DAY 3
DIMENSION: 3
And beneath it,
a line that had never appeared before
was added.
“ORIGINAL: 2”
I read those words
over and over again.
“Original... 2?”
I had no idea
what it meant.
But I had no time
to think about it.
My vision
suddenly turned white.
The next moment,
I was lying in bed.
There was a ceiling.
Walls.
A window.
There was left and right,
up and down.
I shot upright.
“I’m back...?”
I looked at my hands.
Normal hands.
I touched my stomach.
Nothing felt strange.
Unlike in yesterday’s
two-dimensional world,
the inside of my body
was hidden again.
I rushed to the window.
Outside was
the city I knew.
Cars moved along the streets.
Laundry swayed
from the balconies
of the apartment building across from mine.
Clouds floated in the sky.
There was depth.
A completely
three-dimensional world.
“I made it back.”
The words escaped my lips.
It had only been two days.
And yet,
it felt as though
I had spent weeks
wandering through other worlds.
I checked my phone.
7:12 a.m.
The date was
two days after
the morning this all began.
Time itself
seemed to have passed normally.
I checked my notifications.
There were no
mysterious messages.
I let out
a long breath.
It was over.
Or so I thought.
Then
the front door opened.
“You’re awake?”
A woman’s voice.
I froze.
Who was that?
Footsteps approached.
The bedroom door opened.
A woman
I had never seen before
peeked inside.
“You’re up early today.”
I couldn’t say anything.
She looked at me,
confused.
“What’s wrong?”
“...Who are you?”
Her expression froze.
A few seconds later,
she laughed.
“What kind of joke is that?”
I couldn’t laugh.
I really didn’t know her.
I had no memory
of ever meeting her.
“No, seriously...”
The smile
disappeared from her face.
“Are you still half asleep?”
She pointed
to a framed photograph
beside the bed.
It showed
the two of us together.
Standing by the sea,
our shoulders pressed together.
I picked up the frame.
That was definitely me.
But I had no memory
of taking this picture.
“When was this...?”
“On our trip last year.”
Last year?
I hadn’t gone
on any trip last year.
She looked
more worried by the second.
“Are you okay?”
Without answering,
I opened my phone.
I checked my photos.
There were hundreds
I had never seen before.
Me having dinner with her.
Me at an amusement park with her.
Me celebrating her birthday.
Then
my finger stopped
on one photo.
The two of us
were smiling
and showing off rings.
The date beneath it
was from one year ago.
“Am I... married?”
The woman
went completely silent.
I nearly dropped my phone.
This wasn’t
my original world.
This was
a three-dimensional world
where I had lived
a life I knew nothing about.
At that moment,
the words of the man
from yesterday
returned to me.
“Who is the other person
inside you?”
Was this
what he had meant?
Was there another “me”
inside me
who had lived
an entirely different life?
My phone vibrated.
It was
that notification again.
A short message
appeared on the screen.
“DIMENSION: 3
SYNCHRONIZATION STARTING”
“Synchronization...?”
The next instant,
a violent pain
shot through my head.
Memories
I had never experienced
flooded into me.
The day
I first met her.
The night
I confessed my feelings.
Our wedding.
The day
we moved into this apartment.
None of them
were my memories.
And yet,
they felt
like my own.
I dropped
to my knees.
“Stop...”
The woman
rushed toward me.
Suddenly,
her name appeared
in my mind.
Misaki.
I shouldn’t have known it.
But I did.
I even remembered
loving her.
Fear gripped me.
If the synchronization
continued,
what would happen
to the original me?
New text
appeared on my phone.
“SYNCHRONIZATION: 12%”
The number rose.
18%.
27%.
35%.
With trembling hands,
I threw the phone
onto the floor.
But the screen
didn’t turn off.
42%.
“Stop!”
50%.
At that moment,
the number froze.
Then
another message appeared.
“MISMATCH DETECTED”
Below it
were the words
I had seen before.
“ORIGINAL: 2”
Then
a new question appeared.
“WHICH LIFE
DO YOU BELIEVE
IS REAL?”
Two choices
appeared beneath it.
“A: THE LIFE YOU REMEMBER”
“B: THE LIFE THAT EXISTS IN THIS WORLD”
Without hesitation,
I reached
to press A.
Then
Misaki spoke.
“Hey.”
I turned around.
She was crying.
“You’ve been acting strange
since yesterday.”
My finger stopped.
“Yesterday?”
Yesterday,
I had been
in a two-dimensional world.
I shouldn’t have been
in this world at all.
“What was I doing
yesterday?”
Wiping away her tears,
Misaki answered.
“You were here.
Just like always.”
A chill
ran down my spine.
Then who
had been living my life
in this world
yesterday?
My phone vibrated again.
The choices disappeared.
In their place,
a single line appeared.
“ORIGINAL: 2
DOES NOT REFER TO YOU”
I stopped breathing.
Immediately afterward,
the screen went black.
DAY 4
DIMENSION: 4
And finally,
one last message appeared.
“TOMORROW,
YOU WILL WATCH
THE MOMENT
OF YOUR OWN DEATH.”