Until The End of Time | Wonho [√]

13: ANECDOCHE

ANECDOCHE: A CONVERSATION IN WHICH EVERYONE IS TALKING BUT NO ONE IS LISTENING

"Do you know what the Mandela effect is?" I couldn't see what kind of expression Changkyun was giving me. He didn't say anything. My eyes were sewn shut, the sun rays shooting daggers on my already prickling eyelids. All I saw was yellow.

"It's things that never happened but you remember seeing them. You have a vivid memory of an occurrence that never happened. This effect or whatsoever actually happened to a lot of people, all together. Recalling something that was untrue." I finally peeled open my eyes, for a second everything was hidden behind a nebula. I could only make out Changkyun staring at me as we walked side by side at the campus.

"You know why that could happen? One reason is that it could be us gaining that memory from a world that isn't this one, but another," I murmured, and after that came out a dejected sigh. I would be feeling vertigo after being deprived of sleep for what it felt like a decade, but I was still here okay, because in reality it's only been two sleepless nights.

"And the other reason is called false memory which you aren't taking into account."

"You looked it up?"

Finally, his face was clear to me. He was frowning, a morbid look on his visage.

"Yeah, I was feeling unsettled after last evening," he said with a grimace. "I'm going to meet Minhyuk again now, who knows what he'd be prattling on about today."

"You're going to meet him?" I queried, even though I had heard him clearly the first time.

He got what I was trying to imply. "Yeah, you want to come? I've texted Hanbyul and there will be some other friends too."

Other friends meant strangers. Being the social butterfly Changkyun was, he had plenty of accomplices and companions all over the university.

"But you have your part-time, right?" Chankgyun peered down on me.

I was biting on my lower lip, a hand grabbing on the tote bag to keep it slipping off my hunched shoulder. "I'm skipping today,"  I let out, feeling relieved by this terse decision.

"Yeah, okay. You look like shit today, by the way. I have been meaning to tell you, fam. You lost your sleep?" He asked with a bit of concern in his gravelly voice.

"I'm okay," I said but my mind was somewhere else, somewhere that only repeated everything that Minhyuk had uttered last night. I needed to know more.

I hoisted the strap of the bag up on my shoulder, where it was brushing the side of my neck. It felt heavy, I could almost hear the jingling of the bracelet jumping up and down with each of my steps, springing around the empty front pocket of the bag. The old bracelet that was exactly the same as the one that was under the sleeve of my left hand.