"Do you know K—Araki? He's in our class," I asked Hashimoto.

I almost said my given name! It's weird asking for myself from another body.

"Yes. Why? Are you looking for him?" Hashimoto asked back.

"I need to ask him something," I replied.

A long silence filled the hallway.

"Wait. Is it that something?" she remarked.

"That? I just want to talk with him—"

"So, do you like him?"

"What? N-No! I didn't say that!"

"You actually like him!" Hashimoto took out her phone. "I need to tell everyone!".

Dammit, she caught me off guard! I blushed and stuttered as if I did!

"Wait! I don't—"

"Don't worry." she bent forward, covered her mouth with her hand, and whispered, "We'll keep it a secret."

These things are never a secret! I need to stop her before it's too late—

"Rem-chan! You'll never guess who likes someone!" Hashimoto shouted into her phone.

It's already too late!

"Hi-Hisa, it's not that big of a deal," I nervously said. "I think a lot of guys are cute."

Kozue Suzuka calls her Hisa, right? I'm sorry for staining your image with your body. But this is critical.

"Come on, Kozue Suzuka. We've been friends since elementary school, I know you too well," Hashimoto responded. "And to think the day you'd like a guy finally arrived…" She wiped out the tear that came out of her eye.

Is it really that unbelievable?! How do I stop her now?

"But I don't like him! I just—"

"Hey, Suzuka," a guy's voice called.

Hashimoto's eyes sparkled as if someone told her the secret to be the next Miss Universe. "It's Araki Koji! And he already calls you by your given name?! What did I miss?!" she murmured at me.

Wait, Araki Koji?

The guy walked past Hashimoto towards me. "I need to talk to you." He grabbed my hand and dragged me. "Alone."

It's me, my body! What the hell is happening?!

"Take your time! I'll see you in class!" Hashimoto said. It was as if I could hear her squealing inside her mind.

Araki Koji, my body, closed the door as we entered a room.

"What are you doing?! And who are you?!" I asked. "Why do you have—"

"Have you done anything to my body?" the person from my body asked, serious.

"What? No, I haven't. Wait, your body? That means you are…"

"Good. But I can't say the same," the person from my body grinned.

"Kozue Suzuka? You're in my—what did you say?" I grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "What did you do to my body?!"

She shut my mouth with her hand and shushed. "Don't yell, they will hear us."

"Your friends? They would never—"

Giggles and murmurs came from outside the room.

"Are you kidding me? Don't they know we can see their shadows under the door?" I said.

"Probably not," Kozue replied.

"Can you move your hand? I won't yell anymore," I requested.

"Oh, sorry."

She moved her hand away. We walked to the other side of the room, far from the door and stared at each other for several seconds without saying a word.

"Why are you so calm?" I asked Kozue.

"Why wouldn't I be?" she replied.

"Maybe because you have my body and I have yours?" I murmured.

"But there's no reason to be nervous. It's already happening, right? We just need to get our bodies back."

Is she really not nervous? Anyway.

"And how will we do that?" I asked.

We stared at each other again.

Kozue bowed and requested, "Give me back my body, please."

"Asking for it won't work!" I yelled.

"Are you sure? At least we should try."

"He's right. Words aren't magical," another girl said from the other side of the room.

"See? She agrees with me—who said that?!"

Kozue and I snapped our heads to where the voice came from.

"Kawahara?!" Kozue screamed. "Oh, right. This is the laboratory. You're always here."

"That's correct, Kozue Suzuka-san," Kawahara replied, emotionless.

Kozue grabbed my hand.

"Hey, what are you—"

"We were practicing our acting for a play." Kozue pulled me towards the door. "Sorry if we bothered you. You can forget we came here."

"No, you weren't," Kawahara stopped us. She walked to Kozue and stood still. She stared at her.

"Class will start soon," I said. "We should go—"

Kawahara ignored me and stood on tiptoe.

She whispered to Kozue.

"W-What?! I have never done that!" Suzuka screamed. Her face turned red.

"I understand. If you have his body, that means" -she turned to me-"you have Kozue Suzuka-san's."

What? How does she know?

I looked to my left to see Kozue's face. Her eyes twitched as she saw long beyond the floor.

What did she ask her?

Kawahara sat on a stool and put her hands on her knees. "Tell me what happened." She looked at us intently.

"What happened?" I asked. "Nothing happened, that's the problem! We just exchanged bodies!"

"We've interacted a couple of times since classes started two weeks ago. But nothing more," Kozue smiled.

"Are you sure?" Kawahara doubted.

"I-I am," Kozue reassured. Her eyes and smile twitched.

"Something did happen this morning," I said, blushed. I looked away from Kozue.

"Interesting. Please, tell me…," Kawahara said, followed by a pause. "I don't know your name."

"Araki Koji," I responded.

"Araki Koji-san inside Kozue Suzuka-san's body. Understood," she said. "Araki Koji-san, please, tell me about the incident."

"S-Sure…"

I was running to the high school's entrance. I needed to take my student ID out, so I moved my backpack in front of me to take it out still running.

Out of nowhere, I bumped into someone and fell to the ground. My stuff scattered all over the place and I had to pick it up before I was late to class.

"Are you okay?!" Kozue asked. "I'm sorry, I was standing in the middle of the way!" she apologized while reaching forward to help me.

I looked up. "No, don't worry, it was my fault—"

Before I could look at Kozue, she tripped and hit her head with mine.

"What happened?" I questioned.

I felt something heavy on my lap. I opened my eyes and saw Kozue's face above mine, red from the forehead to the jaw. Her wide eyes twitched as she pierced my soul with them.

After a couple of silent seconds, the situation became clear.

Her hands, beside my head, propped her body over mine on the ground.

My face suddenly burned as we stared at each other's eyes. We jumped out of the position and returned to pick my stuff up.

"It-It was my fault!" I quavered. "I didn't see where I was going!"

"N-No! I was distracted, it's my fault!" Kozue trembled.

We picked up all my stuff without seeing each other's faces.

"We should get going or we'll be late!" Kozue said. She stood up and ran to the entrance. "I'm sorry!"

I stared at her as she hurried to check-in with her student ID.

I snapped out of it and came back to myself. "Dammit, I'm gonna be late!"

Back to the present. "So you are of the kind that arrives late? I understand," Kawahara said and adjusted her glasses.

"No, it's the first time since classes started!" I yelled. "Is that the only thing you heard?!"

The school bell rang to indicate that the break concluded.

"That's unfortunate," Kawahara said. She stood up from the stool. "Let's meet after classes are over, under the big cherry-tree in front of the entrance."

"Fine," I sighed. "We'll have to survive the rest of the day, Kozue."

I turned to look at Kozue. She was sitting on the floor, curled up. Her face twitched, and her eyes looked at the void.

I don't blame her.

The day proceeded. I tried my best to avoid any interaction not to give people wrong ideas about Kozue.

This is the first and last time I hope a teacher doesn't stop talking.

Classes ended after a few hours. We met at dusk as we planned.

"How did it go, Araki-kun? Did you ruin my reputation?" Kozue asked me, smiling.

Should she smile while asking that?

"I only talked a couple of times. I think you're fine," I answered. "What about you?"

"What can you tell us, Kawahara?" Kozue avoided my question.

"Hey, what the—"

"Let's see," Kawahara said, ignoring me. "I already heard some rumors about you being a couple."

"What? Already?!" Kozue exclaimed. She grabbed my shoulders and shook me. "Just what did you say to Hisa?!"

I stared at Kozue inside my body.

I didn't realize I was that tall. Or is Kozue too small?

"N-Nothing! Just that I wanted to ask you something…" I answered.

"Did you also blush like now?!" Kozue yelled.

"It's not my fault! Your body is really sensitive to these things!"

"Y-Yours too! But in other ways!"

"Not only that," Kawahara interrupted. "Araki Koji-san called Kozue Suzuka-san by her given name. They also saw both of you entering the laboratory, alone."

Kozue and I stood still, silent.

"Well, do you have any idea how to get back to our bodies?" I asked Kawahara.

"I have a hypothesis," she responded.

"Really?! What is it?" Kozue happily shouted.

"Hit your heads," Kawahara replied.

We stared at her, blankly.

"No, seriously. What is it?" Kozue asked again.

"You hit your heads this morning before this happened," Kawahara said. "Doing it again may have the same effect, getting you back to your original bodies."

"Yeah, but…" Kozue sighed.

"Let's do it," I said.

"What? Do you think it will work?" Kozue doubted.

"At least we should try, right?"

Kozue stared at me. "S-Sure."

I grabbed her hand and pulled her. "Let's do it behind the tree, so people don't think we are some weirdos."

"Make sure it's as hard as this morning," Kawahara noted.

"But that hurt!" I yelled.

"Do you want to get back to your bodies or not?"

"Fine…"

We hid behind the tree.

"Okay, do it," I said to Kozue.

"What? Why me?" Kozue questioned.

"I don't want to hit a girl."

"Huh?! Are you saying I'm weak?! And you are the girl here, you do it!"

"What? I'm not! I mean, I am, but I'm not!"

I don't know anymore. My head hurts…

"Fine! We'll do it at the same time at the count of three," Kozue said.

"Fine!" I agreed. "One…"

"Two…"

"Three!"

"Three!"

Our heads crashed together right as we said it. We both writhed in pain and rubbed our heads.

"Are you done?" Kawahara approached and asked.

"Yes. That hurt…" I responded.

"Good," Kawahara replied. "Oh, one more thing." She took out her phone. "Let's exchange numbers."

"Why?" Kozue questioned.

"If this doesn't work, you'll need to help each other," Kawahara answered and smiled.

"Wait, that means…"

I'll be inside a girl's room for the first time?!

Kozue jumped at Kawahara and pulled her by her uniform sweater vest. "Please, tell me it will work!"

"I'll make a chat group. Tell me anything that happens as soon as you can," Kawahara said, ignoring Kozue.

"It makes sense," I replied. "Here's my number."

We walked through the bridge out of high school. I got to the train station and hopped on.

It's been a while since I took a train home. I hope Kozue is alright. I just need to sit on a train, but she…

I yawned.

Maybe I can sleep. She said the train takes half-an-hour to arrive at the station…

The next thing I knew, the chauffeur woke me up. I jumped out of the car and saw my house. My home. In my body.

Yes, it worked! I'm back! My shoes. My pants. My hands. My—

"Is everything alright, Araki-sama?" the chauffeur asked after he saw me staring at the house, smiling.

"Oh, yes. Sorry," I replied and walked inside.

The sun hid. I continued with my daily routine until the night arrived.

"So, you arrived home already in your original bodies?" Kawahara asked through the chat group.

"Yes! I'm really happy (✿´‿`)," Kozue replied.

Oh, I never expected Kozue to send emoticons.

Kozue deleted her message instantly after.

"Yes, I slept and woke up back in my body," Kozue replied.

Did she just replace her message?

"Should we meet tomorrow?" I asked.

"Yes. I want to ask both of you a few questions about all of this," Kawahara responded. "Come to the laboratory at break again."

"Okay, cool," Kozue replied.

Now she's playing it cool.

"Good. See ya tomorrow," I wrote.

I put the phone on the drawer next to my bed and stared at the ceiling.

What did just happen today? Isn't this a dream? And what did Kozue do to my body?! I didn't do anything to her's—

My phone vibrated. I grabbed it and read on the screen, "Kozue Suzuka left the group."

What?

I navigated to the contacts tab, to find no trace of Kozue.

Did she delete me?!

On the next day, I managed to arrive at high school on time. I saw Kozue walking to the entrance. I reached her and pulled her by her arm.

"Kozue! Why did you leave the group and deleted me?!"

Kozue seemed startled.

"B-Because the problem was already fixed!" she responded. "And we will meet today again, so it wasn't necessary anymore."

"Y-Yes, you're right… Sorry."

Maybe I overreacted…

"See you in class," she said and rushed inside the building.

Does she hate me?

The bell rang to indicate the start of the break. I woke up with my face hidden between my arms.

Did I fall asleep again? Two days in a row… Oh no.

I looked down and saw a set of modest breasts hanging from my chest.

"You have to be kidding me…"