Mary stared at him blankly, her mouth slightly open.

“T-that came out wrong. I mean I am Ren, Yamato Ren, but I-I don’t look like this in IRL. I-I mean in real life. I’m a lot older and fatter, I definitely can’t do magic. I’m just a salary man at a company in Tokyo.” He took a breath and found her expression even more confused.

“Ren…” She started, but he put his good hand to silence her.

“No. Let me f-finish. I, uh, well, I think I died in my world and then came to this one. Somehow, I took over this Ren’s body. Pr-probably because he looks like my avatar Knight in Y.O.W. Uh… Y.O.W is a game I play called Your Own World. There is a Mary-chan in Y.O.W that I like a lot, but she’s just an NPC, a non-player character. B-But she wasn’t a real person.” He took a breath and watched her face as she stared at him.

Mary blinked and asked, “Are you done?”

He nodded. Is she just taking it in, or does she think it’s a joke?

“I-I’m not joking…” He looked at the table. Maybe I shouldn’t have told her, but I don’t like the idea of stealing a life that isn’t mine. Even if my other life wasn’t that great. Plus, it’s this Ren she seems to like, not me.

“Ya… ma… to…,” Mary whispered.

Ren looked up at her. She was looking at the table, smiling, her cheeks pink and touching her lips. What kind of reaction is that?

“M-Mary-chan?”

Her head jolted up and their gaze met. She quickly covered her face, but he could see that her ears were red. “I-I was just testing it out.”

“Testing what out?”

She peaked at him through her fingers. “How my new last name will sound when we’re married.”

Ren’s heart skipped a beat. So, cute!

“W-wait, I’m trying to t-tell you that I’m not your Ren ri-right now.” He panicked. How can I make her understand?

Mary lowered her hands and looked thoughtful. “I didn’t really understand a lot of the words you said or what you mean by another world, but one thing is for sure, you are my Ren.”

“No, I just took his body, I think, I’m not—”

Mary held up a hand to him, then smiled as she put it in her lap. “I don’t really know how to explain it well, but I’ll try. Firstly you, only you, are my Ren. You haven’t taken anyone’s body. That’s your body.”

“Mary-chan…” This wasn’t going anywhere.

Mary shook her head and continued, “Hmm, how do I explain this. You’ve always been my Ren and will always be my Ren.”

I can’t seem to make her understand. He ran his fingers through his hair and Mary looked at him concernedly.

She pursed her lips, then sighed. “I’m not explaining well… I don’t know how to explain it in your terms, so I’ll try it in mine and see how much of it you understand first. You think that you took that body, but your wrong. It’s always been yours. Though you’ve never mentioned it not being your original before… Ah! This is so hard to explain. If I could show you a Flicker, I could make this easier to understand.”

Ren watched as Mary tugged on her hair and bit her thumbnail.

“Wait, you’re not questioning that this isn’t my real body?” Ren asked.

Mary pouted at him. “It’s your real body.”

He hesitated before asking, “You don’t doubt me saying I’m from another world?”

“You were a Flicker, now you’re not.” Mary tilted her head and smiled. “I don’t know how, but I’m happy you’re not a Flicker anymore. That means you’re here for good.”

“What’s a Flicker?” Ren’s head hurt. There were too many questions.

Mary bit her thumbnail again, her eyes narrowing at the table. She talked with her nail in her mouth. “A Flicker is a person who doesn’t stay long. They usually show up and leave quickly. Their presence isn’t very defined and their usually shrouded in blue. You were a flicker until today.”

Ren’s eyes opened wide. “You’re saying I was some kind of gh-ghost?”

She laughed. “No, ghosts are weird flying creatures that come out of at night and attack people. You only every came out during the day when I was running my stall.”

He took a moment to ponder what she was saying.

“So… A-all this time, you’ve been a-able to see me? Well, my character Knight…” Ren couldn’t look her in the face as he thought back on the embarrassing things he shouted as Knight.

Mary let out a tiny laugh that drew his attention. Her eyes were sparkling in amusement. “Maarry-chan my love—”

“Please, stop!” Ren covered his face as she laughed at him.

Once her laughter passed, she sounded more serious. “I have to be honest, the first few times you showed up at my stall and started spouting these romantic cheesy lines, I was highly taken aback. My father was also furious. After a while it just became one of the more fun parts of my day.”

Ren lowered his hands and bowed his head. “I-I’m sorry.”

“I’ve been wondering, why do you keep stuttering? You never did as a flicker.” Mary tilted her head looking curious.

“I-I…. just…. Not great at t-talking.” Ren couldn’t meet her eyes.

“Why didn’t you stutter when you were a flicker?” Mary asked innocently.

Ren fidgeted and looked at the table. “W-well….”

That’s because I was role playing. It was easy to talk then.

“Oh well. I’m just happy to finally get to talk to you.”

He looked up and found Mary grinning excitedly.

She continued, “This is the first time I’ve been able to talk to you. Well, you always talked to me, but you never really seemed to hear me talk back and you rarely touched me since my father gets protective. That made you unusual. Flickers rarely talk much or interact with us. They do buy and sell stuff sometimes… It surprised me when you started flirting with me that first time. Remember that time when you sold me a cake from that one bakery?”

Ren’s face was on fire as he listened. He had sold her a cake because he thought if he sold it to her maybe she could eat it. It had been a popular cake, and he’d wanted her to have some. Though he was just making up a story in his head.

“Y-you got the cake?” He asked curiously.

“I did.”

How is that possible? So, items I sold to Mary-chan transferred worlds? But why?

Mary squirmed as she looked at him and blushed deeply. “I was really happy when you proposed yesterday. For the first time you seemed to hear me.”

His mind went blank, and he set his head down on the table.

“Ren?” He could hear the worry in her voice, but he was too embarrassed to look up.

All this time, every embarrassing thing I said, she heard it. Ahhh! I acted like such a perverted weirdo. Composing himself, he straightened back up.

“S-so, what your saying is that I’ve been interacting with this world as some kind of… phantom? And that now I’m fully in this world.”

Mary nodded slowly. He let out a loud sigh and looked at the table.

“S-s-so, I’m really your Ren and I’m not t-taking him from you or anything…?”

She said nothing and slowly he looked up to find her smiling softly at him. His heart skipped a beat.

“Yes, you’re really my Ren.”

He swallowed. “Then, it’s alright for me to stay here… with you?”

Mary blushed a deep scarlet. “O-of course, y-you’re my fiancé. Y-you can stay here i-if you want.”

Ren tilted his head and wondered why she was getting so flustered. It clicked. “Wha? N-no, I didn’t mean it in a lewd way. I meant it’s ok for me to stay in this world, in this body? I-I can find an inn or something to stay at tonight.”

Her face fell, and it looked like she was going to cry. “Why would you stay at an Inn? You’re finally here for real this time. Just stay here. We don’t have to do anything, but please stay here…”

“Please don’t cry.” His eyes darted around, not able to focus on anything.

The tears came out though, and she sobbed. “Father warned me not to like you since you were a Flicker. Is that what this is? Do you not like me anymore? Now that I can talk back, do you not like me?”

“I love you.” He slammed his hand on the table and then realized how direct he’d been. Ah, that was cringy! Mary blushed and wiped away some tears, but they didn’t stop.

“Do you?” She looked at him skeptically.

“I-I do…” He put his head on the table too embarrassed to look her in the face. Well, I mean. I kind of did love Mary-chan in y.o.w in an odd way. Ugh, this is so confusing!

“I-It’s just… the Flicker me and the real me are really different. I’m not that confident and I don’t really have experience with real people outside of work.”

“I kind of like this side of you too though.”

He peaked up at her and found her playing with her ring again.

She noticed him staring and blushed. “D-do you not want to get married anymore now that you’re not a Flicker?”

“M-married?” He sat back up and traced a circle on the tabletop. “We don’t really know each other…”

She cried a little harder.

“B-but I want to know you! The real you. W-would you go out with me?” The room felt like it was spinning.

She seemed surprised and happy, but then looked at the ring on her finger. “Then, I’ll give this back until you’re ready to propose for real.”

She went to take the ring off, and Ren grabbed her hand to stop her. He’d reacted without thinking.

“Ren?” She looked at him, surprised.

His hand shook. “D-don’t, please don’t take it off. I-it took me 8 months to find something that would work… Please don’t take it off.”

An idea flitted across Mary’s face and she smiled seductively. She wiped away her tears that had suddenly stopped. “I’ll only wear it if you’re my fiancé.”

Ren’s ears burned. “But we don’t know each other well…”

“Can’t we date and be engaged too?” Mary batted her eyelashes.

He gulped. “I-I guess.”

What the heck am I saying?

She stood up and walked around to him, smiling triumphantly. “Good, then since we’re engaged as my fiancé you can sleep here tonight.”

He didn’t know how to refuse. The real Mary-chan is manipulative!