Nara walked out of the classroom, leaving Arga's question hanging unanswered.
Arga followed Nara. The girl kept walking until they reached the backyard. Then she stopped.
Nara turned around, folding her arms as she looked at Arga, who was glaring at her in annoyance. “What do you want to ask?”
“Who are you?”
“Me? Your cousin, obviously,” Nara replied, wearing an expression that made Arga want to strangle her.
Arga's face hardened. “I'm serious.”
“I’m Narasati.” Nara was still dodging the question.
“Seriously, Nara.”
Nara clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes in annoyance. “Do you really have to know? You’re just like all those other people.”
“I wouldn’t be trying to find out if you hadn’t pretended to be my cousin.”
“Fine, I’ll be honest.” Nara let out a tired breath. “I’m an angel.”
“Don’t make stuff up. This isn’t a fairy tale.”
“Exactly. Who said I was making it up?” Nara shot back. “Why do you think I’m the only one who knows your real name? Because I’m your cousin? No, right? You’re the one who said I wasn’t your cousin. But when I say I’m an angel, you don’t believe me.”
Arga fell silent. What Nara said was true, but somehow, the way she said everything always irritated him. And what was this about being an angel? Did she really think he was stupid enough to believe something like that?
“I don’t believe you. Anyone can claim to be an angel.”
“Oh, so you’re challenging me now?”
Arga chose not to answer. Nara knew he was trying to provoke her, and she wasn’t going to take the bait. Not here.
“Okay. I’m not an angel,” Nara said, lying.
“What is your problem? First you claim you are, and now you’re denying it. If you can’t explain who you are, stop pretending to be my cousin.”
“If you want to know who I am, come to the forbidden forest. I’ll wait for you there. This afternoon.”
After saying that, Nara simply walked away, leaving Arga behind. Arga watched her from a distance. Then he followed after her.
That afternoon, the sky was beginning to turn orange when the dismissal bell rang. The noisy rush of students pouring through the school gate filled the air. Arga stood in front of the classroom for quite a while. His eyes were fixed on the gate, searching for Nara among the crowd.
She was nowhere to be seen.
“There’s no way she was serious,” he muttered.
Yet the harder he tried to ignore what the girl had said, the more the words circled in his mind.
*If you want to know who I am, come to the forbidden forest.*
Arga let out a long sigh. Ever since he was little, he had heard stories about that forest countless times. The villagers always warned children not to go near it. They said anyone who ventured too far inside would return carrying something that was never supposed to leave. Others said a person could vanish without a trace.
Arga had never believed it.
Until today.
The day everyone suddenly forgot his name.
He pedaled his bicycle toward the edge of the village. The farther he got from the settlement, the more the road turned into rocky dirt. Massive trees stood close together, allowing the last rays of sunlight through only in thin streaks.
In front of a weathered wooden sign that read “NO ENTRY,” Arga brought his bicycle to a stop.
“I just want to prove she’s lying,” he told himself.
Then he stepped inside.
The air inside the forest felt much colder than outside. There was no sound of vehicles. Even the birds were barely audible. Only the rustle of wind against the leaves broke the silence.
Arga kept walking along a path nearly buried beneath tree roots.
“You came after all.”
The voice made him turn around quickly.
Nara sat casually atop a fallen tree, as though she had been waiting for him for a long time. She was playing with an old bronze compass in her hands. Its needle spun slowly, but never pointed north.
“I thought you’d be scared.”
“I just want to know what you want.”
Nara jumped down. “Good. That means your curiosity is stronger than your fear.”
“I didn’t come here to listen to riddles.”
“That’s too bad. Your life is nothing but riddles right now.”
Arga clicked his tongue.
“Enough. Explain.”
Nara studied the trees around them before finally asking in a quiet voice, “When did they start forgetting your name?”
“This morning.”
“No.”
Arga frowned.
“Not this morning,” Nara repeated. “This morning was just the first time you realized it.”
“What do you mean?”
Nara didn’t answer right away. Instead, she raised the compass in her hand.
“Why do you think this needle never points north?”
“How should I know?”
“Because it’s looking for something.”
“What?”
“Someone.”
Arga sighed in frustration. “You keep talking in circles.”
This time, Nara looked at him with an expression far more serious than before.
“Arga... do you realize something?”
“Realize what?”
“You’ve been saying this whole time that everyone has forgotten your name.”
“Yeah.”
“But...” Nara paused for a moment.
“...are you still sure the name you’ve been calling yourself all this time really belongs to you?”
Arga froze.
“What are you talking about?”
Nara stepped closer. There was no trace of humor left in her eyes.
“If everyone has forgotten, maybe the problem isn’t their memory.”
Arga's heart began to race.
“Then what is it?”
Nara raised the compass directly in front of Arga’s face.
The needle, which had been spinning aimlessly until then, suddenly stopped.
Slowly, its tip pointed straight at Arga’s chest.
“Because...” Nara whispered.
“...what’s being erased isn’t their memory of your name.”
She drew a slow breath.
“It’s your existence itself.”
The wind suddenly began to howl. Leaves scattered around them. For the first time since entering the forest, Arga felt real fear.
And before he could utter a single word, the sound of someone else’s footsteps came from behind the trees.