As It Is, If It Were

Fourteen / Tokai Teio

Teio had no idea where to run.

It was probably the first time Teio felt such gripping anxiety in all her life. Even struggling to thank McQueen back then didn't make her overthink this much. There was a very different sense of urgency, she thought, when the crises you faced came after you've grown up. Even when the problems were more or less the same.

Well, okay, not exactly more or less the same, maybe. There was a very real thing at stake this time around, and Teio's hands were tied.

Even Nature noticed that something was wrong. Which was impressive, since Teio was pretty sure she didn't particularly groan or anything. "Teio? What's wrong?"

The frigid air was making it clear that the weather forecasts had been true, and that it would continue to be so—no mere White Christmas this year, but something harsher. Shouldn't everyone be more worried about that? Why was the climate changing? What were the leaders of the world doing?

Instead, Teio was slumped over something as simple as a text message from her best friend.

Best friend, huh….

In fact, at this point, Teio was somewhat afraid of calling their relationship as such. She knew right away that something had changed since the moment they held the housewarming party, but she didn't expect the effects to reach so far. Wait, it's not even that far into the future yet. The heck was she thinking?

"Aargh…." Teio scratched her own head and groaned. "I dunno…."

Worst of all, Teio had no idea who to talk to this time. Back then, she could profess everything to Spe, and their outing was what led her to understanding what she had to do. Right now, the only person Teio could rely on was her own self, because she knew that one wrong move could end everything. What would happen if she tried to rely on somebody else?

How did it come to be this way?

Nature was clearly trying her best to cheer Teio up, because her housewife mode was in overdrive. She'd hogged the kitchen for only the Three Goddesses know how many hours now, and she'd been pumping out numerous honey-based sweets like a one-man factory. It was almost like she was desperately trying every trick in the book just to make Teio smile again.

"I'm not going to force you to tell me what happened," Nature said. "But when you feel like talking, I promise I'm all ears. So let me care about you, okay? We're—we're flatmates, after all."

Teio caught the little hesitation at the end of Nature's sentence, but her mind was too preoccupied at the moment to draw any conclusions in that regard.

Everything began when Teio realized that something was missing ever since she moved in with Nature, and around a month later, the answer was plenty clear: she no longer got to see McQueen face to face as often as they did. Back in her old apartment, McQueen would just come visit with an almost reckless abandon—so much so that Teio knew she'd troubled Dictus numerous times to help get McQueen back home safely.

But Teio realized McQueen was acting strangely distant during her housewarming—which was odd to begin with, since Teio was sure that nothing about McQueen's behavior in particular felt off—but her suspicions were confirmed after weeks passed.

McQueen had not come at all.

Conversely, she was very actively replying to Teio online. None of her chats got abandoned, not once. Her replies had also come a lot faster than they did in the past.

It was to the point that Teio even wondered if everything was okay with McQueen at work, because it almost seemed like McQueen spent virtually all of her time replying to Teio.