Status Quo

Ichiro Sekai sat on the park bench and stared at the piece of paper in his hand, the fingers of his other hand pinching his forearm hard enough to draw blood.

No, he wasn't dreaming.

But no matter how many times he re-read the flowery script, or smelled her perfume on the paper, he still couldn't get through his head that this was real.

I've kept my feelings for you contained as long as I can. I am in love with you, and true, honest love should not be contained and kept quiet forever. Just seeing your smiling face or hearing your voice brightens up my worst days. I dream of you day in and day out; you're the only one on my mind now. I am in love with you and have been in love with you since I can't remember when.

Meet me under the big tree by the overlook tonight for the festival. My heart can't take another moment apart from you.-Yukiko Mochizuki

Someone walked up behind him, and with a tug the letter was pulled from his fingers. Ichiro panicked and spun around, grasping for the paper.

Amelia Grayson looked at the paper inquisitively.

"Oh, whatcha got, Itchy?" She asked, flipping it around to read it.

"None of your business, Mel! Now give it back!" Ichiro said, lunging for the letter.

Amelia twisted out of the way, her eyes never leaving the page. A few seconds later, she offered it back to him, along with a wolfish grin.

"My best friend gets a confession letter from his dream girl and that's not my business? Are you kidding?"

Ichiro snatched the note from her hands.

"Yeah, well, maybe I wanted to tell you when I felt like it."

Amelia raised an eyebrow.

"Oh really? And why is that?"

Because you will never let me hear the end of it if this goes badly, Ichiro thought.

"I have my reasons," he said defensively.

Amelia looked at him over the top of her glasses.

"Uh-huh. I'm sure. So, did she hand it to you herself, or was this the whole cliche 'note in the shoe locker' thing?"

Ichiro's face reddened, and Amelia smirked.

"... You didn't want to tell me because you're afraid it isn't real."

Ichiro glowered at her.

"What are you doing here, anyways? I thought you had class at the university today." He said.

Amelia grinned.

"I do. Temporal Analysis of Complex Discreet Quantum Waveforms starts in about 20 minutes. Then I have Advanced Nanoprocessor Design at 2. This park is on my way."

"Temporal what?"

"Temporal Analysis of Complex Discreet Quantum Waveforms. We use big numbers and complex formulas to understand specific things about a specific part of reality at a specific period and place in space-time, and how those things are affected by the randomness of quantum mechanics." Amelia explained.

Ichiro looked at her blankly and she sighed.

"I swear, sometimes talking to you is like talking to a toddler. Or a slime mold."

Ichiro snorted.

"Maybe you should make friends with people your own brain size in your classes."

Amelia rolled her eyes.

"It's a post-grad research program. Everyone else in the program is a dude at least twice my age. You think I wanna hang out with dumpy old men who stare at me in class like I'm a crepe they want to stuff in their mouth?"

She paused, then added, "and besides, not a single one of them can come close to keeping up with me when I bother to try."

"And you're so modest, too."

Amelia snorted derisively, and Ichiro chuckled.

"You get that a lot, don't you?"

"I got my doctorate at eleven. That makes me literally the youngest person in human history to do so. Somehow, this still doesn't entitle me to talk sincerely about my intelligence in polite society without getting treated like an egomaniac. You cannot imagine how infuriating that is."

"Alright then, Miss Genius, if you're so brilliant, why do you hang out with a slime mold like me so much?"

Amelia gave him a sideways glance as she handed the letter back to him.

"... I have my reasons."

"Probably using me for one of your experiments without telling me," Ichiro said, stuffing the letter into his pocket.

"Something like that. You'll know it's working when you sprout horns and a tail." Amelia said with a grin.

She glanced at his arm.

"You might want to put a bandage on that before you bleed all over your uniform."

Ichiro looked down. He'd evidently pinched himself far harder than he'd realized. A crimson line the thickness of a pencil now ran from his forearm to his elbow, dripping gently onto the sidewalk.

"Thanks." He said, keeping his arm away from his body.

"So, tonight's the night, huh? After all these years of pining, it's finally happening. How do you feel?" Amelia asked.

"Assuming that letter is actually real."

"Oh, it is. I saw her put it there this morning."

Ichiro's eyes went wide.

"But you acted like...why you didn't tell me you knew?"

Amelia grinned wickedly.

"And miss seeing the expression on your face right now? Not a chance."

Something beeped faintly, and Amelia checked her smartwatch. She seemed to do some brief mental calculation, and then grimaced.

"Need to leave?" Ichiro asked.

Amelia looked up, the expression on her face unreadable. After several seconds, she seemed to register his question.

"Huh? Oh. No. Sorry. Just got some data I wasn't expecting. Don't worry about it."She shifted her stance and crossed her arms.

"So, let's assume things go well. Happily ever after, et cetera and so on. But, if they, for whatever reason, go very, very poorly, how are you going to handle it?"

Ichiro snorted.

"If I blow this up, I'll probably just throw myself off a building."

"That seems a little dramatic for a crush."

"That's easy for you to say. The only thing you've ever loved is the inside of a textbook."

Amelia's face reddened.

"That's not true at all!"

Ichiro cocked an eyebrow.

"Oh? Who's the lucky guy?"

For the briefest moment Amelia froze, then crossed her arms and adopted a look of playful irritation.

"I'll have you know I will also thoroughly love watching you strike out tonight."

"... I hate you." Ichiro said flatly.

The shadow of something crossed Amelia's face, but it was gone almost instantly. She shrugged.

"I'm sure there's a universe where you love me out there somewhere."

"Don't count on it," Ichiro said, then added with a grin, "if there is one, however, I'm sure you're smart enough to find it."

Amelia's watch beeped again, and she turned to leave.

"Time to go get ogled by incels for three hours. Good luck with your special... confession... thing tonight."

"You aren't coming to the festival?"

Amelia snorted.

"I'd rather one of those fireworks blow me to pieces than sit in a crowd of paired-off, hormonal teenagers for two hours."

She reached in her pocket and pulled out something, which she tossed to him as she walked away.

"For your arm."

Ichiro caught it and looked down. It was a bandage.

Faintly in the distance, Amelia's watch beeped again.