I occasionally experience lapses in memory. To be exact, it's that feeling where "I realize that several hours have passed without me noticing, and I have no idea what I was doing just moments before."
Well, this kind of thing happens all the time to people, and since it's never happened to me while working or driving, I hadn't paid much attention to it.
It was a day off about two months ago. I remember leaving the house thinking I was bored and would head to the arcade, but the next thing I knew, I was sipping coffee at the Starbucks near the station. I had left home around 11:00 AM, and I came to around 2:30 PM.
It was around the time when things were chaotic at work, so I just thought, "Man, I must be exhausted."
The next day, I went to work. A female coworker asked me, "You were at the station-front Starbucks around noon yesterday, weren't you?" Me: "Ah, yeah, I might have been." Coworker: "That friend you were with is pretty cute, you know. Introduce me sometime~" Me: "Huh?" Coworker: "Just kidding, just kidding. But I'm kind of serious (laughs). Tall, long hair, and unisex—that's totally my type."
Who on earth was she talking about? Tall? Long hair? I have no memory of having a friend like that. Me: "You should've said hi." Coworker: "Well, you guys looked like you were really caught up in swapping old memories, so I didn't want to interrupt."
When I asked for details, apparently, that person and I had been chatting animatedly about things like catching crayfish in a local river and the pointless efforts we made to win prizes at the candy store.
I couldn't believe my coworker was lying (she had no reason to), but I had absolutely no idea who this person could be. I managed to brush it off and end the conversation there, but I still felt uneasy about the whole thing.
And then, during this year's Golden Week. Since I didn't really have a proper vacation, I was just wandering around town instead of going back to my parents' house, and my memory went blank for about three hours again. This time, I couldn't remember anything from the moment I walked into my usual game shop to the moment I was having a smoke by the fountain in front of the station.
A few days later, I got a call from an old college friend I've known forever. Friend: "Come to think of it, you were hanging around in front of XX Station on May 5th, right?" Me: "I was, yeah." Friend: "Man, the companion you had with you then was tall and had long hair, so I instinctively thought, 'Whoa, Y (that's me) got himself a model girlfriend or something!' but when I looked closer, I saw it was a guy, so I was relieved (lol)." Me: "...... (sweating)"
When I asked about their appearance, it seemed to be the exact same person as before. But I have zero recollection of this. I even dragged out my elementary school graduation albums and tried to remember close friends from back then, but no one matches.
Just who the hell are you?