...doesn't qualify as second person, fwiw, as I learned the term. To me, foregoing "he said" and character descriptions doesn't change the fact that we're dealing with two sets of conversations between two people, all in third person.

To me, a second person story is one addressed to the reader. I think there's one here or on StorySite where "you" are a male putting on a female bodysuit and the author is describing your reactions and what you do after that.

("You" aren't necessarily expected to identify completely with the character being addressed; there's one I wrote back in college freshman English around 50 years ago where "you" turn out to be a missile carrying the ultimate nuclear weapon to its destination: "You ponder your creator, Man, who invented the Great Peacemaker and called it the Doomsday Bomb. You reach your destination; the explosion and its radiation combine to destroy all life on the planet. You have ended all war on Earth -- forever. Execution: check." A gimmick, obviously, and one that didn't necessarily work that well, if the reaction from the class and the instructor was an indication. But the way I wanted to tell the story didn't work for me in either first or third person.)

Anyway, getting back to this story: possibly because of the "interruptions", I was expecting a twist ending that never came. Obviously the complete turnaround in the protagonist's character makes a valid story plot, but I was looking for a punchline, especially once the commenters' role extended to giving us story events, so that we could get one without breaking the concept of the two main characters only talking to each other.

Eric