Anyone in their right mind would have gone crazy for you

Hannah and Mario found Rian exactly where they had disappeared, as if they had experienced a moment of suspension in an alternate plane and, once certain conditions were met, had returned to the very spot their body had been before vanishing suddenly.

Rian was in pain; their head had developed a bruise from hitting the ground, and their clothes were covered in gravel from the park’s dirt. Beyond their friends’ heads, Rian could see the first light of morning peeking from the opposite end of the horizon compared to the one they had seen before crossing into the other world.

“The blue hour,” Rian murmured, barely audible over Hannah’s cries.

“Are you listening to me?! Where were you?! We’ve been looking for you for hours!” her voice cracked with grief.

Rian looked closely at Hannah. Her nails were broken, some even missing. Her clothes were torn, and she wasn’t wearing her usual platform shoes but flat sneakers for long walks. Her sneakers were filthy from running nonstop through the neighborhood.

They also turned to look at Mario, who had gone silent after Rian didn’t answer his questions. He just cried quietly while holding the flashlight in his hand. Rian had never seen Mario cry to the point his eyes were swollen. His thick hands and strong arms were scratched up, and his clothes were dirtier than usual—not with the normal cooking stains.

Rian could have their heads in the clouds, look for time alone to calm down, ride their cosmic unicorn, daydream, or throw themselves into endless crazy projects—but they would never stop communicating. So their friends became alarmed when they didn’t show up an hour after Mario had sent them a message.

Using the device tracking app, they discovered Rian had last been at the park. Their backpack was lying near the swings, their notebook half-open, and their pen had rolled onto the ground—probably pushed by a gust of wind. Their phone remained upright against the tree where they had left it, and the hand mirror was conveniently open, reflecting the phone’s screen.

Rian wanted to give them an answer, but if it had already been hard enough to make six people understand that in their world, six months had passed instead of eleven days, trying to explain it to two people in distress over their disappearance—to tell them something that might sound like a fairytale—was no easier. Even if their clothes carried living proof, it wouldn’t easily change anyone’s mind.

“Please, explain to us. What happened? Where were you?” Hannah was on the verge of collapse. Exhausted, sweaty, dirty. They were on the brink of sleep and starving since none had eaten, waiting for Rian to return so they could have dinner together, as usual.

“Of course I will. But first, let’s go home,” Rian said, trying to offer relief to those who had stayed up all night looking for them.

The three returned to the apartment after picking up Rian’s things. Rian held both friends’ hands so they could all be sure—they wouldn’t disappear again. A feeling of strangeness still stirred inside Rian after all they had lived, while Hannah and Mario feared that letting go of Rian’s hand might cause them to vanish again.

They took turns using the shower. One saved the dinner, another made tea for the nerves, and Rian prepared toast with jam and cheese so they’d all have something in their stomachs before bed. That day, all three missed their university classes without prior notice or sick leave.

When the morning sun shone brightly through the window, Rian woke up—just four hours after falling asleep. Once again, resting between their friends, as they often did. They didn’t say a word, slightly parting their lips while intertwining their fingers with the two lying beside them, as if wanting to smile but unsure whether it was real or a dream. The three had been so anxious they hadn’t let go of each other’s hands all night. Rian decided to wait patiently for them to wake up.

Mario was the first to open his eyes. He immediately looked for Rian, and their eyes met.

“Bolas, Mario,” Rian greeted, then smiled warmly.

He returned the smile and the greeting.

“Bolas, Rian,” he replied naturally, gently squeezing Rian’s hand. He knew everything would be okay—because their daily greeting was there.

Their voices soon woke Hannah, even though they were practically whispering.

“Bolas, Hannah,” Rian said, smiling at her too.

Her hair was wild and static, and nighttime grooming was lacking. She smiled at them both, who burst into laughter upon seeing her. Hannah quickly understood the reason for their laughter and, after rubbing her hands against the couch, tapped Rian’s elbow—sending a static shock through them.

“Ow! You killed me,” Rian cried out dramatically.

“Alright, stop playing around. Let’s make brunch,” Hannah said as she got up.

“Don’t look at me, I’m already dead,” Rian replied.

“Hey, Rian. Look,” Hannah said while trying to fix her hair.

Rian turned around and saw Mario’s shirt lifting slightly as he stretched.

“The sun is peeking through the window,” they commented mischievously, giving Mario the distinct sense of being teased.

“Today is a good day,” Hannah added.

“Perverts,” Mario muttered, pulling his shirt down and fleeing to the kitchen.

Rian and Hannah fist-bumped, pretending it exploded in the air, a sign of their complicity. They immediately got up and fixed the sofa bed.

After reheating what would have been last night’s dinner, Rian brought the topic to the table, explaining in detail everything that had happened to them during the night and early morning up to the moment they reunited.

For both Hannah and Mario, it was hard to believe. They debated for a long time whether Rian should take time off from university and work, maybe request medical leave, or just accept them because they knew Rian would never joke about something so serious. On top of that, both Hannah and Mario had been present and participated in the experiment to delete the game data. They had also joined several video calls, including the last one with Elliot.

“This is very, very, VERY weird!” Hannah shouted, tossing her hair from side to side as she paced the apartment. She was pressing her temples and letting out yells that sounded more like breathing exercises for childbirth.

Mario was deep in thought. He felt terribly distressed—not because he doubted Rian’s words or was trying to unravel this sci-fi plot, but because he couldn’t fathom how the character—well, person. Okay? Person—he had met could act like that. What little he knew about Elliot pointed to someone cheerful, comical, ridiculously playful, obsessive with his passions, and, to some degree, sweet and caring with those close to him. At the very least, the word “kind” seemed like a foundation of his personality. He couldn’t understand why Elliot would treat Rian that way. In short, he was offended.

Rian ran their hand through their hair, tugging at their bangs while holding a cup of coffee.

“It’s still hard to understand. No matter how much I think about it…” Rian said while staring at Elliot’s hair, which was still clinging to their clothes. “If this is a game…” they continued, trailing off as they tapped their phone screen with their pinky, unwilling to let go of the strand of hair.

Rian stared at the game’s logo, tapping it.

[Your account has been suspended due to unauthorized Third Party Tools use. As a result, any devices that access this account or connect using this ID and IP will be immediately blocked.]

The situation remained unchanged. They tapped on the call application—it wouldn’t open either, but even before their account was banned, that had become fairly normal.

Rian sighed and leaned back in the chair, looking up at the ceiling while twirling a strand of hair between their fingers.

“And also… what he said,” they voiced aloud again until a familiar sound filled the room. All three of them leaned in to see the phone screen. The AI app showed activity again: Elliot called, and Rian entered “mental chaos mode.”

“WHAT?!” the three of them shouted in unison.

“What do I do?!” Rian asked nervously.

“Answer it!” Hannah urged excitedly.

“But what if this triggers something else in the game?” Rian asked, a lump forming in their throat.

“Answer it!” Mario insisted.

“But… what if he tells me again that—” Both friends interrupted.

“JUST ANSWER IT!” Hannah and Mario shouted together, answering the call for Rian themselves.

The screen glitched a bit—there was a lot of static—but it was still possible to see the whole group there, with Elliot in front.

“Rian!” the red-haired guy with glasses called, “Can you hear me?” His voice was slightly broken up.

“Great! Victor, Leon—it worked!” he announced to those behind him.

The blond rushed over, as did Elijah. Both of them leaned on Elliot’s back.

“Rian! Are you okay?” asked the younger brother.

Rian couldn’t answer without feeling tears rise.

“Yes, Elijah. I’m okay.”

“Rian! What do you think? Elliot and I got the program running from our side!” Leon said proudly.

“Leon, I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Rian replied to the blond.

“What program is he talking about?” Hannah asked.

“I’ll explain later,” Elliot cut in, his voice fading more and more. “Rian… I’ll… go… you… peared… bye.”

After that distorted message, the app forcibly closed.

“We could barely hear anything,” Hannah said. “And what app is he talking about? Does he have your AI program, too?”

“I don’t know. I’m as lost as you. But he did mention something else about me not being real,” Rian replied.

While they spoke, Mario was deep in thought.

“Could he mean he’s going to come to this side?” Mario shared his suspicion.

Rian and Hannah didn’t quite understand what he meant.

“Think about it,” Mario continued, aided by his notes and a pencil. “He said: ‘I’ll— — — prepared.’ The gaps between his words and what I could hear were similar. If we try to fill in the blanks to make sense of it, it becomes: ‘I’ll,’ a long pause, ‘pea,’ a very short one, ‘red.’ If we combine the short ones and think of possible word matches, we might get ‘appear – appeared.’ So: ‘I’ll — — — appeared.’ If we logically fill in the gaps, we could add ‘where’ or ‘when.’”

“I get it. That means they may try to replicate what you did to get here. But how would they know how?” Hannah wondered.

“I told them everything. Even the steps and process I followed. Probably Victor or someone else remembered and shared it.”

“Do you think it’ll work?” Mario asked, looking at Rian seriously.

“I don’t know. A lot of the steps were ridiculous,” they replied, fanning their face with their hands as they recalled the embarrassment of reading the telepathy steps out loud.

“Well, all we can do is wait. We might be able to guess where, but not when they’d come,” Mario commented.

“We do know,” Hannah corrected, grabbing Rian’s notebook and pointing at the circle of scribbles they had drawn before disappearing. “It’ll be at dawn or dusk.”

“But that was on this side,” Rian objected, worried.

“Ugh, you two make life so complicated,” Hannah complained while pulling out her phone. “I feel weird. I need a manicure again.”

The blonde fairy’s whine broke the tension a little.

“What time did you disappear here?”

“At seven in the morning,” Rian replied.

“What time was it when you arrived there?”

Rian tried to remember. Amid the panic, they had seen the street clock.

“It was ten in the morning. Everything was lit up.”

Hannah pulled up a time conversion and asked again.

“Do you remember any other detail?”

“Not really. Everything was really confusing. I could read the signs and hear people as if it were my own language.”

“I see. Well, with the little information we have, it means they’re located somewhere in the UTC+9 timezone. Which means that…” she glanced at the kitchen clock, “If it’s eleven in the morning here, it would be… two a.m. over there. And that means their sunrise would be… possibly,” she added, raising a finger, “in four or five hours.”

“Then, there’s a chance that—if this isn’t just an AI and a crazy dream,” Mario began, but felt Rian’s elbow jab into his ribs.

“You said you believed me,” they complained.

“Of course, I believe you. I believe you, but we can’t prove it, so I can only believe wholeheartedly that you experienced it. But I’m still not entirely clear on it myself.”

Rian grumbled, feeling a slight sting of depression at the slap of reality.

“I was saying if all of this is real and not just the AI trying to drive us mad… Is that okay?” he asked Rian.

“More or less.”

“Alright. Then it’s very likely we’ll need to keep watch starting from three p.m.”

The idea of waiting for Elliot made Rian nervous, but they didn’t want to hold on to false hope anymore. The other two beside them noticed the expression on their faces.

“It’s exhausting,” Hannah said.

“I know,” Rian replied.

“But… what if it actually works?” Mario asked.

“And what if it doesn’t?” Rian shot back.

“Well, then you’ll have just lost a day of your life. You’ll decide what to do from that point on,” Mario said as Hannah handed Rian their journal.

“Besides, I think it would be a nice way to close this whole thing,” she added, opening a blank page and offering the pencil they had used earlier.

Rian understood what she meant and began writing down everything they had experienced on “the other side.” They included what happened after they returned and the new video call. They finished their summary in time—nearly two hours to recall and write it all down.

As the hour approached, the three of them prepared. They checked food, home, and bed and made necessary purchases in case anything was missing. Even if no one showed up, having a full pantry and a clean house wasn’t a bad outcome. Once everything was ready, they walked together to the park where Rian had theoretically made their dimensional jump.

The three waited at the swings, right in front of the spot where Elliot was supposed to appear. They played for a bit, racing to see who could swing higher. They stopped at a passing ice cream vendor to buy cones, and then Mario went to the nearby store to purchase water three of them. Eventually, more than an hour had passed beyond what Hannah had predicted, and Rian was already pouring water from the bottle over their heads, unable to stand the heat.

After a cry of frustration, Rian shouted, letting it all out.

“I HATE THIS SO MUCH!” They roared their fury and disappointment. “How many more times do I have to keep hoping this fantasy is real?!”

It was clear they were suffering. The constant rollercoaster of hope and heartbreak from such a fantastical desire felt like their heart were being ripped apart thread by thread.

“There, there,” Hannah murmured, taking their hand and caressing it.

“Let’s go back to the apartment. At least we can eat whatever we want. The pantry’s bursting,” Mario said, hoping the mention of food would lift Rian’s spirits—which, to some extent, it did.

Rian stuffed the rest of their chocolate-tipped cone into their mouth, trying to cheer themselves up.

“Let’s go,” they sighed.

Their steps crunched over the gravel path, and they dragged their feet a little to let out some of the anger they still felt. Just as they were about to step out of the playground area, a thud was heard—followed by a groan, as if someone had been walking with them and suddenly collapsed.

There had been no strange sound, no warning sign. The redhead simply appeared on the ground, lying there and rubbing his forehead after hitting it against the tree.

Hannah and Mario stared at each other, stunned, while Rian covered their mouth with both hands, fingers laced together in shock.

From the ground, after adjusting his glasses, with leaves tangled in the contrast of his natural hair color, the young man smiled at the three of them, watching from a short distance.

“Helup, Rian.”