The Time It Takes To Fall

Ten Times Too Late

USA, 2019 A.D.

"Earth to Cinder," Iko waved a hand in front of Cinder's face, rolling her eyes. "Earth to Cinder. Earth to–"

"I'm sorry," Cinder muttered, blushing as she grabbed Iko's hand and put it back on the table.

They were at Cinder's apartment, eating pizza as they often did whenever Iko was able to make it over. They had seen less of each other than usual, due to how they typically got together on Saturdays, and Cinder had been out with Kai for the last two. But Cinder had gotten home early that Thursday, and Iko didn't have a date, so the two had decided to order in and catch up at Cinder's place.

"Whatcha thinking about?" Iko asked, taking a bite out of her slice of everything-on-it pizza. She somehow managed to do it without dropping a single topping, or even getting a speck of grease on her face. Cinder stared in reverie, unsure how one could perfect such an art.

"Uh, nothing much," Cinder muttered, scratching the back of her head absently and messing up her ponytail even more than usual. She hadn't talked to Iko about Kai as much as she would have liked to. Iko was great at talking boys, and had always nagged Cinder to put herself out there, but for some reason, Kai put her on edge.

Iko shook her head as she polished off the last of her slice. "Cinder, I know that look. And I know you. You're thinking about Kai Prince."

"No..." Cinder said, though she dragged the word out in a way that made it clear that she was lying. She had never been able to keep things from Iko, and she wasn't about to start now.

"Cinder," Iko started. "I know what I said before, about him being weird," Iko twirled a braid around her finger. "But maybe he's just that: weird. And even if he ends up psycho-murdering you, I would like to hear the details about him before your untimely demise."

Dropping her untouched slice of pizza back into the box, Cinder glared at her friend. "I looked him up," she admitted.

"Me too," Iko confessed, leaning forward over the rickety old table. "I couldn't find anything— or at least, nothing for this particular Kai Prince."

"Same here," Cinder said, nibbling on her bottom lip.

Iko stared at her, then looked up at the ceiling as if to ask God for patience. "You are the worst liar in the entire world. What did you find?"

Cinder closed her eyes and let out a sigh. She picked a mushroom off the pizza, and put it in her mouth, chewing thoughtfully. "I found this Wikipedia page— well, not exactly. It was just this guy who wrote about this prince who went missing in 1615. I don't know, it's probably nothing."

"Wait wait wait, explain. What about this prince is so intriguing?"

"Well," Cinder said, pulling off a sliver of crust and slipping it into her mouth. "There was actually this portrait— that's why I clicked on the link in the first place. It was this portrait of a Chinese prince, whose name was Zhu Kaito. Apparently he was next in line to the throne, but he disappeared on the Lunar New Year."

"Okay," Iko said, her face scrunched up. "So he's a prince, and his name is Kaito. Is that all?"

"Iko," Cinder whispered, her voice low. "The portrait looks exactly like Kai. It's a mirror image, except he's all fancy and looks like a prince, rather than a twenty-first century boy."

"Oh," Iko's eyes widened. "Oh, okay. Okay. Um, so what you're saying is that you think that he's the prince who disappeared like, four hundred years ago?"

"Yes?" Cinder cringed just thinking about it. "No? I don't know. It all lines up super weird. Like Kai acts as if he's from another time period, and looks exactly like this guy, but how is that even possible?"