Chapter 1
The alley was silent, except for the flickering hum of neon signs overhead. Boyfriend stood frozen in place, staring at the figure before him.
Taller. Ragged. His clothes torn, sneakers worn to the sole. His blue hair, once identical to Boyfriend’s, now messy and dull. His eyes—deep, hollow pits—stared at him with something between recognition and regret.
Then, a voice. Low. Broken. Yet it carried rhythm like a ghost of something once full of life.
“Sup bro, can’t you get enough, yo?
I’m getting a foe,
You’re just my ego,
You’re a hero,
Nothing but a zero.”
Boyfriend’s breath caught in his throat. The words hit like echoes from a place he’d never been, a life he’d never lived. But the other him kept going, his voice weaving through the heavy air like a curse.
“Infinity, I try to see the choreography,
Is my geography,
I was never seen without damn and tea,
To banish thee.”
The lights above them buzzed erratically, their glow dimming with every beat. The alley felt smaller. Tighter. Like the walls were closing in, pushing them together, forcing them into a battle neither of them had chosen.
“Your praise remains,
The blood inside my veins,
So take that stake,
Stab it through,
It’s unclear, so stay.”
The alternate Boyfriend’s breath wavered, but his stance didn’t. His fists clenched. His shoulders squared. He stared at Boyfriend like he was waiting for something.
Boyfriend didn’t move.
Didn’t sing back.
Didn’t even blink.
Then the voice dropped lower, heavier, laced with something final.
“Who reflects who?
Why am I a suck-up to you? No.
Why is the sky not the shade of blue?
I’ve grown acquainted to you…”
The lights overhead flickered again. Slower. Darker.
The alternate Boyfriend took a single step forward. His voice cracked, but he didn’t stop.
“You are something better,
And if we all push something,
We cut through that grass.”
The neon lights flashed once. Twice. Then—
Darkness swallowed the alley whole.
One last verse drifted through the void, almost whispered, almost lost.
“Face the finale countdown,
I’ve got a path to dread,
I’ll stay determined,
If everyone puts one thing back,
Then the one thing I am certain…”
The voice trembled. A final plea.
“I’ll make you say,
How proud you are of me,
So stay awake just long enough to see…
My way… My way.”
The last light flickered.
Then died.
Boyfriend’s body stiffened, locked in place. His breath hitched—
And then everything went black.
The darkness stretched on, heavy and absolute. The neon hum was gone. The city sounds—cars, distant chatter, the pulsing rhythm of music—had vanished, leaving only silence.
Boyfriend couldn’t move. His limbs were locked in place, frozen like he was trapped in a frame of a song that had suddenly stopped playing.
He tried to force out a sound—a breath, a hum, anything—but his voice wouldn’t come.
Then—
A flicker.
Not light, not sound, but something else. A presence.
The air shifted, and the taller version of himself was still there. He hadn’t stepped forward, hadn’t retreated. Just stood, his hollow eyes locked onto Boyfriend’s, his form barely distinguishable against the void around them.
Then, he spoke again. But this time, it wasn’t a song.
“You’re lucky, y’know?” His voice was quiet, strained. “You still have her.”
A pulse ran through the darkness.
Boyfriend flinched, not physically—he couldn’t—but inside, somewhere deep.
“You still get to hear her laugh. To see her waiting for you after every battle.” The alternate Boyfriend tilted his head slightly, his expression unreadable. “You don’t know what it’s like to lose that.”
The void around them shuddered, a static ripple spreading out like a cracked screen trying to repair itself. The alley was gone. The city was gone. It was just the two of them, trapped in this endless, shifting nothingness.
The alternate Boyfriend’s hand twitched. For a second, it looked like he wanted to reach out.
But then, his body distorted—glitching, splitting at the edges. His voice, when it returned, was barely a whisper.
“Don’t waste it.”
Then—
The world snapped back.
The neon glow returned in an instant, flooding the alleyway with color. The street buzzed with noise once more—passing cars, the distant thump of a bassline from a nearby club.
Boyfriend gasped, staggering backward as his body was finally released from its invisible chains. His heart pounded in his chest, his breath uneven.
He looked around wildly.
The alley was empty.
No tall, broken version of himself. No voice in the darkness.
Just the cold air and the faint echoes of the city.
Boyfriend swallowed hard, his hands still shaking. The battle was over, but the words, the song, the feeling—
It wasn’t going anywhere.
With one last glance at the empty alleyway, he turned and walked away.
Somewhere in the distance, Girlfriend was waiting.
