Mikomi’s heart began to pound louder and louder. His brow had become soaked and his hands trembled ever so slightly. His physical reaction had become so obvious that any lie at this point would be ineffective. With his mind racing, there was no way he could even formulate a lie that would be believable. He knew he had to bite the bullet on this one and figure it out as he went. He took a deep breath and swallowed hard knowing that there was no other way to avoid this.

“....yes,” said Mikomi in one of the quietest tones he could muster.

“I know what’s coming next. I have no answer for it, though. Just how in the hell am I going to explain this to her!?”

Mikomi sat there staring at his meal waiting for the one question that would drive a dagger through his heart. It was almost as if he were being stood up in front of a firing squad waiting for that moment when all he could hear was the brief sound of gunpowder going off before the world faded away into nothingness. Karoline opened her mouth as Mikomi braced himself.

“Why didn’t you just tell me you were the one who wrote it?”

“Wait… she didn’t ask how I would know what to write? She’s not questioning the fact that I, all of a sudden, know a complex programming language and about artificial intelligence. Does she just want to know why I didn’t tell her sooner? Either that, or she’s going to drop that bomb on me as a follow-up question after I answer this one. Even if I’m falling into a carefully laid trap, there’s a small chance that this isn’t one and I can slip my way out through a back door of some sort. Now my curiosity is piqued to see where this conversation is going to go.”

“I… just didn’t think anyone would believe me. Heck, even you didn’t when I told you the first time.”

“This is it. This is do-or-die time. Either she’ll accept that answer and we’ll move on with our lives or I’m about to be pinned behind the biggest proverbial boulder of my life.”

“You’re right. I didn’t believe you the first time you told me but that’s because I didn’t think you had grown into the kind of person you are now. Even though it’s rather sudden, you’ve shown that you’ve become a very intelligent and mature young man. All of those nights behind a closed door in your room, you’ve been doing more than just playing video games, haven’t you?”

“SCORE! SHE BOUGHT IT! THIS IS MY TICKET OUT OF THIS MESS!”

“Yeah... I’ve been researching dad’s company and what he’s been working on. Needless to say, whenever he wasn’t home, I always wondered what he was doing. and I got curious. Well, curiosity got the better of me and I began to take an interest. I thought that if I worked hard, I could follow in his footsteps. All of those days where I stayed after school, it wasn’t to study for tests or for any of my classes… it was to learn about dad, what he did, and the things I needed to learn if I were to achieve my goals.”

“Why did you hide it? Why didn’t you tell your father the truth?”

“Do you honestly think he would believe his fourteen-year-old son wrote the code to save his project? I didn’t even know what kind of programming language he was using. I simply took what I researched and wrote out something that I thought made sense. For all I know, it could have been wrong and I could have ended up ruining everything. If he had known it was me and everything went wrong… I don’t want to think what would have happened.”

“Mikomi… when you watched your father’s announcement on Monday. I saw a look in your eyes I hadn’t seen before. It was like you weren’t just happy for your father but it looked as if you were happy to know that everything worked. Now I understand why you had that look. Plus, you signed up for AP classes in your freshman year, which was something I didn’t expect of you, either but you surprised me there as well. Your grades were steady but they took off over the last couple of weeks. Is your father motivating you that much?”

Mikomi only nodded his head in agreement. He felt so relieved on the inside that his mother bought that story. He had no idea what he would have done if he would have been backed into a corner. This was the best possible outcome for this situation and he was glad that things ended up this way.

“Still… to think that you learned all of this so quickly, it’s a bit hard to believe… or am I just undermining your intelligence again?”

“So she really didn’t buy it all completely but it looks like she bought enough of it for me to get out of this situation.”

“There are things that come more easily to some than it does to others. For me, programming was one of those things that I picked up rather quickly. I’m sure there are things you’re good at that other people would normally struggle with. It’s kind of the same thing with me.”

“I guess you’re right. Well… you should probably eat your dinner before it gets cold.”

Karoline got up and walked over to Mikomi. She gave him a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“Don’t worry… I won’t tell your father. This will stay between us. I just want you to know that I’m very proud of my son.”

With that, Karoline left Mikomi alone to eat. He could only sit there and stare at his plate in disbelief. He couldn’t believe that he had gotten away with it. The fact that she was going to keep it a secret made things seem a little too convenient but it was something he was going to have to roll with. He shook his head to snap himself out of it and dug in. He savored every bite of his meal which had gotten a bit on the cold side but he wasn’t going to complain about it. It was still his favorite meal, and cold or not, it was still delicious.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

After dinner, Mikomi returned to his room where he remained for the rest of the night. He went to sleep early so that he could get up in time to go visit Serah. Mikomi woke up around eight in the morning and quickly hopped out of bed. He went through his typical morning routine of taking his shower and then getting dressed. He made his way to the kitchen to make himself some breakfast when he was startled at the sight he saw in front of him. Sitting there at the table, reading the paper was his father! Ryunosuke turned his head and smiled.

“Good morning, son!”

“Dad! Mom said you would be home today but I thought that maybe you would be home a bit later.”

“I came home around midnight last night. You were already sleeping so I didn’t want to disturb you. I have to tell you, it felt really good to sleep in my own bed for once. I almost didn’t want to get up but I forced myself to because today is going to be a big day!”

“Yeah. I’ll be here but I’m going to go see a friend first. Don’t worry, I know the party is at one and I’ll be back long before that.”

“That’s perfectly fine,’ said Ryunosuke with a smile on his face. “I understand you have friends now and that you want to spend time with them. You should do that as much as you possibly can while you’re young. When you get older, you never know what will become of you or your friends. That’s why it’s always important to cherish the memories you make with them now. If you want to spend the day with them, you can do that if you wish. As much as I would love to have you here, I realize what kind of father I’ve been. I just want you to be happy so don’t force yourself to be here for my sake.”

“No! It’s not that. I do want to be here. It’s just that I had already made plans before mom told me about the party. I wanted to be responsible and see if there was a way I could do both, that’s all.”

Ryunosuke smiled and then let out a big laugh. His family had a habit of laughing at serious things a lot which always kind of annoyed him. He could only stand there in silence as his father got it out of his system.

“You know, your mother keeps telling me how much you’ve matured, and what you said just now validates everything she has said. You’re growing up to be a fine young man. My only regret is that I haven’t been there to see it for myself.”

“It’s okay, dad. As I told you at the hospital, I understand,” said Mikomi before taking a brief pause. “I’m going to head over to my friend’s house now. I promise that I’ll be back in time for the party. It’s something I don’t want to miss.”

Ryunosuke gave Mikomi a nod and a wink. He excused himself and grabbed his jacket off of the coat rack by the door, skipping breakfast in the process. He headed out and turned onto the sidewalk and headed toward Serah’s house. As with any time Mikomi began to walk, his brain started to wander.

“You know… now that I think of it… it’s rather early. What if she’s still sleeping? I am kind of dropping by unannounced, after all. I wonder if she would be mad if I woke her up? Maybe it’s best if I don’t think about this. I’ll just end up getting cold feet and I’ll never see this through.”

As the thoughts weighed on Mikomi’s mind, he quickly found himself in front of Serah’s house. He was a bit surprised that he had made it to her house that quickly. He swallowed pretty hard as he walked up to her front door. He took a deep breath and gave the door three heavy knocks.

Suddenly, it hit Mikomi. The last time he did this was when he went to go check on Serah after her parents had died and they got into an argument. Those fearful thoughts began to re-enter his mind as he received no response. Mikomi was about to knock again when he finally heard footsteps getting louder on the other side of the door. The door cracked open a bit and a head poked through the opening. It was Serah and she had a groggy look on her face.

“Oh, it’s only you, Mikomi. Hold on a…”

Serah’s eyes became extremely huge at that point.

“M-m-m-m-MIKOMI!? Uh… uh…”

The door then got slammed in his face. A look of “not this again” came over him as he heard a lot of noises and banging going on behind the door. Mikomi leaned to his right to try and see through her front window but the room-darkening curtains prevented him from getting a look at what was going on. A few moments later, the footsteps returned to the door and it opened back up. Serah stood there in a dark green sweater and light blue jeans. Her hair wasn’t completely made up yet and was still a little on the messy side. She still looked half asleep and that’s when Mikomi realized that he did, indeed, wake her up.

Despite all of that, she still offered for him to come in. He took the offer and did a quick once-over of the living room. He tried not to look at a certain spot but he couldn’t help himself and his eyes shot straight to the floor in front of her couch. That was where he found her body after she had committed suicide. Mikomi snapped himself out of it by convincing himself that everything had happened in the other timeline and he had a chance to correct all of that here and now.

“I’m sorry that came over so early. I hope I didn’t wake you up or anything.”

Serah shook her head no. She just kind of stood there with her hands cupped in front of her. She didn’t know what to say or do at this point. It was, once again, up to Mikomi to try and break the ice and end the typical awkwardness.

“Uh… Serah… you see… I came over here because I tried to ask you a question last week but my mom kind of walked into the room and interrupted me. I figured if I came over, I could try and ask you that same question again without being interrupted.”

Mikomi rubbed the back of his head as he knew there was no turning back at this point. He had to say what was on his mind.

“Serah… I know I’ve only been talking to you for a couple of weeks now and the two of us have become friends but I wanted to tell you that I’ve been watching you for a bit longer than that. When I first saw you, I thought you were really pretty but then I heard people start talking about you behind your back. The things that they said made me angry and that led me to want to know more about you. I kind of asked around and learned a little bit about you and that’s when I decided that I would try and talk to you. Sadly, our first meeting wasn't a good one… I mean, I did knock you down in the hallway at school and everything… which I’m still really sorry for!”

“But, the more we talked, the more I began to realize that you weren’t the outcast that people were falsely painting you as. You were a kind person that was interesting to talk to. I know you have a hard time talking to others but you never seemed to have too hard of a time talking to me. You certainly didn’t have a hard time talking to my mother! I guess, what I’m trying to say is… Serah… this may sound crazy but I do like you both as a friend… and… well… as something more than just a friend.”

By this time, Serah’s face had turned bright red.

“Serah… will you go out with me?”