You decide to return to the party and play this out for now. Anything else would arouse suspicion. If you immediately ran back to the neighbor's and somehow found a way to return to normal, your sister might find it odd if her brother returned home unusually late after the mysterious new Japanese girl ran away from her party. Or would she? The strangeness of your situation has upended your ability to tell what conclusions a normal person would come to.
At least your headaches have stopped. You can faintly grasp Nariko's memories in your mind, and yours are almost equally fuzzy, but you know they aren't gone. If you can concentrate on keeping it that way, you might be able to ride out the night, change back later, and then brag to your friends how perfect your sleepover disguise was.
It's in the middle of this optimistic thought that you exit the bathroom and turn the corner of the hallway, only to nearly collide with the redheaded girl. You both jump back, startled. You feel your hair swish across your back and arms in a flurry, and at the same time you feel your firm grip on your mind shake loose.
"N-Nariko! Like, I'm so sorry!" Ophie gasped.
"Gomenasai, Ophie-san!" you blurt out. You hastily recompose yourself and bow apologetically.
Ophie blinks. "Uh... its okay. Really. I shouldn't have been stalking you in the hallway."
You straighten up and frown. "Starking?" Your pesky accent heavily distorts the parroted word.
Ophie hesitated before answering. "I was coming to apologize to you. I got the feeling that I asked you too many questions before you ran off so suddenly."
For once, you're relieved that you're not the only one who feels uncomfuh...un... out of place. This goes a long way to helping you get back to being at ease. You try to slip back into character while remembering to hold onto your boy memories. "It good, Ophie-san. Just nerves. Am hoping we fun tonight."
Ophie creases her brow a little, apparently trying to make out your words through the thick accent and bad phrasing. After a second, she seems to understand what you meant and smiles. "Me too. Once we start playing games I'm sure you'll get more come fun ta bowl."
You tilt your entire head. "Gomen, what Ophie-san say?"
"You'll get more coffee table?" Ophie's words are familiar, but sound off. You're sure they're supposed to be other words, but you can't think of what they could be. Ophie sees your slack-jawed confusion and taps her chin in thought. "Come-for-ta-bull. It means you will feel more relaxed." She talks much slower and more clearly now, trying to help you out. It does the job...mostly. You're sure you knew what "comfort ball" meant before you started changing.
"You're still walking on learning English, huh?" she asks. "I'm sorry. I herd it's really calmpick aytid."
You have no idea what it is she actually heard about English, but whatever she means, you're sure you'd agree. It's getting harder to get a grasp on the exact syllables she's making. So many English words sound the same. Which versions are you meant to infer here?
You just decide to power through and shrug. "It's hard, but I understand enough of it." That actually sounded quite good. Maybe if you concentrate more on what they're saying and less about what you're saying, your speech gets better.
This hope is dashed very quickly, however. Ophie frowns at you again. You feel yourself shrink under the awkward gaze and you grab a lock of hair that's draped over your shoulders to fidget with.
"Sorry, calm again?" Ophie says. "I think a cup pull of the words you used were Japanese."
"But I don't know that much Japanese," you respond, and then instantly flinch. What a stupid thing to say! You just blew your cover!
Or did you? Ophie still looks confused. "You don't know much...what?" She scratches her curly hair nervously. "I'm sorry, I shoo down folks so much on your accent. Let's just get back to hen gain out with the others."
"Hai," you say. Oops, you're positive you just spoke Japanese there. You mentally reach for the right English word. It takes two full seconds... relatively an embarrassingly long time. "O-okay."
She gestures to lead you back to the living room, where you can hear the other two girls talking. It's really hard to pick up most of their words at this distance, though you feel like it shouldn't be. You ask yourself how much more English you're going to forget, and then realize with a tingle down your spine that you just thought that entire question to yourself in Japanese.