2

The thing about my sister was that she was a real hard-ass about, like, everything. She toed the line of managing to be still likable, because she had the charisma and the smarts, so it was hard to argue with her. She had that air of ‘this person probably knows what they’re talking about, so you should listen’. If you were just friends with her, it wasn’t so bad, I’d imagine. Having her a part of your daily life for over 17 years? Too much if you ask me.

Now, I could’ve chosen to avoid going altogether, but there were two reasons as to why that was a bad idea.

Firstly, I simply wanted to know what Reed wished to tell me. If he, of all people, said that he’d prefer to tell me in person, then I figured it was significant enough not to pass up, else I’d regret it. That, and the others being there.

Secondly, with my sister being there, I had no choice. If she were to hear that I skipped out on something like that, she’d blow up my phone first, and if that doesn’t convince me, she’ll drive and drag me forcefully herself. That sort of hassle is not worth the time, believe me.

on my way.

I didn’t have time to spare, so I put out the cigarette on the dirt and threw it in the nearest trash can I passed as I ran. Fortunately, due to Oaksdale being incredibly overtaken by the University’s desire to expand its campus, it was pretty feasible to go where I needed to by foot. I wasn’t too far from the mall, but running felt like the natural course of action to take. Though I didn’t play in any sports, I was pretty athletic, but I guess that’s kind of underselling it. All I’m gonna say for now is that I did martial arts.

Running is a rather fun thing to do for me, though—the moment I find any excuse to start, I’m taking off. The only way to stop me is to get ahead of me, which most people can’t do. Most people couldn’t back then either, which I didn’t mind. I only really cared about one person being able to do that; otherwise, it was pretty expected that others were incapable. If you want to race later to see for yourself, don’t be afraid to ask~.

I ended up arriving much faster than expected. The mall was called Westpark, and it was massive. I forgot the exact measurements, but I’d say it was about one and a half football stadiums big. It was practically where everyone in Oaksdale went if they wanted to do something. Everything you could want was there: fashion and beauty products, including high end stuff, an obscenely large food court, a top of the line theatre that was way too overpriced, multiple gyms, an indoor playground, an ice rink, an indoor skate park, general shops of all sorts of things like tech: Oaksdale and Westpark souvenirs and merchandise, even record and book stores. It baffled me how much was stuffed into that place, but I can’t deny it was incredibly convenient.

I stood silently in front of the entrance, the black text on the building illuminated by a light teal glow. The apathy wasn’t exactly washed away. Just standing there alone took a lot of willpower. There were probably many people going in and out of the mall, but I honestly couldn’t tell you from my memory alone. I do remember, though, getting bored of looking at the mall’s entrance and gazing to my right. Standing right beside me—

A beautiful, androgynous Korean with neck-length lavender hair, and circular glasses that sported prismatic beads flowing from the arms of the glasses to the back of their neck. She was wearing a light blue button-down blouse with floral patterns, sporting a black t-shirt underneath, paired with wide-fit, high-rise black slacks and flat-heeled black boots. I hadn’t seen her in a while, so I was a bit shocked to see how well-dressed she was. It’s not like they were to dress sloppily, mind you, but their style tended to be a bit more… urban is how I would put it.

They were also staring at the entrance, but not long after I turned around, they met my eyes with their own. Beautiful, bright brown irises shot back at me, but I could only feel hideous inside. It was a given she would be there, honestly, but I expected her and everyone else to be inside. Any possible thought of turning back became meaningless now that she was here. Though she kept the thoughts to herself, I could hear them. They taunted me, waiting for me to act on irrational emotion.

“Run.”

I can’t say for a fact that’s what was going through their head, but that’s all their stare evoked. My eyes felt imprisoned within their grasp for what felt like forever, till I realized they were waiting for me to go first.

Their name was Yeon-Woo. She and I had a rather messy relationship with each other, to say the least. We didn’t hate each other; if anything, it was very much the opposite. We were in a romantic relationship, not too long before this, for a few years, but I ended it in probably the worst way possible. One day, I simply told them, ‘I don’t care anymore’. She asked me why, and I couldn’t answer.

That was bad enough, but Yeon was someone whose worldview was almost purely based on understandable logic. If she couldn’t understand something on a logical level, it would haunt and eat away at her. For weeks after that, she hounded me, constantly asking me the same question. “Why? Why? Why? Why do you not care anymore? What did I do? Who am I to you then? Why? Why?” Eventually, she simply stopped talking to me. I could never answer her then, as everything began losing its meaning to me during those years.

If you were to ask me at the time if I wanted to exist, I probably would’ve told you no. I simply did exist, and didn’t have the desire to stop. But the problem was that’s about as far as my ‘desire’ went. To train and to fight, those were the only things that fulfilled me. After school, I’d stay in our house’s attic doing my training routine for hours. My sister was typically the one who forced me to have dinner, but ever so rarely, Mama would come herself. Dad gave up rather quickly, chalking it up to immaturity. Saying that out loud, though, it only now dawned on me just how long I barely existed as a person.

Not a word was shared between us. And you know, at the time, especially, why would there be? Yeon still waited for an answer, and I was still unable to give one. If anything, I didn’t understand why she didn’t just outright detest me. There wasn’t a single hint of animosity in their eyes, only a willingness to wait and curiosity. That sort of glare from that sort of person was enough to make me afraid. It’s not like they persisted anymore in answering, but the fear of knowing that they waited—ugh, it’s hard to describe. You know when there’s just something you have to do in life, but you can’t bring yourself to do it until the very last possible moment? Like, getting your ID renewed, doing your taxes, applying for a job, that sort of thing. You’re afraid of the consequences, but something internally just stops you from going ahead and getting it over with. That’s the kind of fear that boiled within my stomach then, and to shut it out, I headed into the mall without a single delay.

---

“Oh, hey y’all!” Reed said. He wore a white shirt under a light blue flannel shirt, topped with acid-washed jeans and brown cowboy boots. Those boots of his were very much considered his pride and joy, partly because they were a birthday gift from me. He sat at a decently sized table within the food court. His hair was short, curly, and auburn, and he fell more on the cute side in terms of looks—freckles planted on his light caramel skin. Combined with his overly sweet demeanor, it was no wonder why girls tended to flock towards him as friends, and why even those who saw him as an easy bullying target tended to go for someone else.

“Good to see you, Reed,” Yeon said, sitting down next to him. It wasn’t particularly hard to find him in the mall, even with how large it was. There was always a table in the far back that we took as our own for all the years we knew each other. It was almost magical, you know, how it was always empty when we needed it. There was never a time when we had to go, ‘Oh, guess we’ll sit somewhere else!’ It was there, just for us. Tasha probably played a part in that, to be honest, knowing her, but speaking on that—

“Where’s Tasha?” I said, looking around, not catching any glimpse of my sister. I almost felt disappointed, almost.

Reed looked somewhat dejected for a moment, his lips pausing in motion before the words could leave. It was just for that moment, though, his face brightening up once more as he looked at me with a straight smile.

“She said she just had to take care of something quickly, but not to wait for her. You know how it is, she’s real busy these days.”

“You’d know more than me,’ I retorted to those gleeful eyes of his as I began walking away. The two were always pretty close, even with Reed being a few years younger than her. If I were to describe their relationship, it’d be akin to those birds that fly into a crocodile’s mouth to clean their teeth. ‘But if she’s gonna flake, I’m out. Bye,” I said as I immediately turned around and began walking in the other direction. Whatever anxiety I had became anger real fast. For my sis, I used to just be confused when I didn’t understand her, when I lacked the capacity to imagine her headspace. As I grew older, even when I could, all that lack of understanding caused me to feel was frustration. How you gonna be on top of a nigga’s attendance to stuff when you don’t even show up? Don’t even call, don’t even apologize, just nothing, and then she be wonderin’ who I got it from. Dumbass. Anyway, I wasn’t let off that easy.

“W-wait, Kyra! Look, I promise I ain’t gonna waste your time okay?” He asked earnestly, the somberness trailing his words.

“You already are,” I said. A bit cold of me, but I already didn’t want to be there to begin with. Wasn’t a hard decision in my eyes. He didn’t deserve that kind of treatment, but I’d be lying if I said I felt bad at that time.

“Well-” Reed began, but was interrupted by Yeon.

“Run then.”

Frigid words: words that were passed off like a suggestion made with no interest, but intentional nevertheless. Those two simple yet sharp words reverberated in my skull, up and down, diagonally left, diagonally right, like a damn screensaver.

You know, what I experienced when I heard them say that is something you can probably relate to. Like a revolver, a synapse in my brain cocked, instantly shooting a nervous response throughout every inch of my body, feeling like the nerves themselves burst into flames. I froze, and turned around to face her.

Prefacing this, part of how I dealt with fear was to lash out at whatever made me afraid. It’s that same ruminating thought that lingers in your mind when you’re wrapped in darkness, afraid of whatever horror could come out. The thought that you’re simply not afraid, and you’ll beat up whatever comes out and make it afraid of you instead. That’s the kind of instinct, that Fight or Flight, that I couldn’t help but succumb to in order to protect my emotional state, and uh, I wasn’t a good person for it, to say the least.

She rested her head on her fist, all the while possessing an immovable stare. I wanted to respond, to quell the fear that was beginning to resurface. Even before it got to this point, I always found their silent stares to be one of the most truly terrifying sights someone could witness. It isn’t like there was anything particularly special about it, or even her eyes. It was just consistent. Their eyes never trailed off, never fidgeted, and their ability to retain an emotionless expression was uncanny.

I wanted to so desperately say something back, something that could make them feel wrong, that could put them in their place. I wanted to suffocate that invisible confidence. If I couldn’t come up with something, I’d just punch her straight in the jaw. They weren’t a fighter, as far as I knew, so it would have been easy. What could they have done about it? It would get them to shut up, to be quiet. Even if they expected it, the pure shock of me even attempting to harm them would leave them silent.

They only said the one thing to me, but I needed them to never open their mouth again. All of those irrational, overly emotional thoughts of mine were quelled by a very, very simple fact I would remember—that’s what she was waiting for. Anything I could think of doing, she’s already foreseen how my train of thought could lead to any and all of my responses, and at least four, no, five sentences ahead of them if they were verbal. I was staring back with such an intense animosity, but she didn’t budge. It was like looking at a painting with overly detailed eyes; there was a beautiful, gorgeous gaze that followed you, scared you, filled you with dread, and it wouldn’t go away just because you avoided looking at it. A painting is still, eternally frozen in how it haunts you, how it enraptures you, how it remains perfect so long as you don’t tarnish it. For a human being to be as picturesque as a painting; I found that far too frightening. So, what did I end up doing? I sat my black-ass down, and looked away, not sayin’ a damn word. If there was no way for me to win in this situation, then I would just give in, under the guise of my own self-interest, and ignore the problem.

“…I’m gonna get something to eat for us, any requests?” Reed would ask, breaking the rather heavy, and long, silence.

---

We ended up getting a family-size meal from one of the many chicken places there. It was fine, much preferred any home-made chicken my mom or I made, though.

Uh, slightly irrelevant question. Do I seem like the type of person who cooks? Everyone always acts surprised whenever I mention it, but shouldn’t it be pretty normal? Maybe not as much after the pandemic, I guess, but still. You know how to cook, right? …Alright, well, once we reach a good stopping point, we’re heading to your place. I’mma make sure you know how to cook before the end of the day. Hey, come on, don’t be so adversive! All that hospital food’s got you content these days, huh?

Anyway, where was I? Oh, right, we were talking while eating food. It was Yeon and Reed’s conversation, though. All their conversations sound the same, so I’ll give you an example, and you’ll get the gist.

“You know Yeon,’ started Reed, ‘I heard the moon has a rabbit on it.”

“Where could you have possibly heard that from Reed?” replied Yeon, dismally intrigued.

“Well, ya know, bunnies are pretty associated with the moon throughout human history. Can’t it stand to reason that a rabbit has a high chance of being there?” Yeon would wag her finger at him with a stoic expression.

“That’s a fallacy. People all over the world believe in some sort of higher power, but that doesn’t mean it’s more likely than it isn’t. It’s just a consistent pattern, one that has begun to slow now with how much we’ve furthered human connection and access to information. It’s a lot different to exist with the knowledge that people believe in something just as intricate or old, yet substantially different from your own belief, than to not.”

“Mmm, that makes sense. Do you not think there’s a rabbit on the moon?”

“Why would I even entertain the thought?”

“Well, why not?” Reed asked, a sharp wisp of interrogation floating within his words. Yeon closed their eyes, bringing their hand to their chin and pondering the question. It was only about 2 seconds before those fierce eyes of hers reopened.

“For starters, the premise is practically impossible. The moon does not support life in any way. Inserting the idea that life, a rabbit no less, could exist on such an uninhabitable place in the great void that denies all life from existing? The circumstances that allow us to live are, as we have learned, incredibly unlikely to manifest as ideal as they have. …However, this only follows the idea if you’re proposing-”

“-that the rabbit follows the conditions we understand to manifest life. Who’s to say for sure what we know is necessarily true?” Reed had a rather subtle smile on his face. He never came off as the type, but he loved engaging your brain if he could. Hard to tell when it was purposeful, though.

“It’s true in regards to all known life.”

“But that word, ‘known’, that’s pretty significant, no? Somethin’ like a lunar rabbit is outside of our known spectrum of life,” Yeon tapped her finger on the table at a fast rhythm, a recurring habit she’s always had when in debate.

“At that point, it becomes just tinfoil speculation. Sure, though, let’s humor this idea. It’s not implausible within the vastness of the universe, and the fact that most of our understanding of it is relatively recent history concerning humanity. Much of modern science would fundamentally alter how humanity would’ve otherwise progressed should that knowledge have existed any earlier, which invites the premise that there is knowledge we’ve yet to truly discover, or even understand. As it stands now, our current definition of life is the distinction between organic and inorganic matter, and specific traits that are consistent, not wholly universal, across all forms of life. The capacity to grow, to reproduce, and to continually change before reaching a point of cessation. Mortality is a core part of what it means to be “alive”, otherwise there wouldn’t be a need to grow, to reproduce.”

“So are you sayin’ there needs to be multiple lunar rabbits to exist for the being to fit within our understanding?”

“Not quite. That’s under the assumption they need at least one other of their species to exist to continue their own, but that’s foregoing the possibility they can asexually reproduce. If it’s the only one ever recorded, without any proof or hint at there being another, it’s possible the lunar rabbit in this case is completely self-sustainable as a singular entity species. In this case, before it dies, it would follow a reproduction process that ensures another lunar rabbit will be born without their existence. This would track with the thesis of there only being one present at a given time, so multiple aren’t necessary. However, the only way to prove this case would be to find the remains of predecessors, assuming they even still exist to begin with. There’s a lot left unknown. How do they die? How long do they live? Does it bury itself? How does it decompose? If it’s intrinsically linked to the moon, a rock that collided with the Earth, did it exist before the formation of the satellite, or after? Mind you, this is all without any knowledge of their characteristics. Are they humanoid?”

“Yeah, supposedly.”

“If that’s the case, then-”

“Whoa, whoa, stopping you right along there. This is all on the basis that they are intrinsically new life, completely separated from us, right?” Reed interrupted, pushing his hands out in a repeated motion.

“Of course? What else could they be?”

“Well, if they’re humanoid, they could be related to us! They could’ve branched off—”

“That doesn’t explain the ability to inhabit the moon; there’s no plausible circumstance that would cause an evolutionary stage like that, unless a subset of humans somehow fled to the moon and survived.”

“Mmm, well, I wasn’t finished. They could’ve branched off our evolutionary tree, or, very possibly, it was a human who was transformed into the lunar rabbit.”

“A supernatural occurrence.”

“Precisely! But by whom and how? Nevertheless, it covers the basis of how there might be no predecessor, as well as their mysterious existence.”

“That only holds if they exist at all.”

“Sure, but you know, they told me you can watch her streaming from the moon, like, online!”

“E-excuse me…?” Yeon’s eyes blinked a few times before they slowly turned their head towards him.

“I’m serious! I haven’t had the chance to check it out myself, but I’ve heard it’s the case on some streaming platforms. ‘Fidget’, I think it’s called? NASA is keeping it under wraps and is playing it up like it’s some sort of online personality. It entertains people, you know?”

“??????’ Her eyes rolled back into her head as shock and disbelief washed over her. ‘You cannot possibly be a real person…” they said, shaking their head all the while.

This is how they always ended. Something so ridiculously outside of the scope of the discussion becomes Reed’s central point, and Yeon’s mind practically short-circuits. He utterly confused her as a person, even beyond simple conversations like this.

Conversely, his sort of existence, I think, is one of the few things that tethered me down to reality. Being around him was enough to remind me of why people are a joy to be around.

“Can we get to the purpose of being here? I’ve finished my food while y’all were yappin’ away,” I said, not particularly interested in the topic itself. I don’t know what Reed was yapping about to this day, to be honest.

“Oh, right! Sorry about that, Kyra. Couldn’t help myself, it’s been so long you know? Anyway, so, try to keep it lowkey, okay? I don’t want rumors or anything spreading. I got the okay to tell you guys, so—”

“What kind of secret info are you privy to?” Yeon forced herself into Reed’s personal space, boring a hole into his skull with her Infinite Stare™️.

“N-nothing dangerous! I’m just expressin’ caution, is all. This is the sort of thing that just knowing myself feels like way too much. I’d honestly wish I were left in the dark about it, but as I said, it is good news!” I remember he had such a sincere smile when he said that. There’s an indescribable warmth that comes from people like him, and that smile of his, and it was something I was envious of, honestly. Still am. You know what I mean, though? That sort of feeling you usually get from a newly lit fireplace or bonfire that overwhelms you slowly from the inside out.

“So? What is it?” Yeon asked. Reed looked around for a little bit, as if he was afraid of being stalked. He leaned inwards ever so slowly towards the center of the table. Yeon caught on and began leaning forward as well. I followed suit, seeing as participating in this sort of thing was exactly what someone like Reed wanted. As we inched closer and closer to the center of the table, I could only think of the situation as silly.

Reed was playing it up, I thought. He wanted to make it fun for us since we don’t get together as often, so he’s just acting like it’s something substantial. We’ll probably laugh at it, considering we’re all following his lead. That’s all I could think.

“Y’all promise not to make any noise?” He said with a hushed tone.

“Boy, come out with it!” We both said in unison. I can’t deny that the anticipation was getting to me, but I still doubted any chance of it being serious. You know what he said next?

“Lancelot’s coming back to Oaksdale.”

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See you in Chapter 3, Hero…