In the driver's seat.
Yasuo had his hands on the wheel, but the car remained in park.
He stared out the window, unable to move.
There was this knot in his stomach that made him feel like shit; he couldn't believe how drastically he acted in that apartment. It was like he embodied the memories of the old Yasuo, with only twenty percent of his actions being influenced by his actual soul.
But at the same time, he also had felt really good. Even now, he was still thinking about how blissful everything had felt.
"...It was for the greater good of her mental," he finally uttered, trying to convince himself that he did the right thing. "That's why I did it. It was for her. Not for me. It wasn't because of my selfish needs."
He, you, and I both know that he's lying (for the most part).
"Goddamn… I'm conflicted," he sighed. But his dick wasn't.
Trying to shake off all the emotions in his mind that were juxtaposing each other, he changed gear and drove off.
'It felt like two minds had mixed in that moment. Two separate ideals, two different sets of morals that were clashing while also working together as a single unit.'
Which made him wonder—
Was the original Yasuo truly gone from his body?
That question sent a shiver up his spine.
'For my own sanity, I'll just chalk it up to some phenomenon like the body's muscle memories affecting my decisions and behavior at times.'
"I went to campus intending to return to classes, but ended up attending a total of zero," he realised.
As he stopped at a red light, he saw an old lady crossing the road with a wheeled walker. The street was wide, and the lady was moving at the pace of a snail.
The lights were probably going to change colors by the time she was halfway across.
Parking his car, he quickly got out and went over to her.
"Excuse me ma'am, would you like my help crossing the street?" he asked.
The old lady looked up at Yasuo and said, "What a handsome young man. Yes, please."
To her surprise, she was picked up with one arm, making her feel like she had returned to her youth, and with his other hand, he picked up her walker
"Wow, young man, you're so strong," she said, squeezing his forearm.
"Thank you," he said.
"Are you single by any chance?"
"Yeah."
"Would you like to meet my granddaughter? She's also single, and I'm not being biased, she's a real beauty."
Placing her down gently, he handed her back the walker.
"Thanks for the offer but I'm not looking to date anyone at the moment."
"Bummer. The two of you could've made beautiful grandchildren for me," she laughed before waving at him and continuing her snail-pace walk.
Back in his car, the light turned green less than a second later and he pressed on the pedal.
As he disappeared, he didn't know that this entire interaction had been filmed by someone who attended the same university as him. They recognized his car first, then when he stepped out, they began filming immediately, thinking that something was about to go down.
Was he going to push the old lady? Rob her? Beat her up?
Contrary to their expectations, he… he helped her cross the street?!
Who is that man? Where is the real Otsuka Yasuo? When did he get a twin? Or perhaps the government cloned him.
"I gotta show people this. They won't believe me," he said, his jaw still dropped to the floor.
The first friend he sent the video to asked if it was AI.
"No it isn't AI!"
* * *
"Are you sure that he did nothing to you?" Hitoshi asked.
He and Shinju were standing side by side in a train, making their way to school.
"Mhm," she lied with a smile.
Tilting his head a little in confusion, he looked at his girlfriend but after a few more seconds, he believed her. There was no reason for her to lie. The two of them were so close and so in love that there was zero secret between them.
"I can't believe he agreed to leave me alone just because you begged him. If I knew it was that easy, I would've asked you to do so a week ago," Hitoshi laughed, trying to make a joke.
He didn't notice as Shinju flinched at the joke and this spark of darkness appeared in her eyes for a brief moment before disappearing.
"So that means I'm free from his bullying now?" he asked with a large smile on his face.
"That's right," she responded, hugging him.
"Thank you so much. I don't know what I did to deserve a girlfriend like you. You're truly the love of my life."
"...Same," she replied while burying her face in his arms. Her voice sounded joyful but her expression was so saddened and riddled with guilt that he would've noticed that something was off immediately about her if he saw it.
She had to take the secret with her to the grave.
SHE HAD TO.
Feeling her phone buzz, she quickly composed herself and stepped away from Hitoshi to reach for it in her skirt pocket.
Looking over her shoulder, Hitoshi saw that she received a text from a number he didn't recognize.
"Who's that texting you?" he innocently asked.
Shinju nearly tilted her phone away from his view before remembering that she had already deleted the old text messages between her and this person who was the one who had informed her of Yasuo and his past.
"Just a friend I met at the salon," she responded with a lie so natural, she even believed it for a second.
They had sent her a video.
'Please don't be a strange video. Please don't be a strange video,' she repeated in her head.
She didn't want to make her boyfriend suspicious by hiding the message that she had received. Looking at the thumbnail of the video, it showed a street, so she internally sighed in relief.
They had sent her texts before that weren't related to Yasuo, so she assumed that this was another one of those.
Pressing play, Hitoshi and Shinju watched the video. The longer they watched, the more their faces contorted.
It was a video of Yasuo — helping an old lady cross the street.
"Haha," Hitoshi laughed. "Is that really the same dude we know?"
He was in disbelief but knowing that he would no longer be bullied, he was able to watch the video without any resentment towards his former bully, which just showed how good-natured he was.
Shinju was thinking about something different.
She was in absolute agony as she became more convinced with this video that Yasuo had been telling the truth about no longer wanting to bully people. Perhaps he truly had changed.
And that meant… that meant—
"Shinju!" Hitoshi called her name in a panic as she suddenly fainted.