Mai stared at her phone and yawned. It was getting quite late, hardly anyone was still online. She supposed she ought to sleep now - she didn't want to be late to school tomorrow after all.

With that thought in mind, she put her phone down and switched off the lights. As she lay there in bed, staring up at the dark ceiling, she wondered if she would ever get used to the silence, the terror of knowing that you were all alone in the world.

Eventually, her breathing evened out.

Upon waking, things already felt strange. Firstly, her school bag was not in its usual place next to her bed, the somewhat dim light was shining brightly over her bed, her uniform was tucked away, at the very back of her wardrobe. But as her alarm had not gone off, she had only woken up an hour later than she should have. That was fine, only ONE WHOLE HOUR LATE.

As she stood there, in front of her wardrobe, her mind scrambled past the thought that she had somehow been robbed, despite none of her valuables being taken. Instead, she wondered if she even needed to go to school, considering how late she was.

When she decided that skipping a day of the school year wouldn't really change much, she just brushed her teeth, intending on lounging around at home. But what she saw almost made her scream. Why did she look that way? She felt up her face, checked out her hands and continued to be in shock. She looked old!

She quickly scrambled around her apartment, which, thankfully was still the same, and tried to figure out what was going on. As she raced around in a flurry, her phone dinged.

From Naru

"You're late."

It printed.

What? Who on earth was Naru? And she was late? For what?

She tried to unlock her phone, but found that her password had changed. As she stared at her phone in disbelief, she slowly came to realise the one thing that she would never have expected. The year. It was the wrong year.

Slowly, it began to sink in. Had she, maybe, somehow, time travelled?

It was such a ridiculous notion that she struggled to get it out of her mind, especially because it even matched everything she had seen today. She looked older, her uniform was at the very back of her wardrobe, and so many other small things.

She had time travelled 5 years into the future.

Incredulous, she sat down on her bed. Mai wasn't sure what to do.

Suddenly her phone sounded again.

From Naru

"How far away are you?"

Mai's focus was drawn to the screen. This person... Naru was clearly expecting her somewhere. Who was it? A thought suddenly struck her, was it a boyfriend? Oh no, she felt extremely bad. Hopefully not.

As she continued to sit there, lost in her thoughts, her phone suddenly rang again.

Mai nervously picked up her phone, accepting the call.

"Hello?"

"Mai. You are now 43 minutes late. Where are you?"

Mai gawked at the speaker. Why was he so strict? "Uh," she began stuttering, "where did we agree to meet again?"

She could hear the man's frown. "The office hasn't changed address."

The office, Mai realised, meant that it was likely a work colleague on the phone, not a boyfriend. Blushing, she wondered what her job was.

"Yes Naru," the name felt awkward to say, and was a funny name too, who would name their child Naru? "Remind me again of the exact address please."

When nothing came through the other end, she checked she was still in the call and then prompted, "Hello?"

When the person hung up, she became worried. What did that mean? Did they know where she lived? Should she run?

No, she immediately dismissed. If they were work colleagues, surely she didn't have to run.

But as she sat there, she realised there was no point sitting around doing nothing, she might as well explore the world of 5 years in the future.

Walking out of her apartment block towards the train station, she first noticed the new cafe immediately in front of her apartment building. It looked great and seemed very popular, but she lamented the loss of the old ramen store that had been there. She had never gotten to have their ramen, always telling herself that she would try it when she got a job or, well, income. If she could go back, she would definitely try out the ramen before they were gone.

When she turned back towards the station, she noticed that a train from the city centre had pulled in. She wondered where she worked? Should she head towards the city or away? She slowly made her way to the train station, perhaps a trip to the future city would be nice.

When her eyes met a handsome man's eyes on the street, she looked away in embarrassment, no longer daring to look him in the eye. But to her surprised, as she was about to walk right past him, somehow painfully aware of his glare at her, he barked out, "Mai!"

Unable to help her shock, she simply stared at him wide eyed. That voice was the voice of "Naru"! And he knew her name, while she didn't know his.

She gulped, inching backwards a little. "Uh, Naru, haha," she laughed nervously, still internally cringing at the strange name, "I didn't see you there." Once again cringing, but this time at her lame excuse.

Naru studied her, his hand quickly establishing a firm hold on her wrist, as if to prevent her from running away. Which, Mai thought wryly, was a terribly good idea at this point.

"Um," she started, but was cut off.

"Let's go to your place."

With that, he dragged her back to the place she had just left.

She sat there, extremely tense, as Naru made himself at home quite literally. He had pulled out her tea pot and cups and made himself his own pot of tea. He had prepared another cup for her too. Seeing this, she had a feeling this wasn't his first time over.

Finally, after a few minutes of tense silence, he sat down with his cup of tea. As Mai looked at her own cup with trepidation, Naru spoke.

"What do you remember?"

Mai jumped, both expecting and not expecting him to say something. Had he... did he know what happened to her?

"Do you... know what happened?"

Naru refused to say anything more, instead choosing to sip his tea calmly.

"Um, I last remember being in my first year of high school. I was just going to sleep as usual, and when I woke up, I was here."

Naru had placed his cup back on the table, eyes stuck to the cup of tea. Mai watched him, trying to gauge his response. He almost seemed disappointed, though nothing on his face betrayed that. Slowly, his gaze lifted until he was looking at her. Her breath caught at the sight of his eyes, a mesmerising blue that seemed somewhat melancholy. She couldn't help but look away.

"So you experienced a phenomena not dissimilar to time travel." He said softly.

The change in tone from when she had first called him to now was astonishing. She listened to him speak intently. "And you don't remember the last 5 years." He stopped there, his hand now resting on the handle of his cup.

"You don't remember me."

Mai felt awful as she silently confirmed it. He had phrased it as a sentence, but said it almost as though hopeful for a negative answer. It felt like she was breaking his heart by confirming what had happened. Maybe... Had she been in a relationship with this man? With this 'Naru'? Was that why he was so sad about it?

They sat there in pregnant silence. Eventually, Naru started the conversation.

"Seeing as you don't remember anything, let me reintroduce myself. You can call me Kazuya. You work at Shibuya Psychic Research, where we investigate paranormal activity. We shall head over there now, to allow you to familiarise yourself with the workplace again."

When Lin heard the door, he knew it was Naru and Mai. Although he hadn't been listening particularly carefully, he soon realised a distinct lack of conversation.

"This is your desk. You sort out incoming calls..." As Naru droned on, Lin was confused. Was it Mai? Why was he explaining her tasks to her again?

As he eavesdropped further, he wondered where Mai's attitude had gone. When they had gone through this, now a few years ago, Mai had been asking questions and giving Naru a joking jab about anything and everything. Yet she was silent.

Curious, he exited his office. He was met with a clearly disappointed Naru and a timid Mai. What on earth had happened? His eyes seemed to ask Naru.

Naru broke eye contact first, addressing Mai, "This is Lin. You may do some filing at your desk. I need to speak to him."

Naru ushered Lin back into his office, him at the door as Lin partially sat on his desk. "What happened?" Lin prompted.

Naru sighed, "She claims to have no memory of anything within the past 5 years. That she went to sleep last night and woke up here 5 years later."

As he let that sink in, he moved from beside the door to stand next to the window, observing the movement of people in the street below. He watched them bustle around detachedly.

"I'm sorry." Lin said.

Naru only nodded in response, deigning not to say anything.

"If it's amnesia, what caused it?"

Again, Naru was silent as he pondered that once more. Whether it was amnesia or time travel, what could have caused it?

When they left the office, finished for the day, Mai had slung her bag over her shoulder, not expecting to stay later than necessary.

"Mai." Naru called and as she stopped and turned, "We should discuss what happened to you."

Mai's heart had instantly leapt into her throat, as she noticed his posture when leaning against the doorframe. He had invited her into his office for a serious conversation, or what she felt would be more an interrogation, and yet she was nervous like a girl crushing on some guy. She wished she could kick herself for that as she stepped in.

It was interesting to instantly smell the tea she had been asked to make today, and Naru's scent. She fought to suppress her blush. This was a professional relationship. He had not done anything to suggest a greater relationship, bar his ease with her apartment or his (potential?) emotional response at her supposed lost memory of him.

As they both settled into their respective seats, Naru behind the table and Mai before it, he took a small black notebook out. He began to scribble things into the book, and he questioned, "What were you doing the night before you woke up in this year?"

Mai's back straightened. "I was chatting with some friends and then going through my social for a bit." She paused, wondering if she even needed to say it. "And then I went to sleep."

Naru's scribbles were the only noise for a while, long enough to make her wonder if she had in fact said that much.

"Any thoughts in particular that you had?"

"Hm, I guess the usual, what will happen tomorrow? As in, school work, my uniform... And..." She didn't know if she wanted to share this much, to be so vulnerable.

Naru had looked up from his notes, "It would be best to recount everything in order to gain a better understanding of what might have caused this occurrence."

Mai purses her lips. "And I was feeling a little lonely. My mum passed away two ye-, seven years ago now, but I just suddenly really wished someone was still around. I kept hearing the sounds of other people nearby and it was like everyone had someone..." She trailed off, suddenly embarrassed at having shared to much. Why couldn't she have just left it at she was lonely?!

But Naru hadn't said anything, just taken notes. Slowly, she lost her skittish feeling, somehow relaxing into the silence. In a way, it felt good, therapeutic almost, that she had shared that. And as she looked at the man before her, she came to realise that she wasn't alone. Not forever at least.

He had called her when she was late and gotten angry at her tardiness. He'd even travelled to her place when she was probably acting a little suspicious (ok, so it was definitely very suspicious, she was willing to admit it). He had been clearly upset at her having forgotten him. He had shown her what she did for work nowadays and even tried to find the cause of this. Even as her heart ached with the realisation that he wanted the original her back, she knew it was still her he wanted back.

With a smile, she softly said, "Thank you, Naru."

Just as Naru stopped writing to engage with her once more, he was shocked by the sight of her figure slumped over the chair. He moved around the desk, checking for her pulse or any other irregularities. Nothing, everything was fine.

As he wondered whether or not to ring the ambulance, Mai stirred. "Urgh, Naru?"

"Mai?"

"Haha," she laughed gently, "I'm back. Sorry to scare you like that."

Naru gripped her shoulder tight. "Don't do something so reckless again without telling anyone."

She laughed once more. "Alright, but no promises."

A/N: Hi. Nice to meet people. I hope. I'm not much of a people's person... Hope y'all enjoyed this. Lemme know if I've done something wrong :)

And a little extra, to let y'all know Naru x Mai is my fave :D

"I missed you."

Her breath caught, as it always did whenever Naru decided to verbally express his affection for her. She returned the hug, "I love you Naru."

"Mm."