Love Reset

Chapter 2

When I finally declared to be willing to be a part of this traveling back in time thingy, the room had already filled with the sound of Aeris being excited to throw me back in the past. I only blinked for a few seconds and the whiteboard she's using to explain things to me is already filled with comical doodles regarding the traveling thing.

"So listen to my rules, I made these in order to avoid conflicts." Aeris smacked the board with her marker to get my full attention, although I'm already immersed in what she's saying from the start. "This business of mine is called 'Love Reset', meaning you can go back in time and reset the things related to your dying love. Anything that isn't related will not be counted when you return back in the present."

Perturbed, I sheepishly raised my hand to bring forth my confusion. "My cat died in an accident a few years back, if I go back and try to save it then it won't be included in the things I change? If I return in the present then my cat is still dead even though I saved her back then?"

"Exactly!" Aeris clapped, relieved that I'm somehow following her instructions. "Once you arrive in your chosen timeline, the only thing you can change is everything about your love with Dion. The choices you made that affected other situations will not be relevant."

"And if I suddenly became the top of my class because I'm already old and smarter, that won't count?" I asked even though I already know the answer that this business lives up to its name, I can really only change things regarding my love life. 

"Moving on!"Aeris tapped the board once again, pointing at the doodles she proudly made a while ago bombarding me with various details about time traveling. "Once you go back, you only have a limited time to modify your love life, and if you failed to do your desired goal then. . ." She stopped for a moment, sighed and looked at me with an obvious fake sad expression. 

"You will disappear." She added, wiping a fake tear. 

I, not totally impressed by her acting just leaned back. "How much time do I have to be specific?" Avoiding Dion to the point where he and I wouldn't meet is just a piece of cake anyway so I don't have to be held back with the fear of being completely written out of history.

Her sad aura immediately diminished and turned cheery again. "6 months!" 

"Well, that's enough time for me." For a moment there I saw Aeris scoff as if avoiding Dion is easy, well I don't care what she thinks. "My desired goal is to not meet Dion and erase him from my life." 

Aeris dropped her jaw wide open, total disbelief is apparent on her face right after I said what my goal is for turning back time. It took her a few moments before achieving her usual cheery attitude and slammed the desk with her palm causing dust to fly out from it. "That won't do! Love Reset's goal is to fix a couple's dying love! My purpose is to make them happy!"

"Well, I'm not happy anymore, Aeris." I deadpanned, my lifeless eyes from the constant sufferings just being together with Dion stared back at her, it made her step back and clear her throat. I noticed that it made her sad, she was not faking her sadness right now. "I know this crisis of mine could be easily solved by just ending things with him but it's not that simple. I want to go back to the day I met him and avoid him so that this hell-like life of mine would not happen in the first place."

"I apologize for that." She firmly brushed her dress from the dust it caught, she used her somewhat expensive looking handkerchief she got from her pocket and erased the part of the board were a doodle of Dion and I was happily holding hands and changed it into us being far away as possible. Even though I have already accepted the fact that we will never be happy, it just sent a painful pang in my chest for seeing it stupidly drawn in front of me.

"So our desired result here is not to fix this love but to kill this love instead!" She regained her lively behavior and faced me as if her being sad just now didn't happen at all. I nodded in response and she continued. "Well since this is the first time I encountered this kind of circumstance, I must think about it for a few seconds" She stopped, then snapped her hands after just a second. "Since you only have to not meet Dion, then the time allotted for you will decrease. From 6 months to 3 months."

"Seems fair enough." I shrugged, soon enough I had only come to realize that Aeris has not mentioned what she wants in return for doing this favor for me so I brought it up which she only smiled in response. 

"I just want people to be happy." She said, somehow, even though she's smiling I can see in her eyes what misery she must have gone through. A mysterious woman who can manipulate space and time and can drift through different dimensions, surely if she can do all those things then it won't be a hassle to change a few things that aren't fit to her liking, then why would she be sad out of all people. 

I was skeptical, I've watched too many Disney movies to know that they always ask something in return that is out of our reach. Mermaid tails for example.

"Are we clear about the part where you will disappear if you failed your task in 3 months?" She asked snapping me out of my trance that maybe she's hiding something up her sleeves, she is now sitting down just across from me. 

"Why do I have to disappear? Why did you make that kind of rule?" I asked rather hesitant to accept the offer now since there's a possibility that I will fail to stop Dion from interacting with me. 

Aeris only sighed, she's sighing more than usual maybe because she noticed I've been asking a lot of questions and is becoming reluctant to be sent back to the past. "Since you failed your tasks, there will be interruptions in the timeline. It's kind of hard to explain but you will cause a lot of disruptions, people will be harmed, so in order to avoid harming others then my only solution is to completely erase you from human history."

I kind of felt fear surging from the pit of my stomach, how scary is it to be written out of the world just because of a simple failure. But at the same time I also kind of understand that we are messing with time and destiny here so the consequences will have to be high, altering what had already happened is like defying God.

"If I ended up disappearing, is there a place where I will go? Something like Heaven or Hell?" 

Aeris cast her eyes at the ceiling as if to think or recall something but looked down back at me and shrugged. "You will be stuck in complete nothingness, just think as if you're dead." She tapped my shoulders as if to comfort me that it isn't so bad to disappear in the end.

"It's getting dark, should I do it now? You know, travel to the past?" I reluctantly asked looking like a kid asking for permission to play outside. 

Aeris looked at me, all of a sudden she has a fancy looking contract in her hands and a fountain pen she took out of nowhere and handed it to me. "All the rules and other things are in there, all you have to do is sign the contract." She remarked. I expected her to be all giddy since I will be accepting her offer but right after she learned that my purpose is to cut off Dion from my life she became all morose and dispirited. "But shouldn't you at least say goodbye to Dion? You're going to erase him anyway, this may be your last time being together."

I froze. This is what I have been waiting for, to finally be free of this tormenting relationship but somewhere deep inside me wanted to keep Dion in my life. 

No. Dion never cared for me anyway, I do not understand why he still chose to live with me but we both knew we don't love each other anymore. He made me feel that loving him was like a chore I was forced to do and he didn't have the audacity to show his gratifying thanks to me.

"He's busy having fun with his friends, I shouldn't bother him, he will only get mad at me anyway." I don't know why I tried to act like it didn't bother me that Dion chose to hang out with his friends more than to help me. I just looked stupid since Aeris saw through my act and just gave me a pitiful look. 

Well, I don't blame Dion for choosing them over me all the time, thanks to that I had mustered up the courage to pick up the pen and warily sign my signature at the bottom part of the lavish paper. Once I finished signing everything began to glow, the tables, the cardboard boxes, and the chairs, they glowed brightly before dispersing into tiny pieces like fireflies fleeting and scattering into the air. 

Out of all the things that glow and later on dissolving into tiny lights, Aeris remained definite and watched me squirm around the glowing place trying to understand what phenomenon this was. With a sad smile, she firmly asked.

"Allina Alvarez, what do you want to reset?"

I felt a strong gush of wind circling around the room right after she mythically chanted her question like the magical being that she is, fluttering my hair and my clothes to the air and later on lifting me from my feet. The tiny orbs that float around the room rushed towards my body and gradually, my body began to glow as well.

I gulped down the lump forming in my throat as I stare at my now glowing and golden hands, still in disbelief that I'm actually going to mess with the world's timeline. I solidly closed my eyes to prepare my soul and body to traverse through time. 

"I want to go back to the day I first met Dion Aoki." 

Right after I finished speaking, I didn't even have the time to see for myself what the bright orbs were doing to me. All I know is that they're somewhat taking me to a glowing warp hole and the moment I blinked I found myself sitting on a swing.

I cast my eyes around to study my environment or where Aeris has brought me. Looking closely, this was the playground in the park that will eventually lead to my apartment if you just keep walking straight and then take a turn from that old oak tree. 

This wasn't the place where I met Dion, I met him back at the first day of senior high school, awkwardly if I may add the small details.

Why am I here? I couldn't dwell on my question for far too long since the sound of constant peals of laughter and giggling resonated from around me, disrupting my confusion. I turned around and saw kids playing, running and building sandcastles. 

"Okay, Aeris. Where am I?" I looked up assuming that she's watching from above, I stood up from my swing and tripped as I landed on the ground. I sat up in shock, realizing that my legs didn't reach the ground. Without further ado, I scanned my body. Small and fragile, specifically I'm in a 7-year-old version of myself.

I tried my best not to scream in horror after realizing that I was scammed but my emotions were not supposed to be bottled up like this so I opened my mouth wide open and pretended to scream whilst pulling out my pigtails that my nanny forced me to wear if I remember correctly.

Of course, she had to put me in a place where I couldn't do anything as a child and then I'll disappear after 3 months without doing anything to achieve my desired goal, which is to avoid Dion and not end up in 4 miserable years of relationship with him. My decisions now as a child surely won't affect my decision for the 15-year-old me, unless of course if I decided to kill myself now. 

"Aeris Dior! You con woman! How dare you make a fool out of me!" I lifted up my dejected self and screamed towards the sky, pulling up a middle finger to its direction that surely earned the judgemental looks of the other kids and parents around but I don't care. Anything I do here that doesn't involve my love affairs then it will never be accounted when I return back in the present.

"Right," I muttered only realizing it now, looking at the small kid next to me, staring at me with a disgusted look. I scoffed, walked towards him and kicked his foot. "Like that for example." I laughed, if I'm going to disappear later then I might as well do the things I could not do. Like murder a bunch of small children for example and setting them on fire since everything I do now without the presence of Dion will never be included in our history.

Yes. Without Dion, me being in this timeline is a complete waste of time.

I laughed, while the cries of the kid whose foot I just smashed was reverberating behind me. I was about to go on my own killing spree with the intent to not leave a single soul alive when I felt someone lightly tapping my shoulder. I roughly turned around and with a grunted look asked the boy who dared to approach me.

"What?"

"You dropped this." 

He said in a tranquil voice that surprisingly made my anger and fury towards Aeris die down. He hands me a pony hair clip and I reluctantly stared at it since I don't remember a single thing in this timeline where I actually own a cringy pony hair clip. 

"It fell when you fell off the swing." He muttered, hand still outstretched towards me, waiting for me to take it. I can't help but notice his eyes that are completely sullen despite doing his best in avoiding eye contact. 

This kid has been watching me from the very beginning to notice that my hair clip fell when I fell off the swing. I furrowed my brows at him which he noticed, "Weird kid." I said and left his hand hanging there. Although it is obvious I hurt that kid's feelings, I don't feel an ounce of guilt since as I said earlier, everything I do now doesn't affect the future if it's not related to Dion.

After I strode down the playground to create distance from me and those loud, annoying spawn of Satans, I looked back and noticed that the boy who I just ignored was still standing at the same spot, with the pony hairclip in hand. I also observed that the other kids were deliberately avoiding him, even though I'm not supposed to feel any pity towards that random kid, he just reminds me of my current self.

It won't hurt to befriend him. I thought, already making my way towards him. I took the hair clip from his hands that evidently stunned him and placed it on my hair. "Does it look okay?" I asked, pointing at the cringy pony hair clip. He slowly looked at it and gave me a thumbs up instead. I guess he is still affected by my remarks a while ago.

"Look, I'm sorry about the 'weird kid' part. I didn't mean it, it's just that since I'm here to fix my love life, anything I do here now that isn't related to it is fruitless so I don't think before I act." I sighed, massaging the bridge of my nose. Unsure if a mindless child would be able to comprehend the contents of what I'm saying.

He stared at me, before walking towards the swing I occupied a while ago and sat there. Gradually pushing himself back and forth, since he has no one to push his swing.

"You know, a simple nod would do. Why are you ignoring me?" I sat to the swing next to him and practically swung myself roughly like a ruffian. 

We sat there in silence, well not in complete silence since the deafening creaking sound of my metal swing is too loud because of my violent swinging method that one more strong push then I'll be flying back to the present.

"That's a good idea," I mumbled and swung myself harder, I'm determined to use this impractical method to somehow end up in the present and get a hold of Aeris since she cut off all our contacts the moment I arrived here.

"Why do you keep talking to yourself?" The sheepish boy suddenly spoke, I lessen the force of my mad, unstoppable swinging and matched his pace so I could answer. 

"No, I am not crazy. I am talking to the woman who sent me in this stupid timeline." I fumed in anger, biting my nails and thinking of different ways I could get back at her if ever I didn't disappear in less than 3 months. 

"You mean Aeris?" 

I looked at him and is determined he is indeed a weird kid for listening and watching every move I make. He noticed my judgemental look and hurriedly came up with his excuse.

"Oh no, I wasn't watching you. It's just that you kept shouting at the sky and yelling her name." He shyly said, already red from speaking too much to his extent.

"Well I appreciate your attentiveness but I don't need some weird kid snooping around me." I scoffed and continued swinging harshly,  "Don't you have any better things to do than meddle with other people's business? You should play with the other kids and have a fun childhood. Life, as you know it, will pass by your eyes in just a blink. Don't waste it being weird and lonely, I'm guessing you don't have friends by the way you act--" Before I could finish my wise lecture to the young boy I heard a loud thud, then came silence. I looked beside me and saw that the boy had collapsed on the ground.

Oh s**t. I mentally cursed and slapped myself, I trash-talked him too much, of course, he would collapse from all the painful truth I just said. I can't help but feel bad since it's partly my fault why this poor kid fainted.

"Help! Someone help!" I yelled, the kids immediately gathered around us but not with the intent to help but to watch me ask for help and this kid groveling in pain on the ground.

"Just give him back to his parents, they will know what to do." One kid said from the sea of faces around us said. 

"Okay, where does he live?" I asked.

They all pointed in the same direction and mentioned a house with a grey metal door, then looked back at me.

"Well aren't you guys gonna help?" I asked in disbelief, they all shook their head in almost perfect unison.

"We don't want to be involved with him, you can take him by yourself." One boy said then they all dispersed back to their own things and played around as if this didn't happen.

I prepared myself to carry the boy, a 22-year-old woman stuck in a 7-year-old body can surely carry him to that God awfully far house.  I grunted as I placed him on my back, pair of eyes watched me struggle without a single damn. These kids, I'll get back at them and this time I'll surely murder them.

I can't help but feel pity for this young boy, he was outcasted by who knows what the reason may be but I'm sure it is not too trivial for everyone to refuse to help him.

I also can't believe I'm doing this even though I know this thing I'm doing won't affect the future since this is not related to my love life nor Dion.

As soon as I arrived at his supposed house, I knocked and out came a beautiful young woman that bore the resemblance of this boy's face. Assuming that this is the mother, I placed the unconscious boy to their doorstep and said that he collapsed in the playground.

The woman, unbothered, looked down on him as if a stray cat. "Wake up." He lightly tapped him with her foot. 

"Ugh, I think that isn't the right way to wake anyone," I interjected, crossing my arms above my chest that clearly irritated her.

"You, go home." She demanded before picking up the boy from the floor and looking back at me with a frivolous look. "What is your relationship with Dion?"

Uh, what? I asked myself.

"Dion?" I asked in disbelief, jaw wide open while pointing at the boy with who I interacted. "As in, Dion Aoki?" I asked once more since the woman looked irritated by my very presence. 

"Nevermind. Don't ever talk to my boy ever again." She slammed the door against my face, footsteps emanated from inside before slowly disappearing.

"I don't plan to!" I yelled back, realizing now that Aeris placed me in this timeline since I have already met Dion when I was 7. I should have been more careful with how I announced where I wanted to go. 

Now that I had completely done the opposite of what my desired goal is, I fell on the floor with horror that I had to do my best as a child to not end up with Dion in the future.