[You have woken up in an alternate timeline of your current world]
This is the message I woke up to on a Monday morning, around 2 hours before I had to clock in at my workplace in Fourth Business District, or as we employees like to call it, BD4.
Despite the weird translucent screen floating in front of my eye, everything in my small apartment seemed normal. The curtains were slightly open and sunlight peeked through it, lighting up my dining table, the clothes on the chair, my single wardrobe, the open kitchen counter and the washing machine with clothes that were done being washed. I had to get up, brush my teeth, have breakfast, shower, dress up, and step out to wait for the bus which would drop me at the subway which would then finally drop me near the building I work at, the Northburry Tower.
I stood up from my bed and noticed the screen moved in my vision along with me. I blinked twice, thrice. The screen remained with the same message. It was a screen through which I could see what's behind it, but slightly blurred and tinted in a light mauve filter. I waved my hand through it and it only glitched slightly where my skin came in contact with it.
Okay, it was definitely real.
I considered calling the police to investigate this.
[You are not in danger currently.]
The letters morphed and my heart skipped a beat as I watched the screen stare back at me with entirely different words. It could hear my thoughts? What was this… entity, then?
[You will receive a package. Please wait patiently.]
I sighed. I do not want a package. With no hesitation now, I took my phone and dialled the police code. My phone started ringing, until it died. I looked up at the screen with an accusatory stare.
Just as I expected, the letters changed again in front of me.
[You are not in danger currently.]
"Are you the one who switched off my phone?" I spat, because my phone was clearly at 100%. I had left it charging the night before.
[You will receive a package. Please wait patiently]
I grumbled and threw the phone on the bed and went to the washroom, the screen silently following me in my vision.
It floated in front of me as I waited for the bus and I consciously looked at the others if they noticed something weird in front of me. No, everything was the same as any bland day.
Other people's heads overlapped the screen but I could still see it.
At work I had to show my face to the biometric camera to authenticate and clock in, and the screen was not visible. I soon got an idea. As soon as I reached my desk I took out my phone and opened selfie mode.
Just my face, no screen, nothing.
My neighbouring workmate rolled over to me. "Whatchu doing Reirei, checking yourself out right in the morning?" She tilted her head back and beamed too brightly for a Monday morning. "God, you look grumpy."
"Is there anything on my face?" I asked back, rudely, because I wasn't having any of this. If this was a prank, it better stop. And I don't believe in 2025 such a tech exists, except by wearing meta glasses probably, but i wasn't! I had 6/6 vision and never needed to use one.
She hmmed and ahhed for a few seconds before poking my cheek. "Only cuteness, Reino."
"What the heck," I muttered under my breath and kicked her chair back to her cubicle and she rolled back in, giggling. Sina was that kind of person, at least that's what I understood from 2 years of working here. She didn't care what others thought of her, even if she did, she didn't have it in her to just mind her own business.
I switched on the computer and the translucent mauve screen moved to cover the monitor screen completely. This was getting annoying.
"Just disappear, please!" I shouted at the computer and I instantly whipped my head back to apologise to the others for the disturbance as I realised I raised my voice. As I turned back to work on the computer, the screen had disappeared.
[Certainly. Switching to Voice mode.] A dark, yet soft female voice sounded in my head.
What the heck.
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ*･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
At lunch time, Sina came over and proposed we go get lunch at some nice place, to start off the week well. Usually I'd agree and accompany her, and she'd bring along a few more work friends, but today, I really wasn't in the mood.
"Can you just buy something for me?"
Sina frowned. "You sure? You've been sitting down all day. Let's go for a walk atleast."
I didn't take my eyes off the excel sheet I was working on. Yes, I was ignoring her. It's fine, our relationship was like this. And our relationship was also like this:
She grabbed the back of my chair and pulled me out of the cubicle and pushed me to the aisle that led to the entrance. "Get up you beanbag!"
I groaned and fell out of the chair as I looked back at her, and at my chair. Wheels for work chairs should be illegal.
As we stepped through the turnstiles and out of the main entrance, a warm breeze hit our faces as opposed to the air conditioned atmosphere within the building. It was pleasantly sunny with a dabble of white clouds.
I wondered if the package would drop from the sky or something. The same old message played in my head. Patient, sure. So patient that I don't want to hear that voice ever again.
"So, coffee or meal?" Sina asked as we were a few metres away.
"Meal. For sure," I replied with no hesitation.
"Fast food or cuisine?"
"Upto you." My eyes wandered and spotted a small crowd forming at the BD4 Main Square. It was a huge plaza with the design of an amphitheatre, except the steps were wider so that people could walk or sit and work under trees that were planted on most of the steps, providing the needed shade. The crowd was starting to grow beside the amphitheatre.
"See that?" I called Sina and she gasped in confusion.
"What do you think that is? Wanna check it out?"
I nodded lightly and we automatically changed routes. As we neared the crowd, we started hearing stereo music and a couple people clapping. Such an atmosphere at the height of noon in a business district? Scandalous. My gaze wavered upwards and saw a few windows on the skyscraper office buildings open and looked down on this crowd. This was definitely attracting some attention.
We found a nice spot with a clear view and saw a few men and women in stark shiny suits standing in formation at the centre. They were tall, with wonderful hair and well fit clothes. And they all looked exactly the same.
And then the actual music started and they started singing and dancing. My face contorted in confusion while Sina laughed. "A corporate boyband?" She chuckled.
I smiled in reply and turned around, "Okayy, lets go get food."
But Sina held my wrist and stopped me in place. "No, let's watch!"
My gaze lingered on her in disbelief before I returned to my previous position.
They had nice voices, and moves. It was fun. I thought it was some fundraiser but there were no flex banners or posters.
After a few minutes, their little medley and hop-a-skop was over. As a few people started to depart and resume their daily lives, one of the men grabbed a mic and tapped on it thrice, capturing everyone's attention. "Hi," a dark resounding voice filled the space. "Thanks a lot for being here! Hope you enjoyed our little gift. Before you all leave, let us just introduce ourselves."
The four men and two women stood in a line and bowed before chanting in unison.
"Break out of the matrix, we are Pixel6!"
"That's right," the main guy continued, "Remember us, Pixel6! We hope to meet you again at our first official show at Synthetic Auditorium in BD1 this Friday. And guess what? Those who get our handouts here today get 50% off on the tickets when you buy atleast two! Thank you so much!"
They all bowed once more and picked up different piles of flyers beside the stereo and started handing them out as people came to collect them.
Sina was bobbing up and down in excitement when I finally zoned back in and looked at her. "Let's go let's go! These guys are crazy good!"
"They're all Asian."
"Huh?" Sina frowned and looked at me. "Are you being racist?"
"This is K-pop." I stated the obvious.
"So?"
I sighed and stared back at her. We have had this conversation three hundred times. "I don't like K-pop. You can go with someone else."
"But did you like their performance?"
"It was fine." I said as I turned around, my tummy grumbling in anticipation.
"Then let's watch!" Sina urged me and pulled me back by my wrist again. Before I could say anything, one of the members came to us with two flyers.
My heart skipped a beat in surprise. I glanced at Sina and she eagerly took it.
"Hi!" It was one of the two woman members. "I'm Keys, I hope you both pretty girls can make it to our show this Friday!"
"Kiss?" I muttered blatantly, finally getting a good look at her. Her smooth jet black hair was done up excellently and glittery, yet soft and subtle makeup sat on her smooth skin. She was not petite, but her skinny figure curved in the right places, making her objectively very attractive.
She let out a chuckle. "Keeyyss," she pronounced slowly and winked. "See you Friday," she nodded and turned to talk to someone else.
"I won't be going.." I muttered slowly before finally walking to get some food.
Due to the whole lunch break music dance fiasco, the day passed by quite fast, as people in the office were talking about it too, the descriptions from people who had watched them along with the laments of people who hadn't. Discussions erupted as to who would get to go with whom to avail the 50% offer.
Jake from the last row walked up to me at the end of the day and waved the stupid pink flyer in front of my face. I was sick of the colour now.
"Hey Reiko. Going with someone?"
"Negative," I replied quickly.
"Wanna rethink?" He continued waving it at my face.
"About what?"
"About going. With me."
I sighed and abandoned the work I was at before looking up at him. "You like k-pop?"
"Never really got into it so no, but we get a free ticket, so…"
"I don't like k-pop."
"Oh," Jake frowned. Then he asks: "Why?"
I held the stare with him before I shrugged. "No reason."
"So we both can go as non k-pop fans!"
I could feel a headache threatening to split my head into half. After seeing my annoyance, Jake finally resigned. But before he left, he said, "You know you seem to show hate for it a lot, which means you must know a lot about k-pop." After a small pause, his eyes glinted ever so lightly, "You used to like k-pop?"
I felt my skin and fingers freeze up. This guy…
"Do you not know what 'No' means?" I finally asked softly, and he resigned from my presence immediately.