Alternate | Aruani

Chapter 7: Next Step

"We are new to this world Armin, and we are living lives that aren't ours, a life different from our real ones. And people around us expects us to know a lot about this world, about the lives we are living, about everyone we know in this lifetime. I know we both have been using excuses, but one way or another they'll notice those lies and they'll confront us, what would we say?" She asked keeping her head low, they sat in the corner facing each other.

"I don't know, but think of it Annie, if we are here in the future living someone else's lives, then where are the owners? And are they looking for us in the past? It's possible that we have switched lives with them,
In this book," He tapped the book on his lap and continued,
"We are in a similar situation as the characters, the later part of the story shows us that the main characters have switched lives with the future reincarnation of them. That may also be our case."

"We aren't even sure if reincarnation is real." She argued.

"We literally traveled to the future, how is reincarnation not possible?
We have no knowledge about our situation so for now we base it from a fictional book from our time."

"You have a point, but if reincarnation is real, how is it possible that we switched lives with our future reincarnation who have the same appearance, names, birthdays, as us and the people around us?"

"A coincidence?"

"Maybe," the two fell silent again, both occupied with their own thoughts about their possible situation. They were scared, but also glad knowing that they aren't alone now.

The silence was broken when Hannah one of the library staffs noticed the two,

"Armin, it's already late aren't you and you're friend gonna go home? We're near to closing time already." She said curiously looking at Annie, and the book on Armin's lap.

"Ohh, hey Hannah. We were just about to go home sorry." He sheepishly smiled at the girl, standing up and handing the book to Annie and helped her stand up.

"And this is Annie by the way, we go to the same school." He said and Annie gave her a small wave.

"Nice to meet you Annie, and Armin are you gonna check out all of those?" She asked pointing at the shopping cart filled with books.

"Uhh maybe not, I just realized I don't need all of them." He scratched the back of his neck, now that they have a book from the past most of them aren't really necessary anymore.

"Ohh, pick out the books you need then, and don't worry about all of the excess ones you can leave it there.

"Alright thank you Hannah." She left the two and went to the circulation desk waiting for them. The two began to pick out the books Armin needed which they ended up with 3 books.

"Is that all? Check all of them if they can be checked out." She said, he nodded and looked at the back of each book and luckily they all had the bar codes. He gave Annie a thumbs up and looked at the book from their time. She checked it and gave him a small frown.

"There's no codes. How are we gonna take it home? We need it." She begun to panick a little. He thinks of a way, and really they're just gonna need to snuck it out.

"Since there's no code we can just hide it in our bags and snuck it out without getting scanned." He said quietly and took the book from Annie putting it inside her bag.
She was shock with the solution Armin had, it wasn't like him "sneaking out" books without a second thought, she found this quite amusing and blushed. Armin saw her flushed face and smirked.

"Come on then let's go check out all of this so we can go home." He began pulling her to the desk.

"Wow Armin I thought you'd take a lot more. You seem like you have more control with you book addiction with Annie here."

"Uhh yeah..." He scratched the back to his neck and let out an awkward laugh, it was Annie's turn to smirk she remembered how Armin would lessen reading books to impress her since he thought Annie wasn't into nerdy book-worm boys. She was totally fine with him reading books but he had a thought she didn't, she didn't point it out immediately to him cause she found it cute and loved watching him try and impress her.

"You two are cute together, are you dating?"

"Yea– no!" They both answered at the same time. Hannah smirked ans gave them the books.

"Sure... alright have fun for the rest of the day!" They headed out smoothly with Hannah not even knowing about the book they snuck out.

"So where are we going now?" He asked.

"Home I guess, it's almost sun down Father dosen't want me coming home late alone. Honestly he's exactly like my real father from our real timeline."

"Alright then, I'm gonna walk you home I'm sure mom wouldn't mind me being a little late. Let's just meet up tommorow again so we can work together answering our questions."

"Okay sure– wait mom? are your parents alive in this timeline?"

"Uhh yeah, their great exactly like the ones from when I was little. I still wish i grew up with them though.
And you haven't met them right? Well how bout I'd introduce you to them later on if we have time."

"That'd be great Armin." The two continued their walk as they talked about various things, as they held each other's hands.

It wasn't a long walk to Annie's house it wasn't far from Armin's also.
And just in time they arrived there, Annie opens their front door and was greeted by her father with questions. Armin watched her for a while and noticed how she pointed at him. He saw her father and softly smiled giving them a small wave of goodbye.

He then got home not long after that, he was greeted with a smile from his mother who was currently cooking food.

"Where have you been? How was school?" She asked him softly.

"Sorry for coming home late Ma, I just walked a friend to her house. And school was great." He said and she responded with a little 'oh'.

He went upstairs and did his usual routine as he thought about Annie again. And the possible reasons to why they were here in the future.