Too far!

Hearing Shirley admit to being the culprit, Mai felt as if her whole world had turned upside down. She was reminded that she barely knew anything about either Shirley. Her breathing was getting shorter, and she could feel something coming on once again.

Pressing her hand on to her chest, she started to breathe quite quickly as the room appeared to be twisting in front of her. 'Am I having another panic attack? I've never had one before and now I have two in such a short span of time?'

"Mai, what's wrong with you?" Shirley stood up as she had never seen her best friend react like that. "Calm down, please! It was just a joke, a stupid joke. It wasn't me!"

Unsure what to do, Shirley searched around the room, looking for anything that could alleviate the situation. However, the room was filled with mostly boxes, so she eventually headed to the kitchen.

'Did she just say that she was merely joking?' Mai looked up, her breathing was starting to regulate after hearing that and drinking the glass of water Shirley had brought her. After a few moments, the two of them sat opposite each other again, and it was obvious that Shirley felt really awkward.

"I-I am really sorry, Mai. You looked so serious, so I thought my little joke could cheer you up. You know what I'm like so I was sure you would understand that I was just jesting, but I guess you have your reasons if you are asking about it."

Mai didn't really know how to reply to this, as she was still recovering from her earlier shock. She herself couldn't explain why the possibility that someone like Shirley, who the current her barely knew, could be the culprit, had affected her so much?

She couldn't really blame the other girl too much either. After all, to Future Shirley it was something that had happened a decade ago. On the other hand, Mai had only recently lived through it and to her it was of the utmost importance to know as much as possible, so she had a chance to change the outcome of that event.

Shirley reached out for Mai's hands, but since she still felt quite comfortable she instinctively pulled them away. Although not deliberate she could see that this action had seemed to hurt the apologetic Shirley.

"... maybe I shouldn't have come over today." Shirley proceeded to stand up. "Let's meet again another time, okay? Just let me know and I promise next time I will refrain from making any such jokes."

Mai realised that she couldn't let her leave, otherwise she would never find any answers and she needed to fight for what she wanted. The words of the letter rang through her head. 'Save Chris.' Before the other went through the door, Mai quickly grabbed Shirley's hand.

"Shirley, please stay. I don't know what came over me just now. Things have just been so strange ever since Chris has been murdered all of a sudden. I don't even know how it happened. It always felt like he was hiding something big from me, but I thought everyone had their little secrets… but now I can't help but think it had something to do with his death. While going through the boxes I found a letter he wrote… and after reading it, it feels like I didn't really know him." Mai revealed, as she looked at Shirley through the corner of her eye.

"Y-you're right. I was an idiot for even thinking of leaving you when you're in such a state." Shirley shook her head and sat back down in her seat again.

"Speaking of Chris, I was wondering whether you might have had some insight. I was hoping an outside perspective might help me find out more. Like did he ever seem suspicious when you came over or anything like that?" Mai asked, trying to get more information.

"I've practically only interacted with Chris when he was around you, so I don't really think I can tell you anything you don't already know. Why don't you ask the detective you've hired? The one you told me about during the funeral?"

For some reason, Mai had a feeling that the appointment time and date had been left on that iPad. So she was at a loss of when that would be. The only thing she could do is travel back to her time, and then come back once the Future Mai had told her the pin.

"Yeah, you're right. But yeah, back to my clothes, do you happen to remember anything? I spoke to Simon recently and he reminded me about the whole event. In hindsight, it feels like such a childish and stupid thing to do, but still I was wondering how it ended since I couldn't even remember it in the first place." Mai pressed for more information.

Shirley took a while to respond to this, and Mai was half-worried, her future bestie would try and make a joke out of the whole affair again..

"I remember that the clothes were found in Simon's locker, but he was insisting that he wasn't the one who took them. Although you were the victim, you insisted on defending him. I still remember that you were so convincing that in the end everyone agreed that someone must be framing him, although we never found out who was actually responsible." Shirley recounted.

'Wait, so it worked? I actually managed to change the future! If I remember correctly Simon said that everyone thought it was him and Chris and him got into a big argument. I guess even though I didn't find out the culprit I still managed to defend Simon.'

'But it seems like I still stopped talking to him later down the line for some reason. I might not have succeeded last time, but this time I WILL!'

"Shirley, this is very important. Do you remember the date when we found the clothes?" Mai asked.

"I don't even remember what I had for lunch last week. How would I remember the exact date and time of something that happened so long ago?" Shirley questioned her, looking at Mai as if she was some mad person.

Afterwards, Mai kept probing Shirley for some info on herself and Chris, but it felt a little awkward for Shirley to talk about how lovey-dovey the two of them had acted ever since they had become a couple. At some point, Shirley even started to talk about some things that Mai had no clue about and in the end the two of them were left feeling awkward.

"I think I might need to rest for a bit." Mai said, with a bright smile and Shirley understood it as her signal to leave for today. After bidding goodbye, Mai felt like she could finally breathe out. The whole conversation had been intense for her, and she had felt like a warrior fighting in an intense battle, trying to rack her brain so much.

It was already evening and Mai decided to do some experimenting on her own. For once, she went to sleep in Future Mai's bed. It felt strange since she had never fallen asleep in there before but she actually managed to fall asleep quite quickly. Either the earlier talk had exhausted her so much or it was just her current body having been used to sleep there.

When she woke up, Mai noticed that she wasn't back in her room, but still in the apartment.

'Alright, this should confirm that the gem really is what allows me to travel between my timeline and this one.'

Thinking about this, spending a day in this world, she was more than happy to return back to hers. She still hadn't gotten the information she needed from Future Simon, but perhaps there were some other things she could do in her time more that might help out in this one as well.

Grabbing some onions from the fridge, she started chopping away, and soon tears were rolling down her face. Eventually they fell on to the crystal and once again it shone bright and she had returned to her world and was in her room.

Grabbing her phone, she looked to check the date.

'Huh, so even though I spent two days in the other world, it only traveled me into the next day in the morning. Even when I used it during the day, only a few minutes had passed. So does it mean no matter how long I spend in the future world, only a day will pass in this one?'

'I guess that makes sense , otherwise who would be controlling my body in this world?' She chuckled to herself.

She then grabbed on to the green gem tightly. The next time she would go to the future, she would be prepared and find out everything she needed to know about Chris and Simon, to help her in the past.

'What a strange gem, but I need to look after it. If this gem breaks like it did for Future Mai, then there's no way for me to get back to the future to find out what happened!'