“He stopped loving you a long time ago, you know. I can see it in his body language,” I yawned as I noticed the nerve I had struck in my innocent friend’s brain.

She had to know.

Her forest green eyes started glistening with tears in realisation, before her expression altered as she held them back, narrowing her eyes instead and morphing her delicate lips into an unpleasant scowl. So much for honesty. I calmly shut my eyes as I waited for the inevitable wrath that she would unleash upon me.

Her voice spoke gently, slightly cracking between words, “I knew from the first day I introduced him to you. Back then, the law didn’t exist, so I ignored my feelings and carried on. I didn’t have time to start something new.” I opened my eyes, looking at her with a feeling of protection, and my own revelations spiralling through my head.

“Now, I only needed your consolidation before I go do what I need to do. The law instigated this and I made my decision to abide it, but I just needed the extra satisfaction of your perspective. Honestly, I may have been arrested otherwise, but I had to come see you first,” she declared firmly, taking my hands carefully into her own. “Regardless.”

The law was implemented 10 years ago - in brief language, citizens were prohibited to display or feel any sense of fear. Fear of somebody’s reaction; fear of losing something important; fear of love, and so on.

The government perceived fear as a waste of time, resources, and was deemed the main source of inefficiency within our economy, so they decided to cut it at the source to boost our productivity. If people did not have fear and withhold their real feelings, then the world would be a more honest and direct place, without anybody having to overthink or attempt to decipher one’s intentions.

This lay true with professional matters, as well as personal.

Eventually, the world would become a more structured place, and less games would be played. Otherwise, the fear would always lie within the suspiciousness of another’s objectives and reactions, and nothing would get done. People would be blinded by constant anxiety and fear, so it was better to minimise those implications. Anyway, wouldn’t you prefer to know exactly how the game would proceed, without a shadow of doubt?