DISCLAIMER: Inspired by Time Lapse by Taeyeon and Eight by IU (ft. Suga). Every name and character in this story is purely fictional. A little shoutout for Eloise, Jeremias, Gardena, Shenaia, Kimberly, Oretha, Elysia and William for taking on a role in my alternative universe.
“I feel like i’ve turned into an adult,” she said softly as she stared at the cake with birthday candles, right in front of her, “But i’m still like this, just the same as before.”
She chuckled softly before blowing out the candles. The small smoke that appeared after that symbolized her hopes that flew along, hoping to be heard by anyone — especially someone who was always on her mind this whole year.
“What hope are you making?”
She turned her head, back into reality — while she realized that her friends were now looking at her with enthusiasm on their faces.
“If i tell you, it won’t come true, right, Gardena?” Eloise said with a low laugh, while Gardena pursed her lips when she heard her best friend’s answer.
“There’s no need to listen to her, anyway, in this birthday you have to make it the most special day for yourself!” Kimberly said while raising her hands, trying to give encouragement.
“Have you planned anything for today?” Elysia asked and Oretha nodded, “I can give you a suggestion on a series of activities you can do!”
Eloise smiled, feeling grateful in her heart because she was surrounded by friends who always fully supported her.
“Thanks, but today i have an appointment with William. He said he wanted to show me something.”
Her answer immediately raised a question mark on her friend’s face.
“William? That busy researcher? Wow, did he finally remember you as his best friend?” Shena, who had been just watching, finally started to speak.
“Maybe he has a crush on you,” Oretha also chimed in.
“We’re just friends, really just friends. Don’t start weird rumors.” Eloise chuckled as she sipped her drink.
“You guys, do you really think that boys and girls can’t never be friends?” This time Elysia spoke again and was followed by a nod of approval from Kimberly.
“No,” answered Gardena, Oretha and Shena at the same time.
“I think their answers contain some personal experiences,” Kimberly quipped with a laugh.
“Watch out until you feel it yourself,” said Gardena.
“That’s it! The point is… he just wanted to show me something and then, it was over. Nothing more than that, and we’ll remains as a friend, no matter what.”
“But if you want to be with William, i will also support you,” Shena commented and ended up being hit by a roll of tissue from Eloise.
“Okay, now tissue is used as a weapon,” she don’t exactly know since when did Oretha start acting like a judge in a match.
“Looks like this will be a fierce battle,” Gardena also chimed in, while Elysia and Kimberly could only massage their temples. Unable to speak anymore with the sight right in front of them.
On the other hand, Eloise seemed to be pondering, ‘Is it true that William will…? No, not possible.’
At least, until she actually saw it for herself later, it was better to act normal. Whatever happens, she will deal with it well.
“Hey, you’ve finally arrived!”
She just smiled as she stepped closer to William who was already standing, waiting for her, right in front of the entrance from the office which was also his laboratory.
“Today is my precious birthday, but you invite me to see you work instead?” Eloise put on a made-up sad face and managed to make William laugh out loud.
“Cheer up a bit, what i’m about to show you is the latest invention created by my team. Think of it as an honor for yourself to be the first person from outside the office to see it in person.”
Eloise just shrugged her shoulders before finally walking after William. Not infrequently they stopped for a moment, because some of William’s office friends greeted the two of them several times. She could only breathe a sigh of relief when William opened the door to a room with a bed, right in the middle, and surrounded by computers and devices that Eloise didn’t know what its called.
“What is this…?” she asked as she kept looking around, trying to guess why William had brought her here.
“Your birthday present.”
“What do you mean?”
“Come here, i’ll explain it to you.”
William seemed to pull Eloise’s arm and invite the lady to sit on the white bed.
“Actually this invention has been planned for quite a long time and only finally got usable a month ago. We’ve done a lot of experiments and ended up with pretty good results.”
Eloise seemed to be listening quietly, still not knowing what this discovery had to do with her birthday present.
“This tool will take you to one of your best memories, you can choose it as you like, and you can do whatever you want in that memory, but with a certain time limit. But the working system of this tool is not like a time machine, because once you get into in those memories, they are all unreal. They may appear to be some kind of duplicate, but any response or whatever happens in that realms will still be exactly like what the original people would have done.”
Eloise, who had been silent for a long time, began to understand the direction of this conversation. She looked down for a moment and then immediately got up, “I don’t want to.”
“El…”
“I won’t, Will! Can’t you just let me do it my way?”
“You didn’t do anything to heal yourself, Eloise. You’re only hurting yourself every day, you’re hurting him too.”
“You don’t know anything about the pain i’m in right now, and neither does he. He left me alone, he left, Will. Not me.”
William sighed in exasperation, he seemed to think for a moment and spoke again before Eloise opened the door to leave, “Don’t you think he’s suffering too? Don’t you think he must feel guilty too for leaving you here alone?”
“William…”
“Won’t you give him a second chance for a better farewell? To say goodbye to each other?”
With that question, Eloise’s grip on the door slowly loosened. She didn’t want to regret it for the second time.
Her eyes slowly began to open, she blinked several times to match the light that shone right on her face.
“Are you awake?”
Eloise’s heart almost stopped when she heard that voice. The voice she had missed for an entire year. The voice that always cheered her up and became the voice she liked the most… but slowly became the thing she hated the most.
“I’m done with all of this, sorry if it took so long.” A hand reached out and rubbed her head gently. The tears that she had been suppressed for a long time finally began to fall. With a quick movement, she immediately covered her face, not wanting that person to see her cry.
“Hey? Did you have a bad dream?” It was too late, that person had already seen the tears falling from Eloise’s eyes.
“No, just dust got into my eyes. There’s no need to worry.”
“You know you can’t lie to me, right?”
The man kept trying to see Eloise’s face, but she kept dodging. Until the moment her patience was at the limit and then she screamed, “I SAID I’M OKAY!”
Unintentionally, now her eyes met the two pairs of eyes she missed so much, and made her tears fall again. She immediately wiped the tears and looked at the people who were looking at her in surprise. Well, they were in the city library, of course her voice immediately attracted the attention of the crowd. Without saying much, she immediately took her bag and hurried away, ignoring the person who kept calling her name.
Once she felt the distance was far enough, Eloise chose to sit on a park bench that was available nearby. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. This was not the plan when she ended up agreeing with William’s idea. She had no idea that their meeting would be so fast… and it felt so real.
“What should i say…?” She mumbled in confusion.
“Easy, quickly apologize and explain what really happened to you,” Eloise almost jumped in surprise at the person’s presence.
“You’re after me?!”
“Of course, you just ran and left your wallet behind. What do you want to ride home on? On foot?”
“That’s my business, not yours!”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but that’s my business, especially when it comes to my girlfriend.”
Eloise didn’t know what she was feeling right now: happiness, sadness, anger or disappointment? What should she really feel right now?
Seeing Eloise who was silent and just staring at him made the man start to wonder, “Did something hit your head? Should i check your head now?”
“No need, Jeremias,” Eloise answered curtly as she looked the other way.
Hearing this, Jeremias started to take a deep breath and took both of Eloise’s hands, “I don’t know what’s going on, but you need to know. I’ll be right here, always ready to listen to whatever you feel.”
Instead of calming down, anger was now starting to explode within her, “Liar! You liar!”
She let go of the hand grip and looked at Jeremias with full of anger that she had been holding in for so long, “You lied! You left me! You just left me without saying goodbye! You left me alone, no matter how many times i screamed to bring you back! I’m waiting for you, i’ve always been waiting for you, but you never came! A year, a whole year, i waited but people just thought i was crazy!”
Jeremias looked surprised, but a few minutes later he regained his composure. Slowly, he began to pull Eloise into his arms, no matter the obvious refusal the lady gave.
“I’m not going anywhere. Look, i’m right here, right in front of you. It was just a nightmare.”
“No! You liar!”
“Hey, tell me, where did i go to make you act like this? Did i turn into a jerk?”
“You’re gone forever, Jeremias! You’re gone forever!”
Jeremias seemed to understand why Eloise was behaving like this, “I’m gone forever? How did it end like that?”
“How many times have i told you not to go! I already told you that leaving in the wee hours of the morning isn’t a good idea! But you didn’t listen and it was an accident…”
“Did an accident happen to us?”
“Yeah… the accident took your life… the accident…”
Eloise was silent for a moment, seeming to repeat it again, “It was all my fault… i should have tried harder to stop you… i shouldn’t have responded to your jokes… i should have reminded you to focus on the road ahead… i should have… .”
“Stop it, Eloise. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, okay? It was just a nightmare and it’s nobody’s fault. At least now you’re safe in my arms and I’m not leaving you.”
Eloise could only cry in Jeremias’ arms. A warm hug that has always been her favorite place, anytime and anywhere. She briefly remembered what William had said before she tried his invention.
“Never tell the future to anyone you meet. I don’t care if they aren’t real, but never divulge anything.”
Jeremias continued to gently rub her head and hugged Eloise tightly, “It was just a nightmare and not reality.”
‘But that’s the truth for me, Jeremias. That’s the reality i have to face,’ Eloise said in her heart.
The hug lasted long enough until she finally calmed down and Jeremias started to let go of his embrace. He straightened some of Eloise’s hair before looking back at his girlfriend with a big smile, “How? Feeling better?”
Eloise just nodded slowly, forcing herself to smile and it was noticed by Jeremias, “You know, if that dream of yours happened in the real world, i think i’d be crushed too.”
Eloise’s gaze was now focused on him, as if wanting to know what the man was going to say next.
“I think i’d also be devastated to have to leave you alone. Just imagining what it’s like to be left by you is like hell, let alone having to leave you.”
“But if the worst case like that dream does happen, i might just be able to look at you from up there and hope you can at least get on with your life again.”
“I don’t want my leaving to be the end of your life too. I think i’d feel even worse when i saw it, but i can’t do anything to help you.”
Jeremias is now cupping Eloise’s cheeks, “Besides, didn’t we spend time together to leave good memories? Those memories can later make you move forward while still feeling my presence at every step you take. I can’t be that easy to get rid of, you know?”
Eloise chuckled, her first laugh after hearing Jeremias’ words and jokes. Seeing that, Jeremias was relieved, “Well, that’s right. A smile deserves to be on your face more than tears. People should at least see that smile once in their life, because your smile really has a tremendous impact, especially on my life.”
As Jemerias’ words ended, a buzzing sound entered Eloise’s ears. She looked around and realized one thing, her time was about to end.
“That’s right,” said Jeremias and made her turn to him, “there is one more thing that i will do if your dreams do come true.”
Eloise’s vision was starting to blur, but her ears still caught Jeremias’ last words before things turned dark.
“I will ask God to keep us together in any universe. So, i hope you will not be bored to be my forever companion.”
“There is someone i keep deeply in my heart. I don’t care if death separates us, but i will continue to love him. It is a love that will only die along with me. I don’t know, but i hope he hears this well. Please ask God and make sure your wishes come true, because i am really ready to accompany you in any universe.”
