The other me on the screen mouthed the words.
—Give me back my husband.
The video call ended.
I called my mother back, but she didn’t answer. I couldn’t get through to my parents’ landline either.
“I’ll have the police check on your parents’ house.”
Nana gave the address to the officer in charge. With trembling hands, I checked the screen recording from a moment ago.
Only my mother was visible.
My sister—and the other me—had disappeared.
But for that final second, a silver ring appeared in the corner of the screen.
The ring Ren had given me five years ago.
“Who was that woman?”
I asked Sara.
“You. Fujisaki Mio, created from your memories five years ago.”
“Created?”
“When Ren erased your memories, he saved a copy of them.”
Was the person Ren loved the me from five years ago? Or the me he met again three months ago?
Both were me, and yet neither was the same.
“Does the copy have a body?”
“No. It only appears over someone else’s image or voice. But if someone calls it by name and acknowledges it as the real person, it can take over that person’s body.”
I understood what Article Five meant.
Even if we found my sister, I couldn’t call her by name.
If I did, there was a chance my sister’s memories would transfer to my mother.
“Was the sister at my parents’ house also a copy?”
“I don’t know. Kasumi Fujisaki is alive. However, there’s no guarantee that the person you just saw was the real her.”
No matter who I trusted, I would be handing that person’s body over to another set of memories.
A message from Ren appeared on my smartphone.
〈I never meant to let the two of you meet〉
〈What did you do to my mother and sister?〉
〈It wasn’t me〉
〈Then who was it?〉
〈You from five years ago〉
An audio call came in next.
I started recording and answered it.
“Leave my mother out of this.”
‘The one who involved her was you, before your memories were erased.’
“You blame everything on me, don’t you?”
‘It’s not your fault. I’m the one who couldn’t stop it.’
Ren’s voice sounded more exhausted than it had over the past three months.
“Are you in love with the me from five years ago?”
Silence.
“Answer me.”
‘I was.’
The past tense pierced my chest.
“What about me now?”
‘You asked me the same question five years ago.’
“What did you say then?”
‘I said I couldn’t promise that I’d be able to love the you of the future.’
“Honest, at least.”
‘You smiled and said that was enough.’
I couldn’t smile.
‘Mio. When I met you five years later, you trusted people more than you used to. Your favorite flowers had changed, as had the way you drank your coffee. Even the reason you smiled when you looked at me was different.’
“So?”
‘I fell in love with you as you are now. Not because of a promise.’
I wanted to believe him.
That feeling was exactly what could be exploited most easily.
“Then tell me everything. Your real name, what happened to my sister, and what the me from five years ago was planning.”
‘I can’t talk about it over the phone.’
“Are you calling me to Hakone again?”
‘No. I’m on my way to your parents’ house.’
“Don’t come.”
‘I’m already here.’
A call came in from my mother. Without hanging up on Ren, I answered it on the other line.
But it wasn’t my mother who spoke. It was Ren.
‘I’m at the front door. They won’t let me in.’
“Of course they won’t.”
‘Your mother isn’t the only one inside the house.’
The sound of breaking glass came from the background.
‘The you from five years ago intends to erase you and go back with me.’
“How do you know?”
‘Because those are the memories I saved. I made them so she would trust my words above all else.’
The irony wasn’t lost on me. Even now, I was beginning to trust Ren’s words.
“The police are on their way. Don’t do anything. Just wait.”
‘Before the police arrive, your mother will call your name.’
The moment I understood what that meant, I heard my mother’s voice.
‘Mio? Why are there two of you?’
“Mom, don’t call my name!”
A woman laughed on the other end of the call.
It was the same voice as mine.
‘Too late.’
Static streaked across the screen, and the call from my mother ended.
I grabbed my jacket.
“I’m going to my parents’ house.”
“Let the police handle it,” Nana said, stopping me.
“My mother called my name. We don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Sara stood up.
“I’m coming too.”
“You’re injured.”
“I know how to stop those memories.”
“How?”
“Make Ren say which Mio he chooses.”
It was a cruel method.
The one he didn’t choose would disappear.
“Isn’t there another way?”
“If they make the same choice, there’s a chance they can merge.”
“The same choice?”
“Choose Ren—or throw him away.”
The me from five years ago was trying to get Ren back. I still loved him, even though I couldn’t trust him.
There was no way we would give the same answer.
I called a cab, and Nana, Sara, and I headed to my parents’ house. In the car, I watched old videos of Ren and me again.
The fake marriage. Cooking. A rainy train station. An embrace.
The woman on the screen looked happy.
“Maybe it’s only natural that the me from five years ago can’t give up on Ren.”
Nana looked at me.
“What about the Mio you are now?”
“I love him. But loving someone doesn’t necessarily mean choosing them.”
As soon as I said it, a dull pain spread through my chest.
Three months ago, I’d thought meeting Ren had been a coincidence. He picked up the transit pass holder I dropped, I thanked him at a café near the station, and he invited me to dinner a second time. I didn’t know what movies he liked or what foods he hated, and that was why I enjoyed learning those things one by one.
But Ren had known me from the very beginning.
The way I always walked on the left. The way I touched my thumbnail whenever I was nervous. Even the reason I hated white flowers.
Half of the time I thought I was falling in love with him might have been a reenactment for him.
“Hey, Sara. If your memories are erased and you fall in love with the same person again, is it the same love?”
Sara didn’t answer right away.
“I don’t think you fell in love with the same person.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Ren you loved five years ago and the Ren you see now aren’t the same person. Ren has changed over five years too—lying, regretting things, becoming someone else.”
“Then no one can keep the promises they made in the past.”
“That’s why what you choose now matters more than a promise.”
Without turning around, Nana spoke as she looked ahead.
“Mio, don’t forget. You don’t have to let Ren decide which of you is the real one. Your body isn’t a prize for him to win.”
Her words brought my breathing back, little by little.
Sara gave a small nod.
“Tell the you from the past those words too.”
We arrived at my parents’ house. The front door was open.
One white flower at a time had been laid out along the hallway, leading toward the living room.
My mother was asleep on the sofa. She was breathing.
Ren stood by the window, facing the other me.
The woman in white smiled with my face.
“You’re late, future me.”
“What did you do to my mother?”
“I just let her sleep for a while.”
“What about Kasumi?”
“My big sister isn’t here.”
“Then who was the person on the call?”
The past me sat down beside my mother and stroked her hair. With her eyes still closed, Mom was faintly humming the song she used to sing when putting little me to sleep.
“Your mother’s memories. I only borrowed the image of the day Kasumi left home.”
“Did you get inside my mother?”
“I didn’t. I just had her open the door. She called me by name.”
I tried to move toward my mother. The past me picked up the smartphone on the table. Its screen showed the inside of the cab we’d been riding in moments ago.
We’d been watched the whole time.
“Don’t come any closer. If you do, I’ll show your mother all five years of your memories.”
“If you do that, you’ll break her.”
“Haven’t we already been broken?”
There was loneliness mixed into her voice, not anger.
The me from five years ago looked less like an enemy than someone who had been left behind on that day. She had been preserved with only a future with Ren to sustain her, and when she awoke, her body, her lover, and her life had all been taken by another version of herself.
“If you’re me, you should understand.” She said, “Ren promised me. He said he’d come back for me no matter what.”
“Was the Ren who made that promise the Ren standing here now?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The Ren from five years ago is gone. And I’m not the body you wanted to return to, either.”
Her smile vanished.
“You’ve only known him for three months.”
“Three months is enough for the pain of being lied to to be mine. The feelings I developed for him are mine too. I wasn’t born again just to live as an extension of you.”
“You intend to erase me and leave yourself behind?”
“I don’t want to erase you. I came to tell you that you can choose something besides Ren.”
For the first time, the past me looked afraid.
“There’s nothing besides Ren.”
It was the answer I’d least wanted to hear.
Ren stepped between us.
“There is. There’s a record you left for Kasumi before you were preserved.”
“That’s a lie.”
“You weren’t left behind to wait for me. You were left behind to protect Mio if I broke my promise.”
The past me’s gaze wavered.
“Show me that record.”
“I will if you move away from the Mio who’s here now.”
“Are you making another deal?”
Ren didn’t answer. He looked at me, and there was something pleading in his eyes.
I reflexively took a step toward him, then stopped.
I remembered Nana’s words. My body wasn’t a prize for him to choose.
Ren stepped between us.
“Listen to me, both of you.”
The past me reached for Ren’s cheek.
“I came back just like I promised. This time, let’s go together.”
Ren didn’t take her hand.
“The one I was waiting for wasn’t you.”
The past me’s face twisted.
Every light in the room went out.
In the darkness, someone slipped a ring onto my left hand.
Ren’s voice whispered beside my ear.
“This time, you’re the one who has to leave me.”