“This is… so awkward.”
“Even if you slept with me before?”
I could feel Emily shudder at my words.
“Can you change your phrasing, o kind sir?”
“Hadn’t we shared some skinship before, my lady?”
“That’s even worse!”
From my right, I could feel her intense stare drilling deep into my skull.
“Besides, as children, we know nothing about personal space! You can’t add that to ‘skinship’, you dummy!”
Her eyes then widened and out of nowhere, she pulled herself away, putting her back on the edge of the bed.
“Did… did you… touch me?”
She asked while visibly shaking.
“Yes. Your skin feels smooth-”
“Pervert!”
She yelled and turned her body around.
“Come on, did you really think I would do something like that?”
“Did… you not?”
“I did, but I just touched your arm. I was just trying to make sure that you’re real, that’s all.”
“Which… part?”
I pointed toward her arm, the part near the elbow and below her pajamas. She used a similar pajama to the one she wore before, albeit with different colors. It had long pants coupled with a short sleeve shirt.
“With just my index finger.”
I answered honestly. There was no telling how long we would be stuck for like this, so I would rather be honest now. She let out a sigh and turned back toward me.
“Do anything more and I’ll smack you to oblivion.”
“Fine, fine. You know I won’t make a move on you.”
“That’s not… ah whatever.”
She pouted and planted her face deep within her pillows, which unfortunately didn’t exist in my eyes.
“Sigh… we really did have it rough. How long will it stay like this?”
I muttered up to the ceiling, hoping someone could hear our calls.
“I hope… I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“How long this would last for, I mean.”
“Obviously.”
I let out another sigh.
“You think a good night's sleep is all it took to end this little nightmare of ours?”
Emily looked my way. She didn’t respond after a few seconds so I tilted my head toward her. She blinked, her cedar-brown eyes peeking from behind her eyelids. The pale moon shine shone itself through my balcony window, but it didn’t seem to have an effect on her. She seemed to follow her rules when it came to lighting, thus she looked a bit darker compared to me. She probably had no light at all, maybe her windows were shut.
“It would be nice if this dream ended soon, wouldn’t it?”
She muttered with a wry smile.
“Yeah. Anyway, I think I’m going to bed.”
“You’re already in bed.”
“You’re… right.”
Emily let out a chuckle at my words. She then turned around and faced away from me.
“Good night.”
“Good night.”
I closed my eyes and dove deep into the darkness behind my eyelids.
I stretched my limbs and let out a yawn.
“Good morning, Simon.”
I can hear Emily’s smooth, cheerful-sounding voice ringing in my ears, although I couldn’t really tell whether my ear was the one actually hearing her or not, especially since I couldn’t hear any other thing. Judging from her voice, she seemed to be in a better mood today, though.
“Guess sleeping won’t solve anything, huh?”
She said as she made her way from one point to the other. I couldn’t tell what she was doing.
“Yeah.”
“You have morning class?”
She asked while I pulled myself from the bed.
“Yeah. Only one, though. You?”
“One of my teachers didn’t feel well yesterday, so he moved the class to this morning.”
“I see.”
“Umm… can you look the other way?”
She said with a sheepish tone in her voice while pointing toward me. I heeded her request and got up, turned around, and faced the wall behind my bed.
“Ah, sorry.”
I couldn’t hear anything, but I knew what was going on. I filled my mind with various thoughts, including how I would go about my day. I couldn’t keep being absent, so I need to devise a strategy. Emily was lucky that I don’t speak much outside my close friends, so she wouldn’t need to hear me constantly babble about stupid things. From my knowledge, the same couldn’t be said for her, but I couldn’t tell for certain just yet.
“Oh, by the way, we have some responses.”
She suddenly said. I managed to hold the sudden push to turn around, sparing myself from death.
“What did they say?”
“Most laugh about it, some joked.”
“Guess that’s expected.”
I wouldn’t call this a lack of empathy, nor would I complain about how our world had descended into individualism or something, as I knew that for the average person, things like this were just impossible to understand. Considering the number of people that lied online, it would only be natural if they had some reservations. In an alternate universe where lies didn’t exist, I wonder if people would trust us?
“But some did take us seriously… I think. They said that one day the Torii gate would appear once again, ‘after you gained what you wanted’ and immediately after we crossed the gate, we would be back to normal.”
“What we truly wanted?”
“Correct. What do you want, Simon?”
I thought about it for a while.
“I’m in the mood for some cake.”
“Guess you really do like your sweet things.”
“Can’t be friends with someone who dislikes them.”
“Well...”
“Just kidding.”
I laughed. I then felt a karate chop on my head, delivered swiftly and silently.
“Hey!”
I turned around to find Emily already wearing her clothes, a formal collared shirt with long black pants, her hair tied into a ponytail.
“Aren’t you going to get changed?”
She asked. I checked my clock, it was only seven in the morning. I didn’t need long to get change, so I lazily got up and headed to the toilet.
“The only issue is me showering and changing, I assume?”
“Yeah. I don’t live far from my campus.”
“Neither do I.”
I commented as I went to the toilet. I glanced at her, made sure she was looking the other way, and did my morning rinse. Despite already going through a similar situation before, it still felt really uncomfortable, so I tried my best to clean myself as fast as possible. I took less than ten minutes and guided Emily to move away from me as I returned to my wardrobe. I changed into my clothes for the day. I picked up a simple black T-shirt and some jeans.
“You’re allowed to dress like that?”
Emily asked after she turned around. I nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Lucky.”
“Your campus doesn’t allow you to wear whatever?”
“There’s a dress code. Well, the campus themselves doesn’t enforce it, but if you’re unlucky enough to meet one of the strict professors, you’re going home to change.”
“That sucks.”
“I know.”
It was only seven twenty by the time I finished getting ready. I picked up my bag and checked through its contents. I made sure I had everything packed up and went to the door.
“Let’s go.”
I said.
“Yeah.”
We headed opposite ways, while still being a hundred centimeters from each other. It felt as if we actually lived together, but I was sure that both of us knew the truth. Several hundred kilometers separated us from one another, and the other being here was just an illusion.
I got down to the ground floor and started my motorcycle. Her movements had caused her to end up in front of me. I turned my motorcycle on and carefully guided it around Emily before driving out of the apartment complex, causing Emily to immediately go to my rear. I couldn’t see her in the mirror, so I couldn’t tell what she was doing. Looking back would also be dangerous, so I concentrated on heading to university. The ride took me less than ten minutes. At some point, I stopped to let others pass through, and I could see Emily pedaling a bike. We were extremely lucky that we headed different ways, thus we didn’t need to worry about hitting each other.
I normally arrived at seven forty-five or seven-fifty, depending on which campus building the class was held in. Building A had fewer elevators compared to building B, thus the lines were longer. My class today was located on the ninth floor of building B, but it didn’t matter as I arrived too early.
The campus was still relatively empty by the time I arrived. I headed to the empty elevator and hitched a ride up. Emily ended up being behind me once I entered, and as I turned toward the door, I could see her momentarily as the metal doors closed. The lift slowly floated up, and without other passengers, it didn’t take long to reach the ninth floor.
It let out a ting and the doors opened, but Emily was no longer there. Instead, she had moved left.
“This is really… How do I say this? Distracting…”
She commented with a whisper. Since we could touch each other, it would become an issue when we faced crowded areas. I would not only need to dodge other people, but evade her as well, and since others couldn’t see her, I would look like an idiot. I let out a sigh and surrendered myself to fate as I walked down the hallway. The building had a nature-friendly approach, so its hallways didn’t have solid walls. Instead, large metal platings with large circles on them formed the outer walls of this building.
They let wind and light pass through, reducing the need for air conditioning and lights. Each individual classroom still had solid concrete walls, though. I could feel the morning breeze on my back as I walked to my classroom, B0903. I reached for the handle and opened the door. Two other people were inside.
“Morning, Simon. You’re alright?”
A young man dressed in a red shirt with spiky yellow hair greeted me.
“I’m fine, thanks.”
“Good to know.”
Despite his hair, which made him look like a main character, Yohan was a proper student. He always dressed formally, never once I saw him wearing something other than collared office shirts with long sleeves and trousers, making me wonder if he ever felt hot in that kind of clothing.
“You’re really unlucky.”
A girl sitting on the other end of the class, near the windows that made up the class’ outer walls, commented. She had short pink hair. She wore a casual lime shirt with knee level red skirt.
“How so?”
“He wore a T-shirt yesterday.”
Tina pointed toward Yohan.
“Wait, what!?”
I felt a smack on my back, presumably coming from Emily. I guess I did scream for some reason. But still, if you knew Yohan in real life, you would be surprised as well. Maybe not scream like I did, but I could guarantee that you would at least be surprised.
“Hey! It’s not like I never wore anything else!”
Yohan retorted. Tina folded her hands and snorted.
“Where? Even when I saw you going out on a date, you wore those shirts.”
“I didn’t wear them when I went to the beach! Besides, I never went out on a date.”
“How about the ones with that short girl? The one with yellow hair?”
Yohan paused, recalling his memories. He fell silent for a short while before smacking his table.
“That’s my sister!”
“Alabama.”
“Incest.”
“Not you too, Simon! Besides, I don’t like my sister that way! Can you two be any less weird?”
“No, no we can’t.”
I and Tina answered at almost the same time. Yohan looked frustrated and turned his attention back toward whatever he was doing, while Tina let out a thin smile as she looked at him. I meanwhile went to my usual space at the center of the class. The class didn’t assign students by seat, we weren’t grade schoolers, of course, but there had been an understanding of where each person normally sat. I normally take the chair in the center.
Occasionally, someone would take my place, which was fine, of course, but the frequency of that happening was relatively rare. As I sat down, I felt a vibration on my phone. I took it and checked my notifications, a Fine chat from Emily caught my attention.
“What was that?”
She asked. I looked for her figure, finding her sitting in the front row, but facing backward.
“This is weird.”
She was facing my way, while I was facing her, but in order to change that, the both of us would need to move a lot and maybe change positions, making us look even weirder. No one else could see her, so I don’t think getting laughed at for this was worth it.
“Yeah.”
She answered through Fine, although our condition right now is the furthest thing away from fine.
“You dodged my question.”
“It wasn’t anything important.”
She could hear me speak, so I should try to be more careful.
“Huh, ah! I’m fine!”
I heard Emily's voice coming out of nowhere. I looked toward her. She was leaning backward on her chair, looking a bit flustered.
“Don’t worry, it’s gone now. Look, I’m as healthy as I can be.”
She said with a wry smile. She glanced at me, prompting me to let out a chuckle.
