Get What You Want (I)
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The first thing he did after coming back to the dorm room was turn off his phone and lock it in a drawer. He then called up the list of his contacts, but as expected no one answered. This wasn’t surprising—the entire time they were gone, it had been dark outside. The only exception was Risya, who would probably be awake even at that hour.
He stuffed the list into his pocket and headed for the kitchen. There weren’t many people in there, so he grabbed some juice from the fridge and poured himself a glass.
“Hey, where’ve you been?” Kiyotaka asked.
“We went out.”
Kiyotaka looked confused. “You mean you left without telling me?”
“Yeah… I’m sorry…”
Risya shrugged. “It’s fine,” she said, looking away. Then, with an awkward smile, she added, “But we’re not going out again tonight.”
Kiyotaka blinked. “Huh? Why not?”
“Because the meeting is tomorrow morning. We need to get some sleep.”
“Oh yeah, right… Well, if you say so… But why aren’t you coming back?”
She shrugged again. “Well, I don’t know about that either…” She suddenly spoke up sharply: “I’m not sleeping here!”
Kiyotaka felt like her words were out of nowhere. “What do you mean by that?”
“I want to go home.”
“Wait, but you just got here! You can’t just leave—”
“Why not?”
“That’s because… Because I’m your roommate.”
“I know that. And I’m grateful for it. But I’m not staying here anymore. It’s not my place.”
“Then where will you stay?”
“At a friend’s house.”
“I see.”
Kiyotaka opened his mouth to ask more questions, but Risya cut him short.
“So, please don’t follow me there.”
She turned around and left the kitchen.
Kiyotaka stared blankly at the door she’d disappeared through. Suddenly, he noticed someone standing behind him.
“Um…” he said awkwardly.
The person turned to face Kiyotaka, and he saw that it was Yukari.
“U-um… I guess you already know this, but…”
Yukari nodded. “Yes. We talked earlier.”
“W-well, anyway, erm… Sorry if I woke you up or anything.”
“No, it’s all right. I’m used to waking up in the middle of the night now.”
“Oh… I see.”
They both fell silent for a moment until Kiyotaka finally mustered the courage to speak up.
“Err, umm… Yuki, could you help me out for a second? I’m kinda stuck…”
“…Sure.” Yukari pushed herself away from the wall and walked over to stand next to Kiyotaka. She looked down at him with an earnest expression on her face. “What exactly happened?”
“I don’t really know. All I remember is sitting in front of the computer and hearing voices. And then…”
“And then what?”
“It’s hard to explain…”
Yukari frowned. “Try.”
Kiyotaka hesitated a bit longer than he should have, but when he noticed Yukari staring at him expectantly, he decided to just blurt everything out.
“First, I was talking to people who sounded like they were in pain… and then I heard something about a ‘monster,’ and it was about to kill them all. So, I tried to stop it, but I couldn’t move. Then I found myself in another world, and a girl told me that I was gonna die. That’s all I can remember.”
“Wow. You sure are unlucky.”
“Huh?”
Yukari sighed. “Nothing. Listen, Kiyotaka, you’re not gonna die, right?”
“Huh?”
“I mean, you’re the one who came to me. You made it here safely, didn’t you?”
“I… I suppose so, yes.”
“So, you wouldn’t mind telling me how you did it?”
“How did I…? Oh, right.” Kiyotaka realized that he had no idea what to tell her. “It’s pretty weird, actually. Like I said before, I was just sitting at my computer and listening to music, and then I started to hear voices. At first, I thought it was a virus, so I tried turning off my computer. But that didn’t work.”
“Hmm… And what happened after that?”
“After that, it was like I blacked out for a little while. When I woke up again, I was somewhere else. A different space. And there was this girl there… She seemed really worried, so I tried to calm her down. After that, everything was pretty normal.”
“You mean, you don’t remember any monsters at all?”
“No, I’m sure I heard them. They were trying to hurt my friends, so I tried to stop them. That was all that happened. I never saw a monster, or a scary woman, or anything.”
“Really?”
“Yes. And it’s true that I can’t remember much about the other place either. I only know that it was very cold. All I wanted to do was go back to my room. So, I followed the girl there and managed to get home.”
Kiyotaka paused for a moment, taking a sip of his juice.
“So, that’s it?” Yukari asked, sounding disappointed.
“Oh, uh… Yeah, that’s pretty much it.”
“And you think that means you’re not in danger?”
Kiyotaka nodded. “I think so. That’s what I told the others too.”
“Hmm…” Yukari was quiet for a few seconds, thinking. Then she smiled. “Well, I guess you’ll be okay. If you’re still convinced, then I guess you’re right.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Kiyotaka watched Yukari walk off as he finished his juice.
He then put the empty bottle on the table and took out his phone. He checked his messages to find that he had a bunch of missed calls.
First was Taki.
Hi, Kiyotaka. Where are you? Are you okay?
He quickly typed out a reply:
Yeah, I’m fine. Just got back from a trip.
Taki wrote back:
Gotcha. Stay safe, okay?
Next was Chihiro.
Kiyotaka?
He knew that he shouldn’t answer the message, but he couldn’t help himself.
Sorry, I can’t talk right now.
Chihiro responded almost immediately.
Okay. See you later.
He deleted the message and closed the app.
Finally, he sent a quick text to Risya.
The End