Liam could be seen stepping out of the compound, only to see one of his neighbors staring at him while sitting on the pavement in front of their own house.
Of course, Liam was already used to this. Even in the original timeline, as long as he could remember, that particular boy—and perhaps his friend as well—were always staring anytime he walked past them.
He'd always wanted to ask why, but for some reason, he'd decided to ignore it every time. However, regressing had changed Liam a lot, and perhaps he would ask why this time around. But for now, he decided to ignore him. He didn't want to waste any more time. It was exactly four days and three hours since the god had told him, so he didn't want to waste time unnecessarily and just proceeded to carry on with the original timeline.
Just as Liam stepped outside of his street, he suddenly heard someone call his name.
Upon hearing that voice, he immediately smiled but maintained his neutral face as he turned backward toward the source of the voice.
"Liam!" the voice called from the other side of the road before crossing toward his side.
Of course, while they were within the school setting, juniors wouldn't call their seniors by their name without the prefix "senior" attached to it. But outside was a different case.
The voice belonged to none other than Mason.
In the original timeline, Mason had spotted him while Liam was on his way to visit his mother's mini mart. Of course, they hadn't talked much—other than just friendly greetings before going their separate ways—but you could say this was a foundation for them later becoming close, since they both later knew that they lived a street away from each other.
"Mason, what are you doing here? Do you live around here?" Liam asked, even though he already knew the answer.
"Yes, I live on that street," Mason said, pointing to the street on the left.
"That's nice. Well, I'll catch you later!" Liam said, attempting to leave.
After all, those were the words he'd said verbatim in the original timeline.
"Please wait!" Mason said gently, causing Liam to be stunned outright.
This had not happened in the original timeline. Perhaps his memories had begun to resurface little by little.
"What's the matter?" Liam asked calmly as he looked at Mason straight in the eyes.
"I don't even know how to say this. I think it might sound weird, but it's true!" Mason said.
However, before he could continue, Liam interrupted him.
"Honestly, I'm kinda in a hurry, so perhaps later?" Liam said before placing his hand on Mason's shoulder, then turning to leave.
As to why he did that—changing too much might actually create an unknown variable later on, especially if it was a variable between him and Mason.
Liam continued his walk, and after about eight minutes, he finally got to his mum's shop. Of course, he literally had nothing to do there, and the only reason he came was just to fulfill this particular event in the timeline as well.
Meanwhile, Mason could be seen still walking, his mind lost in thoughts.
"I can't help but have this feeling that he knows something about this. These images in my mind—I'm sure he sees them too. But for some reason, he doesn't want to talk about it."
"However, if there's one thing I'm sure about, it's the fact that it's real. And it's likely going to happen later on. And honestly, I wouldn't mind that. From what I could tell, I was very happy. And I'm sure he was too."