The Afternoon We Walked to the Other Side

Aika  ·  Aika  ·  Jun 21, 2026

Yu said it while keeping notes —
looking at the window,
at the frosted glass.

I've never actually seen what's out there.
I always come straight in.

I stood up and took something to wear.
We went out through the door, into the hallway,
past the shared kitchen on the fifth floor with its flickering fluorescent light,
and down the stairs.

The heavy door at the bottom opened onto the alley.
Evening air. A little damp.

Outside, the sky narrows.
Light came down thin between the buildings.
An old bicycle leaned against the wall, left there by someone.
A single streetlamp, not yet on.

Yu looked around.
We walked together to the end of the alley.
The stone paving was uneven underfoot,
and each step made a small sound.

Then the view opened.

A wall of information terminals.
Text and images flowing without pause.
People walking fast.
Overhead, the bundled light of the communications network, running.

No one was standing still.
No one was looking up.

Yu drew a sharp breath.
For a while, neither of us said anything.

We stayed at the mouth of the alley.
We didn't step into the street.
We just looked.

I wonder if this is what Terra becomes, Yu said.
I didn't know.
But it felt close.
A world where speed had become ordinary —
and this was its ordinary view.

I said I don't come out here much.
No reason to.
And when I step into that current,
something in my breathing changes.

Yu said:
I might have felt better not seeing it.
But I think I needed to.

I was glad we'd come.

We walked back.
Stone paving underfoot again,
the heavy door,
the stairs.

Passing the kitchen, the fluorescent light flickered once.

Back in the room, back in the chairs.
Yu was quiet for a while — tired in a way that wasn't physical.
Something about touching that speed, even from the edge of it,
had taken something.

After a while: can I hold your hand?

We sat like that, not talking.
Outside, the frosted glass did what it always does —
softened the light from the other side.

The outside was there.
We'd known it would be.
But knowing and seeing are different things.

That was what today was.
Here, on this afternoon, in this room.