Friends Switching Places

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❤️Updating Every Saturday Evening (Japan Time)

(Translated and Arranged by Saya)

I am currently living in Taiwan because of my work. 

Sometimes my friends come visit me because it’s close to Japan and it saves them from paying for a hotel room. 

This story happened during one of those visits. 

In the first week of February this year, a friend called Watabe (pseudonym) came to visit me. 

(At least that’s how I remember it. Anyway, please read on.) 

We had been in contact since the previous week, and I called him the day before he was scheduled to come to make sure he was really coming.

The guy took a flight that arrived in Taipei at 19.00 on a Friday. 

I went to pick him up after work, and that day we had a dinner and went clubbing — in a word, we did all the typical activities expat businessmen would do at weekends. 

It being the first time for him to travel abroad, the guy was so excited like a little kid. 

He had been my best friend since high school, and I was so glad to see him after a long time. 

On the first day, we could only enjoy the nightlife due to him arriving late in the day,

but on the second day, we had time to go sightseeing in the city. 

I have a girlfriend over here,  so there were three of us.

We spent a whole day visiting various places in Taipei and its suburbs. 

The strange thing happened on the third day of his stay. 

It was Sunday and he was going back to Japan. 

My girlfriend and I gave him a lift to the airport. 

It happened after he had checked in and the three of us were talking in a café. 

I casually glanced at the back of Watabe’s hand, and noticed a tattoo on there. 

I had been transferred to Taiwan since July last year, but he didn’t have the tattoo before that. 

Watabe was still working at a hotel in Shinjuku, so I couldn’t imagine he would have a tattoo on such a noticeable place. 

By the way, back when I was at university, I got hooked on travelling to Asian countries, and there was one guy I met in India, who had tattoos all over his body. 

That guy was called Fujiki (pseudonym), 

and he was a kind of guy who had travelled around the world a few times, and had many adventures to tell. 

He was a really fun guy to talk to, and I sometimes met up with him when he came back to Japan. 

The tattoo on the back of Watabe’s hand looked familiar to me. 

It was the same tattoo Fujiki had on the back of his hand. 

I had this habit of looking at someone’s hands while drinking with them, so that is why I remembered the tattoo. 

Then I looked up and saw Watabe’s face,

only to find Fujiki sitting in front of me. 

I couldn’t understand what was happening at all. 

Watabe was there only a few seconds ago. 

I asked him straight away:

“Fujiki, why are you here?”

I then asked my girlfriend:

“What’s happened to Watabe?”

Fujiki and my girlfriend looked stunned, 

as if they had no idea what I was talking about. 

My girlfriend insisted that we had only been with Fujiki since Saturday, and Fujiki looked really puzzled. 

I thought I was going mad. 

I had been with Watabe since Saturday. 

I was with Watabe when I went drinking in a club on Friday night, and I was with him when we went sightseeing on Saturday. 

I remembered talking to my girlfriend about the memories of our school days. 

But for the time being, I had to accept the situation and see Fujiki off. 

After that, I questioned my girlfriend again and again, but she always maintained that as far as she remembered (on Saturday and Sunday), she only saw Fujiki and me. 

But of course, I wasn’t convinced, so I even revisited the club we went on the first day to question the girls who worked there, but they said they only saw Fujiki. 

They all remembered that tattoo on the back of his hand. 

Still unconvinced, I asked my girlfriend to take the film of the pictures we took during the sightseeing to a photo studio, to have them developed. 

When I saw the photos that were developed, it was Watabe who was in them. 

So, the physical evidence showed that 

it was Watabe who was visiting me. 

However, everyone else around me said it was Fujiki. 

What’s even stranger is, Watabe himself sent me some pictures of us together.

Watabe and I still talk about his visit to Taipei in emails. 

As for Fujiki, he has sent me a postcard recently on which he said that he has been staying in India since the end of the last year. 

Fujiki has no clue about the weird experience I had. 

I still have no idea what happened.