Mikomi woke up bright and early on Tuesday with a smile on his face. He knew that things were starting to go his way and it felt good. His father’s announcement yesterday bestowed hope into him that he could change the future. After recovering from the taxing process of regaining his memories, he decided it was time to return to school. The days began to pass one after the other. Mikomi stayed after school every day this week to make up some of the work he missed while he was absent. Even though each day felt the same, Mikomi knew that he was drawing closer and closer to his next challenge: asking Serah out.

One thing did stand out to him, though. Ever since he mentioned Serah to Ryan, he has been conspicuous by his absence. Normally, he would run up and lunge at him every single morning, and then the two of them would walk to school; however, every day this week, Ryan was nowhere to be seen except in homeroom. Even then, Ryan didn’t make any sort of effort to strike up a conversation. Mikomi wanted to initiate the conversation every time but he decided that if he did, it might make things worse. After all, this was something that Ryan had to figure out for himself. Mikomi said all that he wanted to say to him and now it was Ryan’s turn to make up his mind. He could only hope that Ryan would come around and see things from his perspective.

When it came to Serah, Mikomi didn’t see much of her at school… or at least, he didn’t want to. He almost asked her out when she was at his house on Sunday afternoon but he was interrupted by his mother who had the worst timing possible. Since then, Mikomi had struggled to find another ‘perfect time’ to ask the question. He ultimately decided that he would visit her at her house on Saturday and ask her then but until that day came, he did his best not to interact with her out of fear that he would ask her out prematurely. He also didn’t want to cause a commotion during school in case someone saw or overheard them. The last thing he wanted was to subject her to any unnecessary ridicule. His father always taught him that patience was a virtue of life so Mikomi took those words to heart and mustered up his strength to wait until the weekend.

When the final bell rang on Friday, Mikomi decided to skip the after-school cram session. After all, he didn’t need to study the material; he just needed to know what the subjects were that he missed out on. Having the mind of a twenty-four-year-old still had its advantages and it made high school much life easier for him. His AP classes seemed like child’s play and his marks were too impressive for anyone to doubt his intelligence. One could make the argument that Mikomi was cheating but it wasn’t like he had any other choice.

Those thoughts caused him to daydream as he walked down the sidewalk with his bookbag slung over his shoulder. He was so lost in thought, that the world around him seemed to not exist. Mikomi was a deep thinker and his ability to ascertain certain things was uncanny and worthy of being called a special gift. Before Mikomi knew it, he had arrived at his house. He came in through the back door and saw his mother sitting at the kitchen table, almost as if she were waiting for him. She greeted him warmly and wore a bright smile on her face.

“Mikomi, I just got off the phone with your father. He said that he will be coming home tomorrow and he’ll be bringing a few people from the office with him. They’re going to have a get-together here at the house to celebrate their major breakthrough. Your father wants to know if you’re going to be around as he would love for you to be here.”

“Tomorrow!? Why tomorrow of all days!? I wanted to go over to Serah’s house and ask her out tomorrow! It was supposed to be my big day and now it’s going to be dad’s. I suppose I could just go over on Sunday but… I’ve ignored her for so long. Wait! She didn’t say what time the get-together was going to be. Maybe I can do both?”

“What time is everyone going to be here?”

“Well, your dad will be home all day. I’ll probably take him along shopping with me so he can buy the things he wants for the party but everyone should be showing up around one o’clock or so.”

“That’s perfect! I can go visit Serah in the morning! Heck, maybe I can even invite her to the party and drop a bomb of an announcement of my own! Would Serah want that, though? I guess there is only one way to find out.”

“To be honest, I’ll be around but I was thinking about going over to Serah’s tomorrow but I can go in the morning and come back before everyone arrives.”

“Does this have something to do with what I interrupted in the bedroom on Sunday?”

“So, she DID know! I swear, her sixth sense is second to none!”

“Y.yeah… I guess you could say that…” said Mikomi with a sheepish tone in his voice.

“Well then, what mother would I be if I made you disappoint her by keeping you home? I’ll be rooting for you!”

“Mom… this is embarrassing enough. You don’t have to root for me. Besides, I think you enjoy embarrassing me and it’s kind of annoying.”

“Okay, okay… I can take the hint. I’ll ease up… it’s just that I’m proud of my boy. Your grades have been excellent and now you’re looking to date someone. Just a few weeks ago, you would always keep to yourself and spend all of your free time in your room playing video games. I was starting to worry. It’s like you became a whole new person all of a sudden. I don’t know what switch got flipped inside of you but I’m really happy that you’ve realized that there’s more to life than just games.”

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“I always did play a lot of video games in the other timeline as well. I guess the “me” that existed before I took over wasn’t any different. This was something that I never really accounted for. I never thought about what the Mikomi of this timeline was like before I arrived. Then again, given the situation, that was one of the furthest things from my mind. I was so wrapped up in this second chance that I never really thought about who I used to be. I’m surprised my mom didn’t say anything about this sooner. She’s been onto me this entire time so why would she keep that to herself? Maybe I’m just reading too much into it and it’s nothing more than just a mother’s intuition.”

“Yeah... “

“That’s all I can respond with. I don’t know what else to say. Maybe my pathetic response will get me excused so I can go into my room and… I guess I’m not so dissimilar from my counterpart after all.”

“I’m going to go wash up and do my weekend homework. This way, I won’t have to worry about it.”

Mikomi then excused himself and headed to the restroom. He washed up and then moved into the bedroom where he closed the door behind him. After his mother just finished saying how he would always shut himself in his room, he did just that.

Nevertheless, Mikomi stuck to his word and plowed through his weekend homework. It was like child’s play to him as he wrote the answers before he even finished reading the questions. The only one he took his time with was American history but let’s face it… who paid attention in history class? While it is taught so that we wouldn’t repeat the mistakes of the past, it was also one of the first things most people forget once they leave high school. After all, what does knowing about our forefathers, the Civil War, and other events have to do with running a technology company?

Mikomi closed his notebook and shoved all of his stuff back into his backpack. By the time he was done, dinner was ready. His mother called out to him so he made his way to the kitchen. She had prepared Mikomi’s favorite dish of orange chipotle chicken, rice pilaf, and seasoned green beans. It was a rarity for his mother to make his favorite meal out of the blue. Usually, she would reserve it for his birthday or a special occasion. The fact that she was serving it to him tonight raised some suspicion. He decided to break the ice by casually asking her why she made the dish.

“So what’s this for?”

“What do you mean? It’s your favorite dish, isn’t it? Did you change that about yourself as well?”

“No… it’s still my favorite. It’s just that you only make it for special occasions and the only one I know of is dad’s celebration which isn’t even about me so I was just a bit curious, that’s all.”

“Well, it is a special occasion. You finished another week of school and did so after you got out of the hospital. Plus, your father isn’t the only one who has a big day ahead of him tomorrow. I know you don’t want to hear any of the embarrassing stuff anymore but I figured that if I made your favorite meal, it would give you a boost in confidence. Fill a man’s stomach the right way and you’ll make him happy. I figured if you enjoyed your meal tonight, you could go into tomorrow satisfied and that would probably increase your chances.”

“Mom was always thinking of me. This is so typical of her. Perhaps I stepped over the line earlier by telling her to knock off the embarrassing stuff. This meal almost feels like a guilt trip now. It kind of feels like an apology of some sort. To think that I had to make my mother apologize when she didn’t do anything wrong. She was simply just being a mother. I am the worst kind of person right now.”

“I’m sorry.”

Karoline looked thoroughly confused by his apology. Mikomi saw the confusion on her face and thought that maybe he was wrong with his thinking. Now he opened up a whole new can of worms that could have been avoided if he had just kept his mouth shut. Because of the look of confusion, he could already sense the obvious follow-up question.

“Sorry for what?”

“I told you to stop saying embarrassing things earlier and now you’ve gone and made my favorite dinner. I kind of feel like you made it as if to say you were sorry when you shouldn’t have to apologize to me. It should be the other way around. That’s why I said I’m sorry.”

Karoline sat there for a moment and couldn’t contain it any longer. She burst into laughter as he sat there rather embarrassed. Karoline continued to laugh which made him feel more and more uncomfortable. He had no idea how to react to this. All he could do was sit there and wait for his mother to can the hysterics.

“I’m sorry, Mikomi but I never thought I would hear my fourteen-year-old son talk like that. For a second, it was almost as if I were listening to your father. It’s just another reminder that as a parent, your kids will grow up faster than you can keep up with. That was a mature thing to say for someone your age.”

“Well, mom… I am twenty-four years old…”

“Then again, you do have amazing grades in school. I guess I should expect my son to have a good head on his shoulders. Next, you’re probably going to tell me that you were the one who wrote that letter to your father.”

“!!!”

Mikomi dropped his fork on his plate. He never expected his mother to say something like that. As soon as he realized what he had done, he knew that it was too late.

Mikomi began to sweat a little as his heart rate increased. All it took was for his mother to take one look at him and suddenly the laughter in the room stopped. A serious look came over his mother’s face as she folded her arms.

“Mikomi… don’t lie to me. Did you write that letter to your father?”

“SHIT! There’s no way out of it this time. How in the hell am I going to explain this to her? What am I going to do? If I say that I wrote the letter, what am I supposed to do after that? Tell her that her only son died and was transported by some Custodian of Time into this alternate timeline and now I’m here to change the future? SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! What should I do?”

Mikomi began to sweat bullets. With one simple drop of an eating utensil, he found himself backed into a corner with virtually no escape.