The Simulacrum ~Chapter 20~ Part 2

"Stop dodging my throws!" my friend exclaid angrily while gripping his controller.

"Would you make up your mind?" I grumbled while barely avoiding another blue fireball thrown at my fighter. I did a double-jump and landed in the exact right position to start a combo, so I did a low-sweep, then a mid-uppercut, and then comboed it into a super that helicopter-kicked Josh's character across the screen.

"K.O." The announcer declared in a needlessly epic voice.

"That's cheating! You were not supposed to master that move so fast!" my friend griped while munching on a piece of chips.

"Fast? You've been drilling on this one character for the last two hours. I am pretty sure at this point I could do half her combos with my eyes closed."

"Yes, but you are not supposed to use what I taught you against ! That's ungrateful towards your sensei!"

"Since when are you my sensei?"

"Since I taught you the basics, my young padawan."

I let out a soft chuckle.

"You are mixing the lingo, but whatever. Next round?"

I was sure he would take up on the offer, but instead he only glanced at the clock. I followed his gaze. It was a little after five in the afternoon, and since the sky was cloudy, it was already starting to get dark outside.

"Hm... Maybe later."

I turned my gaze back to him and found him with his brows furrowed. I knew that look. I've already seen it on his face a couple of tis during the day. I steeled myself accordingly and waited for him to breach whatever heavy topic he was chewing on all day. I didn't have to wait that long, as he turned to only a second or two later.

"Hey, Leo?"

"Yeah?" I answered with fake nonchalance, pretending that I wasn't expecting the coming tonal shift.

"I know this might sound weird, but... are you keeping any secrets from ?"

We exchanged solemn looks, and I soon shrugged my shoulders with a self-deprecating smile. I might as well be honest about not being honest.

"Yeah. I keep lots of secrets. So many I wouldn't even know where to begin telling you what I cannot tell you about, except I wouldn't, because I cannot tell you what I cannot tell you about either." At this point I let out a rueful sigh and shook my head. "Oh co on! Don't look at like that! Secrets wouldn't be secret if people were telling them to their friends all the ti."

"So you say."

"Actually, that's kind of the definition of a secret, but yeah, so I say."

He let out a thoughtful ‘Hm.' and then asked, "Then let be more precise: is there one about Lili?"

"Snowy? Sure, a few, yes."

"Will you share them if I ask directly?"

"... Again, that is not how secrets work..." I began, but then shut my mouth once more. There was sothing about the way he was looking at that made consider my words very carefully. "You know what? Tell why you are asking, and if nothing else I will tell you whether I could, theoretically, answer them. Deal?"

Josh gave a skeptical look, no doubt aware of the way I steered the conversation into a more vague territory, but in the end he spoke up in a quiet voice.

"I'm worried because she is acting strange."

"Does she? I didn't notice."

Frankly speaking, I wasn't interacting with Snowy all that much during the past week, but after our talk on the track field, she seed to be back to normal as far as I was concerned.

"Because you are the only one she talks to anymore," my friend stated bluntly, and I was shocked to detect resentnt in his voice. Or maybe it was just frustration? Either way, he sounded particularly bitter. "Whenever I try to talk to her, she makes up so excuse to go away. It's not just either; Angie says the sa thing happened to her multiple tis."

"Really?"

I closed my eyes for a mont. It made sense. A twisted, socially awkward kind of sense, but it did all the sa. She was going away for who knew how long and she wasn't the most socially adept person I knew. I could easily imagine her hiding away and trying to distance herself from her friends to make the separation hurt less. I was the exception since I already knew about it. It was a childish thing to do, but then again, Snowy was the youngest of us, and she always struck as soone who was extrely inexperienced when it ca to dealing with interpersonal relationships. It might've had sothing to do with her upbringing in the Abyss which, in retrospect, also explained her adoption of the vamp persona, though I could only guess about that part.

Unfortunately, my thoughtful silence probably lasted a wee bit too long, as by the ti I turned back to Josh to answer, he was already speaking again.

"Leo, we are really worried. Not just , but Angie and Ammy and even Elly and Judy. Are you sure it's a secret worth keeping?"

"Well, I'm not the one who decides that, really," I told him with a shrug. "If you really want to, I could ask her to talk to you about it, but that's the best I could do."

"Good enough."

"I make no promises though. I already told her once that she should talk to you, so maybe she's just waiting for the right mont. You might as well wait and see a little longer."

"How much longer?"

"Actually... I don't know either."

There was a short pause, then Josh let out a long breath.

"Why does everything in my life have to be so complicated," he muttered with a frown, and I couldn't help but burst out laughing at the comnt. He frowned at and uttered a confused "What?"

"S-Sorry," I stuttered between two bouts of self-derisive laughter. "Dude, you think your life is complicated? Then what about mine?"

"Maybe you should stop double-dating. That might help."

"Dude..." My laughter instantly stopped. "I know you think my interpersonal situation is hilarious, but would you please stop hamring on it? It's annoying and it is far from the biggest of my problems."

"Wanna talk about it?"

I gave him a long, hard look, and dismissed him with a wave of my hand.

"I can't. It's secret"

"There you go again. I think I figured out what your biggest problem is." He paused, waiting for a reaction on my part, so I handed him a quizzically raised eyebrow as a prompt and he imdiately continued. "You are keeping too many secrets. Especially for a guy with no mory."

"Well, to be fair, the forr problem kind of grew from the latter."

"I see..." He nodded like I just said sothing deep. "Are you one hundred percent sure you don't want to talk about it?"

"Listen, Josh," I spoke softly but with as much gravity as I could muster under the circumstances. "You should be glad you are not wrapped up in this ss yet."

"Yet? You expect I will join your harem as well? Dude, I don't swing that w-- OW!"

I restrained the urge to shout ‘You are one to talk!' and instead I only flicked his forehead again, this ti without even looking. I took a deep breath and told him, "To be honest, I think it's only a matter of ti before you get roped in anyways. Rather sooner than later too, I'm afraid. If it makes you feel any better, once that happens, you can co to and I will explain things as well as I possibly can."

My friend was still rubbing his forehead when he looked away, obviously deep in thought. There was a several seconds long pause between us, during which neither of us spoke, but then he abruptly turned back to with an awkward grimace on his lips.

"Could you bear with for a mont?"

I involuntarily cocked my head to the side.

"Sure."

"You see... Since we were already talking about secrets and everything, I think that I probably won't find a better mont to ask this question, but before I do that I want you to rember that we are friends and that I am not judging you either way."

"Okay, you are starting to weird out right now."

Josh only smiled awkwardly, then took a deep breath and asked, "Are you involved with organized cri?"

This ti I couldn't help but cock my head in the other direction before answering with a question on my own.

"... Where the hell did that co from?"

He fell silent for several seconds before he spoke again.

"Hear out, because this might sound like a bit of a stretch. Things began changing when Elly ca along, right? Her family is obviously very rich, but when I tried to ask if they owned a corporation or sothing, the butler warned not to dig too deep or he would have to hunt down."

"He says that to everyone."

"If you say so." He shrugged, but his expression said he didn't appreciate the interruption so I shut it for the ti being. "Then there's Lili and her brother. From the mont she showed up, everyone was wary of her for so reason, and her brother was giving the chills even though I only t him once."

"The chills?"

"He looks like a mafioso, doesn't he? He had a limousine too, and wore a suit and leather gloves. That's not normal."

"I suppose..." I mumbled and nodded non-committedly.

"Okay, so here is my theory. Hear out, and tell if I am wrong at the end: Both Elly's and Lili's families are connected to organized cri. That's why they have all that money and why no one wants to talk about them. You are connected to both of them, and you have a lot of money too, so I figure you might've worked with them, or for them, before your amnesia, and that's why you are hanging out with them all the ti now. I don't know how Judy fits into the picture, but I'll figure out sothing. Am I right this far?"

"Nope," I answered cheerfully. "You are waaaaay off the mark."

"A.." He slumped down with a disappointed groan. "And for a while, I thought I might actually be onto sothing. I guess I should be relieved. It would have been too weird anyway, right?"

I was tempted to say ‘No, you are not thinking weird enough,' but I refrained from voicing my opinion. Instead I stood up with an exaggerated yawn and pointed my chin towards the clock on the wall.

"Sure. By the way, I think I should be heading ho soon."

Josh glanced up at the clock as well and gave it a quizzical look.

"Isn't it still early? I have the entire house to myself until tomorrow; you could stay until dark."

"Nah, I have stuff to do."

He gave a strange look, but after a while he just shrugged his shoulders. He sluggishly rose to his feet and began packing away the remaining snacks and empty glasses. I watched over him for a while and at last decided to throw him a bone.

"You know, your reasoning actually wasn't bad."

"It wasn't?"

Seeing how he imdiately perked up, I continued with, "Yeah. You ca up with an answer that made internal sense based on the information you had. It's not your fault you didn't have all the details."

"... Is this the point where you explain those details?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Tch. Fine then. Forget I even asked."

"Will do."

He rolled his eyes and we left the living room. I helped him by opening the trashcan so he could throw in the empty chips bags and then we headed for the main entrance. The basic layout of the Bernstein's ho was the sa as mine, so I didn't need a tour guide, but I suppose it was only common courtesy to see out.

"So, what are you going to do after this?" Josh attempted so small-talk while I put on my shoes.

"Internet stuff. I have to finish up designing a site."

"You do web design?"

"Not really. I'm still learning."

"That's neat. I always wanted to try my hand at that, but I don't have the patience to learn to code."

"It's not that hard. You can get started with so templates and then..."

With that discussion in the background, I let him see off. In retrospect, I might've saved myself so headache if I stayed over. Or I might've died. I couldn't know, but either way, hindsight is a bitch.