Even in zero gravity, I’d still fall in love with you

Rian, frozen mid-movement, went still as they watched the redhead they had longed for rise to his feet and walk toward them.

A radiant smile lit up their face, and with a spark in their eyes, they felt ready to take flight as they locked eyes on the person they had so desperately wished to see. But just before they could reach him, Mario stepped in front of Elliot, blocking his path to Rian.

"Hi, I'm Mario. Nice to meet you," he said quickly, offering his hand.

Hannah and Rian looked at Mario, visibly confused—almost suspicious—especially because he offered his left hand, and Mario wasn't left-handed.

"Uh, yeah. Hi," Elliot replied, trying to look past him to see Rian, but Mario moved again to block his way. "I'm Elliot. We've met before," he added, offering his hand more out of courtesy now, hoping the gesture would be enough for Mario to let him reach Rian—the person he was charging toward for a passionate hug.

"You're right," Mario replied—then gripped the newcomer's hand tightly and landed a hook to Elliot's jaw.

Rian gasped in shock, and Hannah jumped with a fist to celebrate the hit. Rian turned to her, utterly stunned that she was cheering Mario's violent outburst.

"What? He deserved it. I mean, after what he did, were you really going to welcome him with open arms? You're out of your mind if you think I'm going to let you become some sommelier of emotional neglect," Hannah said, then turned to Mario—who looked like he was about to land another blow. "And you, chill out, gorilla from the farm. One punch is plenty to get the message across."

Mario helped Elliot back up and dusted him off a bit, though truthfully, he would've liked to hit him again.

"Sorry, bro," he muttered with a frown.

"Ugh, no worries, Houston. But not gonna lie—you almost launched me into the stratosphere," Elliot replied while rubbing his face. "But I get it. A few hours ago, I wanted to crash my hardware until the OS gave out."

Mario and Hannah didn't understand what Elliot was saying, but seeing Rian laugh, they decided not to ask questions.

"So… shall we go?" Rian offered Elliot their hand, which he took gently, hesitating momentarily in shyness.

Mario grumbled on the walk back to the apartment, and Hannah sighed as they watched Rian holding someone else's hand. They chose not to interfere and just walked silently behind. Once they arrived, Rian played host, showing Elliot the rooms and offering him hot chocolate. Elliot took a sip. It was thicker than he was used to, but it tasted surprisingly amazing. Soon, the two of them were joking around, making faces and silly voices as they poked fun at the dark mark still visible on Elliot's face.

Hannah finally had to interrupt their quality time.

"Hate to cut off your inspiration, caramel popcorns," she said. Rian and Elliot wore the same look on their faces—both unwilling to acknowledge the obvious truth that remained unspoken. "But I want to know how you crossed over."

Elliot understood that the topic was inevitable, though he would've preferred to delay it a little longer.

"Well, after Rian disappeared… and after I was basically thrown out of the place, it was my turn to explain things to them too," he answered, addressing Hannah, and then turned to Rian.

Elliot turned on the bench and lowered his head. "I'm sorry. I know what I said to you was awful. I was insensitive and only thought about myself at that moment. I was genuinely afraid you were some kind of software… a glitch in reality, the matrix, or a spontaneous quantum fluctuation in the Higgs field that caused a microfracture in the fabric of spacetime. I don't know. I considered all possible reasons you might've been with us that day. I still don't have a real answer."

Then, the redhead raised his head and rested his hands on his knees.

"But after talking with them, and after they explained everything you went through… I came to a conclusion," Elliot paused. "It was the collision of two branes from parallel universes and—boom! Emotional glitch."

The three tilted their heads at the same time. Elliot gave a nervous laugh.

"Can I borrow a sheet and the pencil over there?" he asked, pointing at Rian's project notebook.

"Fine. But don't read through it. It's embarrassing," Rian said as they flipped to a blank page.

Elliot didn't say anything—he already had devious plans for the future. But returning to the main point, he drew two wavy parallel lines with spirals above them.

"These are two branes—think of them as 2D universes floating inside a larger space called the Bulk. These cosmic omelets," he said, pointing to the spirals, "coexist and help explain phenomena like weak gravity or why the universe keeps expanding."

He drew an arrow showing how one branch started curving toward the other.

"Sometimes, because of insanely bizarre physics like vacuum energy fluctuations or because someone builds an illegal AI app," he added, looking at Rian, who made a face of innocent madness, "these branes crash into each other—BANG!"

He drew a star-like explosion between the spiral branes.

"When that happens, a ton of energy is released, the laws of physics reboot, and a new universe might be born… or an emotional glitch where you hate me, and I have to apologize for the rest of my operating life."

He drew a stick figure with glasses, crying, and another with a broken heart.

"So yeah… if something feels off, it's not you. It's the universe that tripped over itself."

Even though Elliot explained it best, neither Hannah nor Mario understood a thing. Rian sighed.

"Two different universes collapsed, creating a new one by converging into each other," Rian explained, using their hands and ending with a fist bump and interlocked fingers.

Hearing that, the other two made a face as if they'd just been enlightened, then scowled at Rian.

"So that means Rian caused a dimensional collapse with their AI app?" Hannah asked.

"Theoretically," Elliot said.

"You don't look like a theory, dude," Mario concluded as Elliot shrugged. "Why did you say you thought Rian was software?"

"Well, to put it simply, I've known from the moment I connected with Rian that there was an unidentified avatar in my universe," he said, taking the last sip of his hot chocolate and placing the empty cup in the center of the group.

"We have this cup—what is it? A container that holds something. Doesn't matter if it's liquid or solid… even now, it contains gases because oxygen floats inside. So we picture the cup as an avatar because no matter what's inside, we know it holds something. That's exactly what it's like in our universe. During the selection process, only one person in the entire group of volunteers always seemed… different. It's like watching the character creation screen on loop, hitting 'randomize' repeatedly—and we're interacting with that ever-shifting avatar."

The discussion was becoming quite complex, but luckily, Mario and Hannah were familiar with video game terms.

"So we're constantly interacting with multiple people at once, but it wasn't until I could identify Rian that I started noticing these changes. Before that, I couldn't distinguish between more than a thousand users."

"Three hundred thousand?!" Mario was startled by the number and, for a moment, thought Elliot was making it up.

"Yeah, from what I see, downloads of the game already surpass that number by hundreds of thousands, but it would be impossible to track them all," Hannah added, checking her phone.

"Let me see," Elliot said, leaning over Hannah's shoulder. "Ha! Look, Rian. I'm on the cover!"

Rian nearly choked since they were drinking water right when Elliot spoke. After coughing and getting a few pats on the back, Elliot returned to his seat.

"As I was saying, I didn't notice the passage of time or how many people I was talking to until a strange app appeared on my phone. Out of nowhere, I got a call and saw Rian struggling with who they later identified as their brother. I played the Golden Moon jingle to distract the attacker, but I didn't expect it to work out that way," he sighed.

"I admit I was curious to keep watching. After all, if someone was trying to hack my phone, they wouldn't find anything related to the company since I keep everything on separate devices for security. Strangely, I instantly knew who they were when I saw Rian's face." Elliot looked at Rian, and the two shared a smile—an unspoken code between them.

"I suppose this is when the calls continued, and you started noticing time was passing differently," Mario added, trying to link what Rian had told him before with Elliot's explanation.

During the silence, Elliot fiddled with his thumbs as he nodded in response.

"It was extremely stressful," he said, now scraping his thumbnail with the other. "No one else noticed the changes in people or the repeating day cycles. For a while, I thought the calls with Rian were my salvation—but eventually, I saw them as a double-edged sword: no matter how careful you are, someone always ends up hurt when you use it. Rian's awareness made me question why we were in that cycle and who all those other people were. And I started refusing to participate in those endless loops where I felt like I was living 34 different lives."

"I guess those are the number of endings the game offers," Hannah said, adding to the conversation.

"Repeating the same story for years… over time, you start identifying variables and can estimate how many possible endings there are based on the flowchart," Rian concluded.

"Okay, now I didn't understand you," Hannah snapped.

Rian just laughed softly.

"It means you can eventually figure out how many endings there are if you've replayed the choice paths enough times and keep crossing out the ones you've already taken."

"Makes sense," Hannah said, twirling a strand of her hair.

"Before I left," Elliot continued, "I talked to the others about the cycles and asked if they recognized anyone besides you. And it seems they've become aware of what's happening because of how you intervened with them. I don't know what will happen from now on, but with the information we've gathered, I hope we can break free from this endless loop."

"I hope so too," Rian comforted him, taking his hand. "If there's anything I can do to help, I'll gladly do it."

Elliot responded with a goofy smile, making Rian laugh until their cheeks turned red. As if they'd forgotten they weren't alone in the room, the boy leaned toward the person who had captivated his gaze, wanting that moment to last forever. A slight tap on each other's foreheads was enough to shift the mood completely from the previous conversation.

Hannah cut in before things could escalate further.

"Okay! That's enough info for now. I don't know if multiverse travel consumes energy, but comparing what exists in this world and what doesn't would be super interesting. So, let's start with a movie. What do you think?"

"I love that idea! Come on, Elliot—Mario has a collection of period films, and we can also check the streaming services," Rian said as they pulled Elliot by the hand toward the couch.

Following Hannah's suggestion, Mario got up to do what helped him most when trying to distract himself.

"You know what, Mario? Call me silly, hopelessly romantic, whatever you want," Hannah said as she watched Rian and Elliot discussing the movie covers. "But in this whole mess, where Elliot tried to explain it all with astrophysics, Rian—who didn't know any of that—managed to connect with him using only internet rumors and superstitions."

"I don't see how that's romantic," he said, his tone subtly sharp.

"Well… you know the red thread theory, right?"

"Just the basics, yeah," Mario answered while preparing the butter and caramel popcorn.

"Well, astrophysics has something like that too—it shows up in some movies—the string theory," Hannah paused to look Mario in the eyes. "Imagine if the theory of the Love of Your Life and Soulmate both applied too."

"Aren't those the same thing?"

"Supposedly, the 'love of your life' is someone with whom you share an emotional, romantic, and vital connection in this lifetime, within this specific space and time. But a 'soulmate' is based on the idea that two souls are connected beyond time, space, or even incarnation."

Mario began to understand what Hannah was getting at while continuing his task but sighed deeply.

Suddenly, the sound of falling DVD boxes startled Hannah, Mario, and Rian. Rian let out a muffled gasp, calling out the name of the person beside them. Elliot's body had begun to glitch, and his form was losing solidity.

"No!" Rian tried to hold onto him by his clothes. "There are still a few hours left!"

Elliot didn't look as panicked as Rian. Instead, he seemed in awe, experiencing the sensation of being pulled from one universe into another. His body started to float like he was losing molecular mass, and gravity's pull on him was weakening.

While watching Rian cry and clutch at him in desperation to keep him on the ground, Elliot raised his hands to Rian's face and kissed them—tenderly, sweetly, like it was both his first and last kiss.

Rian held onto his shoulder, feeling Elliot's lips drift from theirs, trying to embrace him tighter so he wouldn't slip away. But Elliot gently bumped his forehead against Rian's and whispered something into their ear.

Elliot's gravity was so low that he lifted Rian slightly into the air at that point. They floated together just above the ground, Rian clinging to him with both arms—and even their nails. Then, the glitch pulsed again, and Elliot vanished completely, leaving Rian to fall back dangerously close to the edge of the couch.

Hannah and Mario went from awe to terror in seconds, rushing over to help, but Rian raised a thumbs-up, signaling they were okay, allowing the other two to breathe a sigh of relief.

And even though their friends were alarmed by what had just happened, Rian simply cried—unable to get up from the floor.

"Rian… are you really okay? You can't move?" Mario started to worry that they might have been seriously hurt, but Rian shook their head while crying.

Covering their eyes with their arms, they sobbed on the floor, unable to move a single muscle. That's when they murmured something under their breath—but not loudly enough to be understood. When Hannah knelt beside them, leaning over their head, Rian repeated their words, now a bit clearer both in voice and in their own mind.

"He said… he loves me too."

Seeing such a display of hope, joy, and longing left a sweet yet bittersweet taste in the mouths of the two onlookers.

Unexpectedly, a message notification popped up on Rian's phone. Mario reached out to grab it but couldn't help catching a glimpse of the preview on the lock screen.

"Rian…" Mario called out, his voice a mix of confusion and unease.

"Is it Elliot?" Rian asked as they suddenly sat up, triggering a wave of dizziness that sent them back to the floor.

"Idiot," Hannah muttered from where she sat.

“No… it’s an email… from LudoVoid.”

"The company that produced Beta Tester?" Hannah asked.

"I don't know," Mario said as he stepped closer. "All I know is that it says 'LudoVoid,’' and it's addressed to Rian."

Rian took their phone and, just as Mario said, the company had sent them a message.

[ To Rian Asford:

We request your immediate presence at the company's headquarters.

Arrive at whatever time is most convenient for you.

(Link to Location) ]