Loaded Mind

I walked towards Emily who has been smiling since she asked me to come. I can tell she wanted to know my opinion on something, it's that look and smile. When I stopped in front of her, she told Eliza to talk to the girls and make them see things on neutral grounds. She then asked me to sit on the chair Eliza was sitting on.

"I don't like that smile" I said jokingly to Emily as I sat beside her. She scoffs slightly. "You never liked anything about me, Lynn" I felt slightly bad and wanted to say something back to make her believe otherwise, but I let it go and asked her what she wanted. "It's Jaiden" She said and I nodded. "Say, have you been studying?" She asked. "About time travel? I guess..." My response made her giggle. "'I guess' is the silliest answer you can hear when you ask the question 'Have you been studying?'" She said.

"It's a question of yes or no, you either studied or procrastinated. There's no such thing as 'maybe' as in 'maybe I did' as an answer, it's an illogical answer that also leads to more questions rather than satisfying the only question asked. There's no 'half studied half procrastinated' response to that question. Do you get my point? You either studied and learned, or procrastinated and went lazy. And if you answer in that manner, the person asking you will now have new questions in mind. It can vary from questions about clarifying your answer to questioning your comprehension ability, that's not an ideal outcome for both people, so your goal in these kinds of questions is to make your response as clear as possible without giving more questions to the person" Now, she said that with a stupid smirk on her face so I don't know if she's messing with me or trying to prove a point, so I immediately shut her down.

"Well, fortunately for me, I don't have to stick to all that bullshit and say whatever I want" I told her and she giggled again. "And giving out-of-question responses will leave the pers-" "-Can you stop that?" I decided to cut her words. She's either being an ultimate nerd right now or just wants to rile me up. She giggled once again. "I can see that I'm hitting a nerve" I grunted at her words. "Can you do me a favor?" She suddenly became so serious that she caught me off guard. "Uh, yeah...?" Eager to match her seriousness, I quickly agree. "Will you listen to my words?" She asked. "Yeah...?" I nodded. "Promise?" "Yes! What is it?" I felt slightly irritated at her asking.

"Well, giving a response that doesn't correlate with the question at hand will leave the person unable to get the information they needed from you and make yourself subject to disapproval and distrust with a potential risk of losing a friendship or any kind of relationship" I gave her the looks while she was speaking and started smirking at me until she finished speaking. "...Are you done?" I asked with an annoyed look and she nodded. "I haven't studied yet" I said. "Okay, well, that's fine" She then fixed her posture.

"Why do you think Jaiden believes that we can't alter the present by returning to the past?" Her question caught me off-guard. My mind raced through multiple reasons but couldn't think of a proper answer. "No idea" I briefly replied. She tilted her head slightly. "Can you guess?" She told me to guess. I have no idea how time travel works. It's not even supposed to be real and to be honest, I have no idea if the 'machine' they were working on will work at all...

With a random guess I can think of, I answered. "Uh, because you set it that way?" My answer got her giggling. "That's not how it works, Lynn. You can't just magically set it to 'do not change future' mode. This world follows a single theory relating to time travel, but nobody knows what theory that is just yet and we have multiple theories to consider and that's what we're going to figure out" She's right. Considering that it's supposed to be impossible, they can't just make it so the machine won't allow us to change the present.

"Then what theory does Jaiden believe then?" Whatever it is, it conflicts with Alice's chosen theory. I heard Emily's low exhale. "Jaiden believes that we specifically made the machine so it's only a 'two-way trip' meaning you can only observe and go back. It's like the difference between viewing and editing, simple, right?" I nodded at her. "Well, that's not entirely possible. The machine will always follow the theory this world is set on, no matter how much we tinker with it. The closest concept she can believe in is the single timeline concept. Can you guess what that is?" She asks.

"Well, there's only one world, I guess..." I've been hearing them talk about 'timelines' a few times now. From what I can understand, when the topic is time travel, a timeline is the world itself. If my guess is right, then that means the concept she asked me is about having only one world despite the time travel events. Emily nods at me.

"Correct. In the single timeline concept, there's only one timeline regardless of time travel events. The present will change according to the changes you made in the past. However, in her case, this concept prevents us from interfering with the past because it's the foundation of our world right now. No matter how much you try to do things differently, the outcome of your actions will always end up following the events that happened that make up the world we have right now" She explained to me how Jaiden believes our world works with time travel. It's something I can't just get my head into. She noticed my confused look and the lack of response.

"You don't get it, do you? In simpler words, the past is a fixed sequence of events. If you try to befriend Caitlyn in the past, you're bound to fail, because that's not what happened" She gave me a 'simpler' explanation. She just rewords it, I still can't understand the logic behind it. "And...what prevents me from befriending her?" I asked full of curiosity. "This very present" She smiled. "Okay...? No matter how often I try to be friendly to her in the past, I will always end up..." I couldn't bring up the words, but Emily still nodded at me.

"Yes. That's for Jaiden's case. But in general, the single timeline concept relates to events that are part of a continuously flowing timeline, or in other words, the world is continuously being 'updated'. So if you try to go back to the past, the present will reflect on it and shift to suit the outcome of your actions, or in other words, the world will be 'updated' with your changes. Do you get it?" That's another theory down. So, Jaiden's chosen theory in the single timeline concept and the 'general' view of the concept is different.

"I can see that you're trying to process my explanation. That's good" She gave me a proud smile. "These theories have so many holes in them that left the people thinking, and therefore, more theories or even just personal beliefs are kept being made. Then these new theories will also have holes and make people doubt them, then new ones will appear and the cycle goes on. People know they might be wrong so they will keep arguing until someone or something proves their theories right" I took that information in with a nod and we fell silent for a few seconds before she spoke up. She has a slightly disturbed look on her face.

"Lynn. Are you aware of the eerie rumors in Japan about a high school boy who can travel through time and different worlds?" That sounds familiar. The rumor started a few years ago when we were still in high school. "Yeah, I heard about it. It was way back in high school, but I couldn't bother paying attention to it. It's nerd stuff" I said. "I still use it to inspire me in studying and making this machine of ours work" She glances at me then looks away. "Do you know about how it spreads throughout the world but not a single person was able to confirm it? Not even fake evidence comes up or anything at all" She looked and sounded serious.

It's indeed scary that a rumor reaches the entire globe but not a single person was able to talk about it. "Why... do you think it's like that?" I asked and she just shrugged lightly, saying that she had no idea either. I had no idea that it was this serious. I never heard of it again at the time, and it felt like it was the first time I'd heard of it when Emily brought it up.

Emily looked at her wristwatch on her left wrist and gasped lightly. "Oh my, it's already five-thirty?" Hearing her, Caitlyn from Jaiden's corner came running at me. "Lynn! You forgot your promise! You said you would take me to the Newberry cafe and buy me that expensive set!" Oh, that's right. During our group stroll in the city, we found an expensive set in a cafe that caught Caitlyn's eye. It's a slice of their specialty red velvet cake and yirgacheffe. The set is supposed to be 'discounted' but it was still so expensive.

However, out of random kindness, I accidentally said I would purchase her that set and she held on to that promise so tightly and never let go ever since. It would also make me feel bad if I took back my words, so I had no choice but to earn money for that set. It's been four weeks since I made that promise and she has been pouting at me every time she remembered about it, so three days ago, I promised to buy her the set on this day.

"Let's go, Lynn!" She began lightly hopping on the spot like an excited child. Emily giggled at us. "We have no important discussions right now, so you can leave the club earlier" Usually, Emily doesn't let us leave the club room until five-fifty, ten minutes before the campus closes and curfew starts. But right now, she allowed us to leave a bit earlier. "Thank you, Em!" Caltyn smiles warmly at her and Emily does the same.

"Don't spoil her too much, I keep telling you" I sighed as I told her that. I stood up to Caitlyn's side and waved goodbye to the club. We set out towards the city, where the Newberry cafe is. On the way there, we would talk about the day and the things we did, laughing and all that. I'm being constantly reminded how close I am to Caitlyn now. I can't believe it for some reason.

Newberry Cafe is located northwest of the city, the part where the skyscrapers and other tall buildings are less. Unlike most of the shops and restaurants in the city, the cafe has a big area and therefore stands out from the rest. Once we reached the cafe, I used the self-service kiosk to buy her the set while I get myself a toasted white chocolate mocha. It's the coffee that Emily orders in Starjacks whenever we decide to head there as a group, I just grew to like it. Once we had our orders placed, we sat down by the window and chatted until our orders arrived.