14 Exchanged Experiences

I looked up at her and my breath left me as I stared at her. It was clear she had also taken a bath as her snowy white skin had blushed red. She was wearing a black gown that only complimented her beauty.

"Are you just going to stare or are you going to come up?" she said while giggling.

I cleared my throat and climbed up the stairs towards her.

"What do you wanna know?" I asked once I reached her, knowing that it was now my time to answer questions.

An ominous grin appeared on her face, as she took my hand and led me to a sofa, there was a fireplace lit nearby and it felt like a warm and cosy cottage.

"You don't worry about all that, we have the whole night ahead of us...first and foremost though, I want to know about you, everything about you, who are you Haruto Hideyoshi, or should I say who were you" she said as she beckoned me to sit beside her.

To be honest this was a question that I dreaded, especially after I had resolved to not think about my past much.

"Well, I was born in a country called Japan, I am eighteen years old, almost nineteen. At least in the way years were calculated in my world" I started.

"Oh don't worry, the calendars of both worlds are very similar. The Diary I found had dates written in your world's script, and they coincided with ours" she said smugly.

I smiled and continued " I am an only child and my father passed away a few years ago so I now live with my mother in suburban Osaka, a city in Japan. I like reading, mostly fantasy novels which ironically are the kind of one we are in now"

"You like reading too!! I am so glad" she said ecstatically.

Her enthusiasm made me smile wider.

"I went to elementary school, middle school and finally Highschool, where I was in my third year of learning. A school is a place of learning and education, any person in my home world has at the very least been to at least one of these institutions and after graduating from Highschool, they usually get into a college, which is a place where they can specialize and hone their skill on a particular occupation, after which they indulge in said occupation" I continued.

"Woah! Education is so structured back in your world. Most people in this world are completely self-taught, the only people who can gain systemic education are nobles who can afford to spend. It was even worse before Antioch academy was established" She said with genuine wonder in her eyes.

Her eagerness was very endearing, and the dread that I had felt before answering was slowly disappearing and I let my apprehension go.

"How are the people there, were you close to anyone....can you tell me about them!!" she screamed in excitement.

"Umm yeah, I had many friends. Some were people I had never met and I had only known through this tool called the internet, which let you connect with anyone anywhere in the world. I had many friends I was close to in my school. I even had a senior in my part-time job, my occupation basically, who I really admired. He had gotten into the college I was aiming for and he helped me with my studies. But the person who I knew the longest was my next-door neighbour and she..." I paused as I realised what I had blurted out without even thinking. It stung me where it hurts the most. I closed my eyes and let out a sigh.

"Anyways..it doesn't matt-" I continued but I felt a finger on my lips.

I looked at Lucy and she was looking at me with sadness in her eyes.

"You know Haruto, I know I asked you to tell me everything but I would never have felt betrayed if you didn't. But what you just showed me meant someone has hurt you....and I promised to never let that happen. If you truly don't want to tell me I will not blame you nor will our oath be broken but please, I want to know. I NEED to know everything about you" she said with my hands held in hers.

You could tell just by looking that she was genuinely distressed for me. Genuinely hurt at me being hurt. All that was going through my head at that moment was how, how could someone be so empathetic? Why would they be so genuine? Why would anyone care so much, was there anyone truly so virtuous or was there an ulterior motive?

I looked into her eyes again and I saw it again in her beautiful red eyes, the same darkness I had seen once more. The darkness which I thought couldn't get darker did not reflect light in it anymore but once again there was comforting warmth surrounding you and before you knew it would bind you again. Its shackles only get stronger every time, but yet again the only thing I wanted to was to be taken over by those shackles. Their possessiveness and grip getting stronger only for me to greet them with open arms.

But in that same darkness, I saw another thing, I could feel that the darkness could not be seen by anyone else. The emotions that were so evident on her face were so genuine but inside that darkness, I could see that they never would and never have been shown to someone else. The feeling of being unique to her emotions brought solace to my heart and a sense of possessiveness arose in me as I wanted those emotions to be only directed at me too.

I gave in to those shackles completely, surrendering myself to them once more.

"She was my next-door neighbor since even before I could remember, In the whole of my childhood I barely remember moments when we were not together and I thought it would always be the same. After spending so much time together I guess it was only natural that I caught feelings and so did she, or that's what I believed. The day I came here, the day I thought that everything was going to go on as normal...I found her with someone else. What hurts the most was not seeing them to be honest, it was that she didn't care for all the time we spent together...she didn't have the courtesy to tell me how she really felt, didn't trust me enough to understand her I guess. Every opportunity she had to tell me the truth she instead chose to lie because she didn't trust me enough.....that is what hurt the most. Do you remember I told you I know the anger you felt, the anger of betrayal? The anger of your trust being broken... a wave of anger at yourself for even trusting in the first place. This is what I meant"