Know

The day I met Iyo was the same day I met Araki. But there wasn’t a person in our school who didn’t learn who they were around the same time I did.

“Can you leave her alone?!” Araki yelled at some guys making fun of Iyo.

Every head in the classroom turned at once. Even the teacher was startled at his yell. Iyo’s eyes were wide looking at Araki.

The bullies, similarly surprised, had no other option but to back off.

It was at that moment that I decided to go over to him after school and ask what happened. After hearing the story from him, and a few words from the reserved Iyo, we started to get closer and eventually became friends.

Sticking around the eccentric Araki and me, some of that rubbed off on Iyo. Within a few years, she started sticking up for herself and by fourth grade, people only made fun of her behind her back. Araki and I, of course, tried sticking up for her in those moments when she wasn’t around.

“Didn’t you beat up that guy once?” I asked as we recalled our time in grade school.

“Yep! It wasn’t just for what he said about Iyo though. He was an ass to everyone.”

That was one of the things I respected about Araki. He stood up for everyone whether he knew them or not. Granted, his methods of standing up for people could get a little violent, but that’s beside the point.

I checked the clock on the middle top of my periphery. It displayed: 11:27.

It had been a few hours since Araki arrived. We’d spent most of the time playing video games, so now we were just chilling out on the floor.

After downing a can of soda, Araki looked over to me. “By the way, you went over to Iyo’s house, right?”

“Oh, yeah.”

My attention was starting to split, with a chunk of my attention turned to the home cameras.

“Cool, cool. I imagine she was really happy about that huh.”

“We both were, really.”

I thought back to earlier that day. Apart from the morbid reveal of the disappearing people, the fact I was able to hang out with her like that was still at the forefront of my mind. Hopefully, after all of this was over, the three of us could hang out again. Like we used to back in the day.

Araki laughed, “She still has some strong feelings for you, huh.”

“What does that mean?” I picked up the can of soda I’d been drinking and took a sip.

“Come on man. You can’t tell me you haven’t noticed?”

“Apparently not.”

He laughed again as he slapped me on the back, “Come on, it’s pretty obvious she has feelings for you.”

The meaning behind his statement was like a splash of cold water.

“F-Feelings? As in friends, right?” I stuttered, trying my hardest to evade what he was getting at.

“Shut up, you know what I’m talking about.”

Of course I knew what he was talking about. There had been plenty of rumors in the past about us dating. Obviously, we denied them, but we weren’t lying. We really weren’t dating. But plenty of people told me that we obviously looked like we were into each other—whatever that meant.

“It’s not like that, and you know that.”

“If you say so.” He shrugged. “Just so you know, if you two ever want to be alone, you know, without me and whatever, don’t be scared to ask. I’m already the third wheel either way. I wouldn’t mind, just—”

“No!”

My yell made his eyes go wide.

“I don’t…” I slowly let out. “I don’t want us to be separated.”

The one thing that kept me from developing feelings for Iyo was just that. If we were to date, Araki probably wouldn’t want to hang around us as much. He would truly be, like he put it, a third wheel. Worst of all, if we did date, there was a chance we would break up, ruining my relationship with Iyo.

No matter what I did, the relationship between the three of us would break apart. I might’ve not realized that was the case, but subconsciously, I knew that changing our relationship would cause issues. Keeping our friendship the same was for the best.

“Sorry.” Araki apologized.

“What are you apologizing for?”

He let out a sigh as he answered, “I just…didn’t want you to feel like I was holding you back. I would hate to be a nuisance to either you or Iyo.”

His weak smile was covered up by the new can of soda he opened. After a long sip, he continued.

“I brought this up to her too.”

“Huh?”

His soft expression had a hint of reminiscence as he answered. “The day you left. I asked her if I had gotten in between you two.” He clutched the can in his hand. “I was scared that she would say yes, but all she said was that she was just happy that the three of us were together.”

“…”

“Anyway, it’s just nice to know you feel the same.” He patted my back before standing.

As I sat there, I started to realize I had never taken their feelings into consideration. Everything had always been about how I thought our relationship should be. It never crossed my mind to talk to them about it.

“Hey,” Araki started, quickly changing the subject, “Do you have any pictures of us when we were younger?”

“Hm?” My mind was still on a spiral from everything going on. It took me a moment to process what he said. “I think I should.”

My mom was always taking pictures of us. She was always one for capturing moments compared to Araki and Iyo’s parents. We had an entire folder filled with them.

I minimized all the hologram windows around me before opening another folder. I had the NAHD connected to my PC, so I had access to all my files. I found the folder with childhood pictures and opened it. I switched the device from private to public so Araki could see the holograms.

“I got these,” I said as I turned the windows towards him.

“Which ones?”

“These,” I pointed to the folders showing small thumbnails of the pictures.

“What are you talking about? Wait. Are you trying to show me a hologram from the NAHD?”

“Yes, why?”

He let out a loud sigh as he facepalmed. “How do you expect me to see that? I don’t have my NAHD on me.” He pointed at his temple.

“But I have it set to public.” I opened the settings menu to double-check.

“That’s why. Only people wearing a NAHD can see it. How do you think people without one would see it? It’s not like it’s projecting it into midair or anything.”

What he said made sense, but if that was the case, how was Iyo able to see the holograms earlier today. She was obviously not wearing one. So how…

“Either way, just send me the pictures. That’s something you can do with the NAHD.” He poked the device.

I quickly sent him the folder of pictures and opened the windows I had up before.

---

“For whatever reason, I found it hard to understand what was going on. Maybe it wasn’t that I didn’t understand, but rather, I didn’t want to understand. I was refusing to see the truth.”

As I retold the story, I could feel parts of my body creak and almost fall apart. The people in front of me looked worried about the state I was in, but I continued the story regardless.

“It was something I’d seen plenty of times before, but it never crossed my mind at that moment. It should’ve been more obvious after that same night, regardless of all the security we had set in place, regardless that I was in the same room as him all night—Araki was gone by morning.”