In panic, she covered her face and hid in embarrassment. Luckily, Miss Flois drew the attention from the students away from Kaori. The class was quickly dismissed and another teacher came shortly after to replace Miss Flois.
“Here you go man,” Maves said, turning around and handing Kaori a piece paper, restoring her medium to take notes.
“Thank you,” Kaori replied. She looked down on the lined paper and wondered if those questions were meant for her. I’ll get it back after school anyway. She waited patiently and let the school day drift by her until it finally ended. When it did, she quickly made her way down the hall to the staff room. After Tanford told her where it was, obviously.
Before entering the room, she took a deep breath and then knocked on the door before slowly opening it.
“Oh, Ren,” Miss Flois said, noticing the slacking student approach her. “I’ll give this back to you,” she said, about to hand the precious notebook over. “If, you try your best to stay focused in class.” Her eyes were piercing
“I will,” Kaori replied.
With those words, she was able to get back the notebook.
On her way home, she opened it in the train and flipped through the pages, seeing the different drawings that she had failed to notice earlier.
On each page, a question was signed, and with each one the girl who appeared in every illustration seemed to become more and more detailed. Until the final one captured her presence and replicated her features.
She looks familiar. Kaori thought, failing to notice that she was looking at a picture of herself. She closed the book and left the train when her stop came. She did her best to remember the way home. Fortunately, her memory proved correct. When she arrived at the apartment, she quickly disappeared into the room she had woken up in. She threw the notebook on the desk and flipped it open. She stared at the drawings and read the questions on each page.
Who are you?
Are you real?
What’s your name?
Will we ever meet?
Will I ever find you?
They all spoke to her. It was like every question was meant for her. She wanted them to be for her. Something about those written words felt intimate, like she knew the person who wrote them. However, the girl in the picture still puzzled her. Something about her was familiar. It was someone she knew so well, yet she had no tangible memories of.
She turned away from the picture and looked out at the city of Trine through the windows. Suddenly a thought hit her.
Is it me? She looked back at the drawing. The resemblance become apparent. Her eyes widened as she leaned closer, tilting her entire body. There was no mistaking it, all of these drawings were of her.
Her stomach fluttered as she held her breath. She quietly took a pencil and signed an answer to each question. Her face was completely flushed, her lips couldn’t help but smile, even when she bit them.
Without saying a word or letting a thought ruin the warm feeling inside, she rose from the chair. Her face was now beet red. She opened the window, letting in a pleasant breeze. Filled with enough excitement to take off like a rocket, she opened her mouth and from it a voice appeared. Unable to do anything else with all of her bottled up hope, she did the only thing that would capture her feelings, she sang.
ChapteR 26
The sun gleamed through the windows and lit up the room, disturbing the silent sleeper. With sun-tinted eyelids, Kaori awoke. She rubbed her eyes and sat up on her bed.
What she saw was a familiar room. Something about it was different though. It wasn’t something easily noticed, but without a doubt there was something strangely different about it. She looked from wall to wall, shelf to shelf, and found nothing out of the ordinary.
Just as everything seemed still and motionless, her alarm decided to ring. She squirmed and perked up, quickly scrambling into action to shut off the annoying sound as though it were a time bomb. She looked up from the device, but now the room that had seemed to have a strange air to it, seemed normal.
She rose from her bed and did what one does in the morning. She looked into the mirror, expecting to see another’s face looking back at her, but strangely enough it was her own. She looked down on her body to confirm her existence and it was true, she was all there, underneath her uniform. Why did I think I’d see a boy? She left the thought at the corner of mind and appeared in the kitchen.
“Good morning,” Kaori said.
“Oh, good morning,” Aiko replied, a little shocked to see her daughter on time.
They sat by the table and had breakfast.
“I’m surprised, you got up so early today,” Aiko began. “Got bored of touching your boobs?” she grinned.
Kaori sat unfazed by the words she heard and until it hit her. “Boobs?” she exclaimed, hugging herself.
“Yeah, you seemed pretty intent on giving them a good morning rub yesterday,” Aiko said, giggling a little bit.
“What?” Kaori frowned, completely baffled by what she was hearing.
“You don’t remember?” Aiko asked tilting her head to one side.
Kaori shook her head.
“Strange, you seemed pretty deep in thought too, as though they held the answer to the world’s great tragedies,” she added, romanticising her words as she teased.
“What? No way!” Kaori leaned forward. “Just stop, I don’t want to hear it,” she said, sinking back into her chair.
Kaori finished eating breakfast and quickly escaped her mother to avoid hearing about what she had supposedly done.
“Hmm… she seems normal today,” Aiko said to herself as she put away her dishes and got ready for work. Kaori reappeared from her room, walking into the corridor. Aiko peeked out from her own room and said, “It’s nice to see that you’re not planning to go to school with bedhead again.”
“Wait, I did?” Kaori said, looking over her shoulder with her mouth falling open.
“Yeah, so I did your hair for you,” Aiko smiled softly. “You even forgot where your school was.”
“What? Are you serious!”
“Yep, and did I mention you had this incredible fascination with your boobs,” Aiko teased.
“I’m leaving,” Kaori said, quickly scrambling out of the door.
“Have fun at school!” Aiko exclaimed, watching the door close behind her.
On the other side was the familiar sight of Pented, the city she was so used to. Without taking a second glance at the city, she made her way to school. All of her faculties were allocated to try and remember the strange gap in her memory sphere where she seemed to have gone completely ballistic. What did I do yesterday?
“Hey, Kaori,” Nora chanted, running up to her.
“Oh, hey, Nora,” Kaori replied.
“So you remember, who you are today?” Nora said, slyly smiling.
“What?” Kaori quickly turned.
“When I called out to you before, you pointed at yourself and looked around as though your name wasn’t Kaori,” Nora explained.
“Really?” Kaori frowned, as her shoulders sunk. The memory gap was just growing larger and larger.
“You don’t remember?” Nora’s brows rose. “You forgot where your locker was and where you sat in class.”
“No way! Really?” Kaori gasped. Where did all my memories go?
“Mmm, maybe you have amnesia,” Nora smiled. They stopped at the usual crossing.
“Hey!” Mei chanted, joining them there.
“Hi.”
“Kaori, doesn’t remember yesterday at all,” Nora explained.
“What you don’t remember anything at all?” Mei asked.
“I don’t remember any of it,” Kaori shook her head.
“Wait, you didn’t forget the self-portrait you made in class, right?” Mei frowned.
“That’s a good question,” Nora leaned in as they walked when the lights turned green.
“We made self-portraits in class?” Kaori’s eyebrows rose.
“Are you
serious?” Mei’s lips parted. “Your piece was amazing, I never knew you could paint like that.”
“Paint like what?” Kaori cocked her head to the right.
“She’s right, your painting was like—I don’t even know—it was so surreal and breathtaking with so many different colours,” Nora added.
“How did it look?” Kaori asked.
“You haven’t seen it?” Mei narrowed her eyes.
“I haven’t…” Kaori murmured, looking down at her feet.
“You took it home,” Nora said. “You didn’t put it up?”
“I took it home?” Kaori leaned closer.
“Are you sure, you’re feeling okay?” Mei looked puzzled at her.
“Yeah, I feel completely fine, I think,” Kaori leaned back.
“O—kay, I don’t know how you could have missed it, but if you haven’t seen it yet, you’re in for a real treat,” Mei whispered, nodding assertively.
“Yep, everyone in the art room was completely mesmerised by your painting, even Miss Hino,” Nora added.
“What? Really?” Kaori turned to them. “How does it look?”
“You’ll see, when you get home,” Mei said slyly.
“What!” Kaori muttered. “Nora?”
“It’s strange that you forgot all about it,” Nora said, avoiding the question.
They reached school and Kaori still wasn’t given any hints to what her painting looked like. However, that thought was quickly overshadowed by the curious sketches she noticed in her notebook. She sat in class flipping through the pages until a question jumped out at her. Across the gray-lined page with small sketches, it read, Who are you?
The doodles around it, depicted a boy looking into a mirror and seeing a girl looking back. There were also a couple of flowers and leaves, decorating the question itself.
She flipped through a few pages in search of more, but there was nothing, but Who are you? Written across the page. She was left with that cryptic inquiry and a few sketches to illustrate the thought process of its author. Although they depicted something remarkable it was completely eclipsed by the central question on the page.
What could it mean? She leaned against her hand. Class ended, and just like that, she had spent the entire lesson trying to figure why that was written in her notebook. She asked Nora and Mei about it, but neither knew anything. Maybe I wrote it yesterday? she thought, but soon put it to rest and went about her school activities as normal. Yet, through the mundaneness of the school day, the thought crept in.
I wonder what it looks like… The painting came to mind. Her curiosity took root and daydreams settled in as she speculated about the painting she had waiting for her at home. She assembled every bit of information surrounding the topic and everything that pointed towards her not being herself. Somehow, the illustration that she was hoping to see at the end of the day took on a sort of hope and belief that it may answer all her questions.
Classes became and harder and harder to participate in and allocating attention to the lessons seemed impossible. Especially with something like that in mind. The anticipation of what she would find sitting in her room, was overwhelming as it could potentially be the final piece of the puzzle.
The day just seemed to be getting longer and longer. Every second was prolonged. Every minute was never ending and every hour, unthinkable. Yet, through the seemingly slowed ticking of time, what she had long been waiting for finally came. The teacher dismissed the class and the school day was over.
Finally! She packed her things and smoothly left the school, trying her best to leave unnoticed. When finally alone, her usual steps had now become strides.
The walk home was dramatically shortened as she was practically running. However, when she reached the door that would yield what she was looking for, all her eagerness was drained. She hesitated to open it.
What if—
ChapteR 27
“Ren.” He cringed and shuddered at Kena’s voice.
“Ren.” She acted like an organic alarm clock, telling him that it was time to get up. He rubbed his eyes and sat up on his bed.
“Ren,” she said again, coming closer to the door, leading into his room. “I’m coming in,” she said, cautiously walking in with one hand covering her eyes.
“Uh… what are you doing?” Ren asked, watching his sister.
“Can’t you see, I’m covering my eyes,” she replied, standing in the doorway.
“Yeah, but why?” he frowned.
“What do you mean, ‘why?’” she began. “I don’t want to see you touching yourself again!”
“Wait, what?” he leaned forward, shocked by the words that had escaped her lips. “What do you mean ‘touching myself’?”
“Yesterday, you were groping yourself… down—there.” Her face grew hot. “Anyway, breakfast is ready!” she said and rushed out.
“Wait!” he reached out, but there was no stopping her. “What the hell was that about…” he murmured under his breath. “And what the hell is this about?” He looked down and realised he was already dressed. I fell asleep in my uniform? he thought, getting up from bed.
He followed his sister’s trail into the kitchen.
“Good morning,” he said, taking a seat at the table.
“Good morning,” his parents replied. Kena sat eyeing her brother as though she needed to be careful around him.
“Can someone tell me why Kena is so cautious around me?” Ren asked, returning his sister’s gaze.
“It’s probably because you were singing so beautifully yesterday,” Gin said, grinning.
“What?” Ren narrowed his eyes.
“I didn’t know, you had such a lovely voice,” Hima smiled, taking a seat next to her husband.
“What are you talking about?” His eyebrows rose.
“You don’t remember?” Gin asked, starting to have breakfast.
“You came home yesterday and disappeared into your room,” Hima explained. “Then, after a little while, you broke out into song.”
“Wha—” Ren frowned, refusing to believe what he was hearing. “You two are just kidding, right?” He leaned back, hoping that they were.
“You really don’t remember?” she replied.
“Ren, this isn’t joke,” Gin explained, taking on a serious demeanor. “But your voice was so angelic, it brought a tear to my eye!” he continued, in a romanticised tone.
“What the—” Ren began, wondering why he couldn’t recall the event. “Kena,” he said, earnestly turning to her.
“Yes?” she flinched.
“Did I sing yesterday?” His voice was weighty.
“Uh… yeah,” she replied, wondering why he was asking about something that he did.
“What the hell is going on!” He sunk into his chair, finally accepting the shared memory as truth, which he had no recollection of.
“Yeah, that reminds me,” said Hima. “You even forgot where the bathroom was.”
“Oh right,” Gin commented.
“I did?” Ren replied.
“I told you something was wrong with him yesterday!” Kena announced, trying to prove her point with her brother’s amnesia. “But today he seems normal again,” she explained, closely inspecting him.
“How was I different?” he asked.
“I don’t know—you were kind of cute,” she said, scratching her chin.
“Huh?” he frowned.
“Hey, eat now, talk later—or you’ll be late for school,” Hima said. Once her words sank in, the two siblings realised that their time was running short, and they’d hardly started their breakfasts.
Luckily, they were able to finish and leave the apartment in record time, but Ren had forgot his notebook, which lay closed on his desk, holding the answers to questions he didn’t believe would yield anything.
“Kena, what else was strange about me yesterday?” Ren asked, continuing his investigation when they got on the train to school.
“Somehow, you were like a dif
ferent person,” she explained, trying her best to describe what was peculiar about him. “I’m pretty sure you weren’t, well you,” she added.
“Really? I don’t remember any of it,” he said, looking out of the windows, watching the buildings scroll by him. I wasn’t me? he thought.
“I’ll see you at home,” Kena said as the train let out some of its passengers, while also welcoming a few to take their place.
After its doors closed, the train moved again. Ren stood frozen, unable to shake off the strange thought of him not being himself. At the same time he confronted those ideas, another one sprung silently from his rear. It was a memory, one where he had looked into the mirror but failed to see his own face. Instead, a black-haired girl greeted him. His trains of thought and wonders were interrupted as his stop arrived and he made his way to school on foot from the station.
He arrived at his destination and quickly navigated to his locker without fail. There he met Maves. “Oh, you remember where your locker is,” he said, smiling at him.
“What?” Ren replied, looking confused.
“You had forgotten where your locker was,” Maves explained as he took out his indoor shoes.
“No I didn’t—oh…” Ren said, finally putting two and two together. “Yesterday, right?”
“Yep, you forgot where your seat was too,” Maves added, as they closed their lockers and walked to their classroom.
“Really?” Ren said, realising how much of yesterday he had forgotten and how much of it pointed that he wasn’t really himself. Why can’t I remember? He ventured inward and only the memories he had from the day before were distorted. He made out bits and pieces, and a girl.
They walked into the classroom and greeted Tanford. Ren instinctively sat at his usual seat.
“Remember your seat today? Or did Maves have to tell you again?” Tanford smirked.
String Theory Page 14