Emi—in my body—stood with her jaw dropped in front of Mrs. Kozue. Emi remained frozen for a while before stuttering, "Are you saying that the cure to stop swapping bodies is…"
"A kiss," Mr. Araki continued.
My breathing stopped and a whistle rang in my left ear. Everyone stared at Emi as her trembling head slowly turned toward Mr. Araki.
"No," Emi frowned.
Mr. Araki replied, "Look, I don't like it either. I know it's weird, but it's the only solution—"
"No!" Emi yelled. "I'm not going to kiss someone I just met."
"It's just a kiss. You're only doing it to stop swapping bodies, there are no ulterior motives."
"I said no!"
She turned around and walked between Mom and Mamma to step out of the room. It seemed like Mr. Araki was about to yell at her, but Mrs. Kozue placed her hand on his shoulder. Mr. Araki merely sighed.
"Since when did she start behaving like this?" he wondered.
Mrs. Kozue smiled, "Don't worry, she's at that age. You were a bit harsh, though."
"Was I?"
She nodded. "And it's only the beginning. Just give her space."
The room became silent. My breathing slowly returned to normal. Being in Emi's body stopped me from overreacting as I would've if I was in my own body, that's why I thought her reaction might've been affected by this.
"What about you, Pojke?" Mamma asked. Pojke meant Boy in Swedish and since she was from Sweden, I called her Mamma.
"What is it?"
"Are you up to kissing the girl?"
"Well, I don't even know what to think," I laughed nervously. "If it is the only solution, then there's no other choice, right?"
Mom and Mrs. Kozue chuckled. On the other hand, Mr. Araki glared at me with a pair of squinting eyes that pierced through my soul with fire. It only took a second for my body to start shaking.
"Stop it," Mrs. Kozue frowned and slapped Mr. Araki's shoulder.
His eyes snapped back to normal. "Stop what?"
"You're scaring him."
Amidst the silence, Mom asked, "Now what?"
"Now we wait until they fall asleep," Mrs. Asuka answered. "It'll be a bit of a problem now that Emi ran away."
"Let me look for her," I said. "Then we'll sleep to swap back to our bodies and return to class together."
Mrs. Asuka glanced at everyone. "Alright. Your parents and I will stay for a little longer to discuss how to proceed. Come back if you encounter more problems."
I nodded and walked to the door, just to be stopped by a hug from Mom. She let go of me and laughed when she realized she was hugging Emi's body.
As soon as I stepped out of the office, two girls ran toward me.
"Is the principal here?" one of them asked in a hurry.
It took a couple of seconds for me to react. "Yes, she is."
Not saying anything else, they rushed to get into the office without even knocking. The door stayed open, allowing me to listen to what they said.
"Mrs. Asuka!" the same girl shouted. "There's a pervert in the girls' bathroom!"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes!" the other girl replied. "He walked in while we were washing our hands and got into a stall."
"We yelled at him, but he ignored us. He seemed very angry."
Looks like I won't need to look for Emi anymore.
Not much time had passed since Emi left the office, meaning she had to be in a bathroom nearby. I had barely memorized the layout of the first floor, but we were on the second one. The only clue I had was the direction the girls had arrived from.
I walked through the empty hallway in the opposite direction the stairs were. Soon enough, I reached the bathrooms. I approached the entrance, then reality hit me. I was about to enter the women's bathroom. It didn't matter that I was in a girl's body and that I could get away with it easily, I didn't want to see something I shouldn't.
A couple of slaps on my cheeks loosened me enough to gather the courage and step inside. Luckily, it was empty, but yet another awkward task was to come. I needed to find Emi in the stalls.
Praying no one came into the bathroom to find me in the precarious situation I was in, I crouched down and inspected the first stall through the bottom opening. It was empty, so I crawled to the next one. I did it four more times, to no avail.
Only one stall remained. I looked inside it and saw my shoes and my pants. I let out a deep breath, then I stood up and grabbed the handle. Emi had forgotten to lock it, proving she hadn't come to use the toilet in my body.
I glanced back to make sure no one was coming before opening the door and jumping inside. I closed it by leaning my back against it, then I looked at Emi.
She's asleep?!
She was sitting on the lid of the toilet. Her hands grasped the seat as her head oscillated above her hunched back. The open mouth was an addition to the things to be weirded out about while seeing myself being asleep.
I shook my head to come back to my senses. What do I do now? I should wake her up, but what if that interferes with the process to swap back?
My mouth opened to let out a yawn that came out of nowhere and my eyes began to shut on their own. Maybe I should just sleep, too….
Images appeared before my eyes. I was in class, being scolded by the teacher. He wore similar attire to Mr. Tokugawa's, but I couldn't recognize his face.
Then I was at the principal's office. Again, the colors of the principal's outfit resembled the one Mrs. Asuka was wearing earlier in the day, but all I could see were blobs of color.
Suddenly, I was running through the empty hallways of the school. It felt like my heart was about to burst out of my chest. I was scared and didn't know where to go.
Everything went dark. Distant murmurs reached my ears among dry knocks, which became clearer as I opened my eyes. Were those dreams?
The knocks sounded again before Mrs. Asuka asked, "Emi, Keita, are you alright?"
Finally, my brain woke up. However, unlike when I had gone to sleep, I was now sitting on the toilet seat. I looked down to see my body again and let out a sigh of relief.
I raised my head to look at Emi, but she wasn't standing. She was asleep, sitting on the floor in front of me. Unfortunately, her legs were spread out and, despite my best efforts not to see anything, it was inevitable. Even though she was wearing shorts, I was doing something forbidden.
It hadn't even been two seconds when I looked up, just to see Emi's burning face frowning at me. She stood up. I was ready to receive a well-deserved slap, but she merely turned around and opened the door.
Mrs. Asuka opened her mouth to talk, but stopped before doing so. "Are you Emi or Keita?"
"I'm Emi. We just swapped back to our own bodies."
"That's a relief, I shall tell your parents right away. Why is your face so red?"
"It's nothing," she stuttered. "Mrs. Asuka, I'm really sorry for running away like that and coming into the women's bathroom. I wasn't thinking straight."
"Don't worry, I don't blame you. You should apologize to the girls you scared, though."
"Ah, I didn't notice that. I will right away."
Mrs. Asuka smiled at Emi before she walked away and then looked at me as I stepped out of the stall. I lowered my head as soon as she looked at me. Back to being shy…,
"Did something inappropriate happen while you were in the stall?" she asked.
My face grew hotter as I struggled to say something as simple as, "No…." I didn't know if she believed me; I was used to people thinking I was lying.
"Good," she smiled. "Let's go."
I followed her outside the bathroom, where Emi stood straight after bowing in front of the girls that had come running to the principal's office.
"It's still weird, but it's good knowing it wasn't a pervert," one of the girls grinned. The other girl nodded.
"Now that everything is solved, please go back to class," Mrs. Asuka said.
"Yes, ma'am!" both of the girls replied before walking away.
Mrs. Asuka turned toward Emi and me. "You should go back to class as well. Tell your current teacher to change your seats with someone else to avoid further accidents. Meanwhile, your parents and I are going to decide what should be done next."
And that's what happened.
Emi told Mr. Tokugawa Mrs. Asuka's orders as soon as we got into the classroom. He seemed annoyed, but he quickly asked another girl to change seats with Emi.
Nothing happened for the rest of the day and nothing happened for the rest of the week either. Emi and I only exchanged a couple of glances. More than avoiding swapping again, it felt like she was avoiding me, but there was nothing I could do.
A few classmates approached me during the week, but they stopped talking to me a day later when they realized I didn't say a word. I couldn't help it. I didn't know anything about them and I didn't want to say something that scared them away.
It also came to light that another couple of students in the school could swap bodies, but nothing really happened after that.
Finally, it was Saturday, the day Emi's and I's parents had chosen to go to the recommended appointment with scientists at Hosei University.
The bell of our house rang, so I stood up from the sofa in the living room and walked to the front door. I opened it and Mrs. Kozue appeared.
"Hello, Keita," she smiled. "Are you ready for the appointment?"
"Yes," I stuttered. I turned around to call Mom. "Mom, it's Mrs. Kozue."
"I'm coming," she replied.
The sounds of the TV stopped and Mom approached us a second later. She greeted Mrs. Kozue before turning the lights off and walking to the red SUV parked in front of our house.
Mrs. Kozue opened the door for us and Mom climbed in first to prevent Emi and me from touching each other by accident since she was sitting in the back seat. Mom greeted Emi and Mr. Araki, who was sitting in the driver's seat. We fastened our seatbelts and, soon enough, were on the way to the university.
Mom kept chatting with Emi's parents for the longest time, while Emi and I were completely silent. We hadn't even looked at each other since I got in the car.
Suddenly, absolute silence filled the car. Mrs. Kozue glanced at Emi from the front seat. Eventually, she said,
"Keita, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to avoid you. I'm just extremely confused about all of this. Aren't you confused too?"
I took a few seconds to answer, "I am, but we can solve it easily."
She didn't say anything, so I glanced at her. Her cheeks were pink. Mom smirked at me, while Mrs. Kozue placed her hand on Mr. Araki's shoulder. I think that came out wrong.
Out of nowhere, Emi questioned, "Did you leave my legs spread open so you could see under my skirt on purpose?"
"You did what?!" Mom gasped.
"No, I didn't!" I stammered. "I was leaning against the door when I fell asleep, so I slid down to the floor. Then I probably spread my legs open while asleep."
Before I realized it, Emi and I were staring at each other. I snapped my head away.
"That's the most I've heard you talk," she said. "I'll believe you."
The car fell silent again. Only a quiet "Calm down," could be heard. It was Mrs. Kozue, who still held Mr. Araki's shoulder. I gulped and prayed he wasn't too angry.