I Accidentally Fell Into Another World

Japan. The year is 2025. January 29th. A cold day — really cold, by the way. Wednesday.
Now, picture this: tall buildings, crowded streets, people rushing like their lives depend on it. Now add a group of college kids walking together.
Among them, there’s a boy, about 5'9", with a perfectly neutral face.
See that? Great. That’s me. Haruto Furukawa.

“Haruto, are you even listening?” the guy next to me asked.

I wanted to say yes, pretend I knew what the hell he was talking about… but I just nodded.

Next to me was Sayoko, her short hair perfectly neat and her tired eyes scanning everything with a permanent judgmental glare. That’s Sayoko.

"Sure, sure, I’m used to it," he barked, laughing like always.

"I just want to go home. Shut up and stop treating me like a friend," I thought. What I actually did? Nothing. Just laughed like a good actor.

"See you two later!" said the happy kid, Daiki.

Sayoko didn’t bother saying anything, which, strangely, was the only thing that almost made me smile today.

But the idea of smiling disappeared when I remembered I still had six hours trapped in that prison called campus.

"Has my cat already ripped the sofa again?" Not exactly my cat, and it wasn’t even home before I left, but worrying about it was a habit.

"Mr. Haruto, can you tell me the answer?" asked Mr. Bowling Ball.

"What… what did you say?" asked the pool ball.

"I said I didn’t hear the question," I thought, honestly, that’s what I wanted to say.

"Oh, right," said the marble, relieved, "Naoya, could you answer?"

After Mr. Crystal Ball’s class, we had two more lessons. But honestly, you don’t want to know about them —and neither did I.

"Where were you during the break?" Nanami asked.

"Nothing important." I spent the entire break avoiding them. I have to do that at least once a week; otherwise, I’d probably tell Daiki to shut up.

"Flirting with someone?" Talking about the idiot.

"Poor thing, you still think you can get someone, Haruto?" The second idiot asked.

I heard those annoying goodbyes again and saw everyone leaving.

"Bye bye, airhead," said Sayoko, surprisingly.

Before I could respond, I ended up jumping to the side — I had forgotten about Sayoko for three seconds.

"Sure... bye..."

Sayoko laughed provocatively, which scared me, really scared me. Anyway, I could finally go home. On the way, I passed by a slightly distant place from the city where there’s a small lake. I always have the hope of seeing some idiot fall in there just so I can laugh a little.

"Meow," meowed a white cat as it scratched my shoe.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I said while picking up the cat and taking it with me.

When I got to my small house, I put the little white cat on the floor, which instantly went to the first tearable thing in the house and did what it knows best. Meanwhile, I went to the kitchen and prepared cup noodles, but don’t judge me — it’s a Wednesday and I’m tired.

I sighed while waiting for the water to heat up, watching the cat tear up my pillow.

"Do you hate me?" I asked, looking at the cat, hoping for something other than a meow.

"...meow," to everyone’s surprise.

While eating those cup noodles, I made a call, which luckily went to voicemail.

"Damn it, you never do anything but you’re always busy," I said frustrated.

The next day… actually, I’ll spare you that. You see, that Wednesday was the most interesting day of the week. I swear that was the most exciting day I had in the last seven days. Believe me, on Saturday though, a small change happened, with a phone call from Sayoko.

"What?... well I’m kinda free but—"

"Shut up and listen, I want to buy something and I need you to go with me," said Sayoko on the phone, showing an emotion that wasn’t contempt.

"And why me?"

"I’ll wait for you near that lake, see you in 20 minutes."

"But wha—" I felt like I was already talking to myself.

I quickly changed clothes and now you must be thinking, "Wow, but why is this guy so depressive if he has a decent life?" And look, I don’t blame you for asking that. However, I’ve already run away from this kind of life countless times, and still, I always return to the same kind of group of friends. It’s like there’s a pattern I always follow no matter how much I change. In fact, you’d be shocked at how many different Sayokos I’ve had to go out with on some random day to do something stupid.

As I said, it was Saturday, and I confess, I had nothing better to do. So really, it made no difference to go out with Sayoko. She stole exactly five hours of my day, to buy clothes and food.

"See you on Monday," Sayoko whispered while I just nodded and went back the same way I use to go anywhere.

It was a very pleasant night. It was cold, I was tired and ready to sleep. I was walking so slowly that the cold, silent night wind behind me was almost pushing me. Actually, I think that’s exactly what it was doing.

I tripped on absolute nothing and staggered toward that lake. I closed my eyes and just let it happen, and my last vision was the little white cat, watching my fall with a look as judgmental as Sayoko’s.

"I wish I was in your place right now, it seems so easy,"  I thought while drowning in the water.

Or at least that’s what I thought, but something strange had happened. I opened my eyes expecting to feel the weight of the water. But there was no water. The ground was dry. The air, warm. There was only that silence, crushing. I realized I wasn’t in the lake, actually, maybe not even in Japan. However, at that exact moment I only wanted to do one thing.

Smile. In fact, I laughed uncontrollably as if I was throwing away everything I had kept inside. A liberating laugh. And while I laughed, I realized: Haruto had died there, in the lake. The one who opened his eyes after that was no longer him.