“Yeah, what is it?”

“Do you think it’s possible to live forever?”

“Where did this question come from?” That question lingered in the air as I tried to formulate a response.

“Hmmm…

I couldn’t say… maybe in the future, the very distant future, we could create some sort of drug that allows us to achieve immortality, but that won’t be for hundreds of years, if the human species doesn’t wipe itself out by that time, then I could definitely see it as a possibility.”

“What if I told you it already exists?”

“I’d say you’re crazy.”

“Oh, but it does, but only in some types of creatures, one being the Turritopsis tornhii, a type of jellyfish.”

“Wait… really? Well, that’s news to me. I guess you learn something new every day, huh?”

“I think it’s possible.”

“Really? I would’ve assumed something like immortality would seem like nonsense to someone like you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you just seem so logical and forward-thinking, that even to entertain the idea of immortality would be stupid.”

“There are a lot of unknowns in this world, so to dismiss all sorts of mysteries beyond human understanding would be idiotic, in my opinion.” The answer she gave definitely didn’t sound like something she’d say, but the more I thought about it, that’s exactly something that she’d say.

“Oh, I forgot to ask, how far away is your house?”

“About two hours away.”

“Come again?” Maybe I just misheard her.

“About two hours away.” Nope, I definitely didn’t mishear.

“Seriously…? Then, how far away were you from your previous school?”

“An indiscriminate amount of time.”

“What does that even mean…?” So, this was Aika’s eccentric side, amazing…

We had a very long journey ahead of us, but it was nice. I hadn’t travelled this far out of town in years, so it was a welcome change of pace.

The rumbling of the bus engine vibrated on my back as I slipped in and out of consciousness. The windows clattered every time we went over a bump or pothole. Only a few people got on and then got off a few stops later. That’s the countryside for you, I guess. A wonderfully barren wasteland of flowers and fields that go on for miles on end.

I had hoped the bus journey lasted longer, but alas, it had to come to an end at some point. We had reached our destination. Aika had nudged me awake and we got off the bus, but this was no longer the countryside. A row of houses greeted us as we got off the bus. The area we were in was densely populated, not enough to call it a city, but definitely bigger than your average town. I didn’t realize how late it had gotten, because the sun was already about to set. Apparently, an accident had occurred which caused a traffic jam, it was already 9 o’clock.

I had no idea whether I was going to make it home tonight, and that uncertainty lingered with me throughout the night.

“It sure does feel good to stand up after sitting down for so long, huh?” I said, stretching and yawning.

“I would have to agree with you there, especially after such a long ride.”

“You were awake the entire bus ride here?”

“I had to make sure we didn’t awake at the wrong stop.” That was a fear of mine that I completely disregarded when I fell asleep on the bus. A very sharp reminder to never fall asleep on the bus, especially if you are alone!

“This way.” She pointed down the road. We were a couple of blocks away from her apartment. I felt a slight breeze on my neck as we walked through the empty streets. Occasionally, a car or two would drive past us, giving both of us some much-needed wind to keep ourselves from passing out from the post-heat that was lingering in the air.

We had reached her apartment. It was a multi-storey, so we took the lift to the top floor.

It was quiet, all I could hear was the sound of the elevator pushing us up to the desired floor. Aika, who was quiet and stood there solemn in her ways, told me that she had only lived here for half a year.

The elevator door opened, and we were greeted to yet another breeze of air that assaulted my vision as we left the elevator. It was at this time I panicked. I had fallen asleep on the bus and was checking that I had left anything.

My phone was still in my pocket, I had my bag on me. I felt relieved after that thorough pat-down.

Aika turned the key and the door opened. I walked in, took my shoes off, and waited for Yamaguchi to head on in.

I followed her into the living room. It was small, as expected of a student living alone. In fact, her apartment wasn’t all that big anyway. But what did surprise me was that at the back, she had an open balcony.

“If you will, please wait in the living room. I will be back momentarily with tea.”

“Oh, sure thing.” The living room was compact, it has the very basic essentials you’d find in a living room. A television and a kotatsu. Bare minimum. I noted that her floor was carpet, yet extremely cold. It was like it hadn’t been stepped on for months.

“Thank you for waiting.” The scent of green tea wafted over in my direction.

“Green tea, please, drink.” She handed me the tea, I accepted it graciously and took a sip. It was good. I had never tried green tea before but was surprised by the nuanced taste.

“Hey, it’s not bad.”

“You like it?”

“Yeah, I mean I’ve never had green tea before but yours makes me want to try it again.”

“Thank you very much, I’ve only made green tea a few times in the past, but I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

“But,”

“I think now is probably a good time for me to explain why I brought you here, Yuuki Hayashida.”

I remembered why we were even here to begin with. I had no idea what she wanted to show me, but it must be something important if she brought me all the way over to her apartment.

“Hayashida, something has come up, something very, very important. I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you. Yuuki, before I tell you, I would first like to go back to our conversation on the bus.”

“Are you talking about immortality? You said that you believed in it, didn’t you?”

“Yes, however, our talk had a reason for existing.”

“What was she on about? A reason for existing? For the past two days, my life has been chaotic, but she sounds like she’s about to tell me the meaning of life. What could she possibly want to talk to me about?”

She paused for a few seconds, her words hanging from her lips waiting to be spilled.

“Yuuki, we need to talk about your dream.”

Dream. It was a concept I was all too familiar with at this point. The series of lucid, life-like dreams I’ve had in the past was nothing compared to the dream that I had that night. A distant memory of dreams I can barely recall, like a field of corn that was dead to the touch, or a room full of people who I don’t know, yet look so familiar, all the faces blurred yet so clear. A dream that I had tried to remember for many years came rushing back to me. It was like a switch had been turned on after such a long time.

“-uuki” I heard a voice in the distance.

“Yuuki?” O-oh, y-yes? Yeah, what is it?” “You blanked out for a second, but that is to be expected.” “What do you mean?”

“Well, anyone would be surprised to find out that the dream they had was no dream, far from it in fact.”

“Yamaguchi, I don’t understand. I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Yuuki.” She said with a clearer voice, making sure every syllable was clear. “You are being used, Yuuki. The drea- no, the nightmares you have, are not nightmares,” At that moment, my heart began to race, my chest began to pulsate as I attempted to process the information being given to me. It was hard. Hard to accept that what I saw in my dream was real. Thoughts were scattered throughout my mind as I tried to regain consciousness, but I couldn’t. It was as if my body was forcing itself to shut down. I didn’t understand. It was only by the sound of her voice that kept me from going into shock.

“The nightmare you had two nights ago, the figure you saw in it, looked a lot like me, didn’t it?”

“Yeah, yeah, how the, how did you know that, I mean, about that nightmare? I, I-I never told anyone about it, n-not even my mom…” I looked at her in search of answers but only found more questions. “Listen to me Yuuki, that girl in your nightmare, you remember her, right? That ‘girl’, under any circumstances, cannot be trusted and is no ally. She… is not something we should meddle with.” her voice became more frantic, as if she was warning me about her.

“There’s, I… So, what you’re telling me is that… all of it? Everything that I saw in my ‘nightmare’ was true? I don’t believe it…”

“Believe it, because you have acquired this knowledge, they will know, they will surely know.” I pondered that statement for a moment. Who exactly was ‘they’? I had absolutely no clue. Taking in all of this information all at once took a toll on my mind, and even so, I still had no idea what was going on. It was only now that it hit me. That there was something bigger, much bigger than myself at work.