The tablet was lifted, its screen facing Aya. Written on it in rather messy handwriting were the words: 'I don't remember my name.'
Aya blinked. She stared at the boy in front of her, half-shocked and confused. Her mind raced.
"You're kidding, right? Now you're telling me you're mute? Even though earlier you—"
Aya's memory flashed back to when the boy had grabbed her by the throat and begged to be killed. A shiver ran down her spine, and she instinctively hugged herself.
Should she believe what he was saying?
Aya looked up when the boy waved his hand in front of her face. He showed her the tablet again: 'What's ur name?'
"Oh, me?" Aya pointed to herself awkwardly. "I'm… Aya. Just call me Aya."
He paused, then nodded and typed again: 'Do we not know each other?'
Aya looked at him, uncertain. Then she nodded. "You don't remember anything?"
He shook his head.
A sinking feeling crept into her chest. She rubbed her fingers together and began to wonder, "Did he lose his memory because of me? Because of…"
Aya looked down, recalling the moment his head had slammed into the table. Cold sweat started forming on her forehead as she slowly raised her gaze again.
"…Shit. Don't tell me… he's mute because of that too?"
Meanwhile, the boy tilted his head slightly. 'Then how do I got here? Why are you here?'
Aya stared at him for a moment, debating whether to tell the truth or lie. But really, everything that had happened was already too absurd to sugarcoat. So she decided to give him a simple version of events—just up to the part where she found him by the lake and brought him home.
Aya thought, "I probably don't need to mention the whole strangling incident. Because then I'd have to admit he might be mute and amnesiac because of me. Yeah. This much is enough."
The boy nodded slowly as he listened to her story, blinking only occasionally. Once she finished, he seemed to reflect quietly for a long while.
"What is it?"
He began typing again: 'Thank u. Even if 'washed up at the lake' sounds a little odd, something clearly happened to me—and u saved me.'
He waited for her to finish reading before continuing: 'So again, thank u very much.'
There was a quiet sincerity in those words, seen clearly in the gentle smile he gave her. And for Aya, who was already weighed down by guilt, it felt like a heavy burden. Especially since the boy in front of her now seemed like the polar opposite of the one from just two hours ago.
"There's no way someone this kind would strangle someone while begging to die."
Still, Aya wasn't stupid. She trusted herself more than someone she'd just met. There was no way she had hallucinated it.
"No matter what, he's changed drastically since hitting his head," Aya thought. "Or maybe… this is actually good news? I can rack up some good points with him while he's like this. That way, once his memory returns, our chances of working together might be better."
She gave him a wide smile—one meant to be polite but, in her heart, it was really her patting herself on the back for the genius idea.
But that smile vanished instantly the moment she read the next line on the tablet.
"R u alone in this house?"
Aya scratched the back of her neck. "Ah… um, no, I have an older brother, but… you can't meet him."
The boy frowned. "Why not?"
Aya didn't answer. And that was enough for him to catch on.
'U brought me here without ur family's knowledge?"
That line hit her like a punch to the chest. "I… yeah, that's true."
He stared at her.
"You can't do that."
"You shouldn't."
"I know, I know. But—"
He kept staring, more intensely now, as if to silently echo her words with his own:
"But—what?"
Aya looked away, deep in thought. Then she turned to him with conviction.
"You!" she said, suddenly loud and close to his face, making him flinch back. "Come with me!"
He blinked, startled, and quickly typed:
"Where are we going?"
---
And so, Aya took him there.
She dragged him along for several hundred meters down a narrow path, ignoring the fatigue etched on his face and the way he panted for air. Occasionally, he would tap her shoulder and show her the screen, hastily scribbled with: 'Where R we going?' But Aya gave no reply. She kept walking straight, holding his hand and glancing now and then at his bewildered expression.
Through it all, Aya thought, "Rather than me trying to explain, wouldn't it be better if he just saw it for himself?
Well then. Now you see, don't you? There isn't a single house around except mine."
Less than ten minutes of brisk walking—almost running—and Aya finally let the boy rest, letting him bend over with his hands on his knees, breath heaving. They were now at the border between the forest and a beautiful stretch of open grassland. It would've been a picturesque sight—if not for the thing at the far edge that made Aya sick just thinking about it.
"Look." Aya pointed ahead.
The boy raised his head. And instantly, his eyes widened.
Far off in the distance, at the edge of the wide and beautiful green meadow, stood the jagged silhouette of a tall wire fence, encircling the entire area until it vanished from sight, As if mocking the two human children standing there, simply by its very presence.
"That damned electric fence has kept me trapped here for nearly ten years. Don't even think about climbing it. If you get too close, you'll see a bunch of charred bird corpses—fried by the electric current every time one lands on it."
Aya pulled him closer by the hand, step by step, as she kept talking.
"This fence surrounds the entire forest. As far as I know, there's no manual way in or out. Oh, except for one piece of tech my brother uses: the Anywhere Door. It's like a prototype teleportation device built into our front door. Only my grandfather, Ruffen Mygrid, and my brother, Kyle Geiger, can use it. That's it. In all these years I've been trapped here, I've never met anyone else."
She led him deeper into the meadow. From here, the boy could see the fence clearly—sealed all around with no openings. Gradually, he began to grasp the layout of the place: Aya's house, an artificial forest, a wide green field, and an electric fence enclosing everything. If he strained his vision further, he could even make out a five-meter-wide trench beyond the fence, making it obvious this place was designed to prevent escape.
Aya met his eyes.
"So, here's the real question, stranger.
With all this terrain meant to keep everything out… how the hell did you end up washed ashore in a lake that isn't connected to anything?"
The boy turned to look at the fence again.
Itwas true.
Was it built to keep something from escaping—or to keep others from entering?
He typed quietly onto the tablet:
'I don't know.'
Then He Continued: 'Can u please take me to the lake where you found me?'